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Krakow, Poland_Winter Holiday in 2006

Krakow, Poland |

On 15th Jan 2006, Sunday, we went for skiing at Nepebal, Simferopol, but was disappointed because there was no snow on that day. We took our lunch at the McDonald and then we met some of the CSMU friends. They told us about their plan to Poland. Without second thought, we decided to go by ourselves.

It took twelve hours train from Simferopol to Lviv. In Lviv, we visited city centre and had a good dinner there.

As whether getting colder at night, we rested in McDonald after short walk in the Lviv town centre at about 8pm. We thought that the departure time for the bus to Krakow was at 11pm after consulting a few counters. At about 9pm, I suddenly felt that there was something wrong and checked the ticket again and realised that the departure time was at 10pm. We rushed to the bus station and fortunately we managed to get on the bus.

The next morning, we reached Krakow.

Krakow is such a beautiful city. It has great architectural buildings. Polish people are friendly, helpful and majority can speak English.

We visited Wieliczka Salt Mine. It is a Material Cultural World Heritage site. After nearly a thousand years of salt exploitation, it has developed into an extensive underground city, mysterious and unique.

We had our dinner at the Polish Traditional Food Restaurant. In that restaurant, we met a Polish artist and he explained on how to get to Zakopane and some interesting places there. He requested us to write him on our impression of Zakopane (www.ludwin.pl).

It was a two hours journey by bus from Krakow to Zakopane. Almost every 30 minutes there was a bus to Zakopane. Zakopane was the most important Polish centre for mountaineering and skiing. We had fun in Zakapane.

The most impressive tour was a visit to Aushwitz concentration camp. The camp was constructed by the German Nazis in 1940 to exterminate European Jews. Most of them were gassed and their bodies were burnt. It was a sight of horror, a memorial to Man’s inhumanity to Man, an organized slaughtering on a scale that was inconceivable before and of the Holocaust, the planned and systematic destruction of a race.

As planned earlier, we wanted to go for skiing at Ckale, Lvov right after coming back from Krakow. Unfortunately we had to cancel the plan due to poor weather.

Locations Visited: Krakow


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