“Czech Republic? No, Poland.  Damn I knew we made a wrong turn in Germany”

​

Krakow-Auschwitz-Vranov

​

​We decided to take another shot at being tourists again today, and I must note that the reason the blog hasn’t been updated for a few days is because I’ve been putting off writing this day’s entry.  It’s not easy to write a humorous blog on such a… serious subject, but here we go.

We went back into Krakow in the morning because we had enjoyed it last night, and we were sure there was more to see.  I really liked the city, we’ve been seeing loads of old towns that just seem fake, they’re done up for tourists and not really lived in, very Xintiandi like (ye olde Chinese place in Shanghai, built 2 years ago). Krakow felt lived in, locals were about doing their shopping, having coffees and going about their lives right in the middle of it.  It was gorgeous and vibrant and will definitely be on my list when I look for places to start working again if I have to leave Italy.

Poland also continued to be the poorest signed country we’ve encountered so far, seriously give me a sign to your most famous tourists sites, any sign any sign.  But after a lot of turning and taking secondary roads we finally managed to find what we were looking for, Auschwitz.  Surely Auschwitz needs no introduction, site of one of the most horrendous acts of genocide in the last century. We got our inappropriate jokes and awkward laughter out of the way before arriving. 

Unfortunately, we pulled up to Auschwitz-Birkenau first and it looked exactly as we anticipated, barbwire fence as far as the eye could see, long huts/shanties, and chimneys left standing where others had been burned down quickly in the Nazis’ abrupt departure.  They also had train tracks that pulled into the camp itself - they really had thought this camp through.  But we had come to see Auschwitz so we pulled out and went to the other camp.  We learned later that Auschwitz was merely a testing ground for what was to come, it was old Polish army barracks that had been grossly misused, Birkenau was Hitler’s… main stage, if you will. 

Our tour guide was fantastic, and clearly very passionate about everything she was telling us, and the site itself was interesting and painful at the same time.  You read the books and hear the stories but there’s no way to really comprehend it without seeing it yourself. The idea that something so inhumane could have happened so recently is mind boggling.  After touring Auschwitz our guide told us we could continue our tour at Birkenau if we wanted, so we drove over there and she passionately delivered more information that I really wanted to hear.  You don’t want to say anything positive about the Nazis, and there’s no good way to say this but they had it down.  Everything was so meticulously planned and done in a way that made every aspect of life literally tortuous, that the suffering that took place within those barb wired fences was still visible.

And that’s all I’ll say about it, it’s worth the visit and make sure you do both camps.
On a less serious note it should be mentioned that people’s houses were in view of these camps, surely during it occupation they housed German soldiers and such, but who’s living in these houses now?  How could you, and if they are new houses who in the world builds a house within sight of one of the worst acts of human destruction in their backyard?  How could you look at that every day?!

Moving on, we got on the road, Poland got us lost again and Jonathan booked us a hotel in the middle of nowhere. And that was our day.