Right after Auschwitz and Birkenau, our driver took us to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. The mine is huge and the tour only takes you to about 1% of all the mine... yet, the tour takes between 2 and 3 hours! We went as far as 130 meters bellow the surface. The temperature in the mine is constantly between 14 add 16 degrees Celsius because of the ventilation system inside. What is wonderful about the mine though, is that it was open for over 800 years! And in the process, huge chambers were excavated that are now like an underground museum. On the ceilings you can see stalactites of salt and salt formations that look like cauliflowers. In addition, there are dozens of statues carved out of rock salt, which were made mostly by the miners themselves throughout the centuries, NOT by professional artists. What's more is that there are a great number of chapels inside and even a cathedral made entirely of rock salt! The floor of it is carved as if it was tile, but in reality it is a single HUUUUGE sheet of rock salt (well, not a sheet, but you know what I mean... it is solid with no divisions). The altar of the cathedral is quite beautiful, as are the statues and even the chandeliers which are ALSO made of rock salt. My camera was running low on battery, but fortunately it made it till the end of the trip. I am really glad I went, and I want to thank Chopin, his family, and Anya G for suggesting that I go there :)
After the mines we kind of had an easy night, and on Sunday we had another great day. I went to Mass in the early afternoon, which was very nice. I had already visited the church on my own before and had the chance to admire the beautiful art inside of it, so I could focus on the Mass and in prayer instead (I will post the pictures soon). After that, we decided to walk to the Jewish quarter of the town with the help of a booklet a girl lent us. However, when we got there, we were able to join a free walking tour, which was really nice because we got the chance to hear some awesome stories and legends about the cities. After the tour we tried to go into one of the Synagogues, but they charged for the entrance and the man at the door was really rude so we decided not to go inside. Instead, we went for lunch and we had a great time. We had been living basically on toast with butter and jam for the last couple of days (we were trying to save money), so it was REALLY nice to eat chicken kebab! Lol!! In the evening I worked on my schoolwork for several hours while the girls went shopping, and at night we decided to go dancing. We went to a small underground club where they were playing techno music. It was a lot of fun, especially because people were respectful (no gross grinding r=or anything of the sort), and it wasn't very full because it was Sunday, so we had a lot of room to dance and just be silly and have fun.
Today we are taking it easy, resting, etc. In a few minutes we are going to go for supper and then we are going to visit the Wawel castle, which is a 15 minute walk form our hostel. We are all packed and everything, so we are just about ready to go. After that we will take our bus to Lviv, and from there we will take either a bus or a train to Ternopil, since there are no direct trips to Ternopil from Krakow (which is weird, since there are trip here, but oh well).
I must say, I have really enjoyed this trip with Jen and Jessica very, very much. We have had a great time together and I think this has been a bit of a bonding experience for us. I feel like we have become better friends, and I am very glad about that. They tease me all the time about this or that, hahahaha, and I tease them too, lol, so we have been laughing all the time and it's just been a riot!
When we come back we are planning on preparing for the concert we are organizing at the internat, and I am planning on employing "opperation tooth brush-deodorant" lol... The internat girls really need to learn to use both. I am making a poster and everything... Amanda had already taught them how to use their toothbrushes last year, but they seem to have lost the habit since the staff do not really enforce it, so we'll see how it goes :)
So I think that's it for now. I am glad to be back up to speed with the blog. I will keep you updated, but next week is going to be busy as I need to prepare for my 2 upcoming assignments... Time is flying!! I have so much work to do, but I am so excited for the upcoming weeks :)
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. I am sorry it took me so long to update the blog. My schedule is more hectic now, so that is why I have not been as consistent. As always, thanks for your comments and your emails. They mean the world to me! Miss you all, love you all. God bless! :D
Monday, July 13, 2009
Auschwitz...
Auschwitz was a very difficult experience. Needless to say, it was very, very sobering. It is kind of weird, because the place looks so sanitized now; you know, there is grass, the sun was shinning… it was a bit hard at first to picture all the horror that took place under my feet half a century ago. We decided to walk on our own and just buy the guidebook because we were trying to save some money. It took us 3 hours to visit the side of the museum. The museum is organized in such a way that you walk around the yard and then enter a number of the different ‘blocks’ or buildings within the compound, each of which has a different display of particular elements of the story. For instance, there were some installations with pictures that told the story of the deportation, others that showed the selection process, others that showed the every day life of prisoners, etc.
