Mishthefish: Poland: Kraków & Auschwitz-Birkenau

The final stop with the girls was Poland. Krawków soon was added to my list of favorite places. Poland surprised me in so many ways- all positive. It is the most Eastern city I have visited and also the cheapest (score!!). Seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau had me relive history and taught me even more about the concentration camps, after years of reading and learning about the Holocaust. The highlights of this trip were definitely the Polish food, new Australian friends, and watching a Eurocup game in the fan zone since Poland and Ukraine were hosting the Eurocup games.

Krawków was such a pretty city. Favorites included:

The central square with a leaning clock tower, Basilica, outdoor market, and tons of outdoor restaurants and bars.
Buying amber rings
Seeing the whole city at the top of the Basilica
Visiting the castle
Walking through the Jewish Quarter and seeing the only active synagogue in Kraków
Going more than once to eat at our favorite Polish restaurant Babila Malikas
Eating perogies and drinking Polish beer
Partying with our Aussie friends and going to cool bars
Receiving gifts from the Aussies (including a cute mini kangaroo)

The Castle

Jewish Synagogue

Eurocup 2012

Central Square

Feast at Baba Malikas

Outdoor market by night

View from the top of the Basilica

Aussies & us

My experience at Auschwitz-Birkenau is hard to write in words. To say the least, it was very impactive. I had goosebumps the whole time I was there, knowing just decades before others were murdered on the same grounds. We had a really great tour guide throughout the camps, first at Auschwitz and then at Birkenau. Birkenau is much bigger and what I had imagined a concentration camp to look like from the Holocaust movies. I think everyone who has the opportunity should go and see it for themselves. It was a crazy experience but one of the best things I have ever seen. I learned a lot from the tours and got to enter into the gas chambers, torture rooms, and see the hanging wall.