Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz

Day 1: Travel and Polish Food!

We landed in Poland around 5:30PM! The city we visited is Krakow (Cracov, in the local language) it's the second largest city in Poland which was once the capital of Poland, and is still known as the "cultural and historic capital." When we first stepped off the plane we were pleasantly surprised to see, although we were not so happy with the 20 degree weather that greeted us! We got a little lost as first, but luckily, (Thanks Dad!) I was able to read a map and lead us to the correct hostel. The hostel was our best one so far, it was small and cozy with extremely comfortable beds and the other people staying with us were awesome - a bunch of traveling students from Spain, two traveling 24 year olds from France, a couple of 22 year olds from China and then us. The two girls that were at reception were in their twenty's and spoke very good English and told us all the best restaurants and bars to go to.
Once we settled in at the hostel we were all very excited to get going to our first big Polish meal. The first night we got Pierogi's, Gwumpkies (I don't know how to spell that!), and Cabbage with Kielbasa.

It was soo delicious. After that we went back to our hostel and hung out for the night, eager to get to bed early since our tour at Auschwitz began around 9.


Day 2: Auschwitz, More Polish Food, and a taste of Polish Vodka

Our day began early with the tour of Auschwitz. Auschwitz was intense to say the least. I don't really know how to write about it, or even to explain how it made me feel. It's something so unfathomable that it's nearly impossible for your brain to process it, even when it is right there in front of you. I guess what I did not expect was how much still remained there. They still had the piles of suitcases, childrens toys, clothing, hair, shoes, etc that the Nazi's took from the prisoners when they first came to camp. They were all there to see, in piles towering over my head, with just a thin piece of glass between me and all the belongings of the people killed there.

The thing I was most shocked by was the size of Auschwitz-Birkenau... when standing on top of the small hill that the monument for all the victims was on I looked across the concentration camp grounds, the "Blocks" which housed all the prisoners spread in each direction as far as my eyes could see. The enormity of the camp I could never sum up in words, or even show you in pictures.

I would say the hardest part for me was going into the gas chambers, which still exist un-touched from when they were last used, and then going on into the crematorium where the bodies were burnt.

We toured both camps, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau). We were shown the separation point, where with the flick of a thumb a doctor decided of the people just brought into camp who was fit to work and who would immediately be sent to the gas chambers (70-75% of each train load of people would immediately be killed). Our tour guide said, two years ago, the "Doctor's" son was visiting the camp and was in her group. Upon coming to the picture of the "separation process" he fell to his knees and began balling his eyes out. His mother had moved him away and changed his last name after "The Great Patriotic War" (what they call World War II) and he never had known his fathers war crimes but had immediately recognized his picture. She also had a women just a few months ago, a Jew who survived Auschwitz who was in a picture hanging on the wall from when she was 10 years old. She pointed out each other person in the picture and told their story, only 3 of the 10 kids in the picture made it out of Auschwitz.

All that is left is ruins from the huge crematoriums because they were destroyed by the Nazi's because they wanted to try to hide what had occured here. However, you can still see the remains of the rooms, the stairs leading down to them and the chimney... also, floor plans were recovered to show exactly how these death machines worked.

At the end of a very intense tour, there was a glimpse of a strong world and some hope. We ended at the monument for all the victims..

Obviously as you can tell, Auschwitz was quite a different type of tour/trip than we are used to. It was extremely hard, and at times I can honestly say I just wanted to walk out. At times I couldn't even believe what I was seeing -- It was as if my mind wanted to let myself believe it really was all a lie. It was shocking, disturbing, and left me feeling overly emotional yet void of emotion at the same time (very hard to explain) but I will say I am glad I went.


After Auschwitz we got another amazing traditional Polish dinner (complete with Pierogis, polish bread basket filled with potato and kielbasa soup) then went out for the night with our new hostel friends!

Day 3: Walking tour of Krakow

On the third day we went on a walking tour of Krakow. We first saw the oldest Medieval Market (which is really just sort of an open ended mall of souvenir shops)

We also saw the Krakow Castle, and there I am standing in the courtyard and posing with the statue of the dragon, a part of an old polish myth about a dragon that once destroyed the city. An old shoemaker mixed together a paste and smeared it on all the livestock so when the dragon returned hungry he ate them first and became so thirsty he drank the entire river and was killed. This man, Cracov, became the first King and made his castle above the dragon's cave. That is why all around the city you can see small symbols of dragons.

Also, we got to see the church (me and the roomies posed in front of it) and the place where Pope John Paul II (who was born and studied in Krakow) stepped out onto the balcony and greeted the people. The city is very proud of him because, when the Nazis invaded Poland they sent most Poles to concentration camps and would not allow any of the remaining Poles to get an education. However, Pope John Paul secretly studied and remained practicing religion and went on to the Vatican and to become one of Krakows most famous citizens.

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Finally, we ended the trip as delicious and full as we began it.. with yet another traditional Polish meal!

All in all it was a great weekend, I learned a lot, saw a lot of new things, got to play in the snow, see an amazing country, and obviously eat a lot of great food! However, one of my favorite parts of the weekend was coming home to Brussels and getting to Skype Grampy for his birthday! :) Seeing everyone was amazing and I hope I can skype with you all more often. Love and miss everyone!

