Poland: Worclaw (June 24, 2014)

I really do not know where my obsession with little garden gnomes came from…it may have stemmed from the Icelandic folklore of the Christmas Elves (my grandmother was Icelandic and these elves are scattered around our house at Christmas time), the fact that one randomly showed up on my parent's front porch one day or if the garden gnomes from Harry Potter sparked this fascination. Whatever the case, I think gnome statues are the cutest! Little did I know Worclaw, Poland would be the perfect place to come to get my gnome fascination fix.

Gnome statues are all over the city center, almost 80 in fact. They are a symbol that now reflects the political instability during the era of communism in Poland. During the 1980's the Orange Alternative Movement started in Worclaw as a response to oppose the communist regime. Basically when the communist regime would repaint over a anti-government slogan an Orange Alternative artist would paint a graffiti gnomes over the freshly painted wall. The gnome became the symbol of this movement and in 2001 the first modern gnome was placed to near the city center.

I had to much fun today walking around and taking pictures of these little fellows! 

Poland: Auschwitz & Birkenau (June 20, 2014)

**There are some pictures that may be upsetting to look at.**

(Elie Wiesel, author of "Night")

(Memorial plaque for both camps)                   

                                         Auschwitz II - Birkenau

Railroad tracks that led to the sorting platform at Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

Rows of barracks at Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

A model of the freight train that prisoners would arrive in.

It is dedicated to the 400,000 Hungarian Jews that were deported to Auschwitz II - Birkenau in 1944. 

Row of fences that led to the gas chambers at the back of the camp.

Area called, Canada, where prisoner's belongings were plundered and held after they reached the camp.

On October 7, 1944 this site was the location of the only armed revolt of the Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz II - Birkenau. They were able to destroy the gas chambers and crematorium IV before being killed.

Sleeping quarters at Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

This is where Dr. Mengele's wooden hut stood during 1944. 

Front entrance gate at Auschwitz I. It roughly reads "work will set you free."

This is the site where the first commandant, SS-Obersturmbannfuher Rudlof Huss was hanged after the war on April 16, 1947.

Poland: Schindler's Factory (June 23, 2014)

Today we visited one of the most anticipated places of the trip - Oscar Schindler’s Factory in Krakow. I have now written two term papers over the life of Oscar Schindler, so visiting his factory was another chance for my academics to come full circle.

His factory has been turned into an exhibition museum and is located at 4 Lipowa Street and was completely different than what I expected the museum to be. Instead of reconstructing how the factory worked or reflecting heavily on Schindler or the individuals on his list, the museum focused a lot on the city of Krakow during WWII. Germans occupied Krakow within five days after the invasion of Poland.

Schindler was a member of the Abwehr (intelligence service of Germany) and  joined the Nazi Party in 1939 as a spy. To be completely honest, Schindler was a businessman looking to make a quick and easy profit. Luckily, after realizing how cheap it was to use prisoners from the nearby Plaszow Concentration camp, Schindler chose to employ Jewish individuals and subsequently saved over 1,000 lives. When it became obvious that Germany was going to loose the war in 1944 and concentration camps began to be liquidated, Schindler convinced the SS to move his workers to the Brunnlitz Concentration Camp that was closer to his factory.

Although the museum did not focus on Schindler heavily, his office was still intact and was a powerful sight to see knowing that from here, over 1,000 Jewish individuals lives were spared.

After leaving Schindler’s factory we made our way back to the city center of Krakow and visited St. Mary’s Basilica. It first built in 1221 by the Bishop of Krakow. The church is most famous for the Altarpiece of Veit Stoss, which is the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world. During WWII the altarpiece was dismantled and shipped to Germany and was discovered after the war in a tunnel in Nuremberg.

After a quick lunch at KFC (eating cheap at this point in the trip) we boarded the bus for Worclaw. We arrived in time to walk around the city square a bit and look at the many statues that dot the streets. My favorites so far have been the little gnomes that line the streets and tomorrow I plan to seek out even more!

Poland: Weiliczka Salt Mine (June 22, 2014)

After a really fun night out in Krakow on Saturday, we started our day with the Old Synagogue in the Kazimierz district. It is the oldest synagogue building that is still standing in Poland and was one of the most important in the city before the war broke out in 1939. It is now the home to a museum that is dedicated to the Jewish faith. I am very unfamiliar with the Jewish faith and their practices, so it was interesting the read about it in such a historical building.

