Kraków
Poland
30.09.2012
Krakow is a great little city. Just about the only place in Poland to not be destroyed in WW II, it still has the old town and Jewish Quarter intact. We stayed in the old Jewish district which was full of cool old bars and restaurants which weren't as touristy as the Old Town area. It was raining and quite cold here (16°) which was a sign that we had hit the last leg of our odyssey.
Across the few days we had here, we did a free walking tour in the rain, took a day trip out to the huge salt mine that has been mined for 800 yrs, and most significantly a trip out to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
The area, split into 3 main bits, was huge. The tour focused on the original camp 1, where they honed their evil practice of separation, labour and extermination. We also visited the massive camp 2 which was purpose built with what they had learnt at the first camp, and was responsible for the death of millions of people. It was a very full on experience. They have tons of human hair, shoes, suitcases, etc, on display which was quite disturbing....
It was good to be in a country again where things are a little more advanced and things run a bit more smoothly. We did some laundry at possibly the coolest laundromat ever! It is a laundromat out back, bar up front! As we sat down, another Aussie couple came to do their washing so they sat with us and we had a good chat as they had done a heap of the same things as us.
After this we choo choo'd our way to one of our most anticipated stops of Prague.
Photos of the city and salt mine.
Photos of Auschwitz concentration camp.
