Polski - Krakow

Hey all,

Well I finished up work at St Thomas, and have had my boxes shipped to Canada. Now its time for me to go on the road again. This time with out my Will, who is in Canada.  After my hero and friend Matt did a baton pass of my passport out a train door (it's a long story!), I was off and running.

I flew to Krakow in Poland. After getting lost for 2 hours riding around on local buses I gave up and got a cab to the hostel. Turns out their directions were wrong! I spent 4 nights and 3 days there. It is a fantastic city. It has one of the most beautiful old towns I have seen and to make it more enchanting the old town is ringed by a park "the planty", which 

replaces the former town wall.

(The Planty with it's lovely Autumn colours)

It has one of Europe's largest town squares which has a tower, church and cloth hall to amaze at. Although Angie the pigeons here are just as scary as London ones. I took a walking tour of the city and our guide give us lots of information. Just outside of the old down on a hill is the Castle and Cathedral. Beautiful buildings with a view over the river.

After a dinner of dumplings I headed out the next day to walking around the Jewish quarter of town, and then I climbed the tower in the town square.

(View of the Town Square)

That night it was Halloween and although not largely celebrated here we went to a local club to party the night away, after lots of Vodka I decided to head home early as I had a big day the next day.

The next day I went to Auschwitz & Birkenau. It was a public holiday "all saints day" where families get together to remember passed love ones, they visit cemeteries to lay flowers and candles. After getting there I took a guided tour. The museum which is the whole grounds with displays in the buildings is fantastically done. Our guide was excellent and highly respectful. It was very confronting and the whole reality of what happened there is displayed so well, the piles and piles of shoes, huge amounts of human air cut of from bodies after execution. We were taken to the cells were prisoners were tortured to death as well as punished. I found it the most confronting when we had to walk through one of the gas chambers.

After 2 hours at Auschwitz we went to Birkenal, which is huge, and the Nazis never quit finished their plans for its extension. There is much less to see, but it is I think more disturbing because of the size. It stretches as far as the eye can see and its efficiency and chosen location are rather brutal to contemplate how easy they were allowed to exterminate so many people there. So overall it was not a pleasant experience but it was a very important experience for me to have.

The next day up to look at the market in the morning then off to Germany.