As i walked thought he concentration camp many images went through my head. I was walking among the ghosts of millions of suffering people. I saw their pictures; their names written in deportation, selection and execution documents. I saw heaps and heaps of their possessions. Baby clothes, glasses, shoes… and so much suffering. And yet, through all of that, I also saw their love for one another. I think one of the hardest things for me to take in was thinking of the separation that families had to endure. Men being separated from their wives and children, most of whom got sent straight to the gas chambers. I pictured myself as one of them… What their suffering would have been like, to be packed like cattle in the train, not knowing where you are going and paying for your own ticket to your death… Because yeah! They SOLD them their friggin’ train tickets to the camp!! So I pictured their suffering like it was my own. Like I was one of the women there, with little children. Then, when we got to the part of the museum when they talked about the separation of women and children... I just abotu broke down. I had to contain my tears. Just the thought of letting go off the hand of those I love and know I would never see them again... Gulp!! I couldn't help it. I didn't really mean to do that to myself, but that is just what my mind did. And I think it was necessary. I prayed a lot during my visit to the camp. It was very emotionally exhausting to go through all of the displays
The most haunting part of the museum, even more than the gas chambers and crematorium rooms themselves, was one of the blocks where they had on display several rooms, each of it full with different articles that belonged to the people who were exterminated there. There was a room that was decked on both sides with shoes of people. Another one had hundreds of luggage cases, each marked with the identifying information of its owner. Another room was full of prosthetic parts... Those people certainly made it to the gas chambers as soon as they got there... Then, there was a huge pile of eye glasses, all meshed up like rumbled wire. And then, a room full of... children's shoes... There was this tiny little white shoe of a little girl sitting at the front... I shed a tear. The most horrible of the displays, however, was a room that was full of... human hair. the Nazis cut the hair of inmates, particularly of women, and collected it in huge sacks to be used as raw material for textiles... There was a huge roll of 'fabric' which was made of human hair... it was confirmed by forensic research...
Another haunting are of the camp was block 11. That is where a lot of the fire squad executions of individuals took place, and also where a lot of people were tortured. There were these things called 'standing cells' in which they would imprisoned up to 4 people, but they only fitted standing up, and they would leave them there for sometimes days in a row, without food, sanitary facilities, and just a little tiny whole for breathing, so most of them died of suffocation. They also had starvation chambers. I got to see the starvation cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe died... It felt like holy ground. There was a small religious display there in his honour. In the same building took place many of the experiments on humans that the Nazi's engaged in... It was horrifying.
After that we walked into the gas chambers, which looked like nothing more than empty rooms with wholes on the ceiling, from where the Nazis threw pebbles of poison that created the deadly gas. Right outside the chambers were the crematoriums... I have no words to describe the horror of that place...
After Auschwitz, we were taken to Birkenau, which is the other near-by concentration camp where the most gas chambers and barracks were located. They were mostly in ruins as they had been destroyed in the war, as well as the left overs of train tracks. However, many of the barracks were still standing, and we got to walk inside. The barracks were nothing else than wooden planks separating small bunk cells where up to 5 people would sleep. They looked worse than chicken coups. The walls were scratched with names of inmates and with a few dates and pictures of the Star of David...
There is not much else I can say. You can imagine how terrible a place that is. However, I am really glad I went. It really made me appreciate more the past, and as I said before, it helped me identify more deeply with the suffering of the thousands of people who suffered there... It also helped me appreciate more all the sacrifice of those people who fought in the war. I do not like war. I do not appreciate it, and I don't believe that the way WWII was fought was just in terms of Catholic Just War Theory. The reasons for the war were just, but the way it was conducted wasn't (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, anyone?). However, I can appreciate more how necessary the war was, and I wish our generation could learn more from the past and stop perpetrating the horrors of war in the present...
Anyway, the day did not end up on that grim note, however. Right after Auschwitz and Birkenau, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, and THAT was fantastic! I will tell you about that in my next post. Love you all, miss you all. God bless ...
