Poland Trip: Day 5-Krakow and Auschwitz

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25th, 2014

This post is a hard one to write, mainly because of the place that we visited-Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp.  I wasn't sure what pictures I wanted to include in this and I really hardly took any compared to all the other places we visited.  

We woke up bright and early because our tour began at 8:00 AM and it was a bit of a drive out of Krakow to Auschwitz.  

Good Morning Krakow-View from our apartment.  

We all headed out except Derick, Julie and Rod.  We arrived a few minutes before it opened and just enjoyed the beautiful morning.  

Cousins!  

When it opened we met up with our AMAZING tour guide.  She was so knowledgeable about the camp and did a wonderful job of sharing this information in a way that really made the emotions run.  One thing I kept thinking about during the tour is how can you relive this day in and day out.  I don't think I ever did ask how long she had been working here.  She was younger-I would say younger than me.  There were times that she had to step away from the group and collect herself-especially when the talk of the killing of children came up.  For me, one time visiting this place in enough-I couldn't imagine coming to it everyday to work, although I imagine you would have to be passionate about educating the public about this horrific time in history to be a guide here.  

Let me share with you a little history of this camp (most if this info is off of their main website)  It was establish in 1940 by the Germans because they were arresting so many Poles upon invading and taking over Poland and they needed a place to house all them all.  They isolated the camp, built barbwired fences surrounding the camp and contact with the outside world was forbidden.  They took over 40 square miles surrounding the camp and the local population of Jews and Poles were evicted from their homes in 1940-1941.  About 1000 homes were demolished and many others were used to house German officers-some of them came here with their whole families.  

Throughout the years this camp moved from being a work/concentration camp to an extermination camp where 1.1 million Jews were exterminated.  There were two main areas of Auschwitz-Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.  Auschwitz I is the original camp and Auschwitz II was where the vast majority of the death took place.  The camp was liberated in January 1945 by the Soviet Army.  At this time, most of the German Army had escaped from the camp and before they left, they dismantled, burned, and blew up as much evidence of their crimes as they could.  To this day, there are some people who believe this never happened despite all the survivors testimonies, photographic evidence, and evidence left behind.  It is very evident during the tour that they want to prove to visitors that this indeed did happen.  

After visiting, I was left with a very different perspective of the Holocaust and WWII.  Here in the US we read about it in books but it is very difficult to make a real connection but to see it first hand really brings out real emotions vs hearing about a time in History.  My heart just broke for all those men, women, and children who walked these grounds and I still will never fully understand the terror and horrific experiences they had.  

So here are a few of the pictures from that day:

Grounds of Auschwitz I

The prisoners that lived in this part of the camp were workers and most rarely last longer than 30 days before they died of dehydration and exhaustion.  Also in this area was where medical experiments took place on women in hopes to find a fast and easy way for sterilization.  

This part of the Museum housed most of the displays.  It was very disturbing to see some of the personal items that were left behind in the camps warehouses-a place where they would store all the items that were brought in from the prisoners-since they were told to bring all they owned.  

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Many of the barraks in this area were dismantled and burned down before the liberation but this was where there were four gas chambers and crematoriums and where the Jews would arrive for "Selection"

This train car is what many of the Jewish prisoner were transported to camp in.  They would spend days even weeks in here depending on far away they traveled from.  They were told they were going to be given a better life and many came in hope only to have their families torn apart and eventually put to death.  Upon arrival they would be split up by men and women/children and then they would determine if you were "fit to work" or selected for death.  All children under the age of 14 were immediately sent to the chambers as well as the elderly.  It just makes me sick.  

This is the remnants of one of the chambers.  It is so sad to see-there were still "showerheads" on the sides of the walls where newcomers believed they would be getting cleaned up and disinfected when in reality they dispersed gas and not water.  

Here at this site is where there is a Memorial. 

This plaque is duplicated in many languages throughout the memorial.  

**I do want to note that I did my best to gather this information from my memory of the tour and also from the official website of Auschwitz.  

After the tour we headed back to the city.  We stopped for lunch along the way and when we got back, Tami, Nicolle and I were on a mission to find a place to get our nails done.  We walked around for a few blocks, used our phones, and were unable to locate a place to that could accomodate us.  By this time it was also POURING outside! After having no luck-I met up with the rest of a group at a Pub and Tami and Nicolle headed back to the apartments to clean up, rest, or whatever.  

Lots of little beers.  

After every joined back up at the pub we set out to find a place to eat for our large group.  Dinner was delicious!  I think this is where I had some yummy pesto pasta and I think after dinner we found another patio to sit out on and chat.  Afterwards we headed back to the apartment and Magda, Tony, John and I worked on some wedding stuff before heading to bed.  

