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Krakow was absolutely beautiful! It was very different from Warsaw and it will definitely be one of the funnest parts of our exchange. We left super early on Friday and headed by bus. The first drama we encountered was that we were a little late so just jumped on the second bus despite all of our friends being on the first. We soon received frantic phone calls informing us that being on the bus means being in the second hostel D: so we literally got up and ran away in to the other bus, leaving our bags behind! It was worth it - the bus was super fun being with our crazy friends!
Our first interesting stop was at Auschwitz. It was so weird visiting this place because I've always heard so much about it, seen so many movies, read so many books and so on. Everyone knows what Auschwitz is and what happened there, but actually standing on the ground in a place where over a million people were killed is something totally different. I heard a really interesting saying - one man's death is a tragedy, one million men's deaths is a figure. And it's true - with a number that high our minds just cannot comprehend the true tragedy of it all. Even walking through the exhibition where there were huge piles of children's shoes, locks of hair and so on can't make you understand. I don't really know how to explain but I'm sure others who have been there would understand... Maybe. For those who haven't - It is really something I would highly recommend. The whole tour took us about three hours so you learn and see A LOT. Something that really affected me was when we went in to one of the gas chambers and you can see scratches all over the wall - one of which said "never again". Do you know why this is really crap? Because it DID happen again. Over and over - even at this very second. The holocaust was not the first or last genocide. It was one of the many - and it's absolutely disgusting.
After our trip to auschwitz we headed to krakow. This was pretty stressful since the bus couldn't park anywhere near our hostel so we had to walk for ages and then no one was really sure where the hostel was! But it wasn't too bad since the city was absolutely beautiful - even at night. One of my friends told us that krakow was just a "small town" but actually it's a proper city with a population of over one million (that's like a super city in NZ terms!!). Once we arrived at our hostel we quickly dumped our stuff, ran outside and grabbed a kebab and bottle of vodka! Next was the tram party. This was an insane experience! At first I was nervous because I usually think there is nothing worse than getting in a moving thing when you are drunk - it usually makes me feel so sick! But this didn't turn out to be an issue at all. It was very packed full and there wasn't much room to move - after all we were squeezing 60 people on to one tram and sharing it with a Dj. But the set up was really cool - disco lights, loud music and so on. It must have looked hilarious to the outside world, especially as we stopped at each tram stop hahaha. The only issue was that there was only one toilet break throughout the whole event and even that was just in the middle of a woods somewhere!? Once this was over we headed to the clubs. It was crazy because our friend ended up buying 1000zl worth of shots D: so there was a lot of alcohol consumption, dancing on tables, searching for lost and drunk friends and so on. Eventually Matt and I left to find a drunk Peruvian and a gourmet kebab and head home. However once I got in to bed I could hear my crazy polish friend laughing on the stairs. I got up, left the room and noooommm she had McDonald's fries and a bottle of water for me! I ended up staying awake for the next five hours after this as there was drama after drama after drama. One guy fell asleep on a couch and another few guys decided to take photos with their bums by his face and so on. I thought that was absolutely hilarious - but he did not. And so for the next hour they were trying to fight. There were other funny dramas but I don't remember them fully enough to tell the story well On Saturday we did a big walking tour of krakow!
It is such a beautiful city in comparison to Warsaw. Warsaw was destroyed during WWII and then quickly rebuilt by the Soviet Union so it is full of ugly and dirty looking concrete buildings. Krakow on the other hand mostly remained after the nazi occupation and therefore has heaps of beautiful buildings including castles and palaces. There will be photos on Facebook shortly so you can check it out. We also had lunch included in our tour which included tomato soup and pierogi. Very traditional polish and very tasty.
In the evening a group of us headed out for dinner and then back to the hostel for drinking games. The organisers had set aside 700zl out of their budget to buy us all alcohol and play a bunch of different drinking games! The whole top floor of the hostel consisted of people playing games such as beer pong, flip cup, some strange kissing game, truth games and so on. It was crazy opening the fridge and seeing it full of beer, and then the freezer full of like 20 or so bottles of vodka of every flavour!!!
On Sunday we left the hostel pretty early and headed to a beautiful beautiful salt mine about thirty minutes drive away. This was again totally different from anything I've done before and it was hard to comprehend how much these guys could achieve hundreds of years ago. The salt mine is absolutely HUGE and so much work has gone in to it. It is more than just a mine - it's also got chapels and shops and event rooms etc inside it. It's absolutely crazy and very beautiful! This tour also lasted for a few hours but was worth every cent. The bus ride home was 100 x crazier. We had obviously all bonded more and were very happy after an awesome trip! We played loud music, played immature games, drank vodka, ate lots of food and continued laughing over jokes that had arisen throughout the weekend. We didn't end up making it back home until like 11pm in the end.
So all in all, krakow was an awesome trip and I would highly recommend checking it out if you're ever heading to that part of Europe. It is a very different kind of Poland than what you see in Warsaw. It's a lot prettier and far more tourist friendly! Right now I am on the bus heading to the airport for trips to Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna! So keep a close eye on this blog for more interesting entries
- comments
Rob Warsaw offers different history than Cracow and if someone knows the history they will know how to appreciate Warsaw :-) Warsaw is much bigger (not everything is in one spot) and it's much more beautiful - you probably haven't seen it all yet, but do let us know if You ever want to get to know Warsaw :-)
Steph Noooo I don't want it to seem like I'm putting Warsaw down so much! I absolutely love it. If you had read my other blogs you would see that I find it's differences to other European to be part of its charm because its solid proof of its insane history! Also interested to learn more so I would like to take you up on your offer!