As i walked thought he concentration camp many images went through my head. I was walking among the ghosts of millions of suffering people. I saw their pictures; their names written in deportation, selection and execution documents. I saw heaps and heaps of their possessions. Baby clothes, glasses, shoes… and so much suffering. And yet, through all of that, I also saw their love for one another. I think one of the hardest things for me to take in was thinking of the separation that families had to endure. Men being separated from their wives and children, most of whom got sent straight to the gas chambers. I pictured myself as one of them… What their suffering would have been like, to be packed like cattle in the train, not knowing where you are going and paying for your own ticket to your death… Because yeah! They SOLD them their friggin’ train tickets to the camp!! So I pictured their suffering like it was my own. Like I was one of the women there, with little children. Then, when we got to the part of the museum when they talked about the separation of women and children... I just abotu broke down. I had to contain my tears. Just the thought of letting go off the hand of those I love and know I would never see them again... Gulp!! I couldn't help it. I didn't really mean to do that to myself, but that is just what my mind did. And I think it was necessary. I prayed a lot during my visit to the camp. It was very emotionally exhausting to go through all of the displays
The most haunting part of the museum, even more than the gas chambers and crematorium rooms themselves, was one of the blocks where they had on display several rooms, each of it full with different articles that belonged to the people who were exterminated there. There was a room that was decked on both sides with shoes of people. Another one had hundreds of luggage cases, each marked with the identifying information of its owner. Another room was full of prosthetic parts... Those people certainly made it to the gas chambers as soon as they got there... Then, there was a huge pile of eye glasses, all meshed up like rumbled wire. And then, a room full of... children's shoes... There was this tiny little white shoe of a little girl sitting at the front... I shed a tear. The most horrible of the displays, however, was a room that was full of... human hair. the Nazis cut the hair of inmates, particularly of women, and collected it in huge sacks to be used as raw material for textiles... There was a huge roll of 'fabric' which was made of human hair... it was confirmed by forensic research...
Another haunting are of the camp was block 11. That is where a lot of the fire squad executions of individuals took place, and also where a lot of people were tortured. There were these things called 'standing cells' in which they would imprisoned up to 4 people, but they only fitted standing up, and they would leave them there for sometimes days in a row, without food, sanitary facilities, and just a little tiny whole for breathing, so most of them died of suffocation. They also had starvation chambers. I got to see the starvation cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe died... It felt like holy ground. There was a small religious display there in his honour. In the same building took place many of the experiments on humans that the Nazi's engaged in... It was horrifying.
After that we walked into the gas chambers, which looked like nothing more than empty rooms with wholes on the ceiling, from where the Nazis threw pebbles of poison that created the deadly gas. Right outside the chambers were the crematoriums... I have no words to describe the horror of that place...
After Auschwitz, we were taken to Birkenau, which is the other near-by concentration camp where the most gas chambers and barracks were located. They were mostly in ruins as they had been destroyed in the war, as well as the left overs of train tracks. However, many of the barracks were still standing, and we got to walk inside. The barracks were nothing else than wooden planks separating small bunk cells where up to 5 people would sleep. They looked worse than chicken coups. The walls were scratched with names of inmates and with a few dates and pictures of the Star of David...
There is not much else I can say. You can imagine how terrible a place that is. However, I am really glad I went. It really made me appreciate more the past, and as I said before, it helped me identify more deeply with the suffering of the thousands of people who suffered there... It also helped me appreciate more all the sacrifice of those people who fought in the war. I do not like war. I do not appreciate it, and I don't believe that the way WWII was fought was just in terms of Catholic Just War Theory. The reasons for the war were just, but the way it was conducted wasn't (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, anyone?). However, I can appreciate more how necessary the war was, and I wish our generation could learn more from the past and stop perpetrating the horrors of war in the present...
Anyway, the day did not end up on that grim note, however. Right after Auschwitz and Birkenau, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, and THAT was fantastic! I will tell you about that in my next post. Love you all, miss you all. God bless ...
