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First Day in Poland
Krakow, Poland
My first day in Poland.
The flight went well - although all attemps to upgrade to business class were unsuccssful.
In Krakow, my first full sentence of Polish was well-received. I walked up to a group of baggage handlers and said, "Excuse me, Do you speak English?" to which they responded, "Yes, and we also speak Polish"...in Polish.
I arrived in the International Terminal with every intention of meeting Saba, Gila, Ariku, and Tal. After a 30-min wait, I realized they were arriving in the Domestic Terminal. The good news is - I successfully used my Polish to buy a phone card, call Yoav in Boston, and figure this out.
As I was walking along the quiet airport access road towards the other Terminal, I spotted a van coming towards me and someone with Saba's signature bushy moustache in the passenger's seat. I jumped up and down, the van skidded to a stop, and like a clown car everyone jumped out to hug me. Then we all jumped back into the car and we were off.
Our first stop was Książenice, a small town 100 km outside Krakow with a small cemetery. In January 1945, as the Nazis were liquidating Auschwitz, they took about 2,500 Jewish prisoners, put them on trains, and then marched them in the dead of winter towards the West. For some reason, when they reached the forest near Książenice, the Nazis simply opened fire on the Jews, killing them and leaving them in an open field.
A group of local villagers found the bodies the next day, documented them by writing down the numbers that were tattooed onto their arms, and buried them in a mass grave.
It was this mass grave that we went to visit, where we saw a single headstone containing not names but rather the numbers that were tattooed on the prisoners' arms, all that was left of these human beings.
After Książenice, we drove into Krakow to check into our hotel. After a short argument with the front staff, we got our rooms, freshened up and went out into town. Life continues.
The Old City of Krakow is gorgeous and we spent a few hours wandering around in the setting sun, taking pictures, eating toasted bread with mushrooms and some kind of sauce, and doing a little shopping. Krakow is a beautiful European city, and both tourists and locals were out enjoying a late afternoon stroll. It took less than 30 minutes for me to find a pair of shoes to buy in one of the stores.
And now, time to get some rest. Tomorrow will be a big day.
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