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Hello from a very wet and cold Poland! You'd never guess that it was June!
We got yet another train to Cracow, but this one was a little different. We had a whole room to ourselves, having scared off the older lady who was meant to be sharing with us! We also got a FREE bottle of water, chocolate croissant and cup of tea, oh and soap and flannel!! The conducter was nice, although he spoke no English, and had it not been for the fact that we were travelling on the noisiest (sp) train in the whole of Europe we would have got a great nights sleep. That, and the fact that 5 very large, armed passport control men burst into our cabin without asking to demand to see our passports. It was quite lucky that we had both changed minutes before, otherwise it would have been a very embarrassing situation for all concerned!!!!!!!!
We arrived in Cracow at 9am, and we eventually arrived at our hostel at 12.00pm!! We may have got lost! This wasn't helped by the fact that our hostel was on the outskirts of town in an industrial estate...lovely! After atleast 3km of walking with our rucksacks on our back, we collapsed in the hostel for an hour, before making our way back into town. We found the main square, which is really pretty, and cheers us up...this was also helped by the large portion of chocolate brownie and hot chocolate!!! Oh, and the discovery of an indoor market!!! We browsed for a while, and then got distracted by the pretty horse and carriages (Cinderella stylee)! We jumped on board, and were taken around the city (some of the main sites) in style. When we got back, a concert in the main square had begun. We seem to have a habit of arriving in cities in the middle of music festivals! This one was quite classical, and they were all sung in Polish, but had a definite Disney air about the songs!! We found a table where we could listen to the music and had dinner (pasta!!!) Due to extreme exhaustion and my (Becca) VERY swollen feet, we headed back to our hostel 100 miles away, to get a good nights sleep, before our tour of Auschwitz the next day.
The alarm went off at 7.00am, and we were at the busstop by 7.40....pretty good! However, we did almost miss the tour, had our guide not found us looking pretty lost outside the meeting point 5 minutes late!! We jumped on board the minibus, with our very upbeat/camp guide, and an hour and a depressing video later, we arrived at the Auschwitz camp. We didn't stay as long here as we may have liked, but we did get a strong sense of the evil that mankind is capable of. We can only recommend that you visit yourselves, as we can not explain the atmosphere or the emotions that visiting evokes.
We spent a couple of hours in Auschwitz and then a short time in the larger Birkenhau camp, which was a lot less crowded. You weren't allowed to take pictures in the camps, and you were asked to remain silent the whole time...something some American tourists obviously don't understand or think applies to them!!!!!
We were then taken back to Cracow where we perused the markets and enjoyed some more hot chocolate and Polish cheese dumplings, actually quite yummy!! (Thanks for making me try them Daddy!)
The concert was obviously far more popular on a Friday as the square got much busier a lot earlier. We had luckily established good seats early on, and 2 Australian tourists came and joined us at our table. We enjoyed cold beer anmd cultural music throughout the evening (we actually think it may have been based on Mozart according to a leaflet Zoe found!!!) However, due to our hostel being loacted on the other side of Poland we had to leave the festivities early in order to get back that night!!!!!
Today has been WET!! Zoe looked like she had jumped in a swimming pool with all her clothes on. Hehe!!! We visaited Wawel Hill with the royal castle, but they only allow a limited number of people in a day, so we could only wander around the ground...not that much fun in a thunder storm!! We did however, see a fire breathing dragon (not a real one!!), and a large parade in the square, with lots of little children dressed as dragons. Some of the costumes were actually quite impressive. The legend is that there was a dragon living below the castle, and we think this has something to do with the large number of dragon souvenirs located in Cracow!
The rest of the day has been spent drying off in cafes and internet cafes, before boarding our train to Prague at 10.30 this evening.
We have enjoyed Poland, although won't be sad to leave the miserable weather behind, especially when we know that England is sunny!
Lots of love,
Rebecca and Zoe
xxxxx
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