Last weekend, my program took us on a trip to Krakow, Poland, with a visit to Auschwitz as well. Krakow is about a 8-9 hour bus ride away, though it could be faster if the bus didn't drive so slow and we didn't stop every 15 minutes for some reason. But anyway, we met at school about 5 pm on Thursday, boarded the bus for a late night arrival into Krakow, and were on our way.
I'm used to doing some long bus rides from high school, where we had many weekend trips for water polo tournaments. But, this bus was smaller, and definitely more uncomfortable, with less room for people in the seats (and virtually no legroom). We made it to Krakow about 2:30 am, checked into our hostel called Nathan's Villa, and went to sleep for the night.
We woke up Friday (to a freezing cold room, the heat was on and off the whole weekend) and got ready for our walking tour of Krakow. After "breakfast" consisting of bread and jam, we divided into a couple groups and walked around the city. It was smaller than Prague, but some parts of it were similar. For instance, it had a really old castle, an Old Town in the city center, and an Old Town Square. Some parts of Krakow were beautiful, others were more run-down than I've seen.
The Castle in Krakow; Andrew and I in Old Town Square
After the tour, I got a recommendation from our tour guide for some good pierogis. It was about a ten minute walk away, but somehow we found the place, and yes, it was worth it. I ordered some kind of fried beef and cabbage pierogi with my zloty (the Polish currency), and it was very good. But, it was cheap, and I was craving some regular potato ones as well, so I ordered some more. Those were amazingly good, just how they should taste in my opinion.
Delicious lunch in a somewhat traditional Polish place.
For the afternoon, we had a tour of the Jewish town of Krakow and the old Jewish ghetto (most of the area is called Kazmieritz). This was pretty fascinating to me, because although Prague had some Jews before the Holocaust, Poland had a LOT of Jews and a thriving community. It was kind of bizarre to walk through parts of this area, because although there still is a Jewish community in Krakow, it is only a fraction of what it once was.
We saw old synagogues, the Jewish cemetary, the location of where the Jewish restaurants are/ and also used to be, and a few other important buildings. Crossing the river, we entered the old Jewish ghetto from World War II. For the most part, you really couldn't tell it was a ghetto except where the memorial to the deported Jews was.
Me and Litsey inside on old synagogue; our guide Marek in the Jewish cemetery
This memorial was quite interesting. It was in the plaza where the Jews had to leave their belongings and board the train for deportation, mostly to Auschwitz. There were empty chairs lined up all along this plaza. I think it symbolized the empty places at tables where the Jews would not return, but like many memorials, interpretation is really up to the individual. We finished the tour by going to Oscar Schindler's factory, where he saved so many Jews and was immortalized in Spielberg's film.
The ghetto memorial, and part of the remaining ghetto wall.
The night got pretty interesting, however. As we walked home from this tour, we passed an active temple in Krakow, and I started to have my first real regret in Europe, which was not going to services. The music was loud, it sounded like a reform congregation from the tunes and liveliness, and there was a sign on the door saying it was full. This surprised me on two accounts: that there was possibly a reform congregation, and that it was full.
At one point, I even put my ear close to the wall and listened, wishing I could see what it was like inside. When the usher started to look at me funny, I just said Shabbat Shalom and joined the rest of my group walking home. By this time, I was kind of sad I hadn't looked into this possibility sooner. We also passed the JCC in Krakow, where there were tables set with challah and a Friday night meal. Again, I wished I had had prior arrangements.
But, all was not lost. I ran into another friend from my program, Dave, and he said that he was actually going to meet up with Hannah and Rachel (from my program), who said they were going to Friday night dinner at the JCC and anyone could come. Really? Yes, he said, apparently.
So, we turned around and headed back towards the Jewish area. At the entrance to dinner, which was now more full of people who were there for the meal, we told the guy that we thought our friends were there somewhere. Without asking for any money or checking ID or anything, he told us okay, go up to the third floor.
Shortly thereafter, we found the girls and sat down in the middle of the room for Friday night dinner. The Jewish community there provides dinner free apparently for anyone, and it was great. There was plenty of challah to go around, which was the key factor of course.
Sitting across from us at the table, we met Janek, a Polish Jew from outside of Krakow who was visiting the city for the weekend with his son's high school class. From the hints we got from other people around the table, he seemed to be a pretty important guy, some kind of scholar of Eastern European Jewry and someone who does a lot of work with cemetery preservation, etc. He had been to the town in the Ukraine where Dave's great-great-grandfather had worked in the Vodka factory. He knew of the small village in Poland where Hannah's grandmother had come from before WWII. It was all kind of surreal, and a bit freaky.
Dinner at the JCC! Three of the four of us sitting at the table.
He invited us to come walking with them after dinner, and at this point, of course we couldn't say no. Plus, Hannah really wanted to find some chocolate Babka, and Janek seemed to have a couple ideas. Thus, the journey called Babka began.