Poland. For the second time! :D :D :D
Dear everyone,
I am sorry I have taken so long to blog again. The last few days have been fantastic, but I have been so busy I have not had the chance to blog! Last time I told you about the files of the girls. The weekend after that was pretty busy for me with schoolwork, but I also got to talk to a couple of friends and to my parents on webcam, which was awesome :D
Monday was a quiet day at the internat. Tuesday, however, was quite exciting, as Bogdan, the man who is in charge of the little auditorium at the internat, organized a party for the girls. I bought balloons for the girls the day before, and Bogdan organized a balloon tossing game. He also organized a few other singing and skipping games, and he brought a whole box of wafer cookies for the girls. After that, he build up a fire and we just played around the playground for a while. The next day was our third excursion, but Jen was not feeling that great so Jessica and I took the girls on our own. It was a pretty relaxed excursion, very similar to the first one we had, with ice cream, swings, animal zoo and park. That evening I did some more studying and chatting on msn for a while, and then, at 4:00 am, I headed for the train station to meet Jen and Jessica for our trip to Poland! That's right! Poland again!
This time, however, it was the three of us, and it was an awesome experience. We had hoped to leave on Thursday evening to spend more time in Ternopil with the girls, but unfortunately there were no other trains except for the one leaving on Thursday at 4:00am. The train ride was 12 hours, and it was overall very smooth. We arrived at Krakow at around 4:00 pm on Thursday, July 9. The only down side was that I accidentally left my blue sweater that my brother Antonio gave me for Christmas in the train :( I was really upset about it for a while, at least until I was able to talk to him on msn and apologize :(
We actually got off the train a bit early, but it turned out great because we met this guy, whose name was Michael Wallace, who was very kind and took the trouble to help up buy tran tickets and take us all the way to our hostel! It was so very nice of him!! :D Our hostel's name was "Hocus Pocus" lol... It was located at the top floor of a building smack in the middle of Krakow's Old Town centre. So as you can imagine, the location was fantastic and we could walk everywhere from here. The doorm turned out to be a co-ed dorm, which weirded me out a bit at first. However, everybody is very respectful, and in the end it was just like camping with a bunch of guy and girl friends, except we all had comfy beds! Lol. We chose this hostel because of its location but also because it offered free breakfast AND it had wireless internet, which I was supremely pleased about :P Even though we spent most of our time out and about, I was also able to get some schoolwork done and talk to a friend on msn for a bit, so that was fantastic.
The first day was pretty chill. We just walked around the center, watched a few street performers, and became familiar with the area. It is quite beautiful here; very pituresque. The local basilica, St. Mary's Church, is quite beautiful and it sits right on the center. There are sooooooo many turists here, many of them from England, so besically everyone here speaks English, which is great. We have managed to buy things, get to places, etc. without any trouble due to the language. In fact, I have even made some friends here at the hostel, and I have added them on facebook to keep in touch with them. I met a girl who also goes to the University of Waterloo! She recognized me from my job at the St. Jerome's University Library, hahahaha. So it has been quite a social experience for me, as you can imagine.
On Friday, we took off to explore the city. First we went to buy our bus tickets back to Ukraine, and after that we stumbled upon a mall, so we walked through it for a while. After that we came back to the hostel and hung out for a bit, then went out again and took another walk around the city. In the evening, Jen and Jessica went on a tran party (like a pub crawl) with a bunch of people from different hostels. Since I don't drink and the pub scene isn't really for me, I decided to stay, get some work done, and chat with friends online :D Despite my quiet night, I actually had a great night :D I also got to meet some of the people at the hostel and to hear where they were all traveling and such. I met quite a few people from Britain, but also some from Spain, Jersey, South Africa, etc.
Saturday was intense. That is when Jessica, Jen and I went to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mines... We hired a van to take us there, and our driver was very nice. His name was Lukas, and he was about our age. Hmmm... I think this is a good place for a break in this blog entry. I think that Auschwitz deserves its own entry... And so does the mine!
Because of time's sake, I will not post any pictures here (at least not now), but feel free to visit my facebook albums. I haven't posted them yet as they are still incomplete because Jen, Jessica and I are doing some picture exchanges (due to battery issues lol), but there will be a lot of pictures to see. I have over 200 picture of just of Poland so far, and 60 others of the internat, so that should keep you busy and entertained for a while, hahaha. I will have those up sometime today o tomorrow after I get home. So now on to Auschwitz.... Miss you all, love you all. God bless.
