Poland

Date: 06 January 2007 19:26:17

Due to the whole missed flight debacle, I arrived in Krakow 12 hours later than expected. I then chanced upon a French guy who walked me to my hostel.

The next morning I went to explore the town. After asking a couple to take a photo for me, I ended up spending the whole day with them! He was English and she now lived in England although she was born in Poland. We first went to the Church of Saint Peter and Paul where Foucalt's Pendulum is located (which demonstrates the rotational movement of the Earth):

We then proceeded on to Wawel Hill/Castle. We paid to enter the Stately Rooms but unfortunately you aren't allowed to take photos in there. So instead, here is a photo from the outside looking at the Cathedral buildings on Wawel Hill:

We climbed the tower to the left of the above picture, ducking under many rafters and past bells, we reached the top and the largest bell:

We then went to a local jazz bar where we had mulled wine (mine consisted of white wine, rum, cloves, cherries and almonds - absolutely divine!) and then onto the mall for some sushi. I then said goodbye to them and proceeded on to the markets. This market has Poland's world famous amber for sale in every stall:

The next day was, by far, the hardest so far of my travels. I went to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. It is really hard to describe how you feel when you are there and I am sure it would different for everybody. Me, I felt physically sick most of the time but I thought it was important for me to be there, to pay my respects to the many people that lost their lives or who suffered there. I felt ashamed to be part of a humanity that could do that to other people.

This is the gate that leads into the camp. Ironically it reads something like 'work brings freedom' or 'work will set you free':

This is a picture of the buildings where the prisoners slept (before the war, they were used to house Polish soldiers):

NB: In the background, beyond the barbed wire fence is one of the many guard houses that surround the facilities.

There are many, many terrible stories but there are just too many to remember. One that I can recall vividly was of a priest offering up his life in the place of somebody that had been sentenced to death. I think he was put in one of the starvation cells (or was it one of the suffocation cells?) and when he still wasn't dead after a few days, they injected him with poison. I guess a bright side to the story (if there is one) is that the other man survived and was able to tell the story of such an act of kindness and humanity.

I took some photos which I wasn't really supposed to and half of me wants to post them so other people can witness the horror that I have seen and half of me respects what they have asked so I will not post those particular photos. They are photos I took of personal belongings - a large pile of spectacles, a whole wall full of artificial limbs, a room filled with piles and piles of shoes, a whole wall with hair from the ladies bought to the camp and finally a pile of tins which contained the poison used in the gas chambers. It was just so sickening. I don't think you can quite grasp the scale of it until you are there and you here the statistics and see such horrific images and piles of personal belongings.

This is the entrance to the gas chamber at Auschwitz I. It was the smallest because when the camp was built as a training place for Polish soldiers, this was used as an ammunitions chamber. It could kill around 350 people a day (and remember, this was the smallest!):

We then went to Auschwitz II Birkenau, a purpose built camp approximately 3 kilometres from Auschwitz I (it was constructed when Auschwitz I was full to capacity with around 20,000 people). People often had to come from 2,400 kilometres away, packed into a cattle cart, travelling for days with no food. Those deemed not fit to work (and not surprisingly, after a trip like that, many weren't), they were immediately sent to the gas chambers. This is the rail entrance to Auschwitz II Birkenau:

The photo below is trying to encompass the quarters where the men slept, the women were on the left-hand side (and not shown in the picture):

I just can't comprehend how many people suffered at these places and how many more went straight to their deaths on arrival.

I prayed last night, through tears, that God will continue to watch over the souls of those that were hurt and to those that lost their lives and to their families.

Today, on a much happier note, I went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine where I descended down at least 340 steps to the first level (the photo is looking up the steps from the bottom):

There were even more stairs after this and we descended, all in all, to 130 metres below the surface (although it does go down to about 300 metres. There are 2,000 chambers but we only visited the 20 that are open to the public on the first 3 levels. The miners have done the most amazing carvings. You may recognise this picture:

That carving is part of this large Church (where you can attend mass on Sundays). The chandeliers are made from salt crystals:

I thought I had better do this just to prove that I was there, at a Salt Mine:

I recommend not going here if you suffer from claustrophobia, apart from the Mine itself, 9 people have to cram into a 2mx1m elevator to get back to the surface.

Tomorrow I have the day to myself to buy a few little presents (anybody like amber?) and then I am off to Prague at 7am on the next day.