We then ventured to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site on the outskirts of Krakow. Until 2007 this mine produced everyday table salt but has now turned into a tourist attraction with chapels, a cathedral, a restaurant, a 5-D movie theatre and even a health spa…all underground! Watch out Mom and Dad, I could even be married in the chapel that was carved out by the miners.

(Da Vinci's Last Supper - carved out of salt on the side of the cathedral wall)

(Copernicus)

At its deepest the mine reaches over 1,000 feet under the earth’s surface. There is an underground lake (which our hilarious tour guide called the Salt Lake City Lake) and the tour that we went on (just over 1.5 hours long) only covered roughly 1% of the length of passageways. 

Our 15 minute bus ride turned into an hour long nap after we got stuck in traffic but there were truly no complaints after our long day on Sunday. We were able to quickly make our way through the Ulica Pomorska Museum (former Gestapo Cells). They building where they were located was the headquarters of the Gestapo during WWII and prisoners were interrogated and tortured in the prison cells in the cellar. All along the wall were carved inscriptions of names, dates and quotes from previous political prisoners who were killed.

We made our way back to the city center in time for the Rynek Underground Museum. It is literally under the same market that we all shopped at during the previous day. This museum showed the different cobblestone roads throughout the centuries of Krakow and was very interactive.

Poland: Wawel Castle (June 21, 2014)

I will be updating a summary of my last two weeks in Olomouc soon but because of spotting WIFI (well mostly the fact that we had to pay for it in our last hotel) I will be uploading a few posts at the same time over my stay in Poland thus far. Bear with me.

On Friday we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau and I will be uploading a separate post about that as well when I can get enough service to upload pictures. Words will not do justice so I want to share with you the pictures so you can catch a small glimpse of what I experienced.

So…Saturday June 21, 2014.

We visited the Gothic Wawel Castle in Krakow today. Although it wasn’t my favorite castle we visited on this trip, it was full of Polish history (obviously). Atop of Wawel Hill are the castle, a cathedral, a museum and the crown treasury and armory.

Our tour started with the treasury and we were able to see a few of the jewels of Poland that have survived until today. Poland is a country that has seen the pattern of independence and occupation repeat itself often, so the artifacts that have survived this remain very important to the country.

The tour of the rooms of the castle was quite interesting as well because during WWII the collection of enormous wall tapestries were removed and sent to Canada for safekeeping. We had an audio guide during our tour of the cathedral that made it more interesting because we finally knew little details about the artifacts and individuals who we were looking at.

After 5 long hours of touring, touring, and more touring, we were set free and were all pretty hungry. A delicious bowl of Beef Goloush soup, in a bread bowl I might add, and some cheese perogis were enough to recharge my tired mind and feed growling stomach. Jackie, Jake, D’Arcy, Jenna and I decided to do a little bit of shopping in the market. Most of them bought some beautiful amber jewelry pieces while I checked out the wooden pieces for my brothers.

That night we decided to try “The Mexican Restaurant” and take my advice when I saw that Poland does not know how to do Mexican! We did though decide to watch some more of the World Cup and enjoy a few drinks with our large group. I have really bonded with my peers and will truly miss them when the trip is officially over.

Budapest or Bust?

Last Friday (June 6, 2014) we left Olomouc with a destination to Budapest, Hungary! Despite some minor fiascoes, I really enjoyed the historical aspect that Hungary offered! 

We left rather early that morning and to my surprise stopped in the country of Slovakia on the way to Hungary. During our first weekend in Olomouc there was a wine festival in the square and I tried a sweet black currant wine that I absolutely loved. Dr. Murphy told me then that we'd be visiting the city that makes this delicious wine, so I was excited to learn it was in Slovakia. Of course, we didn't stop there strictly for me to get another bottle of black currant wine, our destination was Devin Castle at the confluence of the Morava and Danube Rivers in the capital city of Bratislava. During the time of communism, this castle was opened to the public but because Austria (a non-communist country) was literally right across the Danube River, the land surrounding the castle was a restricted military zone. 

