Last week, on Tuesday night, our September holiday began! We caught a night train to Lviv from 10pm to 7am. We hung out and played games- me and Natalie played blackjack and bet M&M's.
I slept across from one of the worst snorers I've ever heard in my life! Snorers should not be allowed on sleeping trains. In Lviv, we left our luggage in a sketch baggage room at a bus station. Luckily, nothing was stolen! We climbed up many narrow steps to a tower in the center of town with a gorgeous view from the top. It made me feel better about not having much sleep or a shower :)
We climbed down and stopped at the amazing Chocolate Factory for a snack, which ended up turning into breakfast for some of us. Truffles and chocolate covered fruit for breakfast in a beautiful city- what else could you need?
After that, we walked to ginormous Lychakivske Cemetery, where we were able to spot "the graves of revered nationalist poet Ivan Franko, Soviet gymnastics legend Viktor Chukarin, early 20th-century opera star Solomiya Krushelnystka, and some 2000 Poles who died fighting Ukrainians and Bolsheviks from 1918 to 1920". We spent two hours there, and easily could have spent more! It was really interesting, and the grave sites were so massive and elaborate!
Also worth mentioning, on our way to the cemetery, we stopped in for a visit at St. Andrew's beautiful baroque cathedral to admire it's brass-covered figures, it's elaborate fresco's, and it's gorgeous stained glass windows. It's one of my favorite churches I've seen so far!
We spent the rest of the day walking around the pretty little streets, stopping in for a bite to eat at a restaurant my host sister recommended to us (which also happened to be where we ate lunch, without knowing it was the same restaurant beforehand, haha). Per usual, Lviv won me over a second time with it's cuteness and lively atmosphere- musicians playing on the corners, happy tourists and locals bustling by, vendors dressed up fancy walking around selling souvenirs. It's just a great little city.
At night, we went to the bus station and hung out there until our bus to Poland left at 10 pm. It was a nice-ish bus, but it had nothing to accommodate for the overnight factor! Just 2 rows of uncomfortable chairs and cramped leg room. I spent the first 3 hours of the ride reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel, since I knew we were visiting Auschwitz the next morning. Around 11pm, we arrived at the Poland border and the real fun began =P We stayed there for 4-5 hours, and we were woken up five times during the whole ordeal- the Polish border patrol came on to take our passports, then we waited for forever, then they came back on and woke us up to give us our passports back, then we waited again, then they came on to take our passports again, more waiting, then they woke us up to give us our passports again, and then after more waiting at a point where we were all completely exhausted and disillusioned, they woke us up and made us get off the bus, take out our luggage from the bus compartment, and open it for them to go through it. At the time, I felt awful! But now, it's just a funny story to look back on :)
Around 8 am the next morning, we finally arrived in Krakow! Off of 2 nights of very little sleep and still no shower, we found our hostel, Hostel Giraffe, and left our luggage in the bar. Without breakfast or a break, we then caught our hour long bus ride to Auschwitz. It might sound weird, but I'm almost glad that I was starving, exhausted, and un-showered when I visited Auschwitz. It made it feel more real to me.
The moment we stopped onto the grounds of Auschwitz, I felt the overwhelming need to cry. The amount of despair that took place in that concentration camp is incomprehensible. Families torn apart, dreams of a better future murdered with the death of millions of innocent people, children's lives cut short, and so much more. The quiet, bleak grounds still retain an eery feeling of cold-harded hatred for a people who never could had done anything to deserve the fate they met at Auschwitz.
The brick buildings were cold and dreary. I somehow managed to hold in my tears until our tour guide led us into the room (one we weren't allowed to take pictures in) where a third of the room was blocked off by a glass display window, and behind that window piled from wall to wall and ceiling to floor was the hair of Jewish women who were shaved upon entrance to the camp; all women who met their fate at the camp. I pretty much broke down at that point, and I'm pretty sure most others did too. To summarize my experience at Auschwitz in a short paragraph is hard, because we saw so much and each atrocity touched me in a different way. I saw piles of luggage stolen from the Jews, who had written their names on it because the Nazis told them they'd be getting it back, to avoid panic. I went into the gas chambers where Nazis dropped deadly chemicals into a room full of people- men, women, children, moms, dads, grandparents, friends. I saw the room where men were made to undress to be shot to their death. I saw the courtyard where human beings were lined up in a row and killed one by one. I saw hanging posts where mass hangings took place to warn other prisoners of what would happen if they didn't obey every command. I walked the path from the train tracks to the crematorium, the same walk that those who did not pass first sorting took straight to their death. I saw barracks where beds were nothing but broken boards and hay- beds that were shared by 10-12 people. I could go on for a very long time.
