Oświęcim

"Stand over here," the nephew told his uncle while he was leading him into the gas chamber. The nephew was a prisoner in Auschwitz, forced to tell other prisoners to strip down because they were about to take a shower. He had learned to avoid eye contact because only he knew their fate. Hopeful faces filled the room, excitement of a clean shower...until his uncle recognized him. Unable to tell his uncle the truth and provoke panic and fear, he showed his uncle to the spot right under the shower head telling him it was the warmest but in reality he would be killed immediately from the poison. It was the only thing he thought to do...to save his uncle from suffering for up to 20 minutes.

This was one of the many heartbreaking stories told while visiting Auschwitz in Poland. However, it's never a good idea to talk about a trip sporadically...so I'll start from the beginning.

Thursday night the 6 of us: Meghan, Sara, Jessica, Chelsea, Adrienne and myself piled into the last shuttle into town. Jon and Robb decided to join us for dinner at the Goose. Dinner was fun, and a lot of us got the traditional fish n chips meal, which I have grown to love. By about 6:30 we decided to head towards the train station with our overly packed backpacks. There, we parted from Robb and Jon since they were heading to Ireland, while we were heading to Poland. Once we jumped on the train we had to split up a little since it was pretty full. I ended up sitting at a table with two tipsy gentlemen, in the low 40's. We ignored each other at first but after the guy sitting next to me had another beer, they all opened up. As time passed, we all were sitting at these tables due to the fact people had gotten off at previous stops. Anywho...




the guys proved to be interesting. The man sitting next to me talked about some rather...inappropriate and awkward things with girls that were only 19. His friend had to continually tell him to shut up, which we were thankful for. The hour passed by pretty quickly as they taught us a coin game and how to speak "British-like" which we all sucked at terribly. I also learned they call Americans sewage tanks, or tanks sometimes...because tank rhymes with yanks, and for some reason all Americans are considered yanks. Don't ask me why..but basically they think we are from new york or the south. We finally reached London and headed towards the tube and train to London Stansted airport. (Before we did that we took pictures at Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross...gotta love Harry Potter!!) There was a small mishap with Sara and Chelsea's tickets...since they didn't get the right one so they had to pay an extra 27 pounds which sucked. But it could have been worse.

Shortly afterwards, we arrived at the airport. Of course, we couldn't check in yet since it was only about 8:30 or 9, and our flight didn't leave until 6 am. So, we found a bench, sprawled out and tried to sleep. I slept on the floor a little bit but it was freezing after a while so I didn't get a whole lot of sleeping done, but it was sufficient. By 3, we had all gotten up since they are starting to allow people to check in. We got in line and waited for a little while until we were able to check in and get through. Security wasn't bad either since there weren't many people there. It was virtually empty when we reached out gate and we all fell asleep for about another hour before we were allowed to board. Get this...we flew with Ryanair, and I didn't realize we didn't have assigned seats. When they announced it was time to board, it was a wild mob to get to the door, people were shoving and pushing each other trying to get there first. We finally pushed our way through the crazy people and walked out to the plane, and picked our seats. Thankfully we found 2 rows empty so we plopped down.

About two hours later, we touched down in Krakow, Poland. Going through immigration was easy and we got through with no problems. Once we got through, we found the free shuttle to the train, and then hopped on the train after about a 2 second ride on the shuttle, hah! The train was really cheap, it was only 6 zl (zloty), which is approximately $2. Basically there is about 4.3 zloty per 1 pound. The exchange rate was highly in our favor. Anyways, when we reached the main square, I pulled out my directions to our hostel and started leading the way. You'd think I owned that city, walking through the streets like i lived there and knew where I was going. It wasn't hard to find our hostel and we were a little worried at first when we saw it. By the time we walked up to the 2nd floor, we were completely wrong.

The place was amazing, and by far the best hostel we've stayed at so far. It was decorated with lots of orange, haha. But it was pretty new so it was very clean and put together. The staff was very friendly and funny. They kept us laughing...even though thats not really that hard, hehe! We were shown to our room, and paid which was total 15.8 pounds which was amazing for 2 nights!! Our room was a 12 person mixed room and we took up half of it. It was gonna be fun...

We were starving at this point since it was a little after noon, so we put our backpacks down and went looking for food. The first place that caught our attention was a Chinese restaurant, so we scuttled inside. The food was amazing!! It was kind of funny because we were in a Chinese restaurant, in Poland, listening to American music, then 4 deaf people came in, so Adrienne and I were transfixed on their hands. We had no idea what they were signing since it wasn't ASL but we were fascinated!

Well fed and ready to explore, we headed to Wawel, the castle in town. We stopped in a few stores on the way, where I bought some earrings as souvenirs and a purse...ahhh!! Finally we reached our destination a few minutes later. The way they had it set up was that we had to pay individually for each attraction within the castle. So, we paid for the dragon exhibit and the armor/weapons/jewels one. they were pretty good. The dragon one was my favorite. We got to go down underneath the ground into a cave, where a supposed dragon lived, and walk around. It was kinda cool. When we reached the surface, there was a dragon statue, and it looked like his hands were in the "Thriller" position, so we asked someone to take a picture of all of us posing in the same position, it was rather funny.






