Krakow and Auschwicz

After taking a 7 hour train ride from Vienna to Krakow, which really should only have taken 4 hours if the train moved fater than 20 km/h in the burbs, Amelia and I were pretty knacked to say the least. Luckily we didnt have to walk far to our hostel, which from the outside looked like abuilding transported directly from 1950's communist Russia. The stairs looked even worse, resembling some sort of CSI opening, but the hostel itself and the rooms were unbelievably good. Free breakfast, supper and internet, hot showers and a massive new bedroom. We have even been lucky enough to try a traditional Polish potato and sausage soup, gratis ! After looking around the old town square yesterday, which was really gorgeous, we decided to take the journey to Auschwicz today. An hour and a half bus ride took us to the first concerntration camp, which was basically left untouched after the war. Seeing a room full of womens hair, a crematorium used as a gas chamber and the notorious death wall and death block were all pretty shocking, however with truck loads of tourists it was hard to feel any deep emotions in the camp, which was a tad dissapointing. I still struggle not to belt people who laugh and do whatever they feel in such a place of sorrow. We then headed down the road to Birkenau, more commanly know as Auscwicz 2. Here train loads of people were brought into the camp, with 75% of the load being gassed upon arrival. As this camp was much bigger (3 square kms) you could find some space on your own inside some of the barracks were the prisoners slept. This was a far more harrowing experince and you could almost imagine what people felt inside. Further down we saw the ruins of 2 former gas chambers and even though they were a pile of rubble, you could still see where thousands of people entered the chamber never to be seen again. The fields alongside the chambers had memorial plaques, indicating that pits filled with the ashes of thousands of bodies were only 1 metre away. Still it is not comprehendible to think that 1.5 million people died in both Auschwicz camps, that is roughly the size of Adelaide and Canberra combined !

Tomorrow the search begins for wedding shoes and replacement shorts for myself, after the volleyball accident of the other day!

Speak to you all later