Come to Eastern Europe
Krakow was awesome. Definitely one of the best backpacking destinations I have ever been to. It was pretty cheap ($1.50 for a pint of berries at the open market, $1 for ice cream in the town square), there was tons to see and loads going on. As with any great city, there was a ton of green space around with actual benches to sit on (a rare find in most big cities).
I spent my first day checking out the markets and walking around the outside of the city centre. I hiked up Kościuszko Mound and got a bit of a history if the city, although it was largely in Polish, but I think I got the general idea. The next day I ventured into the city centre and the old town (this is where most of the churches, old buildings and cool architectural stuff is (including former Pope John Paul II's old flat). Before becoming Pope he was running the show in Krakow.
The city is absolutely amazing. It was destroyed in WWII and taken over by the Soviets. They turned the area into a heavy industrial development and left the buildings crumble (under the Soviet regieme there was no point in keeping such "inefficient" religious buildings) - the concrete block forms were heavily favoured. However, in the 1970s the people of the city began to take initiative themselves and started to restore the city to its former glory. When the government fell in 1982 a commission was established to formally reconstruct the amazing city core. Today you would never know the extent to which the city was devistated, apart from the pictoral exhibit showing before and after pics. If I have one recomendation so far for a place to visit, it's Krakow, Poland.
On my final day I made the short trip to Auschwitz. It is impossible to put my day in to words and the pictures cannot come close to doing the scence justice. The original work camp was much the same as I remembered Dachau (outside of Munich). It was quite orderly and managable in size - there were about 40-50 buildings; all had been restored and there were exhibits inside each. There was an over view of the history of the camp, as well as an examination of the daily life of one of the prisoners. In others they had exhibits: rooms filled with thousands of shoes, tooth brushes, pots, human hair (the Nazi's sold the hair to the textile industry for quite a price). The tour of the original camp ends at a restored gas chamber that you walk through - it is definitely unsettling and impossible to describe.
3km down the road is Auschwitz II -Birkenau. This was an extermination camp. Walking over the tracks and through the entrance you are struck my the fact that you can't see the ends of the camp. All you can see are former housing complexes, and the remains of even more. Only a fraction of the housing units were made of brick; these were originally stables for horses which were converted in to housing for prisoners. There was room enough in each for only 54 horses, but for 400 people. The majority of the buildings were made of wood, built with an earthen floor - all that remained was the chimineys for each. There were hundreds and hundred of them. It was a very odd feeling to walk around and see the original, untouched buildings. Even more strange to walk around the grounds out behind the former gas chambers (which were destroyed by the Nazis as they left the camp and the Red Army moved in). I was walking through the forrest, it was quite and peaceful, there was a deer running past in front of me, then I came upon a large field. In front was a plaque with a picture of thousands of bodies piled up in the exact spot, being cremated in the open. A little farther down the trail was another picture of thousands of people disembarking from the train, walking in to the forrest to take their "shower", never to return.
There was also a movie that was shown at the start of the tour. It was flimed by the Hungarian military the day after liberation of the camp. Seeing it as a theatrical movie is one things, but seeing the real thing is quite another.
It was a pretty depressing day, but it was definitely worth doing.
I really wish I had more time in Krakow - I could have spent quite a while just hanging out and roaming the streets. However, I already had my bus ticket booked for Budapest.
The trip to Budapest was really good - we had a minibus that wasn't quite half-full. the 7.5 hours flew right by. It helped that we were going through the mountainous regions of Poland and Slovakia. Speakling of which, Slovakia is beautiful. I only saw it from my window and didn't have a chance to explore it at all, but there is much more to the country that just Bratislava (which I am going to visit in 3 weeks).
I arrived in Budapest at night (which always makes finding your way around a bit harder), but made it to the hostel after a quick 40 minute walk. There are a ton of English people in the hostel, which is a change from the last couple of places I have been. We hung out last night around the hostel here, then today I wandered around the city. It is not really like I expected at all - it is so much more. Like Krakow, there is so much going on and so much to see. I think I am going to spend a few extra days here. Tomorrow is going to be more sightseeing, then maybe a bit of caving on Tuesday.
