Krakow, Poland Part 3

So Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hostel and had to check out of the hostel by 10am. Our train wasn't leaving till 2 that day. So we went to Old Town Square and looked around and wondered. It was FREEZING cold so we didn't spend much time outside we went back to the 24 hour perogi place and I got some more perogies--so good! Here are pictures from around Old Town:

After we had lunch we headed to the mall since that's also where the train station is. We found a coffee shop and sat there was a while. Then we realized we had about 30 minutes till we had to board so we left. We a platform but we couldn't find a billboard where the various different train and when they leave and off what platforms. So we kept wondering. We then entered the tram station so we left there. Then we found the bus station, but we couldn't find the train station. So we start panicking a bit since now we have only 15 minutes and we can't find the train station and don't know where we need to be. So headed back in the mall. This guy walks up to us and asks if we need help and we're like YES where is the train station. He was like tram station, no train station, i take take you to the tram, we're like no the train station, he clearly couldn't understand us. Luckily this girl walked up to us and she was like can I help and she told us how to get there. I guess it's being remodeled so you can't get from the train station from the mall at that time and you have to walk all the way around. We were so lucky she was able to help us! So we mad dash to the train station quickly locate our platform and car. We didn't even double check we just ran on since it was about to leave. Luckily we picked the right train. Then we had a nice long 7 hour ride back to Prague.

train tickets with a millions stamps lol

wrist band from hostel and sticker from the tour group

Złoty (Polish Currency)

Because some of you may be interested here is about the hostel I stayed at. It was called the Greg and Tom Junior Hostel. It was not far from the train station maybe a 10 minute walk. It is close to down town. It was a really nice hostel. It was $18 a night which is a fabulous price and it included breakfast and dinner! The showers were great you could change the settings and there were multiple spigots and a radio in the shower. The place was very clean. The staff were very nice there, they are very knowledgeable and know multiple languages. The hostel also has towels and linens provided free of charge. There are also lock boxes in the room, free to use, and locker storage under the bed also free. When you first walk in is the front desk to the right is where the rooms are. If you down stairs there are two living rooms with a couple couches in each that are very comfortable. There are also free computers and Wi-Fi there to use. There is also a kitchen so if you want to cook/prepare anything you can. The complementary food was really good. The only thing that I can see negative about the hostel is that they only have co-ed rooms. All together was a great hostel experience would highly recommend this place!

Front desk

Kitchen

Complimentary food

Bathroom

Room (mine was an 8 person room, there is also 4, 6, and 10)

Krakow, Poland Part 2

**First half of this post is about the concentration camp: reader discretion is advised [scroll down to dashed line if you don't want to read about it]**