Us in the cave:


doing "Thriller"!!

We headed to Cloth Hall, next. This was a big market full of polish items. It wasn't like Edinburgh though, where every single vendor sold the same items, it was all different and wasn't completely touristy. However, there were tons of amber and one place that sold polish pottery. This is where we spent a majority of our time and money it seems. After prying ourselves away, we were starving and saw a Hard Rock, so we headed there. Disappointment came when we found out it was being built and they only had the store up and running at the moment. So, we walked down the road and found a nice pizza place and had some of the best pizza ever! The meal was pretty cheap, too.

What should always and will always follow dinner? DESSERT! Duh...most likely in our case, ice cream! Luckily for us, we found an ice cream place that had a wide range of choices and they looked pretty good and it was pretty cheap.

By 7:30 we were back at the hostel and ready for bed. however, we weren't complete party poopers...the hostel was having a free shot night and there were quite a few people out in the common area having fun and drinking vodka. I tried a shot, and it was gross. That was my one and only. Jess had 3 in about 10 minutes, so did Meghan. Adrienne even tried it...of course she didn't take the entire shot, she only took a sip and then decided Robitussin flavor wasn't her favorite, haha. I played one game of chess (with my new chess board) with meghan (I won, of course, haha!) And then I went to bed about 11, but before that I managed to break one of the boards in my bed....stupid me!! They wre really nice about it though and said they weren't going to charge me. woo!

We were supposed to wake up about 45 minutes earlier than we did on Saturday. However, Chelsea's alarm clock on her phone had a mind of it's own, and therefore didn't do it's job. We woke up late, rushed around trying to get ready in 20 minutes, and failed. So, we missed the first shuttle to Auschwitz but made it in time for the second one. It's actually spelled Oświęcim but pronounced Auschwitz and I think it's later spelled that way as well. Anywho. That's where we went. We bought a tour and we were pretty excited. We started at Auschwitz I, which they had kind of turned into a museum, using the buildings for different purposes. Our guide was the most boring guide I've ever heard in my entire life. If I thought anyone hated their life and would consider suicide, she would be the one. Just listening to her made me even consider it. Basically it was hard to pay attention to her drone on and on. While Auschwitz isn't a place to jump up and down with giddiness, you can still add a little umph and enthusiasm into your voice to make it sound interesting and give the place justice...sheesh.

"Work Makes Freedom"

In one of the rooms, the walk way was narrow and on either side where thousands of shoes. After the liberation in 1945, over 49,000 pairs of shoes were found ranging from children to adults. We saw only 2 or of the 7 tons of hair they also found. Braids were thrown into the mix, where they were just cut from the top of the women's heads. There were rooms full of suitcases, where they were tricked into thinking they were moving to a better place and had brought their most valued possessions. Pots and pans, brushes, combs, eye glasses, and a lot more where piled high. Everyone was silent. The only thing heard were the shoes moving across the floor.

It was hard to imagine....life there. When you slowly move between buildings it's impossible to think such horrible things actually happened, right where I was standing. We saw Crematorium I, too. The gas chambers had shower heads like a real shower, and there were holes in the ceiling. The furnaces were dark, burnt, and creepy. It was hard walking through there, alive and well, when so many people before me had no idea what was about to happen to them. We saw the shooting block which was this area that they took prisoners...to well, shoot and kill. Here, there were lots of flowers and oil lamps lit in remembrance.

In block 11, we went down and saw Cell 18, which is where a priest stayed. It was the starvation cell. When one prisoner tried to escape, the SS soldiers would pick 20 people at random to pay the consequences. One guy was selected and he plead not to be killed since he had 4 little kids, so the priest took his position. The priest lasted for 2 weeks in his cell without food or water and the guy he saved ended up living to be 93 years old.

Next, we loaded into a shuttle bus and were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This camp had 3 crematoriums and tons of barracks. When the SS soldiers heard the allies were close, they tried to burn documents and barracks and get rid of everything they could, so they'd have no evidence of all the horrible things they'd done. There was one row they never got to, but looking out over the grounds you could see what looked like hundreds of chimney's that didn't get destroyed from the fires.

We ditched our tour guide here and found a different English group. That guide was a lot better and was a lot more interesting to listen to. She told us quite a few stories, too. She took us into two of the barracks. The first one showed us a long row of toilets, which were basically big holes. Prisoners were also the ones that had to empty and clean them out, which was a good job because it kept them out of the snow and cold. The next barrack showed us the beds. They were bunk beds but with 3 levels instead of just two. The top was the best one, because during the course of the night they would use the bathroom in the bed, so if you weren't on the very top, then it would seap through to the lower levels. Only the strong and able made it to the top. Being on the bottom also make them vulnerable to being crushed if the beds collapsed. One guys best friend died when a bed collapsed because it broke his neck.

