Pierogies & Salt: Krakow

After we said goodbye to Budapest, we said a big hello to Krakow, Poland. Now, we were only there for about three days, and had mostly what we wanted to do completely planned. Luckily our awesome hostel (strangely named MOSQUITO?) had both of our trips completely set us for us.

While this may not seem like the ideal thing to visit on a "vacation" it was definitely something that our whole group really wanted to do. It was completely awful, as expected, and I never EVER want to see or even be near it again. With that being said, the first trip we took was to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. There is not really a lot that I want to say about this because it is just as awful, and probably even more so than you expect it to be. I literally wanted to throw up the entire time I was there (and just a few days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, too). A two hour ride from the city, the driver put in a DVD summarizing a lot of the Nazi occupation of Europe, and moreover, the awful happenings of Auschwitz and other death camps. The video was narrated by a Soviet soldier, ordered to film and collect detail on the day of the camps' liberations. There is not much detail I could go into about the camps themselves - you go in "knowing" what to expect and are still slapped in the face. The hundreds of thousands of people who died there, and the unbelievable fact that so many people still deny it ever happened. I want to cry just thinking about it all. Unfortunately there were also a lot of people there posing for photos and SMILING? I was so enraged watching this. What are you going to do, send it out as a Christmas card? It really amazes me how so many people can be so disrespectful and stupid. Shattering.

Back in the city, we went to dinner at a super traditional polish restaurant recommended by the hostel. It was in the strangest location and pretty hard to find -- you know it must be good though, because the place was packed! I think they hated that we were American, and non-Polish speakers, but what can you do - the food was delicious. Of course we all got some amazing pierogies - and even came back for more the next night.

The first half of the next day was spent at the Wieliczka Salt Mines (recommended by Bill - thanks Dad!). 130 meters underground the entire place was filled with over 17 chapels, lakes, sculptures, etc. It was incredibly enormous! It really is another thing you wouldn't even expect to exist. The tour was over 2 hours long and we only saw ONE PERCENT of the mine. Unbelievable. I also really recommend googling this or checking out my photos on Facebook because it really is difficult to describe. It contains the world's largest underground chapel - and Meredith has now decided that she wants to get married there, so maybe I will be back! Apparently they have lots of weddings, concerts, seminars, art exhibits, receptions, etc down in the mines - what a venue to choose.

For our final hours in Krakow I decided to go on a walking tour of the former Jewish ghettos of WWII. Again, really not the happiest thing I could have done, but it is the new history nerd inside of me, I cannot help it! And the next time I would be in Krakow? Probably never. Here, again, we heard a lot about the Nazi occupation of Poland, saw the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe, the remnants of the grave-resembling walls around the ghetto, various memorials, and even Oskar Schindler's factory. After the Nazi occupation of Poland the Jewish population dropped from 80,000 to 3,000. So heartbreaking.

That night, we took a "taxi" to our final leg of the trip - PRAGUE.

Princess of China - Coldplay
Sparks - Coldplay