i'm still three days behind on my blog, BUT now i get to actually update krakow while i'm (gasp), IN Krakow!

i got into Krakow at 6:30 and was happy to find my hostel just around the corner. The man working there was super nice and had me get some breakfast while i checked in. i met a couple people at the table who were going to Auschwitz for 8:00am, on a tour, and since i couldn't check in yet i signed right up. in at 6:30 and on a bus to Auschwitz by 8. Now, i know you are all expecting me to tell you how emotionally jarring this experience was. sadly, i was not as moved as i should have been. its very hard to really grasp the full scope of something so horrific when there are huge groups of picture taking tourists everywhere, and you're monotone tour guide is rushing you through the camp. regardless, it was quite harrowing, especially the sign over the enterance that translates to "work will make you free". its a very small place, much smaller than i imagined, and it was tough trying to acknowledge that when it was in service the paths were lined with dying prisioners in striped clothes and the ashes of people filled the air. perhaps its more effective in the cold winter. we went into a couple of the buildings, one that was still in its original state. the wallpaper was yellow, who knows if that was the original color of if it was just faded, it looked original and had almost carnival-like red and blue squiggles all over it. the walls were all very dismal, and they had set up imitation bunks and mattresses on the floor so we could see what it would have actually looked like. the walls were lined with photographs of prisioners, their admittance date to the camp, and death date. many only lived a few days. some a month, the children around 5 months. there was also the old washroom... i don't remember exactly the image, but there were cartoonish paintings on the walls along the lines of children bathing happily with puppies. the washroom itself was just rows of crusty washbins and chipping, yellowing wallpaper. this particular bunker was called the "death house" because nearly everyone there was simply waiting for death. not that others weren't, but in this bunker, it was certain. in the basement were cells, still in their original condition and they had a replica of a gallows set up where it would have been had it not been destroyed. the most striking part of the cells were the standing cells. i don't remember why people were sent to these but they were essentially extremely small spaces that they would cram four people into. there wasn't enough room to sit so they were forced to stand all night and many died from exhaustion after hours of hard labor, no food and no ability to sleep. we also saw many harrowing photographs that lined the walls of the other buildings, only original on the outside. there was an entire half of a room, glassed off, full of victims hair. other rooms housed shoes, suitcases, pots and pans, glasses and babys clothing/toys. when i talk about the hair and objects, i don't just mean one or two.... i mean each individual section took up the equivilant of half a room. we ended the hour at the crematorium, where we saw the recontructed ovens, and, i cannot be sure, but it looked like there was old blood on the walls, orange from age. that was the part that got to me.

after Auschwitz we went to Birkenau, just down the street. Birkenau is much bigger than Auschwitz, and as you know, its primary focus was death, where Auschwitz was more of a work camp. even though the gas chambers and crematorium were blown up by the nazis, the bunkers mostly all still remain. we were only there for 30 unfair, short minutes but during that time we saw a wooden bunker and the lavatory. the wooden bunker is what you would expect, knowing anything about the camp construction. rows of uneven wooden bunks in what was meant to be a horse stable, housing 400-700 prisoners. the lavatory was very moving though, not that the bunkers weren't, but the lavatories were more directly frightening. they were housed in exactly the same sort of building as the bunkers, minus the beds and plus three long rows of concrete adored with alternating rows of largish holes. the prisioners were only allowed to use the bathroom twice a day and all at the same time. they were allowed 30minutes-1hr for 2,000 people to use the bathroom. many were sick, there was no paper, and they could only sit for a few seconds. i'm sorry, but i don't have a good concluding sentence for this portion of the camp. after the lavatory the tour was over (this is where i felt the most gyped), we had 5 minutes of free time, enough to climb the tower and see the whole camp, but not nearly enough to follow the reconstructed tracks to the remains of the crematorium and gas chamber. it was a total rip off, and i wasn't able to fully absorb either camp because we weren't given any time to explore it on our own. had i known this would be the case i would have gone on a different tour. had i not been so tired, or had known how, i would have just stayed there on my own and caught a bus back.

When i got back i took a nap, got some good polish food, and just walked around Old Town. Krakow is a walking city, everything you mainly want to see is within a 30 minute walk and its beautiful. i will describe the rest tomorrow, i have a 6:30am train to catch tomorrow and i'm going to bed now! ciao!

