Day two in Krakow

I’m glad I didn’t hire a car Today we have to be up pretty early for our Auschwitz tour and are experiencing the hotel breakfast by about 6:45am, we must be the first ones down for breakfast as it is deserted, even the staff were no where to be seen. The Hotel Galaxy breakfast I thought was actually really good! They have fried breakfast options, cold meats and cheeses, a huge selection of bread and rolls, cereals, fruit, yoghurts, tea, coffee and juices. I mainly stuck with scrambled egg on toast to fill me up for the day and I pretty much had 3 plates full.

We are a bit early but decide to head outside the hotel for some fresh air and to wait for our pick up. The air is certainly fresh and there is a minivan sitting outside that Ashleigh says “I think that is for us” I’m like “nah it will be a coach not a little minivan” after waiting outside for 15 minutes a guy steps out the minivan looking at us and says “Auschwitz Tour?” Ash just smugly looks at me. The guy introduces himself as Patrick and says hello... but that is about it for the rest of our conversation of the day. We have to sit up front, which was good to see a lot more of the drive however it was very cramped up front even with us both being small. We picked up another older couple and then a group of 4 (who were running friends, who had just done the Krakow half marathon the day before) We make our way out of Krakow, which was certainly an experience, driving through the city Patrick had to dodge not only the other cars but lots of roadworks, trams that wiz past, tourists crossing the multiple zebra crossings (the ones we couldn’t work out yesterday) along with scooters and bicycles, I’m glad I didn’t hire a car. On the drive from Krakow to Oswiecim, (where Auschwitz is situated) we loved looking at all the different houses, they are all so unique and very few look similar apart from the fact that they all have chickens in the gardens. There is lots of farm lands and woods and it was a very picturesque drive. It took about an hour and half to drive from Krakow, but we did have a little bit of traffic.

Auschwitz

When we arrive we were dropped off at the front and we’re told "the tour started in 20 minutes, so feel free to have a wander around and then meet at the front in 20 minutes" There was a few memorials outside with survivors story’s which was well worth a read. We were given green stickers to indicate which group we were in, so we start our tour and we go through a security check and are then given headphones and a receiver so we can hear our tour guide who is called Lucas. We start the tour at the front gate which reads ‘Arbeit macht frei‘ translating to ‘work sets you free’ almost a sadistic joke.

We walk through the sign and make our way to the block where Lucas gives us a basic understanding of the origins and logistics of how things happened at Auschwitz. We enter block 4 and learn about how many people perished at the camp, these are however approximate numbers as during the end of the war the nazis started destroying as much evidence as possible, so no one knows the exact numbers. It was very interesting to see a map of where jews had been deported from, I assumed that most were from Central Europe, as during a war it must has been difficult to transport people, however jews were deported from much further out than I originally thought, as far as Oslo and southern Spain. We also were told about some of the reasons they were deported, their so called ‘crimes’ Some were taken to Auschwitz for listening to a foreign broadcast (BBC) some for having anti Germany views. Upstairs in this block was one of the more shocking elements of the tour, a huge pile of human hair, as well as a huge display of shoes, there were so many yet this was only a tiny fraction maybe less than 1%.

Block 11

Next we headed towards another block which showed the living conditions, hardly living conditions most slept on the floor with straw as a mattress, some had sacks as a blanket. It also had photos of men and woman who perished at the camp, it had their deported date and date of death. Most woman lasted only a few months and most men just under a year. Seeing all the faces was so harrowing. The next part is block 11. This is where not only the cells are located but also the ‘death wall’ it’s honestly unspeakable in there. There are starvation cells and also standing cells where 4/5 were made to stand (it’s the size of a telephone booth) this was on top of a 10/12 hour working day. After the horrors of block 11, we then saw the gallows where prisoners who tried to escape (or escaped and were caught) were hung. The tour guide never mentioned it from what I have read it was normally other prisoners who were made to carry this out. One of the last parts of the tour was perhaps the most shocking part for me which was walking through the gas chambers. I’m not going to write in detail how the SS conducted this but walking those same steps inside  the chamber was so emotional. I shed a few tears inside thinking about the inhumane events that happened inside.