Then we headed down the train tracks and our guide led us to Crematorium II, which was a pile of ruins. She told showed us Crematorium III and told us that another one was in the woods, and all of them were destroyed as well. The one in the woods was destroyed due to the prisoners revolting which I found interesting because I'd never heard of a revolt from the prisoners. The reason why they never put up a fight as soon as they arrived to this execution camp was because they didn't know. Like I said earlier, these SS soldiers lied and told them that they were going to a new place to start a new life, so they had no idea even when they arrived that they were there to be killed or tortured.

Once they arrived to Birkenau, there were SS soldiers there, as the selection committee. They had to decide which people were able to work and which ones were to be sent to the gas chambers immediately (typically older people, women, and children). After the liberation (when everyone was freed) they found a bunch of pictures the SS had taken of people getting off the trains. When a German man came to visit Auschwitz one year, he was glancing through the pictures and saw his father... His father was an SS soldier part of the selection committee and the son had no idea. He knew his father was part of the german army but no one ever told him he was an SS soldier that worked at Auschwitz. I could never imagine finding out my father was part of that.

the children were kept around for experiments, for the most part. When one person did something wrong a lot of times, they would send children to stand outside barefoot in the snow all day long. After liberation, the doctors noticed a lot of frostbite and messed up feet. A lot of people also died after liberation because of eating. They weren't used to eating hardly anything and then suddenly had the freedom to do so, and their stomachs were able to handle that much of food and it killed them.

After we left the camp, we bought a few books back at the first camp. The one I bought is titled "A girl from Schindler's list" and it is signed by the woman who wrote it. She currently lives in Krakow and she even put her numbers that would tattooed on her arm, next to her name. I haven't read much but Sara has and she says its really good. Speaking of Schindler's list...we could have toured his factory but unfortunately it was closed for restoration until 2010, so I was a little bummed.

It was about 5 before we got back to Krakow and we decided to go back to Cloth Hall and shop a little bit more before they closed at 7. Everyone bought more stuff. I got more pottery and some boxes and some jewelry. Chelsea bought way more. It was really funny because we all piled out of there full of bags! I saw horse drawn carriages everywhere and wanted to ride them but had spent enough money so I didn't want to go check. (riding in a horse drawn carriage is something i MUST do before I die!) Hungry, we went to a polish place that someone recommended. Thankfully it was just right across the street.

Inside was cute, and the waitresses were dressed up. They couldn't understand us very well so we had to point to the menu in order to order. Everyone stared at us...which we've gotten pretty used to. Everyone except Sara ordered pierogies (dumplings stuffed with different stuff) and let me tell you, they were amazing!!! I wanted more and can't wait to have more...mom??? hehe! With our bellies stuffed, we headed to guess where? ICE CREAM! Haha, well not yet. We heard some music so we walked over to the square and the woman was singing. She had a fabulous voice so we watched her for 2 songs, then decided we needed ice cream! We are never too full for ice cream my friend!

walking to our ice cream place, we saw a store that looked interesting and stopped in. There was more jewelry than i could ever think could fit in one place. Jess found a purse she wanted and went to buy it. Unfortunately the lady typed in an extra 2 at the end, charging 1222 zloty to her credit card. No bueno! Jess was really pissed and asked if she could have a discount since they weren't even putting the money back on her credit card, they were giving her the rest of the amount in cash! But they looked at her like she was stupid and didn't get her one, instead she had to walk around with 1100 zloty in her purse, just waiting to be mugged! Thank goodness she wasn't. Ice cream was the only way to make the situation better...

After we paid for our ice cream we walked back to the square and there was some guy band playing. the lead singer had a mullet, but other than that everyone was pretty attractive, and sang in a different language. Hello?! Awesome! haha. Funny that they even sang English songs. But when they played what I could only guess was Polish songs, it was really awesome to listen to. So, we stayed there until they packed up and left, which we decided was our cue to leave.

Once we got back to the hostel, we all packed up our stuff, set our clocks back an hour, and went to bed. At 6, everyone got up and got dressed and headed to the train station back to the airport. our backpacks were stuffed full of the souvenirs we bought, we didn't think they'd let us take them on board but luckily they did. A few hours later, we were back in England and heading back to our good ol' home of Harlaxton.

This trip was amazing. The city was very relaxing and we all agreed that it was the best city we'd been to since we've been here. Unfortunately we didn't get to see all that we wanted to, but then again we were only there for 2 days. My next adventure takes place this coming weekend because I'm going with the school on the Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge trip which looks like a lot of fun and I'll probably spend a lot of money at Oxford getting souvenirs. Sheesh, someone stop me!! Haha. But christmas is coming and I need to get people stuff. (By the way....I need your christmas lists!! :) ) LOVE YOU ALL.

ps... I have my slideshow on my blog of all my pictures, as well as I uploaded a video of the girl singing in polish from the square.

Slideshow:


Polish girl singing: