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POLONIA

Part 2 : Kraków / Auschwitz

By Carolyn Chon

November 28^th, 2016

cracow

I made my way to Kraków by train from Warsaw and sadly for me this was the only train route I took in Poland. As you may know by now, if you've read my previous posts, train are my main choice of transportation when traveling.

Upon arrival at the station, I looked for a cab to take me to my Airbnb apartment as there wasn't an uber within the radar then. Oh, side note! It's only in Poland that I first started using uber heh. Okay, back to the story...

Found a cab and he told me he doesn't have a meter and he was gonna charge me 30Zl, which is equivalent to approximately RM30, unsure if I was getting ripped-off, I checked Google Maps to see how long the journey was going to take me and it said 25mins. So, I thought alright then, seems decent but then 10 minutes later, I arrived at the apartment. Damn you Google Maps! Accuracy please.

The apartment I was staying at is pretty cute and just a 3mins walk to the Stare Miasto (Old Town aka tourist spot). Again, all thanks to Bea who helped picked the apartment for me on Airbnb. You can check out the place here!

I didn't take many shots of the Stare Miasto, in fact I merely whipped out my phone to snap a few out of somewhat of an obligation. Somehow, this entire trip in Poland, I really didn't feel the need to take a photo of everything except probably when I made my way through the beautiful mountains in the Tatras (that's in the next post). You should explore the old town during the dark when talented classical buskers come out to play.

Here you'll see one of my favorite snack, which is their wonderful smoked cheese. How I miss you so!!

auschwitz - birkenau

The next day, I made my way by bus to the camps of Auschwitz. I pre-booked my tour a week before I made my way to Poland because apparently during these months (Aug/Sept), tour slots fill up pretty damn quick. I booked myself a 3-3.5hrs guided tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Now, if you do intend to visit this place some day in the near future, perhaps you should skip reading and proceed to the end of the Auschwitz post. Don't let me be the spoiler of this part of history.

The photo group that you see below was the original concentration camp, Auschwitz I - it was the Polish army barracks before Poland was captured by the Nazis. That will explain why the buildings look a bit too nice to be a concentration camp or even an extermination camp.

You may think that 3.5hrs is a bit too long to visit a place such as this. Fact is, if you really want to learn a whole lot more than I did, you can opt for longer guided tours, apparently you can also explore the grounds yourselves. Basically, you have options and you can decide by clicking here.

One quote that I did read and stood out to me at the camp was this :

"The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again" - George Santayana

I guess, this is why there is such a thing as dark tourism.

INSIDE AUSCHWITZ I

Below are some photos of the interiors of some of the blocks we visited in Auschwitz I. You'll see some of the belongings brought by the Jewish prisoners.

Now, because when I was younger and perhaps because I grew up in a time and place where I never had to witness an atrocity that was committed by the Nazis, I was ignorant and oblivious to the fact that this was really a piece of history in humankind that needed to be learned. This was for me, personally speaking a trip into the past where I learned heck a lot more than I knew even from movies.

The Jewish were all duped into believing they were merely being relocated to another place, little did they know that they were all sent to their deaths or torture. This would explain some of the photos you will see, they brought along some of their belongings because they thought they were gonna start anew.

The tour also brought us to see the gas chambers, which was very conveniently right next to the incinerators. I think if you've never ever visited any place such as this, this would bring a tear to your eye or at the very least make you stomach turn. Thing is, you definitely have to be emotionally prepared to learn and see this dark, dark place.

Auschwitz II - birkenau

Above is a photo from the inside of the entrance to Birkenau. The train tracks leads up to the center of the camp. This place is huge and it housed many, many camps and a few gas chambers and incinerators.

Jewish from around Europe were brought here by train and cramped up like sardines in small sized cargo compartments. It was so cramped that some of them had to stand through out the entire part of their journey to the camp. Many died on the way here due to lack of air, hunger, thirst and/or sickness.

For those that did make it through the horrendous journey, the minute they step out of the compartment they were then segregated into the weak versus the strong. The strong or those that appear strong, would be then sentenced to slave labour while the weak (which included the old men and women and the pregnant women) were sentenced to their deaths.

You'll see that some camps didn't withstand the test of time, whilst some were maintained and preserved to be a history lesson to those who were visiting. The ruins that you'll see is photos of one of the gas chamber that was destroyed by the Nazis themselves to destroy whatever evidence that they may or may not have been caught with.

We were brought inside to one camp to see how it real the living conditions were then. This particular camp housed mother and children. It was also the end to our guided tour and also to when I finally had tears in my eyes.

The guide told us that what we were saying were not double tiered bunks, but three tiered as the floor also served as a bunk. I could feel how stuffy it was seeing that there was only one small opening at the top for ventilation. Imagine during summer, and then imagine during the harsh cold of Polish winter and what it must've felt like for children.

He even said that those who got the top bunk were the luckiest, I thought to myself it must be because this place had rats. Boy, was I wrong. He went on to explain to us that because of the starvation they went through, sometimes they would soil themselves while asleep as they couldn't feel much or was in so much pain that the urine or feces would leak to the bottom bunks. How painful it was to hear such an account of human, let alone children.

I end here with the sharing of Auschwitz - Birkenau.

back to light

Of course I wasn't gonna end Kraków's post on a dark note. :)

So, besides visiting Auschwitz, the other touristy thing(s) I did was visit the Wawel Castle of which didn't wow me somehow. The cathedral within the compound had a stunning interior, but the exterior? It was just too much of a mismatch of structure for me, but what do I know?

I also did the Free Walking Tour that took me walking through the Jewish quarters of the city. I also learned that it was only since Schindler's List came out, that helped grow the tourism industry in Kraków. This was a fun tour, although it really was quite a fair bit of walking, I did enjoy it and most of us did tip the guide because he was good, and really we shouldn't always take advantage of freebies eh?

While I'm sharing some recommendations, I'd like to also point you towards this cute eatery I discovered through trip advisor. It's called U Babci Maliny and I loved the interior of the place! I went there twice to devour some perogis, first time I went there alone and the second I went there with a new friend I made during the walking tour. It really has a nice, warm vibe.

The last highlight of my time in Kraków? Definitely has to be the Kraków Live Festival which was bringing in Massive Attack amongst others. Going to a music festival alone was definitely a pleasant experience as well. Though at times it did feel a bit weird, but I really enjoyed my alone time with Sia and Massive Attack. :)