27th June: Relieving the Nazi’s era in Auschwitz

No visit to Poland is complete without the trip to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. Despite all the stories from people saying how depressing and scary the place is, we all decided to go over. For 30 PLN/person, we have a English-speaking tour guide and it was a 4-hour walking trip. But before we have all the depressing stuff, we were on our way to look out for Polish delicacies again, and this time it is a holy one.

The name of the shop 

The last pope, pope Jean-Paul II is a Polish. And his favourite dessert was a thing that tasted like a mille cake. Pastry with custard cream in the middle. And Oswiciem is actually famous for that! We went to this store, which supposed to make the best mille cake in the country. And it didn’t disappoint us.

Mille cake

The interior of the cafe

The Auschwitz camp trip started with a video viewing session, giving us a rough idea on what a concentration camp is and how was the development of the concentration camp.  A lot of people thought that after a visit to Auschwitz camp visit, it will be very traumatising or depressing. And indeed it should be like that. I felt a little depressed, especially when we reach the section with rows and rows of pictures of children. It is quite bizarre to think that someone like Hitler will do something so cruel to achieve his goals. If you are in Europe, a visit to any concentration camp is a must in your itinerary.

Work for freedom

The one of the many barb-wired place

Over here and be shot to death

The supposedly road to freedom is actually road of death

The countries that were affected

The number of people killed

Well, nothing much be said about this trip other than through pictures. Despite all the sad encounter during the trip, the weather was perfect. Blue sky and the sun can make no one be sad forever. The following pictures were from Auschwitz-Birkenau which is different from the main camp. To get here, there is a shuttle bus ferrying visitors from the main camp to the Birkenau or Auschwitz II. There was supposed to be a third camp, the Monowitz but the building got torn down right after the fall of Hitler.

Entrance of Auschwitz-Birkenau

The rows of bunk beds for the abductees

One of the many cells

Their toilet which one can use only twice a day

Today is relatively simple. The last night in Krakow, we went to this small little cafe for some dinner before walking around the town until night falls (mind you, night falls at 10pm?). And then it’s time to turn in early for a long drive again to our last destination in Poland, the mountain areas of Zakopane!

Starters : Tomato soup

Some chees-baked thingy

Duck and cranberry jam (super dry)

26th June: Wanna see a dragon?

The day started with a good breakfast provided by the hostel. And we started exploring the town, through the Old Town Square. Saw a lot of buskers around and Dagmara was even scared by one of them! Haha. So we walked to this place called the Florenc Gate and in front of the gate, there was this wall where vendors hang drawings of different size and shapes against it. And the effect is really beautiful, like a big piece of collage!

Pretty?

From there, we walked again to the castle, where there is a cathedral and a dragon. The cathedral housed tombs of previous kings and also the Polish president who died in a plane crash few years ago. There were many people there as well to pay their respect for the president.

The tomb of the previous president

And afterwards, we went up to the bell tower, to witness the large bell, which can produce sound that travels almost 30 km far! But the climb up the tower is not an easy one, with steep staircase and low arch at some places.But the bell was magnificent!

Ding Dong Bell

Next up, we went to see a dragon! A fire spitting dragon! It was actually just a dragon statue. According to the legend, the dragon attacked Krakow in the olden days and one of the warrior killed him by feeding him real salty water. Hmph, I wonder if the salt were from Waliszka?

Dagmara is always wanting us to get the best Polish food from Poland. So she wanted to bring us to this cafe which served krakovian traditional stew in the Jewish Quarter. She said that this cafe was on the television before and we couldn’t really find it when we were there. We asked around a few times but nobody seemed to hear it before. Then she thought that maybe the shop changed its name. So we went around the square which eventually lead us to the cafe. Yeap, the changed their name. Krakovian traditional stew was really good, a slab of meat in some tasty gravy, placed on top of two pieces of bread, that will soak up all the gravy. It was really tasty and filling.

The Krakovian stew

My ultimate yucky Caesar salad (no croutons)

And, boyfriend and I tried buttermilk for the first time. In my imagination, buttermilk is literally milk added with butter, and it is hot. But when the drink came, it was cold, and it tasted like yoghurt drink, a more sour version. And I like it!

After that, we went food hunting again, for this thing called Zapikanki. It seems that this is probably the only food that I can remember it’s Polish name. Basically, this is a long baguette, baked with cheese on it. You can choose any toppings of your preference. But the traditional one, according to Dagmara was fried onions only.No meat! We ordered one to share and it was really really good.

Dagmara and I, posing with our Zapikanki 

Boyfriend and Dagmara

Zapikanki!

And so we continued walking, to digest off our food, which was really a lot of food. In the evening, boyfriend and I decided to watch a classical musical performance in St Peter’s and St Paul’s church in the church district. It costs 30PLN per person for about one hour performance. This is my first classical music concert. And I must say, for the price I pay, it was really a good show. The soloists were very professional. Apart from violin, we had a flute and a trumpet soloist. It is amazing how the church can give good acoustic effect! How I wish we have this in Singapore/Malaysia! And after the performance, I had a sudden urge to pursue music again. But we will see!

The music hall

Us before the concert