Pages

Sunday, July 27, 2014

You've got a Gypsy Soul to Blame...

These past three weeks have been great because I've finally gotten to travel a bit! First, I went to Krakow, Poland and the weekend after I was off to Budapest, Hungary. It feels really good to be traveling again. Prior to these trips, I had only visited Vienna, Austria (twice!) since being in Prague, and both of those trips were for visa stuff. Which reminds me...I finally have a visa and a work permit, so I am officially legal to live and work here! Yay!

My weekend trip to Krakow was great. Honestly, the main reason I wanted to visit Krakow was to take a trip to Auschwitz. Other than that, I was pretty ill informed about the actual city itself. My traveling buddy Tori and I took a night train to Krakow, which was about an 8 and 1/2 long trip. We booked the train because, A.) we thought we could sleep on the train and B.) it was cheap. Well, weren't we in for a surprise when we found our seats. The seats were broken up into different carriages that seated eight people per carriage. I say the word "seats" lightly. They were basically glorified benches. I half expected the dude from Eurotrip to be sitting next me massaging my back and saying, "mi scusi, mi scusi". Thankfully, the people in our carriage were awesome and we ended up drinking most of the night and playing Cards Against Humanity. By the time we arrived to Krakow, I was still a bit intoxicated and tried to take out a ton of money at the ATM because I didn't understand Polish currency. (Just giving Americans a good name, as usual). When we were finally able to check into our hostel, we took a well deserved nap and then explored the city. Krakow exceeded my expectations. The city center was beautiful and the streets were full of life. We saw a parade and a few shows just walking down the streets. Tori and I visited Oskcar Schindler's Factory, which was extremely interesting. Each room had a different sort of "theme" and made you feel like you were back in that time period. It was eye-opening and made me even more anxious to visit Auschwitz. 

The next day, Tori and I took an hour long bus ride to Auschwitz. Even though our tour group was huge, it was still a really enlightening experience. Some of the things that I saw were almost unbelievable. There were piles and piles of suitcases, shoes, kitchen utensils, etc. that belonged to the many victims of the camps. The most disturbing thing that I saw was a giant pile of human hair. Everyone who came into the camps had to get their hair cut, which resulted in tons and tons of human hair. It was a really eerie experience, knowing that I was in a place that became a living nightmare for so many. I stood in a gas chamber where people unknowingly were murdered after being told they were going to take a shower. Seeing the little holes in the ceiling of the building where the gas was dropped down was almost too much to bear. How did something this horrific and cruel go on? It was very bizarre to be in the same place that I have read, researched, and learned so much about in my short lifetime. I was at such a distinguishing place in human history that I don't think it really sunk in until after I was back in Prague. People kept asking me how my experience visiting Auschwitz was. I couldn't find the right words to accurately describe it. Amazing? No. Awesome? No. All those words seemed like a disrespectful way to describe such an important place in history. Honestly, I'm still not sure how to describe my visit to Auschwitz. But I can say this. Visiting Auschwitz was very eye-opening and almost unbelievable experience. I think that everyone should visit at least once in their life to understand the horror of events that occurred there and to make sure that something like this never happens again.