Poland!!!

Well, it is almost five in the morning here, and I have to say this might be one of the only times when I haven't been able to fall asleep no matter how hard I try. The fact that my roommate came home drunk again and has been snoring for over an hour straight probably doesn't help. If I ever marry someone who snores, it will absolutely be the death of me. So, since I have all this extra time on my hands right now, I thought I would take this opportunity to post about Poland...I need to get caught up on here anyhow. So, Molly left on Thursday morning, and I left on Friday morning for Krakow...and I do mean morning. We had to leave our dorm by 8 a.m. sharp, because it was between an 8-9 hour bus ride to Krakow. And for those motion-sick prone among us, it was not a fun ride. The good news was that I slept through most of it on the way there. We arrived in Krakow, which by the way, is not the capital of Poland (it is actually only the third largest city in Poland, but definitely the most historical), at around 4:45 p.m. We had an hour or so to get ourselves situated in our rooms before we were to meet back down in the lobby. When we met in the lobby at 6 p.m., Z and Jana (who are with AIFS, and take us on all our trips) walked us to the center of Krakow and pointed out the available restaurants where we could eat, and jazz clubs that we could visit if we felt so inclined. So, a group of us decided to head to a traditional Polish restaurant to try some pierogis, a traditional Polish dish. Pierogis are essentially dumplings filled with something or another, usually meat or potato. The first night we were there, I tried the Russian style pierogis, which were filled with potato and cream cheese. They were really gross...really. But, the second night we were there we went back to the same restaurant and I had the pierogis that were filled with meat, and those were actually really, really good! So, if you ever find yourself in Poland, try to the meat pierogis, not the potato...I learned the hard way. After dinner, we found a neat little dessert shop and had some light desserts. Then, we decided that we wanted to find a jazz club to go chillax in for a couple hours before we returned to the hotel. As we were wandering around the main city square in Krakow, we turned down one of the side streets that looked promising. It turned out to be way more promising than we thought! Poland has, by far, the coolest night scene of any city that I visited so far. They hire people to stand on the street and invite you into their club by telling you how awesome it is, and giving you coupons for drinks. There was no cover charge at any of the clubs either. So we went to about three different clubs, one of which had lasers and a fog machine on the dance floor...SWEET! We stayed out till about midnight, and then decided to call it a night since the tour the next morning was at 10 a.m. Since, we only had Saturday to actually tour around Poland, Z and Jana set up a morning and an afternoon tour that would go to different parts of the city. The first tour was focused around the center of Krakow, and the historical buildings in the "downtown" area.

Some of the main sights that we saw on the first tour were as follows:

• The Great Barbican of Krakow: Krakow's main city gate, which was built in the 16th century. It is a circular marvel of military architecture.
• Florianska Street: The street leading to Poland's main square, named after St. Florian, the patron saint of Poland.
• Rynek Glowny - Main Market Square: The main square of the Old Town in Krakow. It dates back to the 13th century, and is approximately 430,000 sq. ft. It is the largest medieval town square in Europe.
• St. Mary's Basilica: Built and then rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries, respectively, it is particularly famous for a wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss. The coolest thing about it though, is that every hour, a trumpet signal is played from the top of the tallest tower. The tune breaks off mid-stream to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city.
• Sukiennice: This is easily one of the most recognizable places in Krakow. The "Cloth Hall" as it is called in English was once a major centre of international trading in the 15th century.
• St. Anne's Church: One of Poland's most beautiful Baroque churches.
• Jagellonian University: The second oldest university in central Europe. Among its famous students was the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

These were definitely the main sights on our tour, but we also saw a couple smaller churches and buildings along the way. I did not attend the second tour because I had to bring schoolwork with me. I had a presentation the following Tuesday that was supposed to be a minimum of 50 minutes in length, and since Molly had been here the week before, I was seriously behind on preparation for that. So, I spent most of the afternoon working on the powerpoint for that presentation. I joined some friends for dinner and dessert again that night, but we went back to our hotel soon thereafter because we had to be up early on Sunday again. On Sunday, we had to be out the door of the hotel at 8 a.m. We were going to see Auschwitz, and then we would return back home from there. Auschwitz was about an hour outside of Krakow, and it is actually an umbrella term for three separate camps within about two miles of each other. We visited Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 (also referred to as Birkenau), and they are only about a mile apart. I am not going to say much about the time I spent in these places, but I think that Z, our guide, summed it up nicely...we were in the antechamber of hell. It is absolutely impossible to describe the way I felt in this place. It is almost as if the whole atmosphere hasn't changed since the war. It was physically hard for me to breathe while I was there. It was the hardest I have cried in a long time, and even as I write now, there are tears streaming down my face. The torture the prisoners were put through, the courtyards that were full of blood from executions, the gas chambers, we saw all of it. Not only video, but the actual rooms they were kept in...the rooms that still had fingernail marks on the wall, the courtyards where hundreds of thousands were shot, the gallows where thousands more were hung. I had never questioned how and why God would allow the Holocaust until that day. And I don't think that issue will ever resolve itself in my mind for as long as I live. I don't really want to talk about it anymore. After those walks, we got back on the bus and drove back to Prague. I did some more homework that night, and then hit the sack, cause I was exhausted. And that pretty much sums up Poland. I will update shortly, about the most stressful week ever that followed our return...stay tuned.