Poland Part 1

Our Street in Krakow

Auschwitz 1

Auschwitz - Birkenau (note all of the chimneys, and there was another side too)

The castle on Wawel Hill

Early Monday (the 25th) morning Leah and I packed our bags, walked to the metro then boarded the train to Poland. Poland turned out to be the most surprising country that we visited. I have to admit I wasn't that excited to visit Krakow at first, but Poland and Krakow more specifically turned out to be easily one of the highlights of the trip so far. There was one minor snag in our journey to Poland however; as explained in the Czech blog we had boughten our tickets from Prague to Krakow in the Czech Republic a few days earlier. The problem was that the lady gave us tickets from Prague to Krakow connecting through the Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz), but gave us an iternerary that said we were to connect through the city of Katowice...we realized this mistake once we were already on the train in Poland and the ticket inspector pointed it out. This meant having to re-buy the correct tickets on the spot, which cost us more money and also meant that we went needlessly out of the way to get to Krakow (taking the long route over the short one). With that said, we got to use our Russian again as the ticket inspector didn't speak English very well, but could speak basic Russian and he turned out to be a really really nice guy. Our first impressions of Poland were very good, as the country side is very green, and unlike Russia, garbage, and delapitated dacha free. What we saw was little clusters of very nice, well kept houses. Once we arrived in Krakow, 8 hours on the train from Prague (going through Katowice) we booked our next set of tickets from Krakow to Vienna (so we wouldn't have to go back to the train station until our departure). The other thing that really struck us was how open and friendly the Polish people were. Of the three days that we were there we didn't once encounter a rude or hostile person, on the contrary they smiled, said thank you and tried to help us in any way that they could. Luckily for us train stations, unlike airports, are generally located in or near the centres of the cities, and this was again the case with Krakow. A god send when you are backpacing with backpacks that weigh twice as much as you do. After booking our tickets we made the small trek to our hostel which was, like Prague, in an excellent location right downtown almost on the historic square. Our first impressions of the hostel were quite good as well. It was very clean, the service was friendly and we didn't encounter any problems. We had booked 3 nights in a 10 bed room and so we claimed a set of bunks (Leah on top, me on the bottom) and then headed out into Krakow. Krakow is a very beautiful old city, rivalling Prague. Like Prague, Krakow was spared extensive damage during the Second World War and so many of its old buildings, castle and forts still remain in excellent condition. We strolled around for a bit, getting ourselves acquainted with the city and then found a delicious restaurant. The other great thing about Poland is that everything is very inexpensive, especially when compared with the Czech Republic. Since only recently being admitted into the EU, Poland has yet to adpot the Euro and still uses the Polish Zwoty, and prices remain quite low. For example, Leah and I ate at a very nice restaurant, on the historic town square having a beer, two ice teas, an appetizer and two main courses, which cost us less than $30 Canadian all together. Our server, carrying on in the Polish tradition was also extremely friendly and Leah liked his Polish accent. We then continued to stroll around the historic town centre, before retreating back to our hostel to rest. When we got back we also made sure to book a tour for the main reason we went to Krakow - Auschwitz, and when we went back to our room where we met some of our roommates who happened to be from Canada also. Unfortunately I don't remember both of their names, but they were two guys who were cousins, one from near Edmonton and one from near Calgary and we hit it off right away. That night unfortunately we experienced the downfall of sleeping in a 10 person dorm....around 2:00am the other two roommates showed up after drinking most of the night and stumbled their way into their beds and unfortunately the one began snoring so loud that it turns our roommates through the wall could hear him. This meant that even with earplugs and headphones Leah and I could still hear his snoring which made sleep a bit of a challenge.

We woke up early the next morning as we had booked a tour to Auschwitz departing Krakow at 8:15am. We quickly got ready and enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel before hurrying our way to the designated meeting point. There were enough people for two seperate groups, and so we took two large coach buses to the Polish town of Oswiecim (renamed Auschwitz by the Germans) which happens to be around 1 hour and 50 minutes away by car. To keep us entertained and give us an overview of what we were going to be visiting, a film, produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, which lasted just over an hour, was shown to us. It explained the history of the camp, as well as the current efforts of the museum to maintain and preserve the area. Shortly after the film ended we arrived at the camp. Auschwitz is actually divided into 3 main camps, Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Auschwitz Monowitz. The tour that we were on covered the first Auschwitz camp, as well as the infamous and massive Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. We had an excellent tour guide who was very informative, describing various photos, objects and stories on top of the actual tour. We extensively toured through the first camp, seeing the living conditions that prisoners were kept in, saw the "wall of death" where the nazi's executed over a thousand people, walked through one of the gas chambers, saw the notorious prison within the camp that included a suffocation cell, 4 standing cells (4 people had to crawl into the cell and stand up all night while working all day [the guide likened it to four people standing in a phone booth]), and more, the gallows constructed to execute prisoners publicly, as well as the gallow which they used to execute Rudolph Hoss, who was the director of the camp. They took us into one of the blocks that they had converted into a museum, which explained the history of the camp, as well as housing many of the objects and possessions that had been confiscated from the prisoners. This is also where you walk through the hallways and see 80,000 shoes, thousands of suitcases with peoples names stil on them, as well as 2 tons of human hair that had been shaved off which had been used during the war to replace textile fibers. We also walked through the infamous gate which reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or Work Will Set You Free, to enter the camp. After concluding the tour of the first camp we had a bit of a break to get something to eat, and then continued our tour at Auschwitz-Birkenau (about 3 km away.) This was by far the largest concentration camp, which was the location of the sorting platform where Nazi doctors would decide who was fit to work (the rest were sent to the gas chambers immediately). It is so difficult to fathom how many people died here as they were killing so many people that they needed over 4 gas chambers and crematoriums, and each block house (see picture, each chimmney was a block house), had around 700 people living in them. Over 1.1 million people were killed here. It is difficult to know the exact number because the vast majority of people sent to the camps, were not registered, given documents or photographed, they were simply marched to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. Our guide mentioned that about 75% of those arriving in the trains were immediately sent to the gas chambers. These were predominately women, children and the elderly. After our tour of Birkenau, we went up the main tower over the railroad tracks and got a birds eye of the sprawling camp.

Once we got back from Auschwitz, (around 2:00pm) Leah and I decided to see another one of Krakow's Jewish sights, the Oskar Schindler factory. But, on the way there we decided to see one of Krakow's most famous and most visable attractions, Wawel Hill, and the castle situated on top. We decided to forego the interior of the castle as we were quite tired of viewing state rooms but we did opt to view a really interesting side attraction on the hill called the Dragon's Den. You descend down a very deep spiral staircase into a very large, natural cave underneath the castle. The exit leads you back out down the hill near the river, and it was this cave that gave rise to myths about a dragon living under the castle during the middle ages. After the cave we took a long walk to the Schindler Factory. Immortalized in the film Schindler's List, the factory is situated just across the river from the historic town center in an industrial area that was the sight of the former Jewish ghetto. On the way back to our hostel we took a stroll through the Jewish Quarter and then treated ourselves to some delicious Polish cuisine for dinner.

Prague - Mrs.Hemming, this is for you.

After spending almost a full week in Germany, Leah and I were now set to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic. Originally, we were planning on training there from Leipzig, but instead, Mila knew someone who was planning on driving through Prague and offered to take the three of us with him to help pay for gas. Mila was planning on going to Prague anyway to meet another set of friends from the US. So, on the 22nd of May Leah, Mila and I set off to Prague. Mila's friend picked us up a
short distance from Leipzig in a German city called Halle and then we took off for Prague on the famous Autobahn! It was amazingly smooth and we were travelling at a speed of about 160-180 km/h for most of the trip. The time to Prague from Leipzig took a mere 3 hours. He dropped us off at a major shopping mall just on the fringes of the city so we took the metro downtown and to our hostel. Our hostel was located right downtown, in the historic section of Prague and a mere
stones throw away from the famous Charles Bridge, which we could see from our window. This was Leah and my first experience in a hostel and it turned out to be a great place. We had a private room with our own little kitchen, the beds were very comfortable and even had fluffy duvets. We arrived in the early afternoon and so Leah and I spent the rest of the evening strolling through the very picturesque cobble stone streets, and had a delicious dinner at a Czech restaurant. The next day we were set to meet Mila and her friends around 10:30 at the Metro station, but only Mila arrived. Her friends had gone out the night before to a few bars and were unfortunately too hung over to go to sightseeing with us, but Leah, Mila and I had an awesome day none the less. We took a trek across the famous Charles Bridge and up the hill to the Prague Castle, which was the seat of the Kings of Bohemia. Prague is easily one of, if not the most, beautiful city that I have ever seen (I have to concede that exclamation to Mrs. Hemming). It is situated on the bend of a river, with beautiful medieval buildings, old churches, cobblestone streets and even a castle on a hill which overlooks the whole area. Prague also escaped being destroyed in the Second World War, and instead of being restored and rebuilt, like in the case of Dresden, Prague retains its original buildings. We then went to the Jewish quarter, which was unfortunately closed (as it was Saturday), but the three of us took another stroll through the historic centre of the city and then to the train station where Leah and I bought our tickets to Krakow, Poland. There is a side story off of these tickets that will be explained in the next blog entry about Krakow. Tired from walking all day, the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on some grass outside the train station until supper time when we went to one of the massive malls for some cheap food at the food court. The second day, and the last full day we had in Prague we met Mila, and this time her friends, at the metro station again. The first thing we did was go to the Jewish Quarter, where they had a magnificant memorial to those who died during the Holocaust, as well as a number of synogogues and a very beautiful Jewish cemetary. The Jewish Quarter was a part of the Prague Ghetto during the Nazi occupation and many of the exhibits in the buildings were dedicated to this time. I overheard one of the English tour guides who mentioned that Prague, after Israel, has one of the largest collections of Jewish religious items because Hitler had planned to open a museum of extinct people in Prague after he had killed all of the Jewish people. After seeing the Jewish quarter we all had lunch and then split off to see our own sights. We said our good byes to Mila and then Leah and I ventured back into the centre of the historic part of Prague and up the old town hall tower which awarded us a magnificant view of the city. This tower also has a unique feature, an ancient and extremely accurate astronomical clock on the side of it. Leah and I finished a bit of souvenir shopping, got some breakfast for the next day and then had a very nice dinner right on the old town square and watched the sun set before heading back to our hostel for our last night in Prague. We were set to catch a train to Poland the next morning.

Dresden

On the 21st of May, Mila and her roommates had the day off of school, and so we decided to go to Dresden together. We met up with a friend of Mila's, who lives in Dresden, and who was nice enough to show us around the city. She met us at the train station, and we walked to the centre
of the city where we saw the Zwinger Palace of August the Strong, who was a Saxon King. It is a beautiful building, that you can walk all along the outer walls. The Zwinger Palace also looks into a beautiful open courtyard which contains a number of small gardens and fountains. After the palace we walked by the Dresden opera house, and then visited the Catholic Court Church now called the SS. Trinitatis which contains the remains of a number of Saxon princes and kings. From there we walked into the central square of Dresden, to see the Frauenkirche (The Women's Church). This church is very symbolic to the people of Dresden, as it is a reconstruction of the church that was destroyed in the Dresden bombing campaigns of the Second World War. All of the buildings surrounding the square were also heavily damaged
if not completely destroyed. Since then, however, these buildings have all been reconstructed to look as they did prior to the War. We stopped to have a drink at one of the cafés near the centre of the city before strolling along the banks of the Elbe river, where we eventually walked Mila`s friend home before catching our train back to Leipzig.

