A Year In Braunschweig: All About Krakow.

Before Ginny and I left for Poland, I spent the night with her and her host family in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (the same family that we cooked Thanksgiving dinner for). Ginny and I cooked dinner for them once more, but this dinner was a little more exciting. Ginny and Sandra had bought crayfish for dinner, and Ginny and I had to boil them. I've never stuck anything live into a hot, boiling pot, and I felt kind of bad doing it to the poor things. Don't worry, I didn't eat the brains. We just ate the tails 'cause we're not brave enough yet.

Our room

The next morning we left bright (well maybe not so bright) and early for our flight from Dortmund to Krakow, Poland. When we arrived there, our hostel had sent us a shuttle and we had a man waiting with my name on a sign. We checked into our hostel (more like our apartment) and found out how huge and amazing it was. We had a private kitchen, a private bathroom, and 4 beds to choose from! Ginny and I were really hungry when we arrived, so the first thing we did was to hunt down some authentic Polish cuisine - pierogi. Our quest led us to a door in the ground which opened into an awesome restaurant. Pierogi are similar to ravioli, and the ones I ate had cabbage and mushrooms in them. They were delicious!

Pierogi Restaurant

I should also mention that, since Krakow was not the site of large industry, the city was not bombed during WWII. The buildings are authentic and super old sometimes. Just by walking around the city you could feel the age of it.

Schindler's Factory

After lunch we set off to explore Kazimierz, the Jewish district of Krakow. Don't confuse this with a ghetto, the Krakow ghetto was located somewhere else. I'm sure many of you have heard about Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List. Oskar Schindler (around whom the film is based) was a real person who lived in Krakow and operated a factory in it's industrial district which employed many Jews, who otherwise would have been shipped to concentration camps. The film was made in Krakow, so you can go visit the sites. The main factory building has since been turned into a museum of Polish history which documents Jewish heritage before, during, and after the Nazi occupation. Parts of the museum were expected, but others were quite surprising. In one room, the floor tiles were all swastikas. It was shocking and a little overwhelming to see so many in one place.

The floor of one factory room.

Another shocker was a children's toys exhibit. One case showed a Nazi doll arresting Jews.

Ginny and I tried to smile a little to keep from being utterly depressed.

Kazimierz

We took a stroll through the rest of Kazimierz and saw most of the Synagogues. After the deportation of the Jews from Kazimierz, this area became kind of a run down district, where people lived when they were homeless. Now the district is being revitalized, Jewish culture in being reintroduced to the area and it's actually a really cool part of town.

The next morning we went to see one of the most famous and beautiful stained glass windows in Europe. It is located in the Franciscan Church in Krakow and was designed by Wyspiański. His series The Four Elements is displayed in the church, as well as the "masterpiece" God the Father. It was breathtaking.

"God the Father" by Wyspiański

St. Mary's Church

We then met at the St. Mary's church at the Main Market Square to join a free walking tour. St. Mary's church is the main Catholic Cathedral in Krakow (90%) of the people in Poland are catholic and it contains the famous High Alter by Veit Stoss, which is considered one of the finest pieces of European late-gothic sculpture. I was much more impressed with the ceiling. - It was blue! As were all the church ceilings we saw there.

St, Mary's ceiling

After the church, we walked around the main market square. The square contains the famous "Cloth Hall" which was once the main market for the city, but is now full of souvenir stalls. The second floor is a Polish Art Museum. The square also has one of the oldest churches (built in the 11th century!) and the Town Hall Clock Tower. After the main square, we learned more about the medieval walls and battlements that were once around the city. St. Florian's gate was the main entrance to the city and it opens onto the "Royal Road," where kings and queens of old traveled to their castle. Only one section of the medieval walls is still standing. The other sections were removed in the 18th century and were turned into the "Planty Gardens." These are a nice place to take a walk or relax. They also house sculptures and monuments. Finally, our tour took us to Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral.


Wawel Castle

Wawel Cathedral

There is a fantastical legend surrounding the castle - the Legend of the Wawel Dragon. There was a dragon who was terrorizing Krakow and even the bravest of knights refused to challenge it. One day, a clever farmer told the king that he would slay the dragon. He filled a sheep with sulfur and placed it outside the Dragon's den. When he woke up, the dragon ate it for breakfast and then became very, very thirsty. He went to the river, drank it dry, and then exploded! Krakow was safe again!

There is a Dragon statue that breathes fire and a dragon's den that you can tour near the castle. Unfortunately, the dragon isn't breathing fire in my picture.

The next day, Ginny and I went on a tour of the famous Nazi Concentration Camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. It was a very eye-opening and sad experience, but nonetheless very interesting and important.

entrance to Auschwitz I - "Work Brings Freedom"

These Concentration/Death camps are located a little more than an hour outside of Krakow. On our tour, we were able to see the barracks and facilities in Auschwitz I - which prisoners called a hotel compared to Auschwitz II - Birkenau. These buildings were formerly Polish Military Barracks and prisoners here were forced to work in the factories at Monowitz. The buildings have since been turned into a museum, documenting the lives of the Jews who perished here. One building that was particularly moving contained the personal property take from the Jews upon their arrival. There were thousands of eyeglasses, household items, shoes, prayer shawls, clothes, and brushes. One room contained the shorn hair of women entering Auschwitz. Their heads were shaved and the hair was sent to factories to be made into industrial cloth. Auschwitz I also contained 1 gas chamber and crematorium.

Gas Chamber

Crematorium

Over 1500 bodies were burned per day.

Our second stop on our tour was the more deadly of the 2 camps Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It held more than 100,000 prisoners but by the end of the war had murdered over 1.1 million people, mostly Jews. It was not clear to me before I saw it in person how massive this camp was. Pictures just don't do it justice. Birkenau is 25 times the size of Auschwitz I.