Krakow, 4-7.4.2016

My stay in Poland continues, but I change city from the capital city to the former capital city, Krakow! On Monday evening I took the direkt train to Krakow.

 5.4 Tuesday

The first day in Krakow started with a morning run at the river Vistula. The weather was more than perfect, felt like summer! I passed buy the Wawel Castle and run to a really nice park, Park Jordana. A perfect start for a perfect day!

I lived in AirBNB flat very close to the old Jewish district, Kazimierz. There are lots of Synagogues, cafes and restaurants in this area. Also the best ice creams from Krakow you can find close to this area, all next to my flat! It is a nice area to walk around.

In the afternoon I decided to go to the old town and take part of a Free walking tour in the old town. It was really hot outside, felt like 30 degrees in the sun! (left): the tower that is left from the old town hall building, which was intentionally demolished in 1820. They say the tower is leaning and maybe in the future it will become an attraction like the leaning tower in Pisa. This tower is one of the main points of the market square. (right): St. Mary's Church, also found close to the market square. This church has two towers that are of different heights. In Krakow they love legends, according to our guide, and there are also stores about this towers. We got to hear the famous trumpet signal, which is played every hour from the taller tower (u.r). This signal, also called Hejnal mariacki, is a short time, that abruptly ends. This is made as a memorial for a famous trumpeter, living in the 13th century, and who was shot in the throat while he was warning about the attack from the Mongols.

Opposite to the basilisk is the cloth Hall, merchant Hall (up). The market square is one of the biggest medieval squares in Europe. (down): one of the most known landmarks in Krakow is this empty head sculpture Eros Bound, made by the artist Igor Mitoraj, who died in 2014. The artists have the sculpture for free for the city and wanted it to be placed in front of a commercial building. There were a lot of critic against this monument, but eventually it was placed in front of the town hall tower. After his dead, even the historians were okay with the sculpture and there was a lot of flowers in 2014 to thank the artist for what he did for the city. Many children like to stick their heads into the eyes of the man, but as our guide told us, we should rather take pictures from outside the sculpture and avoid going inside due to crazy things people get in their minds during the night....

The main gate, the only part of the former wall, that was saved from the former 4km of wall, surrounding the old town. The wall was demolished in the 19th century and today there are parks where the former wall was. This main gate is directed towards the Wawel castle and from here the king and queen came riding in the old times. Outside the gate is one of the tree barbicans that are found in Europe. (d.r): the theatre build in Paris and Vienna-style.

In the afternoon I took the train to Wieliczka Salt Mine where mining started in the middle of the 13th century. I bought a ticket for a guided tour. Before mining they were boiling the water to get salt. Around 1250 there was a shortage of salt and they digged deeper in the earth, finding salty rocks. From this finding they started mining salt in mines and this salt mine was established. Before getting down to the mine the tour started with some exercise: walking 380 steps to the first level of the tourist route, 64 metres deep. 

This town is also really nice! On the photo the main square in Wieliczka.

It was really interesting walking in the mine! There were a lot of sculptures made of salt rocks. Also this statue of Copernicus is to be found in the mine as a memory of him, because also he among many other famous guys, such as Goethe etc, have been visiting the mine. Copernicus visited it in 1493.

Usually the rocks are dark and you can't see the salt as we are used to at home. Sometimes, when the circumstances were good enough for lots of evaporation, the salt could be visible on the rocks as cauliflower salt (d.r). Salt was transported vertically (d.l).

One big danger by working deep in the ground was the release of metan gases and the use of torches. They started making explosions on purpose in order to kill the metan.

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Also horses were kept in the mind for 20 years, last horse living in the mine in 2002. The mine has many levels, all in different depths. There are a lot of Chambers and during this route we visited 20 of them. Some of the chambers have changed names many times deepening on the political situation. Deeper in the mine there is also water and this is used during the mining process. Also artificial lakes are to be found in the depths of the mine. In the mine there are almost 3 km of corridors.

The most WOW chamber was this Chapel of St. King, which was founded in 1896. Amazing having a church for the workers, even deep in the mine!

In the mine they were usually using pinewood in order to avoid corrosion. The white painted walls are not done in order to resemble salt or to look nice. It is made in order to prevent fire of spreading.

Our guide told us that even today there are about 400 minors working, but the productivity is much much lower today than before.

The mine was really amazing and worth visiting! Sunset close to the mine. Down you need to go by feet, together there are 800 steps during the route. Up you go by an old elevator. There is also a possibility to shop and to eat in the underground restaurant.

At the train station on my way back to Krakow main station.

In the evening I went for dinner in a vegan restaurant, cheap but really good quality food! (d.r). I was also invited to an English meeting in a bar, and I had a great evening!
 Traditional food in Krakow are these ring-shaped salty bakeries that can be found in every corner on every Street on Krakow (left). Also Zapiekanka (u.r), sandwich with cheese and mushrooms and ketchup is a traditional snack.

 6.4 Wednesday
I decided to stay in Krakow one more night in order to have time to visit Auschwitz. They organize trips to Auschwitz from Krakow, but these are really expensive! The best way is to go by bus from the bus station in Krakow to Auschwitz, takes about 1.5 hours, then book the guided tour for individuals online and make sure you are there at least 30 minutes before the tour starts. The tours in English were sold out but I got a place in a tour in German that started at 10.30. We were about 25 in our group. This tour starts with a visit in the first of the three main camps: Auschwitz I. We all know about the terror that happened here, read about it at school. But being here, physically, and to have the opportunity to really see and feel it yourself is something really other compared to just listening to the teacher.

