Road Triiiiiip! Part 2!

After a very quiet car ride back from Auschwitz, we all decided we needed a drink (or ten). 

I think we went out for dinner and a few drinks at an Irish Pub which I just remembered was playing Soccer or Rugby or something via satellite from Ireland and there was a HARVEY NORMAN ad on TV. In the voice of the guy on the ads back home. Now, this might now sound like much, but when the only ads/TV I'd seen for 4 months was German, I got a massive kick out of it. I also had an awesome Chicken Pot Pie which was also so much better then anything I can get in Germany (all the boxes were getting ticked at this place)!!  After that we decided to go to a liquor store and buy some drinks and drink back at the hostel. This night was probably one of my favorites whilst in Europe. We got pretty drunk and played cards all night. It was just so great to hang out with good friends that I've made here in a new city and create memories that I'll have forever. 

Surprisingly, I woke up feeling way too good for how much I drank, and we participated in a free walking tour of Krakow. Now, if there is only one piece of advice I can give you when traveling in Europe is to ALWAYS find out at your hostel/hotel/internet if there is a free walking tour for the city. I have done one in Paris, Amsterdam, Krakow and Budapest and they make it so much better. They are usually taken by foreigners (English Native Speakers) who study in the city. Majority are our age, funny and give you so many fun stories and facts that you wouldn't get from your lonely planet. So yeah, we did one of those and I met a girl on the tour who was also from G-Town and was a year below me at Sacred Heart (don't ask me her name, it was weird and I can't remember it). It was freakin cold when we had the tour and it was snowing so we didn't really hang around after that. Got some lunch and then had a 5 hour journey back to Dresden. 

I'd definitely recommend going to Krakow for anyone. I wish we had more time so that we could check out the Salt Mines and I really wanted to do a tour of the Jewish Quarter and Schindler's Factory (the true story of Schindler's List was all set in Krakow in the Jewish Quarter).  But, it's a good excuse to come back! Thanks to the crew for making this such a fun trip! Picture below....

The Market Square in Krakow is the largest in Europe (about 100m x 100m). This is the "Cloth Hall" which held a market and a museum and I think a theatre?

Cloth Hall at night

St. Mary's Church. It was amazing on the inside! But when I went in there was a service so I didn't take a photo. I bought a postcard though with a nice picture on it :oD

Enthusiastic Richard, Duvel provider Mattias and Dutchy boy Ronald

Two of the most awesome people. Ever. And More Duvel.

I think the Jager is started to hit...

Pilsner Urquell, Shots of Jager and cards.

Haha, I have to explain these next few photos. Whilst waiting for the walking tour to start I ran into the love of my life. His name is Paul, and he's a Polish Soldier from the 1700's. He was missing some teeth, but he made me feel like no man has ever made me feel before. Alice tried to steal him, and then Paul got jealous of Ronald hanging around.. then finally we were able to be together...

He had a big sword.... Alice likes to hold it.

 

Yay, snowy group photo

As said by our tour guide: Worlds smallest hostel and largest "Toi Toi". It's also some weird art piece of a face.

And of course, you can't visit Krakow without seeing the FIRE BREATHING DRAGON! He seriously breathes fire. I missed it cos me and the other Australian girl got lost from the group for about 10 minutes somehow (we got distracted talking about Australia Day which was coming up). There was also a neat story about how the dragon was slain. I'm not going to tell it though... You have to go to Krakow and find out for yourself! 

xx

Road Triiiiiip! Krakow und Auschwitz

So, I've been putting off this post for quite a while now (we went on the weekend of the 21st Jan). This hasn't been totally because I have been swimming in assignments and exams. It's been mainly because it was such an amazing trip and I have so much to say that doing a blog is a) daunting and b) wont do it justice because so much of it will be better explained in person with a proper gallery of photos.


But I will try to give a bit of an overview, however, know that it will be better when I tell you in person.  Ugh, I seriously don't know where to start (I wish I could talk and the computer would type for me). But basically on a cold Friday evening, Alice, Ronald, Richard, Mattias and I cramped ourselves into a little rentacar and set down the highway 6 hours to Bracka Street in Krakow (Note: NOT Bracka street in Warsaw which is 9 hours away- glad to pick that up on the GPS before we went on an unintended road trip to Warsaw).