We wandered around most of the same areas we had been during the day, but this time Janek had his own stories and take on the buildings. He was a really interesting guy to listen to, and he certainly liked talking. We walked back across the ghetto, which was even creepier at night, and finally across the Iron Bridge, where the Nazis filmed some of their propaganda videos. As he walked us back to the hostel, he tried to teach Hannah a Polish good-bye song (mostly unsuccessful), and tried to get Hannah to teach him an American one. He really liked talking, and after all, what good-bye doesn't take 30 minutes? Eventually, we all just said Laila Tov (good night), and Hannah and Janek exchanged e-mails.
It was just so strange and wonderful to see a person and a Jewish community so accepted halfway across the world. They had no way of knowing who we are, but the community was finally feeling safe in Krakow to allow people to come in, to wear Yamekahs/Keepot around the city, and to embrace strangers. It was something I will not surely forget. Oh, and we never did find that Babka, hmm. We hung out at the hostel that night because we didn't want to be too tired for the next day...
Which was our visit to Auschwitz. What can I really say about it? It was awful. It was hard to be there. It was deeply saddening. It was disgusting and cruel. It was scary. It was huge (at least Birkenau, the death camp, was enormous). It looked, for the most part, like the pictures I had seen and studied for so long. It was a lot what I expected, but some things I didn't, like the cells for punishment where you had to stand, or where you couldn't breath and died of suffocation, or where you hung with your arms twisted so that your shoulders dislocated.
Auschwitz I, the Concentration Camp. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the Death Camp.
At this point, it's hard for me to figure out how much I should write about in this blog, what I'm comfortable with. I guess I'll just say one of the more memorable and horrifying things that our guide told us when we were in Birkenau. We were visiting the wooden barracks and "toilet" areas, which were mostly reconstructed because most the death camp was either destroyed by the Nazis to cover their tracks or had fallen apart because it was so shabby (not intended to be comfortable, obviously).
Our guide told us that one thing the prisoners hated the most were the rats (and this was something I had never really been told before, despite classes, learning, etc.). She said the camp inmates always tried to fall asleep as soon as they could so that they didn't have to feel the rats crawling all over them, and see their blankets "moving" as they were infested with insects. If a prisoner died in his sleep, he or she would often wake up with no nose or ears because the rats would eat you. If a mother had a baby, she could only keep the baby for so long with the Nazis noticing, and often they would put the baby on the floor outside the barracks, defenseless, to be eaten by the rats. And, there were a lot of rats, because with so much human flesh there was an ample food supply.
It's an awful story. Something that will hopefully never again happen.
As we ended the tour beside the ruins of Gas Chamber #2 and the monument of despair in the back of the death camp, our guide made sure to tell us that whenever we see injustice in the world, think of this place and act. It was a saddening experience. As I walked toward the entrance back toward our bus (which looked eerily like the pictures, and reminded me of a mouth with two eyes swallowing people - the mouth opening was where the railway entered the camp to the unloading platform), I quietly said the Kaddish and hoped I never really had to come back there again. This was a place where between 1.1 and 1.5 million people were murdered, one of the biggest graveyards in the world.
Alright, enough of that. It is even hard to write that, let alone think about it.
I fell asleep almost immediately on the bus ride back, which was good because I needed to be at peace for a little bit. Back in Krakow, we walked around for a bit, found dinner at a pizza place, and tried to figure out plans for the night. Though it was a tough morning, we were only in Krakow one weekend so wanted to go out and see what the nightlife was like. Most of our program started out at the hostel bar for a bit, then headed out to various clubs. We found some club called Diva, and it was actually a pretty good time. Late that night, we returned back to the hostel and fell asleep.
Sunday, on the way home, we stopped for a couple hours in a famous salt mine near Krakow. This mine was something like 500 years old, which is crazy to think about. Most of the chambers we saw were on the upper levels of the mine, carved out by hand before power tools were available. Though the mine was no longer active, as of about 15 years ago, it was incredible. There were actually underground meeting rooms, churches, dining areas, and more in this place. There was a lake that was apparently saltier than the Dead Sea. There was a huge cathedral-like church, 200 feet underground, that still held mass every Sunday morning!
I'm only pretending to lick the wall, don't worry; the underground cathedral was amazing.
We stayed at the mine longer than we should have after the tour, as everyone was getting restless. The bus ride home took forever, and was not helped by the fact we stopped too frequently and for too long. Finally, we made it home, and I watched the health care debate for a couple hours before bed.
This weekend was a bit tough to be gone. Between missing March Madness and not getting to see all the health care coverage (I can now, because I can watch CNN/C-Span online and such, but not in Poland) I was a little bit homesick. But of course, I'm happy to be here.
Yesterday marked the beginning of the most beautiful week of weather. It is in the low 60s and sunny and has the bluest sky I've ever seen. Last night after class, I went for a run along the Vltava (the river through Prague) and it was stunning. The castle was glowing, and buildings were all glistening in the sun, people were out walking or riding their bikes or touring, and I literally ran right next to the water nearly the entire time. I am going to LOVE spring and summer here in Prague so much. This city becomes transformed, it's wonderful.
That's about all for now. Thursday Evan, Mark, and Caleb come from Tel Aviv, and Friday Lauren and Michael come from London! It is going to be a party at my flat this weekend with some of my best friends. Hopefully blog before the fun starts!
Hezky Den!
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