I already have been in Poland for 3 days - can't believe it! Our Friday travels went well and nearly each moment has been jam-packed with school activities and tours. It's been great.
The school has done this trip for YEARS and so they have it pretty much down pat. We flew into Czestochowa (chez-toh-HO-va) and went straight to to a giant cathedral there. It was huge, and Poland is such a Catholic country that it’s always pretty crowded with people praying or attending a mass.
Once we finished the cathedral we went straight to dinner and then watched “Schindler’s List” until midnight. We were up again at 6:20 to eat breakfast and get on the road to Krakòw (krAH-kohv). We were actually going specifically to a smaller town first, which is called Oświęcim (Ohs-vEE-cheem). In German, this translates to Auschwitz. The town and the concentration camp we all know are, however, differentiated strictly. One would never call the town "Auschwitz" or the camp "Oświęcim."
Nearly each moment of each day is spent doing something productive. Even on the bus ride to the concentration camps yesterday morning, they put in a documentary for us to watch to prepare ourselves. They really wanted us all to get in the “mood,” or mode of understanding what we were experiencing. I think that coming from a community like Shaker, I was much more aware, concerned, curious, and prepared than others from my class. We saw both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau). Everyone agreed that Auschwitz I was a little more formal and structured than we'd expected; it had brick buildings and was very small. Birkenau was a lot more what we'd seen in photographs and film - wooden barracks, extremely primitive, with holes in the roofing so that snow would fall in. For us, the weather was sunny and mild - they said this is only the second time in over a decade of this trip that it hasn't rained or snowed at Birkenau!
I’m choosing not to really post pictures or notes from Auschwitz for a variety of reasons. I took a pretty thorough amount of “good” photos, especially at Birkenau, but I don’t find it right to post them. I share photos - especially on the blog, which I hope is a happy, uplifting place for those who read it - of experiences that I think are “cool," or funny, or encouraging. Obviously, Auschwitz is none of those things and I don’t want to give the illusion that it is. Although it’s extremely interesting, and very important to learn about, I can not give an appropriate explanation the justice it deserves on that subject here on the blog. I'm not an authority on the subject. If you’d like to see pictures of Auschwitz, please don’t hesitate to email me and I will send you the photos I took and explain the copious notes I made during the visit as well. It’s definitely valuable to learn about and to see, I just don’t think my blog is an appropriate setting for that. For the same reasons, I chose also not to add the photographs to my Facebook album for this trip. So, like I said, if you are interested, I would love to share with you, just in a more direct medium :)
I will share only a photo of a piece of the memorial that lies at Auschwitz Birkenau.
After our tour in Oświęcim ended, we headed to the hotel in Krakòw and checked in. After a brief down period, we headed off to explore before getting dinner on our own. Alex and I headed out with our friend, N, who went to Amsterdam and Interlaken with us. Our friend wanted pierogis, and I figured I'd get fruit and veggies at a mini mart because I avoid eating dough. I didn't want to hinder his experience by going somewhere else. Alex was indifferent - didn't care about pierogis or not.
Before the restaurant, we headed to the river where we saw several random things... River restaurant-boats, a boat with a swimming pool on top, 2 horses along the bike path, a giant floating balloon that was anchored to the ground with a giant cord, and a mini carnival with lots of sketchy-looking rides.
Alex and our friend convinced/forced me to go on "Top Spin," which was a row of seats that turned us upside down. I don't really think my life was necessarily improved by that experience... but it wasn't worsened either!
We finally headed to the pierogi place, which had a van Gogh theme inside. All the walls were bright yellow, with replicas of his work hanging on the walls. The ceiling was Starry Night! I really want to decorate a room like that now...
There were SO MANY pierogi options! We ended up each getting a plate and sharing. I got "Hell's pierogis," which were like a burrito (red beans and corn), Alex got spinach and chicken, and our friend got apple and a kind with coconut and caramel. All were delicious. I actually only had two, and then hollowed a few more out so I wouldn't eat the doughy outside and upset my stomach. Just the insides alone were delicious!
This morning we started by going to our hotel's extremely fancy breakfast, which had just about every breakfast food you could imagine. Then we headed off to see Gestapo prison cells, and then went to the Jewish Quarter, which has been around since the Middle Ages. "Schindler's List" was filmed here, and there were some familiar settings that we just saw in the film.
These steps were used in the film as part of the Jewish ghetto. In the scene in the film, a woman (who we follow throughout the movie) runs down these steps and hides beneath them.
Alex commented that the buildings in this area look like they just went through a war.
We went into the only operating synagogue in the city.
View from the women's section of the synagogue.
Lamborghini?
We're headed here on Tuesday for second night Seder! Just me and Alex and two friends.
We also spotted "Hamsa" where we're headed for dinner tonight with our class. "Hummus and Happiness" sounds like a great thing...
Sorry for the rather rushed post...We are headed off to meet a Holocaust survivor and then dinner! Wanted to share some of our experience today, but will include more details tomorrow!
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