Germany - Lovely Leipzig

After settling in with Mila, her two roommates and their two cats, we were already feeling re-energized and relaxed. They were all very welcoming and cheerful to be around. On our first evening, Mila took us on a little guided tour of the city centre, pointing out the major places and buildings and introduced us to the city trams which could take us from her house to the centre. As Mila still had classes throughout the week, Ross and I planned to do some sleeping in in the mornings before getting ourselves to the downtown to meet up with Mila. On our first full day, Mila met up with us around noon and took us to one of Leipzig's main sights the Battle of the Nations Monument which commemorates one of the most significant defeats of Napoleon in 1813. It is the tallest monument in Europe standing at 91 metres tall, and to reach the top we had to climb over 300 stairs. But it was worth it! The full 360 degree views of the city were well worth the climb. After the monument we walked for a bit through a nearby cemetery before heading back to have dinner with Mila's roommates.
Mila had one longer day of classes during the week, so on this day, Ross and I went to the Leipzig Zoo to spend a sunny day with the animals. We both agree that it is the nicest zoo we have ever visited. Wanting to take in more of the history, the next day we opted to visit first the Stasi Museum (which we returned to later in the day with Mila as our translator for a few things - it was free so no worries) and then visited two of the city's famous churches St. Nicholas which is where peaceful protesting began which eventually led to the collapse of the DDR, and the Thomas church which was actually the church where Bach led a choir and performed until his death.
We very much enjoyed visiting Leipzig, it is a very charming city; a good mix of the old and the new. As a side note, on our last night there, we joined Mila and some friends to watch a football match (soccer) in a local pub. Mila's team - from near her home city in the northwest- sadly was defeated by a team from Ukraine, but nevertheless we decided celebrating was in order (we were after all in Germany for the first time) and so we headed to another bar - an interesting gothic one, in which we did not quite fit in - so that Ross could taste his first Absinthe. I abstained from this taste testing, but Ross reports that it tastes something like liquid Vicks cold syrup (a licoricey flavor - yuk!) only with better presentation.

Victory Day Hurray! and our last weeks in Russia

Our last few weeks in Russia were jam-packed with school, studying and last minute sight-seeing so we feel pretty relieved at the moment to be relaxing in . . . Germany (more about that later)!

May 9th - Victory Day is perhaps the largest holiday in Russia apart from the Christmas/New Year season, but is unlike any holiday I have seen before. It commemortates the end of the war with Germany (part of the Second World War) in Russia called the Great Fatherland War or the Great Patriotic War - in other European countries this same event is celebrated on the 8th of May because the armistice was signed at 11:01 pm on that day however, because of the time difference, it was already the 9th of May in Moscow. Today this holiday has lost some of its intensity since the collapse of the Soviet Union and likely as a result of the younger generations feeling somewhat detatched from the meaning of the holiday. Nevertheless, it is still celebrated nationally and in the major cities is marked with military parades and fireworks shows. We woke up very early that morning and made our way to Palace Square to latch ourselves onto the metal, fence dividers that held the spectators back off of the square (we were determined to get a front row seat) and waited 2 1/2 hours for the parade to begin. Thousands of people filled the section of the square designated for onlookers, and lined the streets around the palace to watch the parade. We were able to hold our positions at the front of the croud quite well (apart from the woman who elbowed her way in next to me so that her six-year-old could see and caused me to stand sideways for the rest of the morning). The parade began with different regiments marching into formation on the square, and following several speaches and the saluting of their commanders as they drove their jeeps around the square, they all marched their way around the square and into the streets making way for the military vehicles to follow their lead. We saw tanks, amphibious assault vehichles, armoured personelle carriers, artillery units, rocket launchers . . . all number of military equipment (although our Media teacher informed us that because of the bridges and narrow streets of St. Petersburg the most impressive equipment cannot be brought into the city - the Moscow parade for this reason is apparently more impressive because as well as being in the capital and therefore being more ellaborate, these vehicles as well as jets, are included in the celebrations. Following the parade we spent the day relaxing and enjoying the sunshine, talking in a nap in the afternoon just in time to avoid bad weather - the wind picked up so quickly and blew in storm clouds that poured rain for a while. Luckily however, despite remaining windy and quite cold, the rain stopped long enough in the evening for us to watch the fireworks. We made our way again quite early to the tip of Vasielevsky Island (the island on which we live) which justs out into the river opposite the Hermitage and the Peter and Paul Fortress Island which they happened to be shooting the fireworks from. It was pretty cold, standing in one place (dancing to keep warm) along the wall above the river, and it was still quite light at 10 o'clock when the fireworks started, but because the fireworks were shot out of artillery cannons it was quite the experience. The sound echoed across the river making it sound like a second shot was being fired from the Hermitage. Dozens of boats collected in the river below us, and thousands of people were crowded along the banks of the river and across the bridges. All in all a great first Victory Day.