Auschwitz touched me in a way that I will never forget. I learned that one of the worst things you can take away from a people is not just their lives, but also their belief in the good of others, their trust in humanity, their optimism of a happy life ahead. The Nazis didn't just take away the Jews lives, they took away their hope. They took a beautiful, unique heritage of people and put them in a living nightmare where death - of them and their loved ones - was always just around the corner. It breaks my heart that something so horrendous was allowed to happen. I suppose all we can do now is keep their memories in our hearts and never let anything this dreadful happen again.
That night, we returned to the hostel and finally had our showers and dinner! For our first night in Krakow, we spent most of our time in the American-like mall, haha. I think it's funny that that's what happens when a group of girls go on vacation together =P But I was determined to find an affordable leather jacket! I eventually did, and now it's one of my favorite articles of clothing :)
Krakow was so much fun! It was absolutely charming, and it won me over completely. For one, our hostel was awesome. We had free breakfast, free wifi, CLEAN bathrooms, and we had a big room all to ourselves, where a lot of yoga and ab workouts went on at night.
We spent a lot of time walking through Old Town Krakow, which had a lot of the same things I loved about Lviv, but with it's own unique touch. We spent hours going in and out of adorable little street stores that had the cutest things for so cheap! We rented bikes one day and rode from one cathedral, to the next, to a castle and a really good outdoor cafe where we stopped for lunch.
On one of my favorite night's in Poland, we spent hours shopping the very European streets of Old Town, stopped in a very cute and yummy cafe for dinner, found a cool chocolate shop for dessert
had our picture taken by one of the funniest foreign guys I've yet to meet
took jumping pictures in front of a cool building
and shared some good laughs with some good friends
Later that night, we decided we felt like being crazy and didn't want to go to bed yet, so we dressed up and went out to a karaoke bar- mostly for the karaoke, but the drunk crowd was pretty entertaining. Thanks to Natalie, we made friends with two white South African guys who had the coolest accents. One was pretty drunk, and he called himself our "agent". He decided to talk to the karaoke DJ guy and somehow managed to get us to be third on the list instead of thirteenth.
The other guy didn't seem drunk at all; he was sooo attractive, and he took a particular interest in Riley, lol. He even ran after her when we left just so he could say goodbye and catch her name! It was cute :) He got us all waters when we told him we didn't drink. We also somehow made friends with these very drunk girls, and that friendship started when they came up to us and told us that they don't like black people. Hmm. When we finally did get to go up on stage to dance and sing our little American hearts out, you can see on the video that our drunk "agent" stood right in front of the stage with his hands up in the "rock on" position for the entire song, and our other drunk "friend" climbed up onto the stage and some guy had to come up and "escort" her off.
When our song was over and we got off the stage, our drunk "friend" (the girl one) gave of us all big kisses on the head. We finally got back to our hostel at 3:30 am that night. It was definitely a fun and crazy night to remember.
On another night, we were walking around the lively cobble stone streets of Old Town when we saw floating lanterns in the sky and snuck past a security guard to get up to a balcony for a better view.
It was gorgeous!! Up there, we happened to run into an adorable old American couple who were in the middle of a yearly European trip. We ended up talking to them for almost an hour. They were so in love after so many years of marriage and children, and they had such good stories to tell of places we should see and visit- they were the ones who made us decide to go to Prague and Vienna on our next trip! And interestingly enough, they also happened to be the owners of a fragment of Beethoven's skull. Random, but still kind of cool when you think about it.
Later that night, I finally got to go on the horse-drawn carriage ride that I'd wanted to go on for so long :) Under the stars, we rode through quaint European-style streets, past huge gorgeous churches, past a castle, past the thriving night life of Krakow, back to the starting point of the awesome main square of Old Town. It was so great!
The last day in Poland was only me, Megan, and Jamie. Everyone else flew home Sunday morning. Me and Jamie rented bikes again and rode in the perfect, peaceful Fall weather of Krakow along the river, around the castle, and through the Jewish community where we stopped at an awesome flea market and bought tasty blueberries to share.
After eating at a really cool authentic Polish restaurant, we wrapped up in our giraffe blankets, put a mattress on the floor, and watched Hitch. Classic :)
The next morning, we flew back to Kiev and went straight back to teaching, and quickly began planning our next trip- 10 days in Prague and Vienna for me, Riley, and Natalie! Talk about a dream come true.
Krakow completely won me over with it's charm and beauty. The horse-drawn carriages lining the main square, waiting for riders to come on board. The beautiful violinists playing in front of the gorgeous cathedral as I rode past on my old rickety bike. The sun shining through the clouds by the river with the castle looming in the distance. The cafes, the shops, the architecture, the way the city was lively during the day, and become even more alive by night. I hope I get to go back there again some day!
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