Poland.

Ok, so it's been awhile and I have a bunch to blog about!  Two weeks ago I went to Poland with the rest of the class.  We spent a lot of time in Krakow and also a day in Auschwitz.  Krackow is a really beautiful city.  It hardly got any damage from WWII so it still has a lot of old architecture.  We spent most of our time in the Old Town (down town) and the Jewish District.  We ate some Polish food, mainly pirogis, which were really good.  One thing that was kind of a bummer was that it was way colder than any of us expected! And our hostel didn't have heat in our rooms so we got to pile up the blankest and wear all our socks to bed.

I probably should say something about Auschwitz, but I'm not really sure what.  I guess I'll just talk about a few moments that stand out in my mind.  The first thing that really hit me was the shooting wall.  There are flowers and candles placed all around it and we spent a minute there in silence.  I don't know what it was about that place, but it was there that I started to realize the tragedy. 

The second time I was walking to the next point in the tour and I started to think about how cold my feet were and how uncomfortable that made me.  Then I tried to imagine how cold the prisoners must have been. They had way worse shoes, way worse clothing, and more extreme temperature for longer periods of time. I can't even imagine being that cold. And that was only one aspect of what they had to endure.  There's also the hunger, the strenuous labour, being tired all the time, and the fear and terror that surrounded them daily.  I can't imagine experiencing one aspect of their lives and they had to live through so much more.  I feel like I would be very temped to run that the electric fence and end the suffering but surprisingly, very few people did that. 

The third moment that hit me was walking around the ruins of one of the crematoriums.  It was the first time I was really alone that day and could try to take it in.  What amazed me was that such a small building could kill so many people so quickly. 

The night after being at Auschwitz we spent hanging around Old Town in Krakow.  We ate dinner and found a cafe and played some games with a small group of us.  The next night there was a concert happening in the square and they were practicing some of the songs.  We all ended up listening for awhile and then did the electric slide to one of the songs! It looked so sweet and everyone around us was watching us. 

On the way back home on Sunday was stopped at the salt mines for a tour.  It is so amazing there!!  I think the best part was the chapel three men built down there, it's very elaborate!  Unfortunately you had to pay to be allowed to take pictures so I don't have any, but Leighanne did so I'll try to get some of her's on my computer.

We also stopped to look at this castle on a hill which was pretty sweet.  The best part though was that it was really warm fall weather and there was a stream and forest there.  It made me think of Canadian Thanksgiving, which is today.  I tried to find a pie today at the grocery store but I think it's a very North American thing that they don't have here.  I was pretty bummed but oh well, what can you do?