i had heard great thing about Krakow an amazing old town picturesqe beyound belief. as i arrived i was starting to feel the strain of none stope moving for over a month. lack of sleep was catching up with me and try as i might to enjoy the town i just couldn't i walked for as long as i cound, i went up to the castle, visited the Jewish quater(in krakaw over 70,000 jews were killed by the nazis) i was struggling to take it all in. i managed to get into the cathedral for free but just couldn't get inspired. i had an early night at my hostel and hoped that a good nights sleep would get me back in the mood.

The sleep certainly did the trick day 2 i decided to go to visit Auschwitz. despite all the tours that set off i thought it would be much better to take my time and do it slowly. so a 90 min ride on the public bus got me to the site for about 10:30. Auschwitch is aplit up into 3 main sites. Auschwitz 1 the first site is on old army barracks close to the town of oswiecim. this is a relativlysmall site. in which many of the building that once housed prisoners are now various museuns. i spent 4 hours slowly making my way around the site but found the constant guided tours really made it hard to picture what the site would actually have been like. several exibits including the piles of suitcases, shoes and glasss just made you realise on the scale of the carnage. also as urn containing some of the victims was a real thoughtful moment (i find it difficult to call this an exhibit a momorial is probally a better way to describe it. i could easily have spent at least a ay on this site but wanted to see Auschwitz 2 - Birkenau. this was the real death factory set up in idilic coutryside with no one around, this one place saw 1.5 million people put to death one way or another and the shear scale of the place makes imagine how bad this place must have been. of the original 300+ buildings all nut 60 were destroyed by the fleeing nazis including all 5 gas chambers. all that now remains in the piles of rumble that the nazis left. this site has really remailed untouched so you get a much greater real for what it must have been like. the sheer size means you get the peace and quiet to really contemplate what had gone on, various plaques stating the ashes of serveral thousand people are placed here and 100,000 people were killed here. you just can not comprehend what went on here. by the time i left the site at 7pm i had been here for about 10 hours and still felt i needed more time, the only thng i can compare the feeling was going around s21 in cambodia but it is a really moving experiance and one i would urge anyone to visit. I can't call this a highlight but i would without doubt say it was the most memorable day of my trip so far and not one i will ever forget

my last day in Krakow and still comming to terms with yesterday i spend a few your just ambling through the oldtown and then headed off on an afternnon bus to Warsaw.