DAY 47
Thursday JUNE 16 2005
We ate breakfast, the boarded the bus to leave the little village we had been staying in. Today the group toured the biggest concentration camps and death camps in Poland, they were built for industrial sized killing. As Rick Steves says "A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau hits you at gut level, giving you a greater sense of the appalling inhumanity, suffering, and irreplaceable loss."
One of the people from our tour group said we are very lucky and blessed to be able to walk out of Auschwitz.
I will not share all of it with you except that the local guide who took the group through said that just two days ago she gave a personal guided trip to Rod Stewart. It was all top secret and very private. She didn't even know it was going to happen.
Then the bus traveled for several more hours to Krakow as we will be staying there three nights. I got a chance to see the countryside of Poland and it is not that pretty. Its architecture is everything I think of when I think of an eastern block, behind the iron curtain country. Very square, no frills, ugly, squat, little buildings. They say Krakow will be completely different. I hope so.
Poland.
Poland
A lovely castle that was worth seeing. It is famous for a British Princess that married a Polish aristocrat. She became "the Princess Diana" of that area.
Their back yard.
The back side of the castle.
Our hotel.
Our hotel is so posh. The tour guide said not to get used to it as this is the only room. This place is so nice that I could see newlyweds honeymooning here. They even have internet in the rooms, all I had to do is borrow a LAN cable and I am set. I wish, however, I had packed more than three sets of clothes. It is costly to keep doing laundry. Here, for three shirts and one pair of pants it was $30.00. Our guide said it would be cheaper to buy new clothes as you go. She was right, but I am much more comfortable in the clothes I brought.
My favorite moment: The days I spend with the tour group, but the nights, the nights are my own. I spend the nights rambling the city streets, listening to music, and soaking up the ambiance, pulse, and vibe of the cities we tour. I have come to look forward and cherish this part of the day most. So it is no surprise that I left the dinner table early to make my own way to the hotel.
While we were eating a rain storm had just past by. So when I left the restaurant the air was warm and cool and sweet all at the same time.
I walked through the streets with a gentle rainfall passing overhead. It felt cooling as it hit my skin in little drops, so refreshing after the hot day. Every so often there would be lightning and thunder. Krakow is an amazing city, full of romantic little streets and ancient architecture. They say that Krakow is the Boston of Poland, but for me, for that night, it was my own personal Paris. During that walk home I listened to opera at an ancient outdoor open air theater, I listened to jazz from a nearby night club, I enjoyed the cooling rain and took a horse drawn carriage ride through the old town and lovely city parks. Through it all I had a sense of joy and wonder at this warm lovely evening. I will remember this night as one of the golden days of travel.
(I got home about 11pm and never once felt worried about walking the streets of a foreign city at night. It is very safe and comfortable here in Krakow.)