I'm currently in Poland but thought I'd quick blog about some of the things we did while being here (we're currently cookin' some dinner at our Friend Joannas). We've been so lucky staying with people that we know in different countries. My Australian friend Kristie lived in Scotland for one year, and she lived with Joanna, and Joanna lives right in Krakow so we are staying with her.
Well today is Monday, we leave tomorrow morning for our flight back to Dusseldorf, then Duss to Arnhem and we unfortunatley have to back to classes ;)
We arrived on Thursday Nov. 4th and that night we had a traditional meal with our friend Joanna. She has been an awesome host, and we were able to spend the night walking around the Market Sqaure in "main" Krakow. There are lots of restaurants, cafe's and bars and such. As well as horse carriage rides! (We didn't do one though, it was 100 zloty's!) We took lots of pictures in the main square, and it has been beautiful here. Lots of history in Krakow, and Poland in general. I have experienced Spain and Portugal so far, which is Western Europe of course - so this has a very Eastern European feel, now that Poland is in the EU. In 1999 Poland became a non-communist country and then in 2004 it became a part of the EU. Our friends here say that it will transition from the złoty (Polish Currency) to the Euro within 2 years or so. They really don't know what it will be like, or how it will effect their economy, hopefully things don't get too expensive. For us it has been great because we are used to the Euro. It is 3.9 Zloty's to 1 Euro, so we've had a very, very cheap trip. We'll get a coffee for 11 zloty's (or even 10) which is a little over 2 Euros! You'd never get that in the Netherlands. During our dinner Thursday night Joanna talked a lot about April 10th 2010 when the Polish President was killed in a plane crash. She explained to us a lot of the theories and controversies surrounding it. The Polish President was named Lech Kaczynski and he died along with his wife, the head of the Polish central bank and various other senior government officials, after the plane they were traveling in crashed western Russia. I'm glad Jo explained to us what the Polish feel and what is going on just after this happened in April. It is unbelieveable. Of course all I thought about is if my grandparents or mother or someone called me while being in Europe saying Obama and is 80-90 most important delegates all got killed in a crash, I truly would never be able to believe it. Jo was telling us about the communist era and that the "cue" (line) was so long just to buy toilet paper - you had to go at a specific time and that is it. The Polish also had a curfew by 10:00pm. Things we could never imagine - and all of these different things that are extrememly recent in history. It was a great dinner and I learned a lot. It makes me wish in America we got more news stories from around the world, as around the world they hear EVERYTHING about American politics. Like my friend Kristie said in Australia they hear about American politics constantly, if ANYTHING happends they hear. When unfortunatley we do not hear the same about other countries.
Moving from Thursday to Friday ---
We went to The Wieliczka Salt Mine, located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland, lies within the Kraków metropolitan area. The mine continuously produced table salt from the 13th century until 2007 as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines (the oldest being the Bochnia Salt Mine). It is believed to be the world's 14th-oldest company still in operation. The mine's attractions for tourists include dozens of statues and an entire chapel that has been carved out of the rock salt by the miners. About 1.2 million people visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine annually. Commercial mining was discontinued in 1996 due to low salt prices and mine flooding.
The mine was soooo cool - we really liked it! When we first got in the tour we walked down over 300 stairs just to get down to the mine. There were a lot of tourists but we heard a lot of stories and learned a lot about Poland's history. The underground chapels are absolutley beautiful, and hopefully I'll post some pictures shortly!
Saturday--
This is they day we traveled about 1.5 hours to Auschwitz. As many know, this was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III-Monowitz, also known as Buna-Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps. Our tour guide was a teacher of Literature in Poland, and she explained to us a lot. The tour was long, but we wouldn't have had it any other way, we were engaged the whole time.
We went to Auschwitz and toured the entire complex/concentration camp. By far us three girls thought this was the best tour/activity we did so far. We loved learning and hearing stories about the Jews and Poles in the concentration camp (along with many, many other countries) and truly learned a lot. Of course it is a very depressing place, but was so interesting hearing about what German soldiers tried to destroy due to evidence of the genocide. We were able to see a lot of belongings and also documents in regards to the camp and what was going on with it. Here are some Auschwitz facts: In all, 1.1 million people died during the four and a half years of Auschwitz's existence; one million of them were Jewish men, women and children. Other groups of people who died included Polish political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsy families, homosexuals, people with disabilities and prisoners of conscience or religious faith (including several hundred Jehovah's Witnesses). More people died in Auschwitz than the British and American losses of World War Two combined. Nazis at Auschwitz offered some non-Jewish female prisoners the option of 'light work'. As the women soon discovered, 'light work' meant prostitution. A Star of David was placed above the entrance to the gas chamber and a sign was painted in Hebrew on a purple curtain covering the entrance to the gas chamber that said "This is the Gateway to God. Righteous men will pass through". A unit in Auschwitz where valuables snatched from incoming prisoners were kept was known as Canada, because Canada was thought to be a land of untold riches. Some Jewish prisoners secretly wrote eye-witness accounts of the atrocities of the gas chambers and hid them in bottles or metal containers buried in the ground. A number of these accounts were discovered after the war. A total of about 7,000 staff at Auschwitz, only 750 were ever punished. Many went on to build good careers, including one man who became head of human resources for a large German company. There are approximately 500 survivors of Nazi death camps or ghettos living in Britain today.
After that tour our friend Joanna took us out, because it was the opening weekend of snowboarding, and I guess that is big here! We went to a huge factory in Krakow for the opening weekend of snowboarders - they had a DJ and a singer there for a big party for all snowboarders.
Sunday--
We did Wawel Castel and saw some of the: State Rooms Royal Private Apartments Exhibition "The Lost Wawel" Exhibition "Oriental Art" The Royal Gardens & Dragon's Den. We walked around the whole castle but didn't get to see too, too much. We also did some shopping/hair cuts at the Galeria
Today/Monday--
We started off by making our way to Schindlers Factory. It was free today being the 2nd Monday of the month, so we were very excited! After getting there it was closed due to restoration - we were very bummed. But then we walked through Kazimierz the neighborhood/historical district of Kraków, best known for being home to a Jewish community from the 14th century until the Second World War. We were able to walk through and take a lot of pictures of the Old Synagogue (15th century). The Jewish quarter was very cool to walk around and look at, and we also ate at a very cute place.
We also love Zurek soup! It is traditional here and is delicious. Of course perogi as well.
Pictures are soon to come!
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