In our last few days before leaving on the 17th, we were busy with regular classes and prepping for our test as well as starting to pack, doing laundry, mailing home excess clothing and items which we wouldn't need in the next few months so we didn't really do much sightseeing except for a day to Peterhof. Peterhof is yet another of the many palaces surrounding the city but is special because of the dozens of fountains on its grounds, and because it is a copy of the Versailles Palace in Paris. We waited to go and see it until May because the fountains are not turned on until May Day, and they are most certainly the highlight of the grounds. We took a hydrofoil boat, from the banks of the Neva right by the Hermitage, out into the ocean and then to the palace where we also toured the palace. Unfortunately, because we had a late start, not going until after our classes ended at 1 o'clock, and because the last boat left the palace at 5, our visit to Peterhof was quite short. It would have been nice to wander around the gardens for a full afternoon, but I am happy that we were able to see it.

Now, after finishing up our last classes, having our 'graduation ceremony' and spending our last days in the Russian Federation, Ross and I have made it safely to Leipzig, Germany where we are visiting our former roommate in Russia, Mila. We flew into Frankfurt on the morning of the 17th after camping out overnight in the St. Petersburg airport (we had to get there super early because our flight was leaving at 6am . . . but because the bridges which connect our island to the rest of the city are raised from about 1am to 5am we had to leave the island at around 12:30 and stay in the airport until our flight left at 6). Mila had predicted the train we would be arriving on (we had no way to contact her but had planned to phone from the train station once we arrived in Leipzig) and so was waiting for us at the train station when we pulled in. It was great to see her! I will save the stories of Germany for the moment and hopefully will be able to post more soon but here is our plan.

17th -20th May in Leipzig with Mila; 21st going with Mila and her roommates to Dresden; 22nd leaving with Mila and a friend to drive to Prague, Czech Republic; spending 22nd-24th in Prague; 25th-27th in Krakow, Poland; 28th-30th in Vienna, Austria; 31st May and 2nd June in Berlin, Germany; 3rd-5th Paris, France; then a week in Reykjavik Iceland before meeting up with my parents in London for a week; then heading with them to first Denmark (yay!) and finally a week in Spain. It is going to be quite the whirlwind trip! But we have found some great hostels to stay in and thanks to suggestions from Mila and her roommates have some fantastic attractions on our list. Thanks to them for their advice, as well as them graciously inviting us to stay these last few days - it has been wonderful to have these last few days to relax, plan, and detox in a way after those last four months in Russia. I still cannot really fully believe where we are, but Germany, and the people here, have been a welcome change. It feels so much more comfortable, cheerful and welcoming here. Russia is certainly a beautiful country, mysterious and historically fascinating, but there is something to be said for bright sunny weather, smiling people, clean streets and diversity.

Gatchina

Still enjoying sunny weather, and wanting to take in a few more of the St. Petersburg sights before leaving Russia on the 17th of May, Ross, Laura and I headed to the Gatchina Palace on May 3rd. The Gatchina Palace, which was at one point was a military training ground and where many military parades were held, more recently, it was where Nicholas II grew up. Like many of the other palaces around St. Petersburg is located a few kilometres outside of the city, so it is necessary to either take a tour bus or the train to get to Gatchina. We opted for the train, since it is so much more reliable . . . schedules of trains aren't bothered by busy traffic during "chas pik" (rush hour). We found our train and seats very easily (we are becoming quite profficient in Russian train travel it seems) and settled in for the 45min ride to Gatchina.

