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Much more of a tourist destination, Krakow is the cultural capital of eastern Europe with the largest market square in Europe. Many people we spoke to said we should have gone to Krakow early as opposed to going to Berlin, however as nice as it was I found the four nights we were there plenty.Krakow is about 1h15 from Oscwecim, better known by the German name of Auschwitz. A tour of the camp is a must-do while in the vicinity. Many believe that Auschwitz was the death camp but it was actually Birkenau, a much larger camp built 3km away in 1942 where the mass extermination now synonymous with Auschwitz took place, with over 1,5million people being killed there. As opposed to grief, it was a sense of disbelief that I walked away with. The sheer size of the place is incomprehensible. 1000 people were crammed into tiny barracks, with up to 8 people sharing a 'bed' - a woodern plank about 1,5m in length. The gas chambers were even more disturbing; a similar size area held upto 2500 people during a gassing.Suprisingly, barely any of Krakow was destroyed during or after the war, with the exception of the Wawel castle, in the south of the city. Now fully restored it is a stunning area with some fantastic art collections as well as various exposed archeological digs charting the restoration process and the various unknown areas of the castle discovered during it.
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