Greys and Blues

Poland has been through some tough times. I guess that´s an understatement. Just in the 20th century alone, it was attacked and occupied by one country, only to be "liberated" and then occupied by that very same country. You can see fatigue everywhere - on the domino-style identical apartment high rises, as well as the faces of the middle-aged and elderly who remember the communist era. You can find beauty in Poland - but its earned. Every blue sky in the background of these pictures hovers over a land of rebuilt castles and unmarked graves. But if there´s one place to honor the victims of WWII, it´s Poland.

This is the main square in Krakow. Arguably one of the most breathtaking squares in Europe, once the moltey crüe of street performers, poets, and nuns fill the space in the daytime. Here I am joining in on all the fun being had in this statue.




I couldn´t understand a word this guy was saying, but I think with music sometimes, you dont need to.




Here´s me, fresh off the night train.




And then just a few minutes later:





They have these HUGE underground salt mines in Krakow. Sounds like an adventure to me. I mean, I´ve been to the Peppermill dozens of time, so don´t want to be lopsided here.





There´s really no way to accuately portray how deep this staircase actually was. But at its deepest point, the salt mine is over 550 feet in the ground.




They half joked that if we licked the walls, it would just taste like salt. That was all I needed. I was so thirsty when I left here - I must have licked close to a dozen surfaces. Tastes so good though.








Ok check this out - not even joshing you - this whole ballroom is carved out of salt. The ground, the walls (with murals of events of Jesus´life, btw), all the doorframes, everything. They hold formal dances here. Some Americans I met here - we were challenging each other to lick stuff. I licked the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Thank you, thank you.




The Last Supper, carved in salt. "Pass the sa....oh, nevermind!"





Back in Krakow - this is just a picture of me inside a giant iron head.




Let the crazy wig meeting be called to order! First item of business: stick with the perms or go straight?




These places - translated "Milk Bars" - are basically government subsidized public cafeterias. Kind of college food here. Except it tastes awesome. I had these amazing dumplings...oh man. Cant even explain it. Just really good, cheap food here.




I went to this jazz club later on - thats the owner in the white shirt blowin away on the alto sax. He would fling an amazing solo, and then sit in a chair and smoke his pipe until it was time for him to play again. Sometimes he´d just finish the song from the chair. I liked this guy - he was the kind of guy who took the party with him.




Auschwitz-Birkenau.
We all know what happened here. I don´t need to go into it. But I will share some pictures this time. I´ll spare the grapic ones, but here´s what I saw in several buildings: rooms and rooms of shoes, clothes, human hair made into blankets, combs, toothbrushs, and anything else the Nazis collected from innocent victims of the Holocaust. Here is a brief look at where manz people spent their last days in Poland.

This phrase adorns more than one concentration camp: "Work makes you free".




This is the ´dead zone´. Any attempt to escape was meant with deadly force. Not that it was a piece of cake getting through electrified barbed wire that surrounded the camp.




Another view from inside the camp. These brick buildings are where prisoners stayed. By German law, they were required to have heaters. But there was a loophole: they were never required to be filled with coal. The SS, showing no mercy, just left the unused heaters in the buildings without fuel.





Birkenau. This is giant, main facility mostly associated with Auschwitz. Its about 1 mile away from the actual Auschwitz grounds - and basically designed solely for extermination. These trains tracks lead right into the camp grounds - a sight most people would see for the first and last time.



One thing you notice when you are here is how big it is. It´s unbelieveable. But as big as it is, I have to admit it´s a little hard to really understand what it really looked like to the prisoners, when it´s so empty. Today, it´s a big and silent. Over 60 years ago, I can only imagine with the help of pictures as to what conditions were actually like. But there´s no one there today. I thought this as I walked around, and then my mind absurdly jumped to that scene in ´Blazzing Saddles´where they built all the fake cutouts of the poeople of Rockridge and then just put them everywhere (with little springy heads). I couldn´t help but smile to myself as I thought ´how ridiculous is it that Im thinking of ´Blazzing Saddles´here. At least it gave me something to smile about in this place, if only for a second. And then it occured to me: people had to make friends here, because without some friends to live for and with, there was nothing. And I bet in those conditions, good friends found some pretty absurd things to keep their spirits up from time to time.




Inside the bunkers - the SS guards built these bunks a little crooked on purpose; they stood a little taller as a result, and they could in turn fit more bunks in the room this way.




This is the famous selection platform. After the trian stopped in the grounds and people unloaded, a doctor of all people sentenced people to their fate. Anyone healthy enough to work was sent to one side. Jews, the Elderly, and children - children for crying out loud - under 12 years old were all sent down the path to the right, alongside the brown building, to the gas chambers.




This is one of the gates that led to one of two identical gas chamber/crematoriums. Days before Allied troops arrived, the SS blew them up with dynamite to try to hide their crimes. They sit here in the same condition the Allies found them.




Here´s a close up shot of one of the demolished crematoriums.




After the bodies were creamated, they were filled into a huge hole right next to the creamatorium. Today it is a gravesite.



A quick glance around Birkenau from the main tower:




I´ll finish this section of Auschwitz with this. It is almost impossible to go to a place like this an not jump and forth between two emotions: sadness and anger. I don´t understand this place. I dont understand people. And I don´t understand why God let it happen. I do believe in the sovreign nature of God, but when I see places like this, I just have to admit that I don´t understand why. And I don´t think I ever will.

Warsaw

Again, fresh off the night train. Let´s see if this one is any more lucid.




If I had a nickelf for every H&M store I´ve seen so far, well, I think I´d still only have about half a Euro.




Here´s a bunker where SS soldiers chased Polish soldiers attempting to fight back. Eventually, rather than let themselves be captured by the Nazi´s, the commited suicide. This is their grave.




Guess what I found on a wall! 12 Monkeys, anybody?




In Castle Sqaure, there was this huge exhibit with a bear made for every country recognized by the UN. Irelands had a leprechaun´s hat and Cuba´s bear was smoking a fat cigar.





Here´s a good lool at a lot of the bears. Also, check out the buildings in the backgroud. Pretty much every single building here in Old Town was flattened at the end of the war. Most had been around since the 1400´s. So, in an effort to recapture the old town feeling here, they painstakingly rebuilt. It looks good, but if you get up close to some buildings, it looks authentic in the same way most themed hotels do in Las Vegas. Just the right amount of exposed brick. But hey, the alternative was a heap of rubble.



The towb of the Unknown Soldier. The guard on the left said something to me in Polish when I leaned on one of the pillars.




I almost got in the way here at the changing of the guards.




I saw not one - but FIVE weddings in five different churches. Popular time to get married in early June.



Outside this chruch embedded in the brick is this momument. At the end of the war, a Nazi tank drove itself into this church full of resistance fighters, and blew itself up. Here built into the side of the rebuilt church, is a piece of the tanks tread.



This is the beautiful view I had before boarding the night train to Berlin. Poland has beautiful skies.