After lunch in the sun and a wonder sunburn on my shoulders, we got back on the bus and were anxious to get to Budapest. However, our luck turned sour and we found ourselves with a broken down bus on the side of the road. The fan belt had broken (or something along that line) and we sat a small restaurant and played cards and read books for nearly 4 hours. Little did we know that this would be a bad omen for the rest of our time in Budapest.

We finally drove into Budapest when the sun was setting and were dropped off just in time to board a boat for a night cruise on the Danube River. Although we had no idea what buildings we were looking at, Budapest at night was definitely something to see. To top it off, and to kind of make up for our broken down bus, we enjoyed the most delicious hot dogs (topped with chili sauce and crispy onions) and met two little old women from Oregon who kept us laughing on the cruise. Our hostel was located in what is known as the Jewish quarter of the city and we were all exhausted and ready for bed as soon as the cruise was over. 

On Saturday morning we tried to go to the Citadella on a hill overlooking the city but soon found out it was closed for two months for repairs, but I was still able to get my WWII fix in when Dr. Murphy pointed out the bullet holes along the fortress walls. We made our way back down the hill and headed to our next stop, the House of Terror.

Although it may sound like a bad horror show, the House of Terror can now be added to the list of my favorite museums that I have ever been to. Much like the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., this museum started on the top floor and told a story as we went down. In each room there were handouts in English and I thoroughly enjoyed reading over the material as we went.

The museum contained exhibits that related to the fascist (Nazi and Arrow Cross Party) and communist (AVH - State Protection Authority) regimes of the 20th century in Hungary. Not only did it explains how these regimes impacted the history of Austria, it memorialized the victims of those individuals who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the historical building. The most touching part of this museum was in the basement where there were the original cells where individuals were held and tortured into giving the AVH information. I believe that Americans sometime forget the horrors that Central Europe faced during both the WWII and Communist eras and seeing this first hand was definitely eye opening.

(An Iron Curtain statue in front of the museum)

(a piece of the Berlin Wall)

Sunday was my favorite day in Budapest, mainly because it was centered around so much WWII history. We started the day in the Hungarian National Museum before making our way back into the Jewish Quarter and in front of the Dohany Street Synagogue. It is also known as the Great Synagogue because it is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It was built between 1854-1859 and has a 2,964 seat capacity. 

(map of the Jewish Ghetto - our hostel was located near the top right at #10)

The Jewish Museum was opened within the synagogue in 1930 and has a Holocaust room within. It was so strange to walk around the Holocaust room and see all of the pictures of the Jewish quarter surrounding the synagogue knowing that I was staying and even standing in the exact spot of a some of the places. 

The most notable aspect of the Dohany Street Synagogue was the Jewish Cemetery that makes up the courtyard. By 1944 the synagogue was apart of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest and over 2,000 Jewish individuals who perished during the winter of 1944-1945 are buried in the courtyard's ground. Over 70,000 Jewish individuals had been relocated to the Ghetto of Pest during 1944 and roughly 10,000 of those individuals perished within the ghetto until its liberation by Russian forces on January 18, 1945. A beautiful memorial tree is just behind the courtyard with the names and tattoo numbers of the dead or disappeared. It am truly thankful that I had the opportunity to view such a meaningful part of history.

(the same courtyard - the right upon liberation, the left today)

Lunch followed the synagogue and a stop at an art museum and Memento Park was the only thing left on Budapest's agenda. Memento Park, or Statue Park as we dubbed it, was quite ironic. This park is solely dedicated to the old communist statues from 1949-1989. Lenin, Marx, Engels and Stalin were a few of the many communist statues that stood in the park. All of us were quite slap happy and we had fun taking silly pictures and making bad jokes about these communist leaders!

(I got his nose…haha)

We all piled back onto the bus and were very anxious to get back to Olomouc for the night…and this is where the problems started, again. We made it about an hour outside of the city before our bus driver pulled over at a rest stop and all of our faces dropped at the mention of bus issues. After waiting for another new part for roughly an hour, Dr. Murphy gave us the bad news…we'd have to wait another 6 hours before a new bus from the Czech Republic came. After reading until my eyes were sore, I curled up in a ball and fell asleep until the new bus came. At 3:00 a.m. we loaded onto another bus and FINALLY made it back to the Hotel Gol in Olomouc at about 7:30 Monday morning. Granted, Budapest was beautiful and full of some intriguing history, but I sure was thankful to be back to my little twin bed in Olomouc on Monday morning!