My friend Lukasz and I spent a weekend in Krakow when I was over in Poland. I loved it. Its got to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. This is an extract of an email I sent to my good friend Nat while I was over there.....

Saturday 9 June 2007

Poland is really good. Im in Krakow at the moment, its really beautiful here - so Gothic. All the buildings are very old, mostly from the 14th century. Its been so hot here as well. Im soooo black! I've seen heaps of things. Been sightseeing all day today. Walked around the city centre and the Main Market Square with St Marys Basilica. Its so grand! Its a beautiful cathedral with one of the largest altars in Europe. Krakow is celebrating its 750 year anniversary of the city so there was a major festival in the city as well. Heaps of people wearing tradtional polish costumes, there's alot of singing and alot of dancing! Some of the other sights I saw included the Dragon of Krakow, the Barbican. I also took a walk around the Jewish District.

The hostel we are staying at is pretty cool too. It's right in town in Market Square. Our room is really narrow but really long, with really high ceilings. I took a photo - will send it later. Man, I went photo crazy today, taking photos of everything, mostly of the buildings here. Its a mix of Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance so its really amazing. Some of the government buildings are nice too. I tried to take a photo but a policeman stopped me because apparently you're are not allowed to take photos of government buildings here!

Im so glad Lukasz is with me, Poland is one of those places where its pretty much impossible to get around if you dont speak polish. No one speaks English at all, they don't even try and there are no signs in English as well.

Sunday 10 June 2007

Went to Auschwitz today. It was very moving. I don't know alot about the history but just being there and seeing it all made me really sad. I could really feel the suffering. Took a bus from Krakow to Auschwitz which took about 2 hours and then going around the camp itself took a good 3.5 hours and that was hurried at the end as well. You could really spend a whole day there. We watched a little documentary when we got there just to give me a bit more of an understanding about the place and then after that we walked all around the camp. Everything is in blocks and in the different blocks are exhibitions of what went on in there at the time. The most memorable one for me was block 10 and 11, the death blocks. In one of the rooms in block 11, are standing cells that are around 1 square metres. Four people would fit in there. It would be completely dark with no windows or anything. That was where people were sent to if they were punished for things like talking, not working fast enough, even sharing food! Between those two blocks is also the death wall where people would just line up and get shot. Before their executions, they were to undress in this room which we also got to see. We also saw the gas chamber and crematorium. One can only imagine the atrocities that occurred in these places. We weren't permitted to take any pictures in that block. There was also this exhibition where the belongings of those who had passed on were kept. In this camp nothing was left wasted, even after death. The deceased's shoes, bags, toothbrushes, and even hair and teeth were hoarded in piles and piles.

After getting back into Krakow, we walked around this shopping mall by the railway station for a little bit before getting on the bus back to Krynica for 6 hours!