Travel Adventures: Krakow-Oswiecim

I was in Krakow, Poland May 18th and 19th. Monday the 18th we left Berlin and got on a 10 hour train ride to Krakow. Katie had given us huge Milka chocolate bars and these crackers to eat. We didn't think to buy anything because we figured the train would have a restaurant car but it was the only train we took that didn't. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere for like 40 minutes and we had no clue why because they announced it in Polish. Well we got to Krakow about an hour later than we were supposed to and we had to find our hostel. We went through the train station and attached to it was mall, random, but that is where we got dinner because all we had to eat all day was chocolate and crackers. Then we checked into our room and it was like a 10 bed dorm room but we were the only ones both nights! The next day we got up and ate the provided breakfast by the hostel which as always in Europe is just bread, then we asked them how to get to Auschwitz. We had to go back to the train station by this tram thing that we took the night before but the night before their was a ticket booth and this day there wasn't so we didn't know where to get tickets and nobody had checked us. So we get on the tram and halfway to our stop these boys who look our age in regular clothes start checking tickets so the tram stops and Cassie tries to get off but one of the boys like shoves her and won't let her get off and they ask for our tickets, I produce the one I had the night before and he tells me its wrong. I keep telling him we didn't know where to get tickets, they make us get off at the next stop and want us each to pay them 100 pln each(polish money) I say no and just keep yelling at him and finally he says okay 100 pln for both of us so I say fine and give it to him so we can go. I am almost positive they just pocket that money because they just walked down the street they didn't even get back on a tram. So anyways we buy tickets at the stop they made us get off at and get to the bus station and get on the bus to go to Oswiecim(this is Auschwitz in Polish). It takes about an hour to get there and then we walked around on our own because its free that way. It took us about 3 hours to get through one of the camps, there are 2 here. We decided not to do the other one because it was depressing and we had seen enough and it had been raining all morning. I am glad I went and saw it though because it is such a huge part of our history. After Auschwitz we got the bus back to Krakow and it took 2 hours to get back because of traffic and I am pretty sure our bus driver kept stalling. Anyways that night we packed up our stuff to get ready for the next day on another long train ride.

Pictures from Krakow & Auschwitz: