Krakow, Poland

We spent two days in Frankfurt and didn't really do much. Everything was expensive, even soda and beer. Dinner off the street of bratwurst was nice, but everything else blew our budget. I did do a full hour interview from the call center across from Frankfurt Main train station and we watched American sitcoms dubbed in German on the tv in our room. Our only English options were a rotating MTV and BBC channel or CNN.

We took our RyanAir flight to Krakow, leaving at 6AM on a two hour bus ride to Frankfurt Haun. It really is everything they say in the magazines about being a bare bones airline company where the flight attendants hawk drinks food and even scratch lottery tickets! But it was cheaper than a bus or a train and way worth the fact that we booked a $0.01 flight (we paid 4.50Euro for each of our bags and 20 for our taxes).

The streets of Krakow through a Lomo camera lens.

Krakow is awesome!!!! We love it here and the vibe of the city was so great from the first impression. Although the first hostel we picked was a loser, we moved to a great place called the Pink Flamigo and are much happier here.

The city square is full of street performers and the buidlings are amazing and really old. The restaurants are everywhere, the prices are good, and there is soooo much to see. The old Jewish quarter has become a hip area for artists and clubs and nice restaurants. There are sooooo many clubs here with lots of music of all types.

The gate of the synagogue in the old Jewish quarter.

Today we went to Auschwitz. It was very emotional as we expected. But even more so as I spent some time finding where all my great grandparents are from and learning that my fathers grandfather was from a small city in Poland. It hits home to know that I personally could have cousins that were shipped to Auschwitz. Gives me chills.

"Through work lies freedom" in german. The gates to Auschwitz.

The south gate into Birkenau.

The tracks that led so many people to the camps.

Visiting Auschwitz, a death camp where 1.5 million people were excecuted (1.2 million Jews) is an experience that really cant be explained. So many people come to see this site and the tours are done matter-of-factly. Unlike, the excessive shock valued 'Killing Fields' of Cambodia that very few people new about, most people that visit Auschwitz know the history. I was prepared for so much detail and tears and crying, but this tour was not created to shock and awe, more to educate and inform. The most shocking things I experienced were the room full of hair which was left instead of being shipped off for use in fabric manufacturing. The death wall was also a touching monument with the flowers and rocks and candlers all placed in front of it. We visited on a gloomy grey day and really got an earie view of the city. The massive size of the camp and the living quarters and the barbed wire as well as the interogation rooms was unexplainable. The tracks leading into the area gave me the creeps. I am so happy to have experienced this tour and feel more connected with my roots. With this tour, I felt inclined to research my

After Auschwitz and back in Krakow, one would never believe that a city that draws people to visit a death camp could be so full of life. It is refreshing and nice to know that the once Jewish Ghetto has become a hip cool section of this great city. There are more than 18 University level institutions in this city, one which is the oldest in central Europe dating from 1364. Schindlers List was filmed here and actually happened here. Did you know the bagel originates from Poland and was brought to New York by Polish Jews in the 1850s?

Wow...one could party every night of the week here in Krakow. Who wooda thunk? Seriously, I am conditioning myself to stay up later and sleep later because that is the way that this city works. Most of hte clubs are underground making it seem like a sleepy town on the surface, but once you pick a destination and head underground, it is crazy wild and you could never go to all the clubs here. There are soooo many.

We went to the salt mines today. The Wieliczka Salt Mine, nowadays practically on the southeast outskirts of Krakow, has been worked for 900 years. It used to be one of the world's biggest and most profitable industrial establishments when common salt was commercially a medieval equivalent of today's oil. Always a magnet, since the mid-18th century Krakow's Wieliczka salt mine has become increasingly a tourist attraction. We walked underground at the depths of 120m in the oldest part of the salt mine and saw its subterranean museum. I actually licked a wall and a salt statue. This is the most amazing chapel with hand carved reliefs on the walls and everything is made from salt. The miners were starting to gather for a special service for the men trapped in the coal mine and those that died the day before in another part of Poland.

The chapel (made of all salt).