The train ride was long and full of little sleep, yet our company on the the train was incredible. We met a lovely British couple (jenny and Chris) and someone who was staying in our hostel named Patrick. We ended up spending time later on with the British couple and Patrick.

Walking through the city of Krakow felt like I was travelling through time to the past. The cities architecture and design gives Krakow an old feeling. There were only a few new buildings. Then there were many horses and carriages for people to ride around town in plus trains and cars. In the centre of Krakow, there is a large square full of shopping, artist, and cafes. We arrived in Krakow at the best time because it was the festival parade day, so many Polish people came into see the parade and join in the festivities. I got a chance to see the outside of Wawel Castle and the cave at the bottom of the castle. I was told to go to this spot outside the castle which at the bottom had this really exciting thing at the end, so I go down the spiral staircase and at the bottom I am in a cave. There is nothing on the walls, nothing on the ground, nothing exciting. I was very confused about this cave and its significance for all these Polish people to be smiling and happy in it. Unfortunately, I still do not understand it but supposedly the city was founded based on dragons or something.

Afterwards, I walked around with Patrick and got some polish food from a vender. I was not sure what some of the ingredients were but it tasted amazing. I believe it was potatoes with cream sauce, meat of some form, sauerkraut with sausage, and mushrooms. I was pleasantly surprised. Later on I took a walk around Krakow to find Schindler's factory which I could not find.

I participated in a wine tasting festival. In this festival, they had polish dancing and music. I really enjoyed sitting outside drinking wine and watching people dance to polish music.

Then I did a little shopping in the Cloth Hall which is very similar, in my opinion, to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It would be a miniature version, but none the less still really cool and fun to shop at. In cloth hall, it had souvenirs and polish goods.

Later on at the Hostel, we met more people and added Tim to join us for the festivities of the day. Tim, Jenny, Chris, Patrick, and Sick Nick (my brother has not been feeling too good) went down to the Wawel Castle to watch the fireworks. It was the most amazing fireworks display I have seen. It had a light show, water shooting out of one of the boats, it was on the river, it had famous theme songs from star wars, big blow up animals, and a smoke machine. The entire show was amazing, yet we were stuck getting rained on for a good portion of the show. Then we went to a pub for a drink. We were supposed to see if the Brits could out drink the Americans, but unfortunately no one was keeping track so the question has not been answered.

Auschwitz ........I cannot believe I stood at the place where between 1 million to 1.5 million people lost their life. To be at the spot where so much hatred and destruction of human life.....it was very sad. There were certain parts of that tour that I could not stand to look at. One part was a section that had a couple tons of human hair. I was very grossed out and shocked by the sight. The next portion that really upset me was when they showed bags of the people who were coming in on the trains. I saw one bag for someone who was born in 1941 which means they were automatically sent to die. The part that left my mind in sadness was the toilets in Birkenau (portion of Auschwitz). The prisoners had to choose between going to the bathroom or food because you only had 30 minutes to get food and go to the bathroom. The bathroom was for nearly 2000 people yet there were not nearly enough toilets so sometimes people would fight with one another to use the toilet. The rations of food the prisoners were given were coffee (black like substance) for breakfast, water with some vegetables for lunch, and bread for dinner. This was all the food these prisoners were given for working a 12 hour day and after a minimum roll call of an hour. This place was so sad. I got to see where the SS would make prisoners pay for bad behaviour by making them stand for 4 or 5 days to starving them to death. This was one sight that makes me so sad that at certain times I wanted to cry for those hurt/died.

On a side note Auschwitz took 1.5 hours there and back....and I am really luck Patrick did not have a marker....he told me that he would jokingly put a hitler mustache on me because I slept the entire train ride to Auschwitz (that would have been horrible to show up with a Hitler Mustache to Auschwitz).

When we got back to the Hostel, we participated in a Polish Vodka tasting event. There were four different types of vodka that you can try. My favourite was Krupuik which was honey vodka. The other three consisted of cherry vodka, upset stomach vodka, and one clear vodka that goes with apple juice. One of the guys said that his chaser was subway....take the shot then eat the sandwhich.

We tried to take the 304 bus to the salt mines but ended up getting lost for 2 hours. The area we were at was really small but people kept giving us contradicting directions. It wasn't until I held up a sign that said, "Mini bus to Salt mines?" were we able to be put in the right direction but a young polish woman. Our journey to the salt mines was only 30 minutes and it consisted of Nora(Ba-Nora), Nick, Emily, and Ana(Ba-ana). The salt mines were so cool. It was not just a mine but a church for people. The salt mines had incredible sculptures made of different kinds of salt blocks. The other cool part was that anywhere in the mine you could lick the walls, so of course we have pictures of us licking the walls which tasted horribly salty. I think I got all of my salt intake in one lick. We joked around saying that if we had tequilla this would be perfect, so we could lick the wall, take the shot, and eat the lime. When we got back to the hostel, Ba-Jess wanted to go drinking at Aloha in the jewish sector. If your wondering why I have been putting Ba's infront of people's names it is because Jess was trying to figure out a way to remember Nora so she used a place back home that was Banora. Then Nick told Ba-jess to call me boo.....so there were B's being thrown into everyones names....like Ba-hanana, Ba- Nick, Ba-tak (which sounded like buttocks).

Krakow was really cheap for food (compared to the prices we had been paying for). It is a small city which we spent four nights in. I think we could have done three nights and really got an understanding of the city. It is cool in the sense that you can walk to almost anywhere you need to go, yet it is still a major city.

As for the hostel, it was very close to the station. The people in the hostel were friendly, yet two people were very inconsiderate of the rest of the hostel by having loud noises and causing distrubances. Plus, this time I got to hang out with guys and girls. It was a good time and I am happy we got a chance to see the festivals. My favorite part of this trip was the festival/fireworks......still SO COOL!

The last morning we were in Krakow, the lakers game was on. Well, this one American guy loved the lakers and this group of Irish men did not like the guy. The Irish men kept taunting the guy. At first, they were like who is playing. SO they said something like Orlando Bloom vs Jonny Depp. Then they found out the actually teams, so they kept screaming Orlando, Orlando, Orlando. One said, the Lakers are the best team in the NBA. The other said obviously not they are losing. As theywere taunting the American, they would saying...f***ing irish. Then the American got so upset about the game that he kicked and broke a locker. Then he sat down and sulked. He told the British girl who made him food that he was not hungry anymore. Then the Irish guys were like oh then can we eat your food.......basically they were following him around taunting him. I thought it was HILARIOUS, especially because everyone in this Hostile did not like the guy including myself. He said he wanted to start fighting with them but there were 6 guys that were taunting him and 14 irish men sleeping...his odds were very bad.

next stop is Prague. I am hoping to go to the opera because in a previous hostel I was told you can get standing room for $3 euro. I hope it is not a lie