Birkennau

After the first part of the tour was over and we had a bit of time before we had to head over to Birkennau for the second half. I forgot Ashleigh was wearing headphones and told her I was going back to the front sign which was just up ahead. I waited a few minutes to try and get a better photo and when I headed to the exit, she was running around with the guide who were looking for me thinking I had got lost. Before we leave we head to the toilet, worth noting the only one in Auschwitz will cost you 2 zloty (around 40p) we were given lunch by our driver, which consisted of a cheese and tomato roll and a bottle of water. We then had to wait on the group of runners who were no where to be seen. When the driver returned with them, he then frantically drove off to Birkennau, which is around a 5 minute car drive from Auschwitz. As we arrived he pulls over on the side of the road and pretty much chucks us out. I wondered what was going on then I realised that the whole tour was waiting for us (bloody runners) The first thing we see waking into Birkenau is the train tracks that lead directly into the camp.

The second thing is the size of it, it was actually horrifying how big this place is. I knew Birkenau was larger than Auschwitz but I think most of the tour were shocked just how far it went in every direction.

It was intimidating, even seeing the scale of it here being dropped of as a tourist was unsettling. We walk into the very centre where the selections took place and there is a train cart here to show us the size that these 'cattle carts' were. We had learnt about this earlier, there were so many people inside that there wasn’t space to sit, how there was only one small window, how the doors were locked from the outside and how no food or water was given, how the journey on average could take 4 days and that there was no toilets. Most people didn’t even make the horrific journey to get here.

Those that did make it were then separated to the left and to the right. Mainly it was the woman, children, the old or the disabled that were selected to make the long walk over to ‘showers’ at the beginning most wouldn’t have suspected that this would be their final walk before the gas chambers, but closer to the end there were a lot more rumours surrounding the camps and a lot of people would have know what this had meant. We make the same walk right to the very end of Birkenau, to where the chambers were (these were blown up by the SS, at the end of the war so you can only see the ruins) This was a long walk, very eerie treading in the same place that so many were made to walk. When we get to the ruins of the chambers there is a huge sculpture at the end that was made after the war to remember all those who perished. We are told about how the The gas chambers worked, how they were made to look so convincingly like a shower room that most wouldn’t have suspected a thing until the Zyklon B crystals were dropped in. We then walk all the way to the opposite end (it’s worth noting that is you are debating doing this tour, Birkenau is a lot of walking on uneasy ground) at the end we enter ‘The block of death’ this is where any sick or weak prisoners where taken. It felt cramped inside when there was around 30 of us in there and our guide tells us that there could have been around 400 people inside. They were given no food or water, it was a wooden block with no heating and most people who came here wouldn’t last the night. When we left and was at the end of the tour, Lucas gave us a last talk, where he spoke about why is is important to come here. He said this tour is a good thing, that even though monstrous events took place in these camps, it is history, it is knowledge and it’s so important that it is never forgotten. He spoke about how he has never experienced true hunger and how most of us live very privileged lives and it’s important to remember that. Its important if we are moaning about a small problem in our life, that in the grand scheme of things it’s probably pretty insignificant. We left the tour and headed back to our bus and we’re almost kinda lost for words about everything. I think it’s quite a lot to process and it’s so hard to actually imagine ... even knowing everything that happens here, even being here and walking the same steps and seeing where these things actually happened... it’s so far from anything we could relate to that it’s truly hard comprehend. This May seems like a strange description but I found Auschwitz- Birkenau eye opening, horrific, fascinating and strangely the weirdest part is that where so much time has past, the area/land around the camp is beautiful. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned already but the weather in Krakow is beautiful, clear skies and sunny, although the mornings have been slightly chilly by mid day it is hot. Like really hot, I never thought I would need sun cream in Poland during mid October. It’s so hard to think that these horrific events took place in the middle of the breathtaking scenery.

