2004.09.16 to Auschwitz
We decided to take a night train to Praha from Krakow so we wouldn't have to stay a night in Krakow... When we arrived in Krakow we had a hard time finding the bus to Oswiecim but we got to the Auschwitz Museum by noon which is 1.5 hrs away.
Took an English tour that lasted for 3.5hrs and covered the Auschwitz camps. We didn't think about storing our main pack in a train station locker so we were lugging those around all afternoon. The camps are the real buildings still around but the entire surroundings are peaceful and sombre. It's incredibly sad and unbelievable what took place here as you can view some incredible artifacts that remained when the Soviets liberated the camps. The second part of our tour was in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp - the larger camp with a train yard and demolished gas chambers. I couldn't believe the enormity of the camp's size and how much of it still remains. Hopefully my pictures will provide some of the impact and shocking sights we saw and respectfully appreciated. On our tour was this ignant Aussie who didn't have a clue at the importance of the Auschwitz memorial. The guy made comments like, 'wow, some really bad stuff happened here...' and, 'these Nazis are worse than what the Iraqis have done." The tour ends with a short film about the liberation of the camps.
We had some pierogies and other Polish food for dinner. But these pierogies were amazing as we ordered a mixed platter of them and had delicious various fillings.
To kill some time before our 22:45 train, we had a pint of Zywiec again at a nearby hotel bar. The bartender/manager was in fact a former Toronto native (proof with his old ON driver's license) and we shot the shit in the meantime. The guy loves Krakow and promoted the town's Old Town square which we would later check out at night. Also at the bar was a Polish Aussie who lives in Tokyo and he bought us a round of vodka shots after some chatting about whatever. Once again, friendly people and welcoming attitudes greeted us in Poland.
I ended buying a black Victorinox "Explorer" knife from a shop in the Old Town square for 27.5 euros. I think it's a great deal and probably the cheapest I'll find in Europe.
Took an English tour that lasted for 3.5hrs and covered the Auschwitz camps. We didn't think about storing our main pack in a train station locker so we were lugging those around all afternoon. The camps are the real buildings still around but the entire surroundings are peaceful and sombre. It's incredibly sad and unbelievable what took place here as you can view some incredible artifacts that remained when the Soviets liberated the camps. The second part of our tour was in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp - the larger camp with a train yard and demolished gas chambers. I couldn't believe the enormity of the camp's size and how much of it still remains. Hopefully my pictures will provide some of the impact and shocking sights we saw and respectfully appreciated. On our tour was this ignant Aussie who didn't have a clue at the importance of the Auschwitz memorial. The guy made comments like, 'wow, some really bad stuff happened here...' and, 'these Nazis are worse than what the Iraqis have done." The tour ends with a short film about the liberation of the camps.
We had some pierogies and other Polish food for dinner. But these pierogies were amazing as we ordered a mixed platter of them and had delicious various fillings.
To kill some time before our 22:45 train, we had a pint of Zywiec again at a nearby hotel bar. The bartender/manager was in fact a former Toronto native (proof with his old ON driver's license) and we shot the shit in the meantime. The guy loves Krakow and promoted the town's Old Town square which we would later check out at night. Also at the bar was a Polish Aussie who lives in Tokyo and he bought us a round of vodka shots after some chatting about whatever. Once again, friendly people and welcoming attitudes greeted us in Poland.
I ended buying a black Victorinox "Explorer" knife from a shop in the Old Town square for 27.5 euros. I think it's a great deal and probably the cheapest I'll find in Europe.
posted by ET at 09:12
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