Jessica in Prague

Well, I had a blast in Krakow... unfortunately, my camera batteries died and I have no way of recharging them and thus, uploading pics, for awhile. But just believe me, I had fun..

Don't ever get bored in Krakow!!

This time we got a real bus to ride in for only eight hours. Plus we got Jaroslav back, he was our bus driver for the five-day trip and he's a genius. He backed into a parking lot in Cesky Krumlov with inches on either side with no problem, he even got a standing ovation! Anyway, the drive there and back was definitely more comfortable than Venice.

We had breakfast at some random hotel in the morning and went on to Auschwitz. The tour was about four hours long, but it flew by. Unfortunately, we stayed in a large group tour and there were some fifty other large tours going on as well. So there wasn't any alone-thinking time. There were two camps there actually: Auschwitz and Auschwitz II - Birkenau (there's a third Auschwitz, but we didn't go to it