anyone who is afraid of heights.. .don’t look down

We get on our bus and one of the runners asks if she could sit at the front as she gets car sick, being polite we just kindly agreed and moved our stuff, but I suddenly think 'oh crap, I’m a idiot, I also get car sick' luckily the drive isn’t that bad and the afternoon part of our tour takes us to Wieliczka, which is where the Salt mines are. We have about 50 minutes to wait here, so we eat the Milka cookies we had bought from the supermarket yesterday (which were delicious) and then walk around the park (which was very pretty) Being October, all the orange and yellow leaves in the trees mixed with the bright blue sky just looks amazing.

We also make use of the free toilet (which seems to be rare in Poland) although the queue for the woman’s is pretty long. We then make our way to the start of the tour and are given our headphones. This is just one ear bud that is pretty uncomfortable and doesn’t work particularly well. We enter the building and are taken down the stairs. We are told there are a lot of stairs (and she wasn’t wrong) the guide says avoid looking at your feet because you will become dizzy and anyone who is afraid of heights.. .don’t look down. I stupidity look down, it is endless and is really unsettling. It is also impossible to not look at your feet while walking down an eternity of stairs. It’s worth noting that I don’t like heights and I don’t like caves, so when we finally get to the bottom and are told the is the first decent of 3 I keep quiet to Ash, but I am secretly hating it.

Don’t get my wrong the Salt mines are crazy impressive and most of it blew me away, but for the first 20 minutes I felt a bit uneasy and didn’t really take a lot of it in. After a while you do kinda forget about how far down you are and we learnt about the history and origins of the mines, how they operate and saw lots of super impressive carved statues from the salt. We then were asked if we would like to check if it’s salt, so I went up to the wall and gave it a lick. Yep, definitely salt. Everything's salt

The next section, we went down further and although I had kinda gotten how deep we were, I don’t think my legs had. As we walked down, my legs were like jelly and I almost had to force each leg to move down each step, this felt like a very long walk down. We saw a small salt chapel and then next was a gigantic hall carved from the mine which was one of the most impressive parts of the tour. I would say however that it is very religious down here and there were only so many religious statues carved out of salt I could look at. We had descended again further and walked a very long way all over the mines and the tour guide tells us just how big the mines are and that this 2 hour tour will not even cover 1% of them. We of course are taken through a gift shop before we walk a very long way to the lift back up (thankfully we don’t have to go back up the steps) the lift takes a matter of seconds to climb up hundreds of flights and as we exit the tour the sun is setting over Wieliczka and it looks amazing everywhere. During the tour, our guide was constantly saying “you see this.. guess what it is... Salt” “this over here is made out of salt” “the tiles your walking on ... Salt” Me and ash were really hoping at the end she would say “Thanks for listening I’ve been your tour guide and guess what .... I’m actually Salt” she then disappears and there is just a small pile of salt on the floor. Sadly though this didn’t happen. serious pizza envy

As stated on our booking, we had to pay the driver of this whole day in cash so me and Ash already had the right amount separated and so did the older couple, the group of 4 runners however didn’t and it was like trying to watch a drunk table pay the bill at the end of a meal. It took forever at the guide looks at use and just rolls his eyes. Because we are the first drop of we have to sit back at the front again, and the drive back only takes about 30 minutes to get back to Krakow. We desperately need food and do not want to make the half our walk into the centre, so we head to a Pizza Hut up the road and have the best pizza with cream cheese and mozzarella stuff crust, we share this and the couple sitting across from us has serious pizza envy. I was debating getting one each but even sharing we were super full. With a belly full of pizza the only logical thing to do would be head back to the hotel and go in the spa. We got talking to an Irish man in the hot-tub about our trip to Auschwitz and what we thought, relaxed in the Sauna again and then went up to our room. I look through polish tv channel and end up watching the last 5 minutes of Polish Love Island Final and the 5 minutes of Polish Power Rangers before crashing out asleep.