City Hopping: Krakow

11th-12th July 2017

The Monday was another day of travelling as we headed east from Prague to Krakow. This was the most easterly we went on our Europe trip.

We had a bit of trouble finding the hostel as it had absolutely no signage. If it wasn't for Google Maps telling me I was stood outside the building I would have had no idea. We rang the bell and were able to check in but this was one of the occasions where the hostel wasn't quite as nice as we'd hoped. It was quite warm so we had to keep the windows open at night as there was no air con or fan and the street below was very noisy. I managed to sleep with earplugs but Dave struggled a lot.

Royal Castle

The only reason I can see to visit Krakow is for Auschwitz as there didn't seem to be all that much else to see. We went to the Wawel Royal Castle and had a look around.

Model vs real life

Lots of churches in one

Wawel Cathedral seems to be made up of a mishmash of different churches bunched together. It looks very interesting from the outside. It was free to go in so we went for an explore. There's a path which leads you through the cathedral in a one way system type thing. This is probably because it was so busy. After trundling along for a while I lost my patience with the crowd and pushed my way through to the nearest exit so that I could breath again!

The castle

Something out of Cinderella

The Cloth Hall

Crowds inside

The Cloth Hall lies in the middle of a large square which have some interesting looking buildings. We had a bit of wander around. Maybe its because this was the fifth city in 7 days but Dave and I were really quite bored with walking around Krakow. There was the odd thing to see but ultimately we just wanted to get to Auschwitz as that was why we were here.

Another church

We grabbed a couple of sandwiches for lunch a sat listening to some buskers who were playing movie soundtracks like the Pirates of the Caribbean film. When they played Game of Thrones it made my day!

St Florian's Gate

It started raining heavy as we boarded the bus that would take us to the concentration camp but the sun came out again as we arrived. We were sorted into groups and given a headset for our tour.

The gate

We went through the gate and our guide told us that "arbeit macht frei" is German for "work sets you free". To be honest all I could think of at this point was Magneto in X-Men!

Arty photo

The edge of the camp

I was reminded of the S-21 prison in Cambodia and how hard that day was learning about the genocide and torture that had occurred there. It had been emotional and I was expecting this to be just as harrowing. It wasn't.

In Cambodia each person would walk around at their own pace listening to the stories on the headset. There was calm and time for quiet reflection. Here, we were herded around by a tour guide who would quite often be pointing out something that I couldn't even see because I was still in the corridor trying to squeeze past people going the other way. That would be fine if it was some celebrities house but this was Auschwitz, over 1 million people died here. The atmosphere was all wrong and the dead were not being remember in the right way. It really bothered me.

Glasses left behind

Peoples shoes

I tried to make the most of it and learn as much as I could. It was still an interesting place to visit and an important event to remember. There was a quote on the wall that said "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it". A poignant message but somehow Donald Trump still managed to be elected president of the United States!

Tagged

The prison cells

Where prisoners were shot

The gas chamber

Seeing the gas chamber came as a bit of a shock. To be stood in a room where so many people had died and horrendous circumstances was chilling. The crematorium next door didn't make me feel any less uneasy either.

The Crematorium

The train to hell

Nearby was the labour camp where prisoners were forced to work. The crowds were thinner hear so we felt a little less like sheep. It's a sad place and looking at the conditions in the rooms where the prisoners slept was quite shocking.

Electrified gates

The houses

The shelves for sleeping

I'm glad I visited Auschwitz. It's somewhere I've been fascinated by and wanted to visit for a while. It was a little disappointing with it being so crowded which does numb some of what happened here but its still effective. It's the worlds responsibility to make sure that this never happens again. Oh wait, it did, in Cambodia 20 years later an no one did anything about it. And again in Bosnia a further 20 years later. And 20 years after that we have a racist in charge of the most powerful country. Well done America, well done!

Gaming bar

Anyway, rant over. To cheer ourselves up we went to the gaming bar which is an awesome geeks paradise! They have all the consoles ever made which you can play for free as well as a stack of board games. They have Super Mario lampshades for gods sake! I loved this place.

Winning

We grabbed a couple of beers and head for the Guitar Hero room where I kicked Dave's ass! We tried a few other consoles but Dave got tired of me beating him at everything.

Awesome place

A haunting production

As far as buskers go, this guy has it nailed! He set up shop in front of a hauntingly lit church and played some dramatic type music on a chello. It worked really well. He even had the occasional lightning flash go off behind him although I suspect that wasn't his doing.

The castle at night

As the storm got closer we headed back for the hostel. We had to be back before 10pm so we could get in as we didn't have a key. As big drops of rain began to fall from the sky we ran so we didn't get soaked. We made it to the door just as it began to get heavy. No one answered the bell. We were told as long as we were back before 10pm we wouldn't need a key but here we were getting soaked at 9.30pm. We rang all the bells until one of the neighbours let us in and then we had to hammer on the hostel door until another customer opened it for us. I was not happy, that place got a very bad review from me!

Lightning flash

The one good thing about the hostel is that it had a great vantage point from which to watch the storm and it was a cracker!

That last night in Krakow marked a kind of half way point. The first half of our trip had been relentless with a new city every other day. From now on we had 3 nights in each place which meant the pace was a bit slower. I would also be meeting up with several friends I'd met along my travels and I was very excited for all the reunions. After a day learning about the war there was one obvious place to go next, Berlin