Memorial outside the main church for the President
Proof that we were all three there.
Auschuwitz
The Avocado..MMMM
The watchtower at Birkenau
Krackow has the largest square in Europe, here I am in it!
Top of the Birkenau Watchtower, I swear I don't mean to look quite so jolly.
Barbed wire fences at Auschuwitz
Castle casually in the middle of Krackow
I had never even heard of Krackow until one fine Saturday.
In early March, the gals and I were at a cafe on the Cours Mirabeau with some friends from our program, and a mutual friend from another program, Ben.
Ben is from Maine, and has been in our lives since the Fall when he was in Sarah and Nikki's language classes, and he moved to my language class in the Spring. He is a little quiet, but once you get to know him, quite funny and rather charming.
Back to Saturday. We were discussing spring break plans, and Ben casually mentioned he was going to Poland, and embarking on a tour of Auschwitz, like the concentration camp. I happened to turn and look at Sarah as the words left his lips, and all was lost as I saw her eyes light up.
It's really hard to talk Sarah out of anything. She can be talked into almost anything, but try to get her NOT to do something, and you're likely outta luck.
So, she dragged me and Nikki to Poland, which was no small feat, I tell you.
I tried to get out of it...twice. I tried to stay in Vienna by myself (too expensive), then considered dropping spring break altogether to save money (too lame).
The evening we were set to leave for Krackow we arrived at the bus station with plenty of time to spare, and waited for 9:30pm to come to we could board our bus and settle in for a night of peaceful travel slumber.
Like all traveling adventures, this was not what was in store for us. We should have figured out that an overnight coach bus to a fairly obscure central European nation would not be without its...obstacles.
After some confusion about what bus to climb on, we were instructed to take the bus bound for Warsaw, and we would have to change to a different bus around 3 am that would take us to Krackow.
Is that fun?
As we boarded the vehicle, we realized this bus was no German luxury Lufthansa-partnered bus, as was our bus to Vienna a few days prior. It was hot and stuffy, and there were only three seats left together, in a row of 5 in the very back.
We were wedged in between these these two seemingly regular looking guys about our age. I was in the middle, and Nikki and Sarah were on either side of me, with the men on either side of them. It was going to be a long 8 hours.
After a little bit of small talk, we were horrified to learn the two 19 year old men were Polish cage fighters.
That's right, cage fighters.
Nikki discovered this when she began smelling some sort of strange antiseptic-type smell, and being the curious cat she is, she asked the nice cage fighter (though we were un aware of his identity then) next to her what was up.
He proceeded to show her his elbow wound, which was oozing a little and the smell of wound cleaner and skin washed over both of us.
It was straight out of a horror film. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, Mr. Bleeding Wound smiled to reveal the fact that he likely had not seen a dentist in years.
I practically passed out.
I turned to my right, only to discover Sarah leaning as far away as she could from our other friend (as he screamed in Polish to his pal over all three of us) because she claimed his breath smelled like rotting cheese.
The whole time, I kept thinking, this is going to make for great blog material...if I survive.
The night shockingly passed without much incident. We stopped at a small rest stop around 1:30, and the cage fighters picked up some chicken ( complete with bones ) and bread-type materials to munch on and make sure that if we weren't nauseous yet, we were sure to be after that.
We arrived in Krackow around 5am, and trekked to our hostel...to sleep for the 3 hours until our tour of Auschuwitz.
I wouldn't say I was excited to see Auschuwitz, but I was certainly intrigued to see the deserted camp that was now a memorial and museum. I have always been really interested in World War 2, and was eager to see such an important part of human history.
We boarded a small but comfortable bus for the hour ride outside of the city.
Upon our arrival to the camp, our tour guide ( a lovely Polish girl, about my age), announced to our group that there had been a plane crash, and the Polish President, his wife, and about 100 members of the Polish government were dead.
The three of us looked at each other and all had the same thought.
If Barack Obama was dead (heaven forbid), we would be totally beside ourselves. We could not keep it together, much less continue a tour to a bunch of foreigners. To be fair, we LOVE Barack Obama maybe more than some, but STILL. What a huge tragedy.
Our tour of both Auschuwitz 1 and Birkenau passed without further event, but as we drove back into Krackow, it was evident that news had spread to the greater population of Poland.
There were parades through the streets and the stores were closing left and right. Candles were being lit all over the city (fire hazard?), and things were not looking good.
The best part of the Krakow trip was the night we went out to dinner. I had researched restaurants, and found one called The Avocado. The gals and I dressed up, headed to the Jewish quarter (always) and stumbled upon our darling bistrot that served wonderful soups and salads, and was so cheap we got three courses and it was like 8 euro. It was candlelit, and the perfect end to a totally nutty day.
We had to stay an extra day in Krackow because of a poorly planned train situation, so we booked our 3rd night a new hostel (The Dizzy Daisy Downtown was so unreal it could be a blog in and of itself)...so we moved to the Deco Hostel.
BEST HOSTEL EVER.
I had the best nap of my life, and since it was Sunday and the day after the President DIED everything was closed. We spent the whole grey, rainy day on huge, plush, CLEAN couches watching movies and drinking tea. We had the place to ourselves.
...and you know the funny thing? Ben didn't end up going to Krackow, and I never forgave him.
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