So we woke up kinda early so we could make it on our tour at 9:45. The breakfast wasn't anything special eggs, toast, cereal. I made myself a sandwich to eat for lunch then we head of to the city center where the bus was going to be waiting to take us to Auschwitz. So there were tons of people on the bus it was packed. They put on a video from the perspective of one of the guys that was send to do the video taping of what was really going on. It was about 20 minutes long, and the bus ride to Auschwitz was about an hour. So we finally make it to the concentration camp. It was really cold. There were two groups going on the tour, a Spanish tour group and an English tour group. We got our headsets since the tour guide uses a microphone to give the tour. We were allowed to take photos but I didn't personally take any when I was there there are some I found/borrowed from friends and online. The tour began we passed under the famous gate with the inscription in German "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("work will make you free") the same sign that is to the entrance of the the gestapo prison in Terezín. Also Auschwitz is divided into 3 camps (Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz). The Nazis completely destroyed Monowitz when they were trying to cover up the evidence of what they had done. Birkenau was pretty much completely destroyed as well. The 3 camps were completely secluded from any other city. The Nazis had claimed the land since there was no surrounding cities, that’s was how the Nazis got away with it got so long. We first headed into a building I don't remember the number. In that building which is now set up as a museum showed the history behind the Holocaust. It showed statistics of the number of people that went to the concentration camp and the number of deaths. There was over a million and a half people send to the concentration camp 1.1 million died of which 90% of them were Jews.Close to a million Jews died in Auschwitz alone. 20,000 Gypies died there as well as other groups (Czechs, Pols, Russians, Gays etc). Höss-Himmler declared that Auschwitz was to be extended and turned into the exemplar camp of the proposed 'Final Solution' (the genocide of the Jews) by Hitler. Höss-Himmler was the guy in charge of determining one's faith. First when you got off the train you were divided into two groups males and women and children. Within 10 seconds he picked if you were to live and work as a prisoner or die on the spot and be sent to gas chambers. The tour also explained the reason why the Jews seemed so willing and how so many of them were unaware. The Jews were being told that they were getting relocated into this housing development and that they were going to be registered there. Also, anyone who questioned what was going on was taken to the side and shot immediately. So the prisoners being transported brought along all of their most valued belongings since they thought they were going to be living there. Once they arrived at Auschwitz, some of them had been traveling for 10 days. The ones that were sent to die were told they were going to take a shower and have health inspections. So they were to go into the building that was nicely disgusted and set up to look like a shower room then gassed to death. People that got chosen to stay and work as prisoners were stripped of all their belongings and shaved. The uniforms they had to wear had triangles sewn on them to identify them as a Jew. Pole, Roma etc. All the belongings were then sorted and shipped back to Germany. Sorting the belongings was one of the best jobs a slave could have since they were able to be indoors and out in the harsh weather conditions. Only those who had jobs in doors were able to survive. In the museum they showed a whole room with shoes that was where I started to get really sad. I was able to physically visualize the number of people and the fact that was only a fraction of the number of people that died there was unreal. There were walls of various other things like glasses and kitchenware walls of them. Then there was a wall of suitcase with names on them. They were told before going into the gas chambers to write their names on the suitcase so they could be identifies later. There was also 7 tons of human hair found and the Nazis were using it to make cloth to make clothing. After we left the buildings with museum and headed to where roll call was taken and the residency was. Roll call was taken twice a day once in the morning before work and once again after work. The Nazis needed everyone to be accounted for. The longest roll call took 19 hours where they had to stand out in the freezing cold and stand. Block 10 was where medical experimenting was conducted. Doctor Clauberg did tests on Jewish women to try to develop an efficient way of mass-sterilizing women. He also did test on children, mostly twins, to increase his knowledge of genetics, and to develop "genetic engineering." He also experimented with skin transplants, and tested the effects of different chemicals on his subjects by rubbing toxic substances into their skin.  Then we went to Block 11 which was separated from the rest of the camp. Wooden shutters were put over the windows so no one could see what went on in there .Prisoners were brought before these courts for anything from working too slowly or communicating with the new people arriving. A popular form of punishment was to tie the prisoners' arms behind their backs, and then leave them there hanging. As a result they dislocated and broke their shoulders, And since they were only allowed to stay there as long as they could work they were usually killed shortly after. Also there were dark rooms where they were left in with no light for hours, there were starving rooms were they were left to starve to death. Then there were the lucky ones that were sentenced to be shot. They were taken outside and shot against the 'death wall.' Then we went to the crematorium and gas chamber the only remaining gas chamber. Zyklon B was used to gas the prisoners, the Germans bought 20 tons worth of it it only took 5-7kg worth to kill 1500 people. They poured the Zyklon B pellets into two holes in the roof of the building. The pellets  reacted with the heat of the people in the room during into gas. They prisoners would then go and move the dead bodies into the next room where the crematorium room was. There was 3 crematoriums. The originals had been removed and there were replicas where they would be. [See diagram below] It was really intense and emotional being in there. We then went outside where there was a single gallow. That gallow was used to hang Rudolf Höss. His house was located just on the other side of the fence. His wife claimed when on trail that she never knew what was happening but her house was maybe 20 feet away. Then we hoped on the bus and went to Birkenau. Because there were so many people were being sent to the camps that in fall 1941 the Nazis began to built a second camp, 3 km to the west of Auschwitz. Birkenau was 10 times larger than Auschwitz and housed over 100,000 prisoners at one point. We first went to the wash room which consisted of rows and rows of holes used as toilets. They didn't have any pluming or running water set up. The prisoners only got to use the toilets once a day and they all had 5 minutes to do so most were unable to use it and went to the bathroom where ever they could. The lucky person who's job the pooper scooper who got to carry the poop when the holes over flowed was considered one of the best jobs one since they got to work inside all day two the guards wouldn't dare touch them so they were protected. Then we saw where the prisoners where living. The prisoners lived in buildings which had originally been stables for 52 horses, which had then been converted to barracks for 1,000 people. A single oven was built at the end of the barn to provide heat but was rarely if ever used. A typical meal for a prison consisted of "coffee" which was really dirty hot water and for dinner a slice of bread and a bowl of soup which equaled about 1500 calories. A lot of the prisons suffered from diarrhea and ended up s***ing themselves since they were too weak and feeble to move. Then our tour was over and we hoped back on the bus and headed back to the city square.

