Krakow, Poland

We had last weekend off from hockey as the National team had a training camp, therefore pretty much taking our whole team away. So for me that meant I could go and travel. I decided to head to Krakow, Poland for two days. Random you might think, which is what my mom said, but actually it’s not really. A bunch of my friends here have been to Krakow and have said nothing but good things about it and how awesome it was...kind of like a smaller version of Prague, so I decided I should check it out.

After practice Thursday night I took the night train there. I pretty much stepped back in time to the 60’s or maybe 50’s as the train I was on was super old and loud. I had never been on a night train and after that ride, I don’t think I would do it again. The quarters were cramped and the fold down bed was more like a piece of plywood. I was lucky to be riding in a compartment with a couple from Toronto on a tour group, so it was good to chat with them a bit. I arrived in Krakow at 6:30am and found my hostel. It was actually a great hostel, free internet and super helpful staff. The lady there informed me of a tour leaving at 8am to go to Auschwitz and Birkenau that morning, so I thought, hey what the heck. So after a quick breakfast and shower, I was off on the bus to Auschwitz.

The tour was amazing. I had already been to Dachau which is another concentration camp just outside of Munich, so knew what I was in store for. It was about an hour and half bus ride there and along the way they showed a video on the bus about the liberation of the camp and some other informative information. After that I pretty much passed out on the bus due to the zero sleep I got on the train the previous night. The Auschwitz concentration camp is about 30 long brick buildings (original) with 12 or so set up with museums inside. It was actually built to hold Polish prisoners but obviously was turned into something else. We went through I think close to all of them was given a ton of information. A couple of things really stood out to me. First how they had a whole building where they conducted experiments on some of the prisoners, as in infected them with certain diseases to see how they would react and other things that were pretty horrible. They had pictures displayed on the walls showing some of what went on. Second on how much stuff the Nazi’s took from the Jews. They were told that they were being relocated and were going to start a new life. So naturally the Jews took all their prized possessions. They had rooms in the museum full of suit cases and possessions (hair brushes, shoes, prosthetics, etc. ) that they had took from the prisoner . I guess they housed all of this in a big warehouse called Canada and Canada II which the prisoners had named because according to them Canada was a rich country. Thirdly they had a room that had on display a ton of human hair which was behind some glass. This was pretty powerful...upon arrival at the camp the prisoner’s hair was shaved off because of chance of getting lice. That hair was used to make socks and blankets...pretty gross. Finally they ended the Auschwitz tour with a look at one of the gas chambers. They had a bunker and inside it looked liked a big shower room. Well of course that was not the cause although they lead the prisoners to think that was what was going to happen to them. You were not allowed to take pictures inside of the buildings, just on the grounds outside as you can see below.

Entrance into the came where is says "work will bring freedom"


Streets of Auschwitz, and the big brick buildings.


The side of the camp...as you can see with the barbwire fence escape is not really an option

From here we took the bus on to Birkenau, another concentration camp that was only 3km away. This place was absolutely huge! It had more than 300 prison barracks that could hold 200, 000 inmates at one time, along with four gas chambers. Not all of the barracks are still there as much of it was destroyed by the Nazi’s. You can really get a sense of how huge the place it from the top of the watch tour.


Entrance into Birkenau


Barracks where the inmates lived.


Inside...cramped quarters.


Overlooking the camp from the watch tower...you can get a sense of how big the place is.

That afternoon and the following day I toured the city and did quite a bit of shopping which was awesome. Old town Krakow has a huge square in the middle that’s 200m x 200m. Lining the square are a ton of cafes and restaurants and in the middle of the square is Cloth Hall. On the main level is a souvenir market and on the top is an art gallery. On the side of the square is St. Mary’s church. This looks quite nice from the outside, but just like your typical European church. I thought, hum...okay I’ll tour the church. Well it was absolutely amazing inside! There was so much going on inside the church with the sculptures and altarpieces that I didn’t know where to look. Definitely worth the visit! On the outskirts of the Old Town there is the Florian Gate and the Barbican, which were defensive bastion built in 1498...very medieval looking.


Florian Gate


St. Mary's Church


Inside


Streets leading up to the Old Town Square


Cloth Hall in the middle of the Old Town Square


Cafe's lining the square


Town Hall Tower


Church of SS Peter and Paul

I also toured around Wawel Castle and Cathedral which was situated on a hill overlooking Krakow. I wasn’t able to take a tour of all the castle but did manage a one hour tour of the royal apartments. I was pretty disappointed that we couldn’t take pictures so I can’t show how amazing the rooms were decorated. I really enjoyed looking at the wood work of the ceilings and the doors, pretty intricate. There was a church on the grounds as well that had a bunch of famous Polish kings and diplomats buried down in the crypt. No pictures were allowed to be taken in the church...of course.


Castle grounds


Wawel Cathedral


Overlooking Krakow from the Castle

Finally I have to talk about the food there. I was super pumped to be able to eat perogies two days in a row. They were fabulous for sure! I also had some borscht which I can’t believe I did as I hated it as a kid, but have grown to like it and the stuff I had in Krakow tasted close to how my mom makes it. All in all it was a great time and I highly suggest to anyone coming to Europe to go and check out Krakow!