I also wanted to share what our apartment was like while staying in Krakow.  It was really clean and pretty modern although, I am not sure about the art ;).  

Our bedroom

Bathroom

Poland Trip-Day Four: Krakow

Tuesday June 24th, 2014

Our fourth day started with breakfast at Magda's parents house.  It was so delicious, more ham, more kielbasa, and these delicious eggs.  They were kind of like deviled eggs but it wasn't ha-they were so good!!  After breakfast we loaded back up into the cars are headed back into Krakow.  Rod and Julie had arrived the night before and Monte, Angie, Nicolle, Drew and Nicole were arriving around 1:00 and we were picking them up from the airport.  The plan was to pick them up and then head to check into our apartment in Krakow where we would be staying for the next two night.  Then we planned to go to Wawel Royal Castle.  

We arrived at the airport and we waited for the five of them to come walking through the doors from baggage claim but soon the airport got very empty and they were yet to emerge.  Then we found out they never made their flight.  Their original flight from Chicago was delayed and they missed the connection in Germany.  Three of them were for sure on the next flight out and the other two were on standby.  Either way, none of them would be arriving until after 5:00 PM so we headed back into the city, checked into our apartment and then made a quick dash to the castle because we had a 3:00 Tour set up with and English speaking guide.  

Magda did such a wonderful job of setting up tours.  With such a large group it made things so much easier to have everything planned ahead of time, especially with such a short amount of time in Krakow.  

We ended up being a little late to our tour but got the bulk of it, although rushed.  Honestly, I don't remember much about the castle (this is what happens when you try to recall information from six weeks ago!)  It was old (dates back to the 11th century) and houses very old artifacts including one collection of tapestries that is the largest collection.  One thing to note is that when Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany quite a bit of art and historical artifacts had to be hidden or sent away.  Many things were lost during this time.  

Its hard to tell from the pictures but John thought these dragon head downspouts were pretty neat.  

Legend says that in the cave picture below there was a dragon that lived beneath Wawel Hill.  This is the hill the castle sits on.  (pronouced "Vavel").  Apparently it was a terible dragon that would ravage the country side.  Long story short, a young man named Krak destroyed the dragon, married the princess, and became King.  The city of Krakow is named after him-at least that is what the story says.  

You could tour his cave if you want-we did not.  

After the castle tour, we walked our way to the restaraunt which was called "Pod Wawelem" which I think means something along the lines of being at the foot of Wawel Castle.   Here is thier website.  Pod Wawelem

We had reservations and arrived on time but the Chicago group had just arrived so we were waiting for them to make their way to the restaurant.  So we drank while we waited :). After everyone arrived we order our food and it was soo good!  

Had to get a picture of this. . . I guess people in Poland drink so much they need puke sinks in the bathroom. They only have this in the men's bathroom so I guess women know how to handle their alcohol ;)

I ordered the Kabob-and I can not believe how big it was!!! Seriously!  But it was SO delicious!!!! I could not stop eating it! 

My parents ordered the meat platter and it too was HUGE!!  

After dinner and drinks we walked to Krakow's Old Town Square which is the historical center of Krakow. It is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site and dates back to 1257.    Although some of the buildings have gone under some renovations it was still so beautiful! 

All around the outside of the square there were bars/restaurants with outdoor seating complete with blankets in case you get chilly.  

I ordered a Mulled Wine and it was delicious!  After a drink or two, we made our way back to the apartment we were staying at a few blocks away.  

Poland Trip: Day 3-Tatra Mountains to Rzemien

Monday, June 23rd 2014

What a beautiful day to explore the Tatra Mountains.  We woke up and sat outside for awhile just enjoying the beautiful view outside our cottage.  John and I still have not mastered the art of selfie taking so just bear with us ;).  

We found this interesting.  These are their hay bales and you can see in the above picture a man with a wheel barrow.  He was getting some hay for his livestock.  So no round or square bales here.  

After breakfast we packed our bags and headed back into Zakopane to make our way up the mountains.  There is one place that had a gondola but when we stopped to ask how to get there we were told we would have to wait in line for over a few hours.  So we passed on that and instead took a tram up.  

This was funny to me.  A pretend beach on the top of the mountain.  Also if you look at a the pictures below I am wearing jeans and a jacket because it was chilly.  Well there were many people sitting in these chairs in tiny little tank tops soaking up the sun.  

My attempt at a panoramic photo with my phone.  