Conveniently, the Gatchina Palace is situated very near to the train station, so it took us only minutes to locate it. I was, for some reason, surprised at the size of the palace. I had seen photos of it before, and it looked so much smaller in person than I had been imagining it. Regardless, it is still an impressive looking building, with a large square at its centre which has situated on both sides of it, the two square wings which break off from the central building. The Gatchina Palace, as a result of being outside the city, has very large gardens which spread out from behind the palace, around a lake and several smaller ponds so we decided to first visit the palace museum and then spend the rest of the afternoon wandering across the many bridges and paths of the gardens.

The Museum in the Palace unfortunately does not cover many parts of the building, it is confined to the central wing of the building likely because as of yet the other sections have either not been renovated, or are being used as office space for the museum's staff. What we did see however, spanned all three floors and included rooms which were redesigned in a similar fashion to how they would have looked when the building was lived in. I enjoyed this palace much more than some of the others because (like the Alexander Palace) of how complete the furnishings were it was easier to envision how it would have been lived in. In many of the other palaces we have seen like the Hermitage (which contains mostly art and is not furnished in most sections) the Yusupov Palace, and the Catherine Palace we would be see rooms which were supposedly bedrooms yet there would be no bed in the room. Likewise, we would have seen room after room with just a few chairs, maybe a couch and art on the wall - it is difficult to comprehend why anyone would need so many "sitting rooms." It is to the Gatchina Palace's credit that it is decorated in such away that you can tell just but looking around a room how it would have been used. It was definitely far more interesting to me this way.

After visiting the interior of the palace we decided to walk the grounds before heading back to the train station to go back to St. Petersburg. The gardens of Gatchina surround a lake behind the palace and include many paths and bridges which cross over onto the little islands in the lake. It was a very sunny and warm day when we visited, so people were everywhere! Families were having picnics with their kids, young people rented row boats and paddle boats to puddle around in the lake, and others were out walking their dogs. The only downside to the beautiful scenery of the park, is that Russians for whatever reason don't seem to care about where they toss their garbage. Around all of the benches, in the water, along the paths in the grass were tossed wrappers, bottles, beer cans - really it is quite grose how people have in a way destroyed the most beautiful places in their country by littering all over the place.

We walked a loop around the lake, and then popped into a cafe for lunch (great milkshakes - really bad meal, at least for me. I think both Ross and Laura were satisfied with their lunches) before heading back to the trainstation and back into the city.

Canals and Retail Therapy

Apologies to everyone for not posting a blog sooner. But between the gorgeous weather that we've been having, as well as rolling into our last week of classes and exams, we've all been rather busy. On Saturday, May 2nd we had quite a pleasant day. The weather was nice and warm, and the sun was shining so we decided to take a boat through the canals with Laura. St. Petersburg very closely resembles Amsterdam or Venice in that it has miles of canals snaking through the city core. In the summertime the canals are full of sightseeing boats and private motorboats. We'd always wanted to go on one of the tours that take you through the canals, while also pointing out the historic buildings along the way and so we decided to go on Saturday. We took the metro downtown, made a quick stop in one of the bookstores downtown to buy a map of Gatchina (see next blog), had lunch at McDonalds and then decided to go on our boat tour. Our roommates had been on a boat tour a few days before, but we found a tour which was slightly longer than the one they had taken and which even went out into the Neva from the canals right near the Hermitage and the Peter and Paul Fortress. We were the first people to get on the boat, so we chose the seats in the back row on the open deck at the back of the boat. This worked out perfectly, since although we had people's heads in our way if we took photos forward, we could simply turn around in our chairs and take pictures off the back of the boat as we passed things. Our seats were also lucky because we happened to be furthest from the loud speakers of our guide, we could understand some of what she was saying, but not all of course, so it was nice to be a bit distanced from the noisy front of the boat. Over all the boat trip was a great way to see the city and a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.

After our tour of the canals, and since we had all been getting a bit stressed with school work and upcoming exams, we decided to venture to MEGAmall for some retail therapy. Having not brought many clothes for summer, and since our trip post-Russia continues until July we decided to purchase some summery clothes. Ross was able to find a pair of shorts, some sandals for the beach, a new shirt, and I bought a pair of shorts, and two t-shirts. A very successful day of retail therapy!