Later, i went back to my hostel and had a bunch of shots with the guys staying there. it was "mad dog" night, and a mad dog shot is rasberry liquor, vodka, and tabasco sauce. i lost count of how many i had and then we went out to a bar. the rest of the group went to a club later on but i was very tired and went back to the hostel and passed out.

The next day i went on a walking tour of the Jewish quarter with a couple people from the hostel. there were only four of us in the tour group, which was nice and it was a 3 hour tour. we saw many synogagues, but it was sabbath so they were closed to the public. we also saw the current jewish neighborhood square that is lined with kosher restaraunts, a couple synogagues and contains a holocaust memorial in the center. from there we went over the bridge to the old jewish ghetto. there is a large square with oversized bronze chairs in rows on the cobblestones. the chairs are representative of the belongings the nazis threw out of the windows of jewish homes and into the square during deportation. after that we went to the Schindlers factory. they are building what looks to be an amazing museum there, but sadly it won't be open until november so we wound up paying 4euro just to look at a few pictures of the future museum and read a couple blurbs about Oskar Schindler. With our tour over we went to the same restaraunt i went the day before and split three plates of food. we had potato pancakes with cream, meat filled pierogis and goulash in a bread bowl. it was cheap and fantastic! since there was no vacancy in my current hostel, i checked into one just down the street, took a short nap and then went up the the castle to relax. i found that there was a strip of grass down by the river which people were sitting on so i made my way down there and spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book. Since my new hostel was relatively empty, there was nobody to go out with so i just called it an early night and went to bed.

The next morning i went back to the castle and got a ticket to the armory and treasures room. it housed a very impressive array of swords, guns, goblets, horse saddles and decorations, shields, cannons, etc. the most impressive swords were the massively oversized ones that (i think) were a gift from a pope. from there i went back to the jewish quarter and went in all the synogagues i couldn't the day before, as well as a jewish cemetary. i visited the oldest synogague in Krakow as well as a jewish museum held in another. for lunch i got mazoh ball soup and then went off to catch my bus for a tour of the salt mines.

the salt mines are a place i heard from multiple people, maps and books is a must see place. i was convinced so strongly in fact, that i decided to go there instead of back to Auschwitz (i had wanted to have more time there). it turned out to be one of the biggest dissapointments of my trip, and something i totally regret doing. of the mines we went through, we saw very little of the actual natural salt accumulation. the vast majority of it was just passageways leading to openings that housed wither historic or very silly (gnomes) statues made of salt. there was even one part with a salt mine ghost where they had someone dressed up pretend to be... the ghost. the only really cool thing was the underground salt chapel at the end of the tour, everything was made of salt, even the chandeliers. it was also quite interesting the history of the miners. since they were down there all the time they had little mini chapels (seperate from the large public one), of various denominations, for the workers to worship at. also interesting was the fact that they had work horses who would spend their entire lives down there because the stress of coming back up to the surface via pully often caused them to have strokes. however, the horses lead very good lives and were actually healthier than horses on the surface due to the effects of the salt in the air. for this same reason, miners were also very healthy and lived very long lives. our guide told us that he used to have very bad allergies and asthma before becoming a mine tour guide, and now with the combination of being down in the mines all day and keeping salt near his bed at home, he is totally cured. At the end of the tour we got stuck because the president of India was visting the mines (go figure) and they wouldn't let us out until there was enough space between us and her (she wasn't even in the same section of the mines) that she would be safe. eventually we were allowed to go up in a very cramped, dodgy open elevator and had to walk around the entire building to get back to our bus. i've learned my lesson about choosing to do something that sounds cool over something important like going back to auschwitz and giving it its proper due. i'm even tempted to hop back over to krakow just to go back there for an afternoon, but i'm afraid i don't have time.

when i got back i returned to the jewish quarter for dinner, i found a very nice, candlelit restaurant, decorated to take its customers back in time and playing old-time jewish radio over the speakers. i had jewish caviar, which is really pate made up of chicken livers and egg (yum!), and honey roasted leg of lamb. i sat there for quite a while, eating and reading my book, it was very lovely. i then took the long walk home to say goodbye to krakow, stopping to sit in the old town square for a while to watch the fire spinners. i got back to my hostel around 10, did some stuff online and was in bed by 12 so i could catch a 6:53am train to Prague the next morning since the night one was full.