Yeahhhh AVIS!

Now, thinking about it, I can't really remember my last proper road trip in a car with a group of friends, driving and playing music and eating chips and lollies and of course, food stops at Maccas.I forgot how freakin fun it is and want to organise more of these with all of you soon! (e.g. I'm thinking East Coast Aus in Summer). The drive was great. Our Dutch friend Ronald brought with him the pride of his country... Yes, the Vengaboys. So we Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom'ed and Uncle John from Jamaica'd the entire way down the A4. (if you need a reminder at how awesome these songs are please click here and thank me later.

We arrived at the hostel at around midnight and headed out for a drink, then settled into bed cos we had a big day of Auschwitz coming up.

And then Saturday was upon us. We jumped back in our little buzz box and drove to Auschwitz. Now, this is where it gets complicated. I have so much to say about the concentration camps and so I think I'll reserve most of it for conversations with you all. But basically it truly was breathtaking and depressing and in someways amazing (but not good amazing). Everyone knows of the horrors that occurred during WWII and know that Auschwitz was a death camp, with basically everyone who was sent there, being sent there to be "exterminated". And we all know that millions of people died in these terrible ways in terrible living quarters in extreme conditions. But it's not til you're there, 'til you see the train tracks that would bring the people unknowingly meeting their untimely death straight into the camp, 'til you can picture the 400 people sleeping 3 to a bunk bed in a stable which looks like it could only hold about 50-100 people comfortably, 'til you see the large barb wire fences and (what really hit me- and I'm sure everyone else who visits) the gas chambers and the forest where you can picture in your head the men, children and women, waiting, petrified of what was about to be the end of their lives, that you REALLY understand how terrible it all really was. Not only did my experience at the camps (there are two at Auschwitz) make me re-evaluate what/who really is important in my life (so many things I worry about that really begin some insignificant once you stand where 1.5 million innocent people were killed in such horrific ways, but also realise how close my grandfather came to being here as he is Polish and his mother and him were taken from their home in Poland and sent to camps in Germany when he was about 10 years old. So many Poles were taken to Auschwitz and being a mother and young child, they are typically examples of people sent to Auschwitz. So, luck was on their side that day.

Wow, this is a lot of text. I'm gonna share some photo's now, but yeah. Much better explained with words, and larger then on a crappy blog. Then onto fun stuff back in Krakow :o)

 Train tracks into the camp leading straight to the gas chambers. 

Barracks where 400 people would be "living". I'd say they were about 4m wide by no longer then 40m. So, so small...

 These go together. This was a really sad picture. I found myself just staring at it for a long time. 

I like this with the reflection in the background and the rose on top.

"To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim of the Nazi genocide. 

Here lie their ashes. May their souls rest in peace"

(A lot of ashes were just dumped on the ground or in the nearby large pond after being cremated)

Photo by Alice: Photo's of people whose lives were taken during WWII. There was a section on just children... My throat started hurting at that point and I had to leave that section quite quickly. 

Photo by Alice

"Work makes you free" / "Work liberates"

Inside a gas chamber/crematorium which was a part which also felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. You could picture the men, woman and children, cramped together, naked and terrified, screaming and wondering why them... why anyone?

On that highly depressing note, I'm gonna leave you and go to bed. It's past 1am and I have an exam at 9:20am tomorrow (today). I will do the fun stuff and the rest of our trip of Krakow and promise it will be a lot more positive then this one. 

But sometimes I think we all need a big serve of reality, as sad as it was coming to Auschwitz, I think it has made me a better person. Made me appreciate a lot more in my life and stop taking things for granted and to stop worrying about the small, insignificant crap in my life that lately I've been thinking is the end of the world. Nothing I've been losing sleep over lately even remotely comes close to the sights and acts that these people had to endure. 

I hope that the photo's can help you appreciate more and bitch less as well. 

xx