Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz

Krakow used to be the royal capital of Poland until 1596 when Poland conquered Lithuania and the capital was moved to the more central Warsaw. There is a really cool old town which survived World War II.

There is also an old Jewish quarter with at least five synagogues. Jews used to be 30% of Krakow - now there are only 150 left. Those synagogues are basically ghost towns now.

From the second you get to Krakow you see that the main 'attraction' is Auschwitz - the largest Nazi concentration camp where Nazis killed a million people - mostly Jews. Its very strange to see Auschwitz listed on a tourist agency sign right under 'salt mine tour'. At the hostel Auschwitz comes up all the time - 'Have you seen it? Is it good?' It's all pretty surreal for me because my grandmother was imprisoned there and a lot of my relatives died there or in a similar camp. The whole time I was worried someone would say something offensive but it never happened. Most people are really affected by it and take it seriously.

Visiting Auschwitz was very difficult. I joined an organized tour of 20 people. There were a few Israelis and I helped translate. It was nice because it helped me feel less lonely. We also saw groups of high school Israelis on organized tours. They had huge Israeli flags draped on their backs like capes. It was surreal to see Israeli flags in Auschwitz. I guess that was the point.

From Auschwitz, Poland

At first I thought our tour guide (who was about my age) was being a little mechanical, but then he told us that his great grandfather was in Auschwitz. He was a Christian Pole who lived in a nearby village and would occasionally sneak food in for the prisoners. The Nazis caught him and threw him in Auschwitz as a political prisoner. He survived the war. The tour guide's grandmother is a tour guide as well and has been doing it for over 30 years. He was continuing the family tradition.

Those of us in the group who had family in Auschwitz told him our stories and he was very moved. You could tell how hard the job was on him - it really showed by the end.

I was shaken for the rest of the day.

The next day I wanted to get away from Krakow so I took a bus to Zakopane - a small vacation town in the mountains with a ski resort. Most people take a cable car up the mountain and hike down. The line for the cable car was too long so I tried hiking UP the mountain to take the cable car down. Um didn't happen. Definitely overestimated my fitness / underestimated the mountain. I gave myself an 'A' for Effort, rewarded myself with a kebab (they are everywhere here) and headed back to Krakow.

Tomorrow I head to Poznan, Poland for a wedding. I heard Polish weddings are insane. I hope so.