Tales From The Road

We haven't had internet access for a while so haven't been able to do any blog entries. We spent a total of 4 days in Krakow at a nice but fairly pricey campsite. The city was quite nice but not as good as Prague!

We spent our second day at a swimming pool complex, Park Wodny which was very fun with lots of raucous flumes. We also went to the cinema and saw The Lost City which was by Andy Garcia. I thought it was ok and it was about Cuba which I have an interest in. I enjoyed the music & dancing in it but Matt hated the film! On our third day we went to the Wiezlica salt mines which was ok but quite pricy (10 pound each for a guided tour). We really don't like guided tours and it was frustrating being barged by people trying to push in front of you & being blinded by constant flashes. We have noticed that no one seems to spend time looking at anything. They just take a photo, turn round & take another photo & then look at the photos they have just taken on their camera rather than just looking at what's in front of them in the first place!

Next we went to a campsite near the south of Poland in a small mountian range Niedzicka. It was an empty campsite with nice facilities again but there was nothing at all to do.

We wanted to do some hiking ut it poured down with rain the whole time we were there. Overnight there was hail and gales and in the morning we had frozen water in our water bucket outside & some water had found it's way into one of the cupboards & frozen. We decided to move onto Zakopane which is basically a ski resort. As we were driving there we saw snow on people's cars & when we arrived the ground was covered in snow & it was very cold. We took a walk into the town adn we both brought very warm hats with ear flaps & fluffy boots to keep our feet warm in the van. On our second day we took a walk up one of the smaller mountains, Mount Nosal in the Tatra mountain range. It was a fun hike. We decided we would go further South to warmer weather so we headed to Slovakia

We headed off from prague on Sunday & we planned to stay overnight in a campsite near the Polish border to break up the drive. Our 2005 campsite book said it was open all year but when we got there we found that they were closed which was a pain! We had been driving all day & could not see any other campsites in the local area so we had to find somewhere else to stay. We found a quiet lane surrounded by trees and stayed there for the night. It's not something that we like to do too often as we feel safer on a campsite but we didn't have much choice! In the morning when we woke we saw another camper in a car park across the way from where we stayed and we assumed they had the same problem!

The border crossing was very easy - I drove us across, they checked our passports very quickly and sent us on our way. They didn't even us to see our Intenational Driving Licences that we brought specially for in Poland!

Our first stop was Auschwitz and there was a small camping area which is part of a reflection centre on the road parrallel to the camp which we arrived at around 10am. We parked up the van and headed off to Auschwitz 1. It was quite eerie walking around as all the buildings are still exactly the same as they were 60 odd years ago. There were several exhibitions in some of the buildings showing conditions in the camp etc & sections about different countries. Over the course of 2 days we made 2 trips to this camp and 2 to the other camp Auschwitz 2 Birkenau as there was too much to take in. On both trips we were offended by the lack of respect that people showed for where they were, particulary the tour groups organised by the camp. All people seemed to want to do was stop & take photos of everything & not even look at what was around them & think about what happened. I was particulary upset by people taking photos in the crematorium, which some people did despite the fact that there were signs asking them not to do so. I raised this with the information desk & spoke to one of the guides about it & we came to the conclusion that there isn't much they can do about it & people just don't care which I find very sad. It is very upsetting that people see it as a tourist day out & as Matt said if they sold T Shirts saying 'I survived Auschwitz' people would buy them.

Birkenau was a lot worse than the first camp. This was a larger camp that was built about 3km from the first & conditions were a lot worse. The barracks were old horse sheds made of wood rather than the brick ones in Auschwitz 1. The worst thing was the size of the place - nothing that I have ever learnt at school or seen about it showed the scale of it like seeing it for yourself. Most of the buildings have now been destroyed, but the fences are still there as well as the chimneys from most of the buildings. There was a watchtower that you could stand at and look over the whole camp, but even then you couldn't see it all. It is hard to imagine that a place so big could have been filled up so much that they had started to build another camp on the outskirts. We made a trip away from the crowds to see the first 2 sites of temporary gas chambers that were made in people's houses as the whole town was chucked out to house the camp & also to see the sites where bodies were burnt in the open air and their ashes left on the ground. The gas chambers had all been destroyed by the SS when they knew that they were going to be caught but there are detailed plans of what they looked like & some ruins. It was a very upsetting day but necessary - I think everyone should try and go there if they can as it is necessary to realise just how bad it was.

After Auschwitz we moved onto Krakow which was a short drive away, staying at a campsite on the outskirts of the city. That was yesterday and in the afternoon we got the bus in & just wandered around the city. Today we have been to a museum of paintings & ancient artifacts like Egyptian & Roman pieces. Things are cheaper than in Prague. It cost us about 1 pound each to get in! This afternoon we are going to go to a mount that you can walk up & maybe go to a swimming pool tomorrow.

By Chloe