Poland Oct. 16-18

Friday Oct. 16
The Phillies played the night before (or morning of, if you want to get technical) and finished up around 6:00am Friday morning, about the time we were all supposed to meet to catch our bus to Krakow.  As we were pulling away, we were asked if we remembered our passports, which happened to slip the mind of myself as well as Corey, so we made a quick detour back to the flat to scoop them up.  The ride ahead of us was going to be something like 7 hours, and I was hoping to catch some sleep to make up for pulling an all nighter.  Thinking back, I was probably able to get able 3 hours of shut-eye, which is impressive considering I have a very hard time sleeping upright and in uncomfortable seats.  During the ride, I awoke to a SEA of white snow.  We were driving through the mountains of central Slovakia, and there was a good few inches of snow on the ground.  Mind you this was mid-October.  We learned later that it was the earliest snowfall seen by the entire in a long time.  But the landscape was beautiful and a welcome sight for me, as it had been a while since I've seen a decent snowfall. We arrived in Krakow around 1pm and checked into our hotel.  At 4pm, a local guide gave us a VERY quick 1 hour walking tour of the medieval square, which was followed by a 'Crazy Communist' tour.  We were picked up in traditional 'Commie' cars, very small, cramped, and simple, and were driven wildly through the streets of Krakow to Nowa Huta, Stalin's proposed planned city for the Nowa Huta Steel Works factory.  We stopped at a local bar for a beer as one of the guides began to explain what was occuring in the city during communist times.  All the buildings in this area of the city were all the same height, and were mirror images of each other.  We were invited into an apartment complex to be shown what a traditional apartment at that time looked at, as well as being given free shots of Vodka and Pickles as our chasers (which works really well actually).  Our guide gave us some more information and also showed us pictures of what the city and steel works looked like back then.  Afterward, we were driven back to the city center and met up with the API Krakow students, all THREE of them, for dinner.  The dinner was excellent, and the portions were EXTREMELY large.  Some of us went out for a drink or two afterward, but I was so unbelievably full, I called it an early night/attempted to watch the Phillies game.

Saturday Oct. 17
An early wakeup, we all ate breakfast and made our way to the town of Oswiecim, or as we know it in America, Auchwitz.  We visted Auchwitz I and Auchwitz II Birkenau.  The entire experience was eye-opening; I knew what happened, I knew the tragedies that occured there, but it is never fully put into perspective unless you are there, seeing, touching, and hearing it.  The weather was cold and rainy, adding to an already saddening day. The camps are not places I think I'd ever want to visit again, but I am not regretting going one bit.  We returned to Krakow in the early afternoon, and Corey and I ventured off to find the hostel that a large group of our exchange friends were staying at (it just so happened that the same weekend we went to Krakow, about 15-20 other Erasmus/Intl students were also planning to go).  Their hostel was located on the complete opposite side of the square that our hotel was, but we had no trouble finding it.  We relaxed there for a bit, and were given dinner recommedations, so on our way back to collect the girls, we picked up some fine Polish vodka to have for the festivities that were to began later.  Dinner was delicious, I ordered a traditional polish sour soup which turned out to be not so sour, but was good anyway.  Pierogies were also ordered, obviously.  That evening, we met up with all the exchange students at their hostel to pregame, before heading out.  When all was said and done, we had gone to 2 bars and finished the night off at a club, making our way home between 5-6am.

Sunday Oct. 18
The original plan was to go see the castle, but only a couple of us were able to wake up for it.  I stumbled drunkenly into breakfast and saw that Claire and Erica had just gotten there as well, so we recapped the nights events.  After, I went to buy a few souvenirs before it was time to check out.  Before heading home, we stopped off at the Wielizcka Salt Mine, one of the oldest (if not the oldest) salt mines in Europe.  The entire place has been turned into a tourist trap/museum, as there were a number of exhibits created entirely out of salt.  It was impressive, but not my favorite thing in the world.  Around 3-4pm we hopped in our bus and made the journey back to Budapest.

Afterthoughts:  I didnt have enough time there. I would have liked to do more in Krakow, but we were strapped for time.  Also, the weather was not the best, cold and rainy for the most part, so I would at somepoint in the future maybe come back and explore with a little more vigor.


Photos of my excursion can be seen here: Poland Pictures!