Auschwitz-Birkenau

In the middle of our Krakow wanderings we made the haunting and humbling trek to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Amidst other european tourists snapping and smiling away, I felt like papping the place was beyond disrespectful. I took only these three photos to aid my teaching of 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and stood shaking for most of the rest of the day.

At first glimpse the work camp, standing eerily quiet, looks like a college campus and halls of residence during the quiet summer months. From the outside, the buildings are uniform and ordered. Inside, each block has been turned into a memorial for a different country or ethnic group. Lots of people walk around with that similar glazed look. It's awful.


The sister camp to Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extermination camp, lies 1-2km up the road. The sheer size of Birkenau is daunting. Its proximity to nothing is also scary. The atrocities that took place are unspeakable. And anything else I say will just sound even more cliche.
train tracks leading into nowhere. nothingness.

What else can I say?
We went to Auschwitz to remember.
And hopefully I can pass that remembrance on in one way or another.

Krakow (the good stuff)

MINOR DIGRESSION
So it's the eve of the eve of the 2011 Virgin London Marathon and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I am home. Doing nothing. Listening to music that will go on my 'pump you up' playlist. So it's time to blog the rest of my October half term travels as well as update my ventures through Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Tuscany.

Though it doesn't seem it, I do indeed work. Students go to school the same number of days as those in the USA, just on a different timetable. It's more like a year round schedule--for me this means I get a week break every six/seven weeks and a much shortened summer holiday. I guess I mention my school schedule because I've been feeling increasingly guilty for the amount of travelling i've been doing in the last year. I could be saving for: retirement, a flat, adulthood. I should be sitting in my london flat during term breaks pondering the deeper meanings in my life. But I find that when I spend vast quantities of alone time in London, I think. And thinking leads to melancholy. Melancholy leads to sadness. Sadness leads to crying and crying is just no good.

So instead I travel and travel and travel. I love it. It gets me.
And until I find another hobby that makes me feel the same way, then it's onwards and upwards with my suitcase, passport and ticket!

BACK TO POLAND
Here's the rest of a few places in Krakow's old town. From what I can remember, the weather was pretty brilliant, for the most part. We had one afternoon of rain and chose to spend it sitting under an umbrella or in the basement of one of Krakow's many beer caves/cafes. Seeing as I'm lacking inspiration, i will leave it at that and let the pictures speak for themselves.

in the old market square
Cafe Camelot, with its amazing oldy worldy atmosphere, beautiful chocolate concoctions and perky waitstaff



insanely huge and beautiful restaurant in a cave




random side of the road effigies to religion
winding road leading up to Wawel Castle
something out of a picture postcard

in the Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz, where the city's Jewish population numbers around 500, a staggeringly smaller number than pre-WWII



good free jazz in a cave!

in total, we spent six days in Krakow, which was definitely enough time to see what we wanted. We only had a chance to scratch the surface of cafe and bar life and didn't even venture into the realm of techno music and nightclubbing. But Krakow really was something. Cheap and beautiful. Friendly and tasty. two enthusiastic thumbs up.