Day 7: Auschwitz & Krakow

Hello families! 

Lindsey Grant here! Today is our full day in Poland and we started it off with an early morning; waking up at 5:30 am. We then headed to Aushwitz-Birkenau. This was a very emotional time for many of us including me. We have all learned so much about the holocaust but the feeling of being at the camps is indescribable. After the camps, we returned to the center of Krakow where we had free time to explore, shop, and eat. I had some amazing pirogies and did plenty of shopping. We then toured some sights in Krakow like the Jewish Quarter; including a famous Ghetto. We then w alked to dinner which had some polish lettuce burritos with pork and rice. Then....THE SALT MINES. The salt mines were simply amazing. We climbed down almost 400 stairs to get to the dark and cold mines. We saw some interesting salt technologies and amazing salt sculptures. I then made some regretful purchases of 8 pound salt lamps that use plugs. However, all in all this day was an unforgettable one. Thanks for reading!

-lindsey

 After we left Prague which is the capital city of Czech Republic, we headed to the third biggest city in Poland which is Krakow. After we arrived to Krakow, we had walking tour with local guide Anna and we went to Royal Castle and Cathedral locates by the Vistula River in Krakow. She explained, 95% of Krakow buildings were not bombed during the World War II. Then, we went to Square and we were able to watch Great Dragons Parade luckily which was very interesting.

  On the second day, we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Downtown Krakow, Jewish Quarter and Wieliczka Salt Mines. In Auschwitz, we visited bunch of buildings with actual exhibit such as Jews hairs, poison gas cans, Jews glasses, artificial legs, dishes and a lot of pictures of victims. Also, visited gas chamber and station in the camp. When we arrived to there, we lost our words, I could not believe 1.1 million Jewish people killed in this place during the World War II by Nazi. After visited Auschwitz, we went to the downtown square and we had the freetime so my group decided to climb Town Hall Tower and we enjoyed the view from the top of the building. After the freetime, we visited St. Mary’s Basilica. There were so beautiful stained glass and beautiful shiny statue. And then we headed to Jewish quarter which was used to be Krakow Ghetto. We visited some place of the movie “Schindler’s List”. Main character of the movie, Oskar Schindler save life of 1,200 Jewish people during Holocaust even thought he was German. After those visit, we headed to last place to see in Krakow which is Wieliczka Salt Mine. There is the place that collect salt from underground. We saw a lot of statue made of salt and huge fancy cathedral at Salt Mine in the underground which was amazing.

  Overall, visiting Krakow, Poland was very precious to us because we were able to feel tragic history of Holocaust but we also impressed to beauty of city of Krakow and Salt Mine.

- Leon

This morning, we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau and gained a more profound understanding of the experience of all those subjected to the horrors of the concentration camp. The tour was sobering and humbling as it demonstrated the extent to which hate can rock the lives of millions in such a disgusting and inhumane  manner. After the tour, we went to the main square in krakow. We had a couple hours of free time to explore what the square had to offer like the local food, the views from the towers, and the rich history dating back centuries. After our free time, we regrouped and visited St. Mary’s basilica, a gothic church with foundations in the 13th century. Then we went to krakow’s jewish quarter, where Schindler’s List was filmed, and learned some about its history during the Second World War. Our dinner was in the Jewish quarter and we ate meat and rice wrapped in cabbage which was delicious. Dinner ended and the majority of the group went to the salt mines while a few went separately to a pinball museum. The pinball museum was like a time capsule. It had a multitude of vintage pinball machines and other old arcade games. After the salt mines and the pinball museum, we all headed back to the hotel after a long day in krakow.

- Audrey