wawel castle - Krakow (poland)

The big bell at top of the bell tower... the most impossible staircase ever. No pictures on the way up cos Chris was a fraidy cat...

view from the top of the tower..

the doorways going down...

A nice part of the staircase..

the (modern) staircase at the end.

the courtyard at the castle..

and again......

Chris's next sword (photo illigally taken while a Polish woman flapped her arms about wildly and spoke in very loud Polish while Chris pretended not to hear...)

the only part of the castle that i can currently find in Photos...the others are in the other folder (i think) but we were very drunk the day we took them... not sure where they are...

some part of the Church at the castle.

Poland...photos.... late...sorry

walking tour on the second day... so pretty... (krakow)

place where shindler's List was filmed in krakow Jewish town (not the Ghetto)

Inside Shindler's factory.

Outside Shindler's factory

the most awsome restaurant in the world!!!!

very quick update

ok.....phew...... tickets to Brussels booked for the 28th of September (i hope)

yesterday was great. We took a bus to the Auchwitz. 1/1/2 hours it took.
the camp was very clean and tidy and neat with beautiful brick barracks (built for the Polish army) however the displays inside were the most shocking. The most powerful thing we say all day was a room that was full of TWO TONNES of HUMAN HAIR. It was all behind glass and lumped in a big pile that reached the roof of the room. It is the left overs from what the nazis tried to burn when thy left the camps. There was also about the same amount of Children's shoes...

we weren't allowed to take pictures of it but we got some of the outside of the buildings.

Birkenau was the on ethat looked like the movies and pictures, kilometers of burn and standing barracks. the toilet barracks were gruesome. a row of stone benches with holes in them on either side. They were no more than 6cm apart with no privacy whatsoever, in fact the guards used to stand infront of the prisoners and count to five and then wack them with sticks to make them stand up faster. The guide said theat most of the time they had explosive "number two's" from lack of food. 5 seconds is not enough.

today we went of a tour of the Jewish district. WE saw the Ghetto and where Shindler's list was filmed. OUr guide had a portable DVD player and showed us the scenes when we were standing at the spots. We saw the factory (went inside)

we were also on the tour with a woman from israel, her parents lived in Krakow before the way. They escaped in 1939!!!!!! to Russia and were put in a work camp. They eventually escaped to what became Israel. All her family died in Auchwitz.

we had lunch today in a VERY expensive restaurant on the Jewish Square. Very POSH. I had Turkey breast with pears and brie and cranberry sauce on top with potatoes and goats cheese feta. i had a starter and two beers. It cost about 25 dollars FOR THE BOTH OF US!!!

anyway better go there is only one computer here....


byeeeee

InPoland

hey all we have arrived after a very very long train ride. We spent out train ride with a Polish girl, a Korean, anPolish lady and a couple from Prague.

we tried to learn Polish on the journey. We managed about a word an hour. Polish is the third hardest language in the world after wierd african language and a chinese dialect.
so we had not a lot of sucess and everyone laughted for about 4 hours. Words that sound the same to my ears mean different things. Please is almost the same as little pig!!

anyway better go off to Auscwitz today on a all day tour.

byeeee


sarah

quick update

Off to Poland by train today (25 euro each) for a 7 hour journey between countries.

it is one of the prettiest train journies you can do apparantly.

We went out for dinner last night. We each had a big meal, 2 LARGE beers and two large desserts and the bill was 25 aussie dollars.

not too bad at all. Poland is supossed to be better.


anyway better be off as breakfast (free) awaits us downstairs in the bar.

byeeee

Places to go and see...

Poland

Certainly on my list of places to go.

I have always been interested in War History. Even as a small child my favorite novels were always centered around war stories. "Number the Stars" "Kiss the Dust" ...

I guess Auschwitz is probably one of the most tragic sites of "modern" warefare. Not just the number of deaths but in the methods.

I was shocked to find that so many of my grade 12 students had no knowledge of this place and the events that happened. Many of my Grade 9 students had no knowledge of even who Hitler was! I just find that totally disgraceful. I know History isn't such a fashionable subject these days, but surely major historical events should be remembered.

"Those who cannot remember the past are comdemned to repeat it .. "