This is a map over the two main camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The name of the third was Auschwitz III-Monowitz. On top of this there were almost 50 subcamps. The marked ones on this map are buildings where all the personal stuff from the murdered people were put into. In the end of the war, the SS tried to get rid of the evidences and destroyed the warehouses. Of these blocks 6 were not destroyed and the personal stuff and clothes that can be seen in the blockhouses in Auschwitz I are gathered from these blocks. The name of these warehouses/storages were "Canada", symbolizing the wealthy Western life and countries and also sounded like" keine da" (German), meaning nobody there. After these people where killed there were nobody else left than just their stuff and clothes...

On the upper picture you can see the most famous gate, "Arbeit macht frei". Through this gate thousands of prisoners walked every day in order to work as slaves meny hours a day. All people were counted and the same amount of people should also enter the gate in the end of the day. That is why also the dead bodies were carried inside (d.l). Auschwitz was originally established for polish political prisoners in 1940, due to an overcrowding in the existing prisons. On June the 14th the first political prisoners were brought to Auschwitz, the start of a fund year lasting camp of fear, terror and inhumanity. In the picture to the right is a map over the main prisons and ghettos from where people, prisoners and since 1942 Jews and other nationalities, were isolated and brought to these connection camps in Auschwitz. In -41 the part of Jews in the camps was around 10%, in -42, due to Hitler's fascism, the amount of Jews was 90%! This made Auschwitz as the biggest Nazi consentration camp and center for the extermination of Jews! 

In the lower picture you can see the selection process, what happened directly after that the trains came with the transportations. At this ramp people were separated and the selection between people available to work and people not fit for work. Only a fourth of the people were labeled as "fit for work" and they had the opportunity to stay at least one other day in the camp. The others were led directly to the gas chambers. The worst this is that these people did not even know what was happening, they thought they were taking a shower, were told to take the clothes off and then, instead of water, there came a gas, Zyklon B, which was used just for killing all the victims in the gas chambers. Some trains with Jews passed this phase of selection and the whole train were sent to the death. This is one of the reasons why we can't exactly tell how many Jews and other were killed here, the estimated amount lies around 1,5 millions people, 90% of which were Jews! The hardest part was when you could see the stuff that was left over from the victims: hair, shoes (u.l), bags, clothes, toothbrushes... And children clothes and toys! Those poor children, without knowing anything about anything, transported to the camps with their mothers, just in the next second to be sent straight to the death... At this point I could not resist the tears. The valuable things were sorted and sent to Berlin to the families of Germans and the SS. (u.r): a typical washroom for the prisoners.

(up): inside a gas chamber. On the walls you could see scratches from people, trying to get out of there, fighting for their lives... This was really really unreal feeling, being inside knowing that thousands of people got killed inside here... (down): from the 11 block, the Gestapo prisoner and the death wall. People who tried to escape or for other reasons, they were brought here to jail and most of them were sentenced to death, by being brutally killed by shooting at the wall. The windows around this wall were covered, so that they couldn't see the killers, even though they could hear the shootings.

After the information and the tour in Auschwitz I, the tour continued in Birkenau-the biggest camp in the area. Here were most of the Jews directly deposited, without any selection, just sent to the gas chambers. (d.l): this stop is called the "end stop of your life".

The place for the mass murders: the victims had to take out their clothes and then step into the gas chamber (d.l). From the dead people were precious parts gathered and then the bodies were burned in the crematories (up, d.r). Also the documents, if there were some, were destroyed. This is one destroyed crematoria because of the SS attempt to remove all the evidence. Also people are evacuated by having to walk to the interior of Germany, could be up to 60 km walk. Even though surviving the camps, many weak people died during this walk to the freedom. 

One of the barracks where 400 women lived. The conditions were not good at all! It guide told us, from 400 000 registered people, half of them got killed, 140 000 died during the evacuation and only 60 000 survived, also some children were there by. Even though they were free, their souls and body were sick and this was a new era of their life. On the way back I just sat in the bus, without thinking, without anything. I just couldn't do so much... Just terrible what these people had to go through!! But it was worth seeing, absolutely!

After returning to Krakow, I had gathered my strength and walked a bit in the old town, visiting the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world. Also here you could find a statue of Kopernicus (d.r).

I also visited the yard of the Wawel castle and saw the cathedral. This Royal palace was build in the beginning of the 16th century. Also from the earlier years the Wawel hill was seated by rulers. I also saw the dragon in the dragon's den. The dragon spouts fire every five minutes and I happened to catch it on a photo (d.l)!

Before preparing for the leaving tomorrow, I took a last walk along the Vistula river, walked to the Schindler's factory, which was in used 1939-1944, during the second world war. This was a good ending after seeing Auschwitz, unfortunately I was to late to visit the museum, but this man, Oscar Schindler, rented this factory and employed some of the Jews, that would normally have been killed in the camps. He saved at least 1200 people!

So I really loved Krakow, even though the sad parts of my trip, this is a city I will definitely come back to! Perfect place of stay, lovely old town, parks...
My favourites in Krakow: run at the river and the parks, the Wawel castle and the view from there over the river, old town, visit to the salt mine and last but not least, day trip to Auschwitz.