We had a 2-hour bus ride from Auschwitz to Kraków. After checking into the hotel, our guide took us on a 5-minute walk to the main square and pointed out some things to do that evening. Sadie, Michaela, and I went on the hunt for amber, a popular Polish gemstone, and then got pierogis before heading back to the hotel.
Main square
Cool picture from the amber hunt
The most well-manicured bushes I've ever seen
Pierogis (cheap and good)
I charged my phone for a bit before heading back out for my third ghost tour of the semester.
Cool picture from the ghost tour
Saturday, November 4th
I had the best free breakfast so far and then we gathered for our tour of the city. We started at the former Jewish ghetto, walked through the Jewish Quarter, up to Wawel Castle, and then ended at the main square.
Site of the former Jewish ghetto & Empty Chairs Monument -- there are 68 chairs, each representing 1,000 Jews that had lived in Krakow prior to the Holocaust, as well as the furniture that was left in the square to be collected, used and sold, by the Nazis
Outside of the castle
Katelyn and I outside the castle
Flowers outside the castle
Inside of the castle
Church inside the castle
Churches outside the castle
My phone was dead after the tour, so I went back to the pierogi place we had dinner the night before to charge it. I ate some pierogis while my phone charged and then went to the Czartoryski Museum to see Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, one of the most popular paintings that was stolen during WWII.
Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine
After strolling through the museum, I went to the main square to see the trumpeter that plays every hour on the hour from one of the towers of St. Mary's Basilica. He plays four times, once from each corner of the tower. I watched from the final corner and he waved at us, which instilled a feeling of childlike wonder in my little heart.
Inside of St. Mary's Basilica
To prolong this feeling of childlike wonder, I went in search of the Wawel Dragon that lives in a den below the castle. In an effort to fend off the villagers, the dragon breathed fire at us, but we weren't scared. We knew this good-for-nothing dragon couldn't possibly defeat a mob of angry villagers with pitchforks. Eventually, we were successful in scaring the dragon away from our kingdom and we can now live happily ever after.
Dragon's den on a map of the castle
Wawel Dragon
Sadie's Section
Hello everyone! I am Sadie (Megan’s roommate) and I have to say that it is an absolute HONOR to be on the blog. I have never felt more blessed in my entire young life. While Megan was gallivanting around Krakow, I visited the Oskar Schindler Museum. Who is that, you may be wondering, well don’t worry I am here to tell you all about him! Oskar Schindler was born in Austria-Hungary (actually in the modern-day Czech Republic) and employed around 1,200 Jews in his factory during World War II. Initially, he just took advantage of the fact that Jews were cheap labor but eventually went to great lengths to protect them and their families. When the initial factory, located in Krakow, was closed in 1944, Oskar Schindler composed a list of 1,200 names of Jewish individuals to transport to the Czech Republic to start a new factory. With this action, he saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens from execution.
Names of individuals saved by Oskar Schindler
His original factory in Krakow has been converted into a museum, although all of the equipment from the factory was moved across the border when the factory reopened in the Czech Republic. The museum also covered a lot of information about individuals in Schindler’s List, a movie made about Oskar Schindler’s life. Spielberg used real-life stories to incorporate into the movie. There is a scene where a little Jewish girl kisses Schindler’s cheek when giving him a birthday cake. That girl really existed and worked for Schindler in his factory. In addition, the kiss got Schindler arrested in real life since kissing Jews was forbidden.
Naturally, not all stories were positive. Amon Göth was the commander of Plaszow, a concentration camp in Poland where Jews were liquidated. In the movie, he can be seen shooting Jews from a tower in the camp. This tower also existed in real life and Göth would commit heinous crimes such as shooting Jews on sight, but not from this tower specifically. In real life, the tower faces a hill so it is unlikely he would be shooting from that position.
Stairs from the factory used in Spielberg's film
Most people can not really agree on whether or not Oskar Schindler was a hero. At the end of the war, he was almost arrested since he was still a member of the Nazi party and Abwehr, a German military intelligence service. Towards the end of the war, Jews employed in his factories made bullets for Nazi soldiers. Regardless, Schindler went to great lengths to protect his workers, even doling out large bribes to high-ranking Nazi officials and purchasing supplies off of the black market to keep his factory in business. He even claimed the wives, children, and disabled members of his workers as employees of the factory to avoid their liquidation. While I do think he started out as a man trying to make an easy buck, I believe the lives and hardships of his workers transformed him into a more honest man and he truly did care about them.
Schindler's former office
This map is the only real furniture left from the original factory
Thanks, Sadie! We love our field reporters -- now back to Megan in the studio
After Sadie and I completed our respective quests, we met up at the main square where I made her watch the trumpeter and then got more pierogis for dinner. This time we tried a different restaurant and I got apple and cinnamon pierogis. They were good; the outside of the pierogis were dryer at this restaurant and I didn't love the dipping sauce so I ate them with a weird dry-pasta texture, but I really liked the filling.
Dry pierogis
Sunset Series
Sunday, November 5th
I had free breakfast (just as good and just as free as yesterday) and then we boarded the bus to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mines before heading back to Prague.
The salt mine was huge and the tourist route is only 3.5 of the total 287 kilometers.
I was joking about licking the wall or a statue because it's all made of salt and right at the beginning our guide said, "You can lick it if you want," and (surprise!) it tasted like salt.
Licking the wall
Me after getting to lick the wall
Passageway
Salt gnomes harvesting salt bricks with salt tools
Brine lake
And another brine lake
And another brine lake
Mining structures and salt chandelier
Biggest underground church
Salt chandelier
Under the salt chandelier
After touring the salt mines, we boarded the bus to start the 7-hour drive to Prague. When we got back to the dorms, everyone was excited to get off the bus, but I wished it would've lasted longer. I think because I grew up camping, I'm used to being in the car for 10+ hours and not having any leg room and now I enjoy it for some reason. It also reminds me of taking the bus to soccer games in high school and something about it feels homey.
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