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Europe 2007

Poland |

Poland is amazing!! We went for 4 days and stayed in a wonderful hostel. Sadly, the hostel was more comfortable than our actual apartments in Prague so we were all very sad to leave. Polish people are very friendly which was very refreshing and comforting. The first night I was there we met a group of Polish people about my age and they took us from club to club trying to find something that was worthwile on a Monday night. Just haning out with them made our whole night fun, they were great!! The second day we got up early and took a 3 hour bike trip all around Krakow. The city is gorgeous and very old. We started our trip at the Old Town Square which is a large square with numerous outdoor restaurants and an old cathedral surrounding it. It was amazing in the morning...I can still smell the fresh flowers of the vendors settin up for the day. We also went to the old Jewish Quarter which is where the Jews resided before they were forced into the Ghetto on the other side of town. We crossed the bridge towards the ghetto and stood in the square where the Jews were gathered before they were loaded into cattle cars on the way to Auschwitz. We were there on Jewish Holiday called "Day of the Living" so there were numerous tour busses of youth from Israel there to pay their respects. The whole area was pretty crazy with tourists from all over. It was pretty emberassing but I took a nasty spill on my bike in front of an entire Norwegian tour bus!! Oh well, what do you do? Stand up, brush yourself off, and start cheering your emberassing feat. Towards the end of our trip we also went to Schindlers Factory. I won't get into details about who he was so if you want to know then rent the movie Schindlers List. It's an amazing movie that will give you an idea of the Holocaust (keep in mind when watching it that it is Hollywood and they have romanticized Schindler a little more than he is owed). The evening after the bike trip we went to a wonderful traditional Polish restaurant where I (courageously) tried "pork fat" on my bread. It is literally like a cup of crisco with chunks of pork in it. OMG...I think I just threw up in my mouth thinking about it. Oh well, I have to live on the edge sometimes right? We then finished our evening off with a lot of Polish Vodka and a trip to the Jewish Quarter bars. It was a blast! The next day we went to Auschwitz but I have posted a seperate entry for that. The whole trip ended with a trip to the world famous Salt Mines. They were pretty cool and the walls tasted like salt!!! For those of you who know me, you know I loved salt. If I wasn't so concerned about germs I would've just kept walking and licking the walls!! Anyway, that's my trip in a nutshell. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Locations Visited: Krakow


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