Krakow

I spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Krakow, Poland. Getting there and going back were stories in themselves. What a fantastic weekend. The best way I can handle describing it is just by jumping into Part I.

Part I: A brief summary of convincing reasons to reside permanently in Krakow

1. This is the square where my hotel was located. This picture sums up my Polish experience for me: visually rich, hearty (notice the depiction of plump soldiers who clearly must have been as full of Polish dumplings, or pierogi, as I was one night when I foolishly asked a Polish waitress what would be the most food), and full of pride over a history of names that I will never remember let alone be able to pronounce.

2. Honestly, this really might be the most compelling reason. The above cake is a cherry / chocolate layer cake with full (possibly black) cherries in it. It ranks among the best chocolate treats I've ever had. The combination of that cake with espresso cost me the equivalent of 2.40 U.S. dollars.

3. Krakow is small, and it is really a home. This market is just down the street from the square pictured above, which itself is only a 5-10 minute walk from the heart of the city. Hundreds of people were buying fresh fruits, vegetables, and all types of meat from (I assume) local farmers / vendors. It really felt neat to be among them.

Part II: The main reason I went to Krakow

It was a very pretty day on Friday when I went to see Auschwitz-Birkenau, the well-known combination of concentration camp and death camp to which nazi prisoners were sent in World War II. I didn't know what to expect. Perhaps some people go because they want the reminder of what happened. Perhaps some people want to feel something specific. I think I went because I wanted to say I'd been there--not just from a touristy perspective, but I guess maybe in some way to be able to lay a legitimate claim to my own personal connection to the place. I've studied the Holocaust, I've been to the museum in D.C. several times, and I've run through most of the emotions I'm capable of having about the idea of what happened. In light of my background with the subject, my visit became more about what it means to visit than a reconnection with the story itself.

Don't get me wrong--it's not easy to visit the place. But my thoughts were with the contrast between the horror of what happened and the visual of present-day visitors. The above picture is not an upscale townhome complex--it's Auschwitz I, the converted Polish military barracks that originally housed nazi prisoners until many were moved to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) later in WWII. It is noteworthy that these prisoners were largely Polish political prisoners at first and that Jews started to comprise the majority of the population there later.

This man was our guide--a man who had obviously done this many, many times. Not only was he knowledgeable, but it seemed as though he'd found an impossible emotional balance between delivering the same depressing information over and over yet not disconnecting himself from it--and instead delivering it with just enough personal sadness to invite the group to participate in it with him. The diagram he is presenting belongs to Block 11, the infamous prison block in Auschwitz I. In addition to a starvation chamber and a standing-chamber (where prisoners were forced to stand the entire night in cramped quarters before working all the next day, for days on end), the basement housed the first trials of execution by gas at Auschwitz.

It was odd to move freely and without mention through a hole in these fences as our tour moved from one location to another.

This is the main gate to Birkenau, the massive expansion of the Auschwitz camp (located some 3 km away) that provides the normal picture of "Auschwitz" that people think of.

These train tracks were designed to maximize efficiency in transporting prisoners--they run straight to the middle of the camp. In the foreground is a makeshift memorial.

Traveling with a group was interesting. I found myself getting annoyed at inopportune laughter, inopportune conversation in general, and even emotion when it seemed like people were trying to squeeze sadness out of their visit in order to make it what they wanted it to be. But, if I can't control that kind of impulse on a trip whose primary message is "we are all people who must live together," then I'm in real trouble. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there. I think it accomplished the vague goal that I had in mind.

Part III: Quirks of the city that don't necessarily qualify as primary reasons to establish permanent residence

I visited the castle on Saturday morning--Krakow is the historic capital of Poland, where all the old kings lived. You're not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so I mainly just have some nice shots of the courtyard. There were lots of fancy tapestries, medieval weapons, and tombs of important Polish kings. I think the one bit of history that stuck with me after 3 hours of saturation was that Polish kings have a knack for stopping Turkish invasion at a point when it really matters. It sounded like something to be proud about.

Later that day, I went to one of the coolest places I've ever been--the salt mine at Wieliczka, a nearby town. Formed by the evaporation of water from trapped underground saltwater lakes over millions of years, this pure rock-salt formation is one of only a handful of such mines in the world. 140 meters under the ground at some points, I was able to verify for myself that the walls were indeed made of salt. I just made sure to sample the parts that shorter people couldn't reach, just in case the salt didn't kill all the bacteria. The above picture is a set of mannequins that is supposed to depict the first public visitors to the mine--the guide joked that they actually were visitors who got lost in the mine but that the salt preserved them for a hundred years. He wasn't completely joking about the preservation effect--there were original wooden carvings from the 1600's in the mine that haven't lost their paint.

The "miners" in the mine don't extract salt anymore--the mine stopped actively producing a few years ago. Now, they mostly carve artwork within the mine for the public to enjoy. This is a really fantastic copy of The Last Supper--it's only a few inches deep.

The main "market square." I find this square much more appealing than the main square in Prague, even though there were probably twice or three times as many tourists here during peak hours.

Some entertainment in the market square--this is the grand finale of the performance. He had been going for quite a few seconds before I started the film.

For all you public affairs fans out there: I was so impressed by this display sponsored by the local government--it had descriptions of revenues and outlays over time and in different sectors. Each panel after the first few summary panels had more descriptive information about each sector of spending. People really did stop to read them--it was in a pretty central location in the city park, and even I, a non-resident, felt engaged.

This is a synagogue from the 1600's, located in the historic Jewish district of Kazimierz. The nazis burned the synagogue's Torah and painted over these frescoes when they took control of the territory. Historians had to wait until the end of communist rule to begin the process of recovering whatever they could.

Part IV: The part that makes me want to title this entire post: "Two train trips with a city in between"

On the way to Krakow, there was a big mix-up with the trains going to Poland. It seemed like all of Eastern Europe was flooded that Thursday, and many trains were having a hard time going their normal routes. I heard English voices confused, like I was, about where to find a specific car on a new train that pulled up. I joined them in their quest to find it, and ultimately we sat together and bonded a bit. I found out that they were from Texas, on a family vacation to Eastern Europe. We made plans to get dinner before we all left on Sunday night, and wouldn't you know it, we had the exact same train car on the way out of Krakow, too. They were great folks to spend time with, and they made the 6-hour-turned-12-hour trip to Krakow far more than tolerable. There's a sneak peak at some Russian pierogi in the bottom left corner.

Speaking of Russians, I shared the sleeper cabin with a really nice one on the way back to Bratislava. He is from Kamchatka, a territory I know only from playing the board game Risk. He invited me to come stay at his place sometime, and I felt honored--until he told me that he invites everyone he meets on his travels with the safe assumption that no one will ever go that far into northeast Russia. I have half a mind to surprise him one day and just go there.

This past weekend was super tiring. Waking up on a train is a lot of fun, especially when the sun has just risen and the wind is blowing through the window. Staying awake the whole day after that moment is not quite as fun. I'm looking forward to Budapest this upcoming weekend--I will be traveling with Monika, my colleague from UGA who arrived at the office a week ago.