I am sorry I have taken so long to blog again. The last few days have been fantastic, but I have been so busy I have not had the chance to blog! Last time I told you about the files of the girls. The weekend after that was pretty busy for me with schoolwork, but I also got to talk to a couple of friends and to my parents on webcam, which was awesome :D
Monday was a quiet day at the internat. Tuesday, however, was quite exciting, as Bogdan, the man who is in charge of the little auditorium at the internat, organized a party for the girls. I bought balloons for the girls the day before, and Bogdan organized a balloon tossing game. He also organized a few other singing and skipping games, and he brought a whole box of wafer cookies for the girls. After that, he build up a fire and we just played around the playground for a while. The next day was our third excursion, but Jen was not feeling that great so Jessica and I took the girls on our own. It was a pretty relaxed excursion, very similar to the first one we had, with ice cream, swings, animal zoo and park. That evening I did some more studying and chatting on msn for a while, and then, at 4:00 am, I headed for the train station to meet Jen and Jessica for our trip to Poland! That's right! Poland again!
This time, however, it was the three of us, and it was an awesome experience. We had hoped to leave on Thursday evening to spend more time in Ternopil with the girls, but unfortunately there were no other trains except for the one leaving on Thursday at 4:00am. The train ride was 12 hours, and it was overall very smooth. We arrived at Krakow at around 4:00 pm on Thursday, July 9. The only down side was that I accidentally left my blue sweater that my brother Antonio gave me for Christmas in the train :( I was really upset about it for a while, at least until I was able to talk to him on msn and apologize :(
We actually got off the train a bit early, but it turned out great because we met this guy, whose name was Michael Wallace, who was very kind and took the trouble to help up buy tran tickets and take us all the way to our hostel! It was so very nice of him!! :D Our hostel's name was "Hocus Pocus" lol... It was located at the top floor of a building smack in the middle of Krakow's Old Town centre. So as you can imagine, the location was fantastic and we could walk everywhere from here. The doorm turned out to be a co-ed dorm, which weirded me out a bit at first. However, everybody is very respectful, and in the end it was just like camping with a bunch of guy and girl friends, except we all had comfy beds! Lol. We chose this hostel because of its location but also because it offered free breakfast AND it had wireless internet, which I was supremely pleased about :P Even though we spent most of our time out and about, I was also able to get some schoolwork done and talk to a friend on msn for a bit, so that was fantastic.
The first day was pretty chill. We just walked around the center, watched a few street performers, and became familiar with the area. It is quite beautiful here; very pituresque. The local basilica, St. Mary's Church, is quite beautiful and it sits right on the center. There are sooooooo many turists here, many of them from England, so besically everyone here speaks English, which is great. We have managed to buy things, get to places, etc. without any trouble due to the language. In fact, I have even made some friends here at the hostel, and I have added them on facebook to keep in touch with them. I met a girl who also goes to the University of Waterloo! She recognized me from my job at the St. Jerome's University Library, hahahaha. So it has been quite a social experience for me, as you can imagine.
On Friday, we took off to explore the city. First we went to buy our bus tickets back to Ukraine, and after that we stumbled upon a mall, so we walked through it for a while. After that we came back to the hostel and hung out for a bit, then went out again and took another walk around the city. In the evening, Jen and Jessica went on a tran party (like a pub crawl) with a bunch of people from different hostels. Since I don't drink and the pub scene isn't really for me, I decided to stay, get some work done, and chat with friends online :D Despite my quiet night, I actually had a great night :D I also got to meet some of the people at the hostel and to hear where they were all traveling and such. I met quite a few people from Britain, but also some from Spain, Jersey, South Africa, etc.
Saturday was intense. That is when Jessica, Jen and I went to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mines... We hired a van to take us there, and our driver was very nice. His name was Lukas, and he was about our age. Hmmm... I think this is a good place for a break in this blog entry. I think that Auschwitz deserves its own entry... And so does the mine!
Because of time's sake, I will not post any pictures here (at least not now), but feel free to visit my facebook albums. I haven't posted them yet as they are still incomplete because Jen, Jessica and I are doing some picture exchanges (due to battery issues lol), but there will be a lot of pictures to see. I have over 200 picture of just of Poland so far, and 60 others of the internat, so that should keep you busy and entertained for a while, hahaha. I will have those up sometime today o tomorrow after I get home. So now on to Auschwitz.... Miss you all, love you all. God bless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)