I need to stop being such an idiot about transportation. I realized Sunday evening that I had booked a train ticket to Leipzig on Thursday an hour after I got out of my last lecture. At the time, an hour seemed reasonable... but when I started calculating how long it would take to get from my lecture hall up on the hill to the city center, wait for a tram, get to my flat, grab my luggage, and get back to the train station in the city center, I realized there was no way I would make it. At the same time, there was absolutely no way I would have been able to lug my suitcase of the hill to my Vorlesung, so I owe a huge thank you to Sina for letting me store my stuff to his place in town during my class... especially since he lives on the 5th floor (6th floor to you Americans) and there is no elevator. Thank you again, Sina! =]

I guess I should probably step back and explain why I was going to Leipzig... Back in January, I applied for and was accepted into the Auschwitz Jewish Center Program for Students Abroad. The program consists of three days in Krakow and two days in Oświęcim, one spent at Auschwitz and the other at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. I was able to coordinate flights with Ashley and Susan who are also studying in Germany this semester, and Ashley lives a few minutes away from the Leipzig Airport, so she offered me her couch for the night =]

Ashley picked me up from the Hauptbahnhof and we headed for her apartment. I could already tell that I will be returning to Leipzig for a proper visit, because one evening there definitely wasn't enough. So many fascinating things have happened in Leipzig's history— the sub-camp that I am researching was located in Leipzig and the 1989 protests against the DDR occurred here, too. The nightlife looked like a lot of fun as well, so I am definitely hoping to return for a weekend. One of Ashley's friends from last semester was visiting this weekend, so after introducing me to her and her other friends, a group of us went out for a drink. Ashley and I both wished we could have stayed out a little longer, but unfortunately we had an early flight—we had to be up at 4:30—so we called it a night after one drink.

I couldn't believe it was time to wake up when my alarm went off. Nathan was in Jena until Wednesday and I've been trying to balance spending time with him, school work, and finalizing travel plans, so I was already pretty sleep deprived. Luckily we got to the Hauptbahnhof in time to grab much needed coffee and a croissant =]

Everything went rather smoothly with the flight and we arrived in Vienna roughly the same time Susan's flight got in from Munich. We had a twoish hour layover, which wasn't terrible except for the fact that they had sectioned off the gates or something, leaving us in a small terminal with not very many options for food. Na ja, it just gave me plenty of room for a good Polish lunch as soon as we landed in Krakow!

Getting from the airport to Krakow was a little terrifying... the three of us split a cab, but the driver was seriously insane. And I've been in NYC cabs before, so I DO have something to compare it to. He was cutting buses and trams off left and right and nearly crushed a sweet old lady crossing the street. I know we were all very relieved when we finally made it to our hotel! We were meeting the group in the hotel lobby at 7, so after checking in Ashley and I headed off to explore the city on our own a bit (Susan had a dumb paper proposal to write). We were both starving, so we found this great little Polish café that had amazing pierogies... ahhh they were seriously so good =] After lunch we wandered to the city's market place. Krakow completely surpassed all of my expectations. I think that most Americans associate anything east of Germany with dull, run down buildings, dead landscape, an awesome exchange rate, etc... for those of you who have seen Eurotrip, kind of like Bratislava. Krakow isn't like that at all. The city center was really neat, the buildings were colorful, there were so many outdoor cafes and stores... it was quite a pleasant surprise.

Krakow is well known for their amber, so after buying a pendant Ashley and I headed back to our hotel to meet the other members of our program. There are a total of fifteen of us—and most of us are studying in Germany, Israel, or Copenhagen. Dara and Maciek, our program directors and tour guides, led us to the dinner. I found the introductions really interesting... unlike the seminar I attended in DC, where most of the other students had research interests rooted in the Holocaust, most of the students had personal history connections to Auschwitz. There were a couple students who even had grandmothers live through the camp.

After dinner, Dara informed us that we would be leaving Krakow the following morning and staying at a monastery in Oświęcim for two nights. I don't think any of us really knew that before hand, but the idea of staying in a monastery sounded kind of cool to me. Although she did warn us that the food wouldn't be anything like the dinner we had just had (which was absolutely amazing)... shucks!

I was totally taken back by the nightlife in Krakow, and even though I was completely exhausted, it seemed like a crime to not go out for at least one drink, so a group of us decided to go grab a beer at one of the outdoor cafes I mentioned earlier. It was nice getting to know people better, but I was practically falling asleep at the table. I sure slept soundly that night!