Auschwitz

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While in Krakow, I had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz. Everyone knows about this place, but you don’t realise the scale until you get there. I visited it on the eve, of sorts, of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.

I travelled there in a minibus from the main Krakow bus station, it was pretty cheap from what I can remember.

The scenery on the journey to there was nice, kind of highlighted how much progress Poland has made as a country, what with how modern places looked compared to lesser well off places.

Getting back to the Auschwitz visit, what a lot of people don’t realise, is that Auschwitz is a German name, the local town, Oswiecim is the correct name, the town was only known as Auschwitz when the Nazis occupied it. The camp is basically referred to as Auschwitz Birkenau.

When I got to the entrance, everyone went through security, then the tour started. The tour I went on covered two of the 3 camps. The first part covered what had been a Polish military base, (the buildings are different to the other camps as they had been built by the Polish prior to the Nazi invasion).

This camp (Auschwitz 1) has the infamous “Arbeit macht frei – work sets you free” sign, and we went on a tour, and seen many exhibits (suitcases, shoes, various belongings, pictures of some of the people brought in).

The general feeling I got of the place was an eerieness, we seen the yard where they executed people, and the gallows.

We were then taken to Auschwitz 2 i.e Birkenau – we never got to see the 3rd camp, and we seen inside some of the “living quarters”, if you could call them that, looked really grim, especially when you consider that there would’ve been no sanitation or anything like that.

We then seen the rail line into the place, and then we seen the gas chambers, or what was left of them – it almost seemed like a production line of death, just so hard to fathom. People brought in, some people seemed fit enough were selected to work, and basically worked to death, so many just went straight to the gas chambers.

I was glad I went to the camp, just to say that I’ve been there, but it was so hard to take in, kind of hard to fathom, so surreal, so many people wiped off the face of the earth – R.I.P everyone who died during this time.

I would definitely recommend a visit to here just for the scale of it, and to pay respect.

Krakow, Poland

Krakow is always somewhere that I’ve wanted to check out, and I seen a wee deal online for flights, and I thought it would be worth a go, even though it was going to be in January.The weather turned out to be pretty mild..ish, still had to wear a big coat when out, not as bad as I thought it was going to be.I went to see the salt mines, and it was really nice experience – the underground chapel was beautiful, some of the carvings were a work of art. I know its a case of “No shit sherlock”, but the mines were pretty deep, and the walk down the initial stairs kind of made you feel a tad dizzy.That being said, nice though it was, I wouldn’t be in a mad rush to see the mines again.As for Krakow itself, it was super, super nice. The architecture was picturesque, even if that last statement sounds cliched as hell. Krakow is also ex pope country too – around Krakow you’ll see a few statues of JP 2nd.The general vibe of Krakow was nice too, the people seemed nice and helpful.I also got to see the statue of St Stanislaw/Stanislaus, my one time possible namesake (long story, my mother wanted to called me Stanislaus, but that got vetoed, and I ended up being called John after one of my ancestors).During my time here I done a 20k run around Krakow, and got to appreciate the kind of contrast and majesty of the place – nowhere near as big as Warsaw, but all the nicer for it, seemed that bit more real.The spectre of WW2 does hang over certain parts of Krakow a little, but it would be hard for it not to. Still, it’s a beautiful city, with so much history, a great place to walk around, go for something to eat, and a good night life too.Place comes highly recommended, would definitely go back.

Warsaw, Poland

 

Poland is a place I’ve always wanted to visit, just never got around to it till last month.

I found a cheap flight deal to Warsaw and stayed there a week. In hindsight I should’ve planned the whole trip better and travelled around Poland, but maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to see other parts of it in the future.

Anyway, back to Warsaw, I flew  in on a Wednesday, and when I got Into the city centre, the place was like a ghost town (I subsequently found out that it was all saints day, kind of like a national holiday, but mainly for families to remember their loved ones).

It kind of reminded me  of home i.e grey, wet and cold.  Although the internet was a bit pissy in the place I was staying in, it was in a way a godsend, as I could search up things to see and do.

I went on an organised pub crawl, met up with people from all over the world, it was a good night, but as with all pub crawls, a bit artificial, kind of a “plastic Warsaw”.

The architecture was a mix between old and new, a bit drab in places (think Soviet), nice in others, old town was nice, but artificial as old town isnt really “old”, as it was built in the 1950’s.

The people, they seemed okay, and were helpful, I wouldn’t say they are overly friendly, but they didn’t give me any hassle, and when you did get properly chatting they were sound, maybe a wee bit like the russians i.e an orange, hard skin on the outside but soft and tender inside.

Over the week I was there, I went to  the national stadium, Warsaw uprising museum, Jewish history museum, old town, Lazienki Park, and plenty more, but, I don’t know what it was, but I just couldn’t warm to the place.

It has it’s good points, the public transport system is spot on, and dirt cheap, what with the buses, trams and the underground metro, and it felt relatively safe, but I wouldn’t be in any rush to go back there.

There is a lot of history tied up in the place, and considering  the place was virtually annihilated at the end of WW2, it’s remarkable that it’s come on so far.

As a weekend break, it is nice, any longer probably not.  Sorry if I offended any Polish out there, but I didnt want to bullshit and say that this is the most rad place in the world.