I spent my first day checking out the markets and walking around the outside of the city centre. I hiked up Kościuszko Mound and got a bit of a history if the city, although it was largely in Polish, but I think I got the general idea. The next day I ventured into the city centre and the old town (this is where most of the churches, old buildings and cool architectural stuff is (including former Pope John Paul II's old flat). Before becoming Pope he was running the show in Krakow.
The city is absolutely amazing. It was destroyed in WWII and taken over by the Soviets. They turned the area into a heavy industrial development and left the buildings crumble (under the Soviet regieme there was no point in keeping such "inefficient" religious buildings) - the concrete block forms were heavily favoured. However, in the 1970s the people of the city began to take initiative themselves and started to restore the city to its former glory. When the government fell in 1982 a commission was established to formally reconstruct the amazing city core. Today you would never know the extent to which the city was devistated, apart from the pictoral exhibit showing before and after pics. If I have one recomendation so far for a place to visit, it's Krakow, Poland.
On my final day I made the short trip to Auschwitz. It is impossible to put my day in to words and the pictures cannot come close to doing the scence justice. The original work camp was much the same as I remembered Dachau (outside of Munich). It was quite orderly and managable in size - there were about 40-50 buildings; all had been restored and there were exhibits inside each. There was an over view of the history of the camp, as well as an examination of the daily life of one of the prisoners. In others they had exhibits: rooms filled with thousands of shoes, tooth brushes, pots, human hair (the Nazi's sold the hair to the textile industry for quite a price). The tour of the original camp ends at a restored gas chamber that you walk through - it is definitely unsettling and impossible to describe.
3km down the road is Auschwitz II -Birkenau. This was an extermination camp. Walking over the tracks and through the entrance you are struck my the fact that you can't see the ends of the camp. All you can see are former housing complexes, and the remains of even more. Only a fraction of the housing units were made of brick; these were originally stables for horses which were converted in to housing for prisoners. There was room enough in each for only 54 horses, but for 400 people. The majority of the buildings were made of wood, built with an earthen floor - all that remained was the chimineys for each. There were hundreds and hundred of them. It was a very odd feeling to walk around and see the original, untouched buildings. Even more strange to walk around the grounds out behind the former gas chambers (which were destroyed by the Nazis as they left the camp and the Red Army moved in). I was walking through the forrest, it was quite and peaceful, there was a deer running past in front of me, then I came upon a large field. In front was a plaque with a picture of thousands of bodies piled up in the exact spot, being cremated in the open. A little farther down the trail was another picture of thousands of people disembarking from the train, walking in to the forrest to take their "shower", never to return.
There was also a movie that was shown at the start of the tour. It was flimed by the Hungarian military the day after liberation of the camp. Seeing it as a theatrical movie is one things, but seeing the real thing is quite another.
It was a pretty depressing day, but it was definitely worth doing.
I really wish I had more time in Krakow - I could have spent quite a while just hanging out and roaming the streets. However, I already had my bus ticket booked for Budapest.
The trip to Budapest was really good - we had a minibus that wasn't quite half-full. the 7.5 hours flew right by. It helped that we were going through the mountainous regions of Poland and Slovakia. Speakling of which, Slovakia is beautiful. I only saw it from my window and didn't have a chance to explore it at all, but there is much more to the country that just Bratislava (which I am going to visit in 3 weeks).
I arrived in Budapest at night (which always makes finding your way around a bit harder), but made it to the hostel after a quick 40 minute walk. There are a ton of English people in the hostel, which is a change from the last couple of places I have been. We hung out last night around the hostel here, then today I wandered around the city. It is not really like I expected at all - it is so much more. Like Krakow, there is so much going on and so much to see. I think I am going to spend a few extra days here. Tomorrow is going to be more sightseeing, then maybe a bit of caving on Tuesday.
posted by Trevor Schofield at 5:43 p.m.
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