Day 1: Travel and a Night Club
Barcelona was a trip to remember! First of all, it was our first time flying with the dreaded RyanAir! Luckily for us everything went smoothly.. the captain was great, the flights were AHEAD of schedule for once (we got there almost a half our early both ways!) and the airports were easy to maneuver. As far as traveling went everything on this trip went great! We arrived in Barcelona on Thursday at around 9:30PM, we were greeted by our friends from Clemson (Heather and Megan) who are studying there for this semester. Our group total staying at the hostel was 13 kids from the CUBC (Clemson University Brussels Center) program! The hostel was called Kabul, and it was really great! They offered free breakfast and had a really cool location in a small square off the main street of Barcelona (Las Ramblas):

However, it was obviously hard to all stick together throughout the weekend. The first night we went to see Heather's apartment and then went out to a fancy-shmantzy night club which turned into an issue because none of our guy friends were allowed in because they were wearing sneakers! We found out pretty quick that Barcelona is very fashionable and the bouncers are not so friendly.

Day 2:
Walking Tour, the Beach, Gelato, Fresh Market
The tour started off at the Barcelona Cathedral (Catedral de Barcelona). This Cathedral is dedicated to the 13-year-old Patron Saint of Barcelona. It was absolutely beautiful and I got a chance to sit and pray for a little while – so far I’ve been privileged enough to pray in the Prague Castle Cathedral, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Barcelona Cathedral, the Brussels Cathedral (Basilica de Kokelburg) and the Old Church in Amsterdam (kind of a cool thing to be able to say!).

At the beginning of the tour we learned more about the 13-year-old Saint of Barcelona, Saint Eulàlia. During the time when Barcelona was under Roman rule in 300AD the citizens were forced to denounce their catholic faith. This thirteen year old girl Eulàlia refused and was tortured for it. Where our tour guide took us was the hill where some of the torture occurred.. it was a huge hill where she was placed in a barrel with broken glass and nails in it and rolled down thirteen times. She was finally crucified in the middle of summer, and as the story goes when they placed her naked body on the cross a huge snowstorm blew through and covered her in a snow dress. After explaining this story to us and showing us the hill and where she was crucified we were taken into her church where there is an exhibit of 13 white geese in honor of each year of her life.
Here are some pictures of the Cathedral and the Geese exhibit and a pic of me and the roommates!

As the tour went on we got to see a lot more artwork of Gaudi (famous artist associated with Barcelona) and Picasso.

Barcelona used to be a walled in city to protect them from invasions and we got to walk around and see the original entrance. Of course it’s a little worn in time but it was still amazing to see…

Also, the tour took us through the parts of the city where you can still see the influence from when the city was under Roman rule. We got to go see a museum where they still had the Roman columns!

After the three hour tour we grabbed a bite to eat (baguette pizza..yummm the bread is europe is SO much better) and then started to walk to the beach. Let me point out that Brussels is about twenty degrees colder than Barcelona so we were overjoyed at the sixty degree weather! On the way we found a small marina with a beautiful view, and we sat on a bench for about an hour listening to some man (seen in the picture) playing every American song for us that he could think of. He didn’t speak English at all but we could communicate (thanks north reading high school for the little Spanish I actually know!) and he played songs such as: Paint it Black, Message in a Bottle, Sweet Home Alabama, some Led Zeppelin and many others! It’s funny how much American culture can be found throughout Europe…especially in the music. These are pictures of the marina with the guitar man and the beach and obviously Danielle and I wanted to take pictures with the Palm Trees!

After the beach we wandered back to our hostel for dinner and then went out for Gelato (not just an Italian thing!) As you can see, we were a little excited for the ice cream as we had been walking by all the places to get it all day and developed a craving. It was delicious, although hard to decipher all the flavors in Spanish. After that we went out for the night again with all of our Clemson friends!

Day 3:
The next morning half of our friends decided they wanted to be lazy and sleep all day (cough, the boys) the other half wanted to be artsy and go see all the Gaudi museums (not exactly up my alley) so me and James decided we were going to take a half a day trip to Mount Montserrat. This is a mountain that a group of monks built a beautiful monastery on just outside of Barcelona. We had to take a train there and then a cable car to get to the top! It was beautiful and slightly eerie because of all the morning fog on the mountain. We explored the Monastery (another place I was able to pray at!) and then hiked around a bit on all these beautiful paths built into the mountain. It was amazing.

When we got back around three we met Tricia and Danielle at the Beach (with a quick stop at the open market!) and then headed up to the Prague Castle. You’re supposed to take either a cable car gondola thing or a bus to the top, however, since we are cheap college students we decided it’d be more cost efficient to just climb the HUGE hill that it sits atop. This was a hilarious hike with all of us complaining a lot but it was totally worth it once we got to the top. The castle itself was really cool with all canons and a view of all of Barcelona and the ocean.

Finally we were tuckered out of exploring and went to get dinner on Las Ramblas. Typically Spanish cuisine is “Tapas” or just assorted appetizers and you order a couple of those along with your main course. We decided we need to try all ethnic food of each place we visit so we ordered tapas along with Paella (a mixture of rice, veggies, and whatever meat you want). It was soo delicious and filling.

Then we got all dolled up and went out for the night!

Day 4: Travel
The last day was almost six hours of travel, not so fun but we made it home safe! Hope everybody had an amazing weekend and enjoyed this blog.. miss and love you all!