At the top of the mountain there was an alpine slide so Tony, Magda, John, Tami, and myself decided to give it a go.  There were a few part where you felt like you were on the edge of the mountain.  It was pretty cool.  

We hung out at the top of the mountain for a while, enjoyed a beer and had lunch.  There were a lot of little restaraunts and shops up at the top so we choose beer and pizza-not very Polish I know :)  But it was yummy.  When we were done we had two options to get down the mountain.  Take the tram back down or hike down.  My mom and Tami took the tram and the rest of us hiked!  It was really pretty but unlike trails here it was straight down vs switchbacks.

The guys were being silly trying to walk down the hill attempting to stay straight up and down instead of leaning like most do when walking down a steep hill.  For some reason this gave all of us the giggles.  

The "Up" tracks and the "Down" Tracks.  

There was a little bridge where we crossed above the tram tracks.  

Another view of the Sleeping Knight off to the left of this pic.  

And another from a distance.

There goes Tami and Mom down the tram

My handsome hubby :)

The hike down although steep was beautiful and it gave us a change to enjoy the scenery.  But let me tell you, although we didn't hike up the mountain my legs were super sore from hiking down.  I suppose it uses a whole set of muscles.  

Our friends along the trail.  

We got back down to the bottom and there was a little market square and also a bunch of kids activities that I am sure Elsie would have loved had she been there.  We walked around a little bit and looked at the shops.  We bought Elsie a little pair of regional moccasins and because they size things different I was so nervous about them fitting when we got home.  As we were walking there was a little peddler who was trying to sell us these little dancing disney characters (They dance along a fishing line that is attached to a radio and its vibrations made them dance)  My dad thought it would be fun to buy those for the grandchildren so he was having Magda ask a couple of questions.  Well shortly into the conversation (which was in Polish) we could definitely tell that the mood turned very angry-haha.  The guy who was selling these things was pissed at us because people were walking by and we were blocking the view-ummm we were trying to buy the things! So Magda essentially told him to F-Off and we walked away.  What a jerk.  You definitely don't have to understand the language to know the tone of a conversation that's for sure.  So we started heading back towards the vehicles.  It was finally time to head to Rzemien, the village where Magda's father and Danuta live.  

One thing I learned in Poland is that words are pronounced nothing like the look.  Rzemien in my mind is actually like Gemien with a "G" or a "J" sound vs and R sound.  So anyways, the village is about 1.5 hours in the opposite directions from Zakopane so it was probably like 3 hours away.  Of course I spent a lot of the time sleeping.  I rode with my mom and dad and Tami and Derick rode with Tony and Magda.  There was one point where I thought we were all going to die-ha!  So the road are pretty narrow once you get off the interstate (probably not what they are called) and we found ourselves following a semi on this narrow road with no shoulder.  My brother was trying to get around him and pass but of course was a bit difficult because he was driving his car from England where the driver sits on the right side-which is fine when the center line in on the right side so he was relying on Magda to stick her head out the window and check for oncoming traffic.  There was one time I thought Magda's head was going to get cut off.  It was pretty intense.  Oh and add to the fact that the semi driver was hugging and crossing the center line  when there wasn't oncoming traffic so he could avoid the side of the road made it even more interesting.  But we all made it there safely. :)

We got to Rzemien and Magda showed us where we would be staying.  One of Krzysztof's (Magda's father) cousins was letting us stay in their upstairs apartment.  So we unloaded of bags and then walked down to Magda's parents home which was probably two blocks in distance.  It was interesting because pretty much all the homes had fences around their properties with walk gates and gates for vehicles to drive through.  But none of the fences were privacy fences.  Many of them were really decorative fences-very pretty.  Another thing that I noticed about the homes here is that most had clotheslines/drying racks because electric dryers were seldom used (if they even owned one).  This actually inspired me to get back into drying my clothes outside.  I bet I have dried fewer than 10 loads in our dryer in the last month.  Another thing I noticed is all the beautiful flowers they had either in a garden, window sill, or container.  Oh and the vegetable gardens.  It seemed most home is the village had one in their yard and Danuta's was huge :)

We enjoyed dinner outside and it was absolutely delicious!  We had some yummy green beans, boiled potatoes with dill, ribs, and chicken.  It was so good!!!  And then not long after dinner the vodka shots began along with more food!  

This photo shows the food that got brought out not more than an hour after dinner was served:  Desserts, kielbasa, and ham.  yum!!!!  

The two dads enjoying some moonshine :)

It was a very enjoyable night.  Although we didn't speak the same language we were able to communicate enough to enjoy each other's company.