Our time in Kraków began with exploring the sights, smells and pals that the city has to offer.
We started by heading to the Old Town Square and walked through the market building.
We found our way to the oldest street in the city, at the end of which is what remains of the old city walls and the grand main gate, which was littered with tourists, musicians and artists selling wonderful paintings stacked as high as the city wall itself.
We walked through the Gate to see the Barbican, an old gun post with protected the front of the city walls. At either side are parks, which were established when it was decided to demolish the wall which surrounded the old city. These parks now rest in their place.
We walked through the gorgeous city streets until we came across our friendly neighbourhood Pierogi joint. It seems ed a shame to not go in so we went and had a snack.
Afterwards we walked the streets some more before joining a tour and whizzing around the city for a bit. We passed through the old city, Kazamire (Jewish quarter) and the Ghetto where much of the persecution of Polish Jews took place.
We ended up and Schindlers factory where we had a quick look around before walking back to the Jewish quarter where we had some beers and food.
Later in the evening we met up with Olga, a Ukrainian native living in Kraków who is hosting us for the night. We joined her and her other guest mate for a run around the city by night, meeting up with some other travellers before ending our night with more pierogi and giggles. Then it was back to Olgas house for a sleep.
The next morning we left Olga’s at 9am and walked to out pick up point for our day trip to the Auschwitz concentration camps, a trip that I had been anticipating since arriving in Europe.
On the hour and a half drive to the site from Kraków we were shown a documentary to set the mood. It was an interview with one of the first cameramen on the site after the liberation. I’ll spare you the history lesson in this post as most know a thing or two about the atrocities that took place at these camps.
We arrived and over the next 2 hours were guided around the site. Starting at the infamous iron gates and being led through many of the two story brick buildings, the first two of which were exhibits while the remainder were as they were during the camps operation.
The museum displayed many photos of the camp in operation but also the infamous piles of confiscated suitcases, eye glasses, shoes, artificial limbs, hair brushes, baby clothes, Jewish skull caps and two tonnes of human hair.
Another building was set up to show the basic living conditions of the prisoners. One of these basic two story blocks could contain between 800 and 1200 prisoners.
We were shown to the cell blocks where political prisoners were held, sometimes in pitch black or in cells where prisoners could only stand. Many were starved to death in these cells.
We were the shown to the courtyard were prisoners were executed by firing squad, before being taken to the first of the gas chambers, via the gallows were prisoners were public ally executed. The chamber was basically a shower block with holes cut in the ceiling through which the chemical compound could be dropped. This chamber had furnaces attached which could dispose of just over 300 corpses a day.
This was the end of the first part of the tour, we were then taken to Auschwitz II Birkenau, the much larger camp facility. Few of the wooden shelters still remain, however the chimney stacks still stand. We were shown the site of the much larger gas chambers hidden in the forests behind the camp which were blown up by the nazis days before the liberation of the camp in an attempt to destroy the evidence. This is where one of the large memorials lies.
We were finally shown through one of the remaining brick housing facilities which contained women and children. These were very tightly stacked wooden bunks, without any running water or sanitation. A very grim piece of history but a very important one to witness to true scale of the methodical extermination of 1.5 million people.
We headed back into the city and bought train tickets to go to Gdansk that night. We went and found Olga at her work to say goodbye. We had some quick dinner and went to the train station to await our train. We get into Gdansk at 6.30am.
McBryde Looks At Things 2 