This is where the SS officer stood protected from the weather while roll call was given

"Dark Room" where some prisoners were left with no light and little air (it's reconstructed so we could see but they climbed in from a hole in the bottom)

Execution Wall

Prisoners were told to sign their suitcases before entering the gas chamber so they could identify everyone bags

Shoes

eye glasses

Gas Chamber:

a. store room

b. room to store the ashes after cremation

c. originally a morgue, later a gas chamber

d. furnaces

e. chimney

f. storage of coke to fuel the furnaces

g. office

crematorium

Cans of Zyklon B

electric double sided barbwire fences, some prisioners even threw themselves at it to end the pain and misery

bathroom

living space

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once we got back to the city square we got in a van and headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The salt mines were actually quite cool and I would highly recommend going if you go to Krakow. First of we had the best tour guide, Sebastien. He use to work work for the salt mine so he had like special VIP privileges like seeing certain rooms that are closed to the public etc ans shared with us :] So we started out on the journey which started with climbing down a million flights of really narrow but big stairs I think there was seriously like 48 flights of stairs or something like that. The salt miners carved sculptures into the salt pillars and there were room after room of sculptures the miners had carved. I think I am just going to post pictures since they can speak for themselves. But the salt mines are about 600 years old. There were so many different chambers and rooms that we were barely able to see more than 1% of it, it's that big. The salt was known as green salt that looks black but is really white because of the light. but if you hold a light up to it is white. Salt use to be one of the most valuable things back in the day, even more valuable than gold, since you needed salt to preserve food. This mine is thought to be the oldest salt mine still in operation. Wieliczka is no longer a commercial mine anymore since the flooding in 1996. This is a great location if you have children since they offer a children's tour where they call to the Salt Gnome that makes all the salt and sculptures. Apparently it is really crowded in the summer like May/June since all the school take the school children on field trips there.But here are some photos. Also we got to take the elevator up so we didn't have to climb the million and one stairs. The elevator could hold 36 people (9 in each section). Nine was very crammed and if you are claustrophobic it would be like your worst experience. It only takes seriously only 30 seconds to get back to the surface it's that fast. 

The tour ended and fter a long day of walking around we went back to the hostel it was like 7pm. We had missed dinner there was some rolls left out I ate about 5 of them for dinner. Then I took a shower and went to bed since I was tired and it had been a long day and I had a long day ahead for tomorrow.

Staircase

Salt Gnomes

Those aren't tiles they are carved from the salt to look like tiles

Exclusive Light Show (for VIP members only but we got to see it :] Enjoy!)

Licking the salt walls (ok no I didn't actually lick it..)

