Save the Best for Second to Last?

I'm exhausted.  My legs are literally pulsing.  I'm a little sun burnt.  I haven't slept in about 30 hours.  I couldn't be happier.

This trip to Poland was by far my favorite since being in Europe.  I don't even know exactly why I liked it so much.  I think it was a combination of the incredible weather, the amazingly beautiful city, and me doing my first solo trip.

But let's start at the beginning...

Who can guess what I did Thursday morning?  If you've read any other posts, you probably guessed correctly because it happens a lot:  I took an early morning shuttle bus to the airport!  The flight to Krakow was about 2.5 hours and on the way in I got to see some amazing snow peaked mountains.  After arriving, I got on the bus that went into town and found my hostel.

Old Town Square

By the time I checked in, I had to quickly drop my backpack off and head into the old town square (about 20 feet from my hostel) to meet up with the free walking tour of the old town.  Apparently all tour guides in Poland have to actually be Polish so it was nice to get a locals perspective on things.  We headed to the major spots around old town and learned about Poland's history.  I didn't know much beforehand besides all of the World War II history so it was nice to know that wasn't the only thing that happened in Krakow.

After the tour, I had nothing planned for the rest of the day so I just wandered around.  I walked by some amazing churches, saw a band playing on the square (had no idea what they were saying as all the lyrics were in Polish), and just sat in different places, people watching.

As said earlier, this was my first completely solo trip and I wasn't sure how I was feeling about it that night.  I like to be by myself but also like to have someone to talk to and experience the same things that I am so that someone knows what you went through.  Looking at pictures with someone is not the same as having them there with you.  My only other issue with traveling alone is eating.  Like I said, I am normally fine doing things on my own but I cannot bring myself to eat at a sit down place alone.  There's just something about it...I can't do it.  However,  I learned that it's really nice to travel alone because you can do whatever you want and no one is going to complain or want to do something else.  I think traveling alone also forces you to get to know a place really well, really fast.  You don't have someone to rely on which places all the emphasis on yourself.  After my first night of walking around, I felt like I knew the old town area of the city quite well.  It was just that first night where I wasn't a huge fan of not having a friend around but after that, I got over it and would love to go somewhere else alone sometime!

On Friday morning, I got picked up by the shuttle group I had booked the previous week and we took about an hour drive to Auschwitz I.  On the way, we watched a documentary about the Holocaust, focusing on Auschwitz.  It was really disturbing.  We got to the camp and were lead by a Polish tour guide around the first camp.  The most intense part was seeing the massive piles of human hair, glasses, shoes, brushes, and many other things that were collected from the murdered victims.  The line our tour guide said that really got me was, "They were not humans.  They were numbers."

Auschwitz I

Auschwitz I

After walking around the camp, we hopped back in the car and made the 3km drive to Auschwitz II - Birkenau which was used as the extermination camp.  The camp was massive.  I believe the tour guide said that it held 90,000 people at one point.  We saw how horrible the living conditions were for those who were "fortunate" enough to be used as laborers and also saw the iconic railroad tracks leading into the camp.  I got chills standing in the middle platform in the exact spot where the prisoners would get sorted after they got off the train.  If the officer's thumb pointed to the right, he thought you looked fit enough to work.  Get a point to the left and you were sent to a gas shower.  I didn't know that many prisoners believed they were going to be taking an actual shower.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau

 The experience at both camps was heartbreaking.

Let's try and lighten the mood a little.  I got back into town and after a quick break headed into the Jewish District, which is just south of old town, in search of a zapiekanka which Wikipedia defines as "a Polish halved baguette or bread topped mainly with mushrooms and cheese."  Mine had salami and garlic sauce.  Not the healthiest thing in the world but SO good and very filling!  I did some more walking around in the district and then around the river.  For lack of better words, it was super chill.

Zapiekanka!

The next morning I headed up to Wawel Cathedral and looked around inside.  There were some amazing views but pictures weren't allowed in the main area.  I also got to climb up the Sigismund bell tower inside of the cathedral.  The bell was cool on its own but the climb up to it was so much fun!  It was kind of like being inside a giant, wooden tree house with narrow openings and lots of winding stairs.

Wawel Castle/Cathedral

Right after the cathedral I caught a bus to Wieliczka in order to see the salt mine.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but Eimear told me it was a must do.  She was right!  I really like caves and so this was right up my alley.  There were some amazing sculptures made out of salt and the mine itself was great!  The most impressive part was seeing the Chapel of St. King which I think the tour guide said is the biggest underground chapel in the world.

Chapel of St. King

Back in Krakow I walked around the Jewish District some more and then called it an early day because I was so tired from all the walking.

On my last day, Sunday, I headed out on the 2.5 mile walk to the Kościuszko Mound.  It was a beautiful walk along the river and then up a steady incline until I hit the pretty obvious mound.  Getting to the top rewarded me with the best view of any I've seen of a city.  Definitely worth it!  I then went into the museum but wasn't that impressed and decided to head back to town.

Kościuszko Mound behind the wall.

At this point I decided I needed to eat and would suck up my fear of eating alone in a sit down restaurant for lunch.  I had heard rumors of this place called U Babci Maliny that was apparently really hard to find but ridiculously cheap (a common theme in Krakow) and delicious.  After scanning TripAdvisor, I found someone who had listed out exactly how to get there and it was great!  This was the first time where there was a serious language barrier.  The person taking my order spoke zero English and I speak zero Polish.  After a lot of gesturing and pointing, I have no idea what I ate but it was really good...something with lots of potatoes, rice, and some sort of meat! 

Next I went inside of St. Mary's Church.  I normally follow the rules when it comes to not taking pictures but I could not resist in here.  This was the most stunning church I've ever been in.

St. Mary's Church.  Picture doesn't do it justice.

With some time to kill before heading to the airport (6 hours) I remembered at the last minute that there was a free walking tour of the Jewish District so I headed over and joined.  This was nice because I got to learn about what I was looking at when I had walked around the last few days.

Holocaust Memorial outside the Jewish District.

After the tour I headed to the airport where I flew to East Midlands Airport in England.  I got in at 12:00 AM and my flight to Dublin wasn't until 6:30 AM so I sat around a nearly empty airport.  I didn't sleep at all so I'm super tired now but it was such a great trip to Poland!  My main reason for going to Krakow was to see Auschwitz but everything else was just as good and I'm so glad I did it all!

I love Krakow!

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Wow that turned out a lot longer than expected.  My trip with Megan starts in a week!  This is the last week of classes.  API farewell event on Saturday.