Krakow, Poland Part 1

So I went to Poland this weekend with my roommate Kelsey. Our journey began with us leaving for the night train Thursday night. So we get to the train station it is kinda confusing ,we were looking at a board (all in Czech) trying to decipher what it is saying. We can't find our train--figures! So we decide to look at the time the trains are leaving which surprisingly worked we found the right train. Since where we were going wasn't the last stop that train was taking it wasn't listed there as the train stop. So we make it to the correct platform and we are looking and it is a multi-car train and we are like do we have seat numbers does it matter where we sit? So we look at our tickets it doesn't show a seat number just that we are in the second class cabin so we walk up to the train and I see a piece of paper saying it's going to Krakow. I was like great lets get on this one. We wanted to make sure so we asked one of the people that worked there and she said it was. So we find an empty room and we take a seat. The car pretty much resembled like cars that the students of Hogwarts took to school in Harry Potter. We wait around like 10 minutes till the train actually leaves. A man sits and joins our section of the train, it was very nice he was going to visit his girl friend. We head off it's almost 10pm. Another at the next stop a girl with dread locks joins us. The person checking finally comes around and stamps our ticket. Hours past and we finally make it to the last stop. Apparently the train just leaves our section/cart and then another train comes and picks us up. I guess some people didn't know that and they got on the wrong cart and were stuck in the middle of the train storage yard. Sucks to be them. So it's like 1am. Since our section of the train isn't attached there is no power which mean there was also no heat. It was freezing cold in there I was literally shaking. It was quite miserable I couldn't sleep and I was just waiting for the other train to arrive to pick us up. So finally 2 hours later it comes. So the train finally makes it to Krakow. It is about 6 something in the morning. The shops are just staring to open in the train station. There was rows and rows of pretzel stands. We are also of course starving too, but we didn't exchange money before we left so we didn't have a way to buy any. So we decided to head to the hostel.

First dummies going on vacation move was we didn't copy down direction to the hostel just the confirmation booking that had the address and dummy move number two we didn't have a map. So we left the train station in search of the hostel. So we knew it was by the Old Town Square so we headed in that direction. We got to the square and Kelsey has an iPhone so we decide we are going to try to find wi-fi so we can get directions. We can't find any so we keep walking. There is also no one around since it's so early so we couldn't ask for any directions. We finally find a wi-fi signal so we get directions. Thank you iPhone for getting us safely to the hostel we would have been wondering for a while. So we walk into the hostel it's 7 something in the morning. We check in. The person working the desk shows us the room we are going to be staying in. It was still too early for us to move in. She invited us down stairs were there was complimentary breakfast set up. We eat some breakfast and then I see these couches in the other room. We decided to lie down on them. We ended up lying down and falling asleep. That couch was so comfortable, way more comfortable than my bed in back in Prague. A few hours later the person working the desk wakes us up and we go to our room. We slept a little longer then we decide to go to get our money exchanged. So we finally get our money exchanged and we decided we wanted to see the Wawel and the Jewish Quarters. After we exchanged our money we decided to go book a tour with the Cracow City Tour company for Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps and the Salt Mines. On our way we saw some eating waffles with toppings and they looked AMAZING! So we went on a mission to find them. It didn't take long till we did and they were so good!

We went to the Wawel first. The Wawel Cathedral (Katedra Wawelska) is located inside Wawel Castle (Katedra Wawelska) on Wawel Hill hence where the name came from lol. It is the spiritual center of the Polish state. It was created in the 14th? century. The Wawel Cathedral is a burial place of nearly all Polish kings and national heroes, it was also the cathedral of Pope John Paul II before he left for the Vatican. We decided to take the audio walking tour, which I would highly recommend it was a phenomenal walking tour and the voice giving the tour had a nice listening voice not boring and monotone like some. Here are some pictures from the outside:

 

We were not allowed to take picture in the cathedral, so I will try my best to describe it in words. There are like 18 different chapels and lots of different famous people of which most I have never heard of. The tour began when we entered the basilica; you are struck by the dazzling tomb of St. Stanislas. It practically dominates the building and located in the center of the room. The cathedral was dedicated to him, alongside Wenceslas (the same Wencelas that has a whole square named after him in Prague) who was the patron of the earlier foundation. His tomb has stood on that point ever since the creation and all the kings we crowned at his foot. Following along side the aisle, the chapel of Queen Sofia lies. The stained glass windows kinda look like a kaleidoscope and cast an orangish glow and above that are some very beautiful  murals on the ceiling. Along the ceiling was amazing rib vaulting(criss-cross vaulting traditional in Gothic architecture-google it and look at pictures).The next chapel belongs to the Czartoryski family, a well known and honored clan, who were very influential during the 18th and 19th centuries. Then we saw the tomb of King Warnenczyck it was made of brown marble. All the coffins had life size replicas of the person carved on top of the coffin. There was a lion carved by his feet and looked kinda like his feet were on a  footstool. At the base or any where on a tomb if an animal is carved it is symbolic of that person's life. Then we climbed to the top of Sigismund tower, which is reached by and a wooden staircase up. The tower holds a total of 5 different bells. The most famous is the Sigismund Bell (Zygmunt Bell) which was commissioned in the year 1520 by King Sigismund the Old. It is about 2.42 m (~8 ft) in diameter and about 4.60 m (~15 ft) tall. It is made of bronze and weighs about 12,600 kg (~27,778 lbs) and takes about 12 men to ring it (hence it is rarely rung). 

one of the other small 4 bells

 view of outside from the top:

Sigismund (Zygmunt) Bell

it's supposedly good luck to touch the bell with your right hand while you touch your heart with your left hand.

Then we ascended back down the flights of stairs and continued on with the tour. We entered a room with all the crypts. First was a tomb carved in sandstone, and belongs to Wladyslaw the Short. Continuing on we saw the chapel of Bishop Gamrat. It had a pretty ceiling that looks as if it has been carved from coral. To the right is the gorgeous Chapel of Our Lady and full of black marble and dark wooden furnishings. The vaulted ceilings had some beautiful fresco painting that are becoming very faded. Continuing on was the Gothic tomb of King Kazimierz the Great. King Kazimierz united the kingdom and strengthened it as a whole. He also transformed it physically by fortifying many towns and building many castles in the kingdom. Then continuing you pass the chapels of Bishop Zaluski designed in the typical baroque design. Then we saw the tomb of Queen Jadwiga Jagiellowho was later deemed a saint. The tomb was specially made over a hundred years ago by a wealthy aristocratic family. It was made out of white marble stone and with her hands joined together like in prayer. At her feet lies a puppy which is symbolic of fidelity. The tomb was specaily made one hundred years ago by a wealthy aristocratic family. She was supposedly really tall about six feet tall. In the next chapel was an impressive red marble tomb of Wladyslaw Jagiello. There was a Chinese style dragon at his feet. He is also on the 100 in their currency. Then we went down into the 'basement' where we saw some more tombs which contained the typical Romanesque style which was really cool since they build the Gothic Cathedral over the Romanesque building so it was still perfectly in tacked with the cross groin vault (see below). Here are two photos I snuck in when I was in the basement:

Then we left the building and headed toward the Cathedrals museum which is still on the audio tour. The other building that contained cloaks, swards etc. There was a picture that had originally been painted over a picture and an artist was able to separate the two paintings it was really cool. Then we returned our headset and continued to wonder we ended up at this place that looks like a colosseum-like court yard I have no idea what is it I am planning on asking my architecture teacher about it but I had no idea how to take a picture so i took a video of it:

Then we head toward the Jewish Quarters. We here are some photos along the way:

When finally make it to the Jewish Quarter also known as Kazimierz. We had planned to go to the Temple Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery and other synagogues and cemeteries there, but we of course picked bad planning and went on Friday at dusk which was the start of the Sabbath so nothing was available to touring. I am not even sure how you even get into the cemetery we walked around the entire building and all we could find was a glass window you could look in that was broken. Also in Krakow was one of if not the first Chabad houses and they all have a JCC there. So the Jewish quarter was kinda a bust but here is a photo from the Jewish quarter:

It was getting kinda late and it was cold so we headed back to the hostel. When we finally made it back to the hostel it felt so nice to finally be able to sit since we had done so much walking. So we waited around till it was dinner time. We headed down stairs there were other anxiously awaiting dinner. It wasn't really dinner that night it was more like a whole bunch of appetizer and dessert which was fine by me. There was tons of food. It happened to be the owner's birthday so he was throwing a huge party with like 100 people there. It was pretty massive. We met some students from Boston that were studying abroad in the Netherlands they were very nice. They are coming to Prague in 2 weeks so we told them to hit us up when they come. They told us about this 24 hour pirogi place which sounded amazing so we decided to go there. Pierogies for those of you who don't know are dumpling in the shape of a pot sticker filled with potatoes and cheese DELICIOUS! If you don't believe me here is a photo:

New friend (Lindsey) on our way to get perogies :]

When we got back to the hostel everyone had disappeared; I guess they all had left and hit up the bar or a club which was fine since I was tired and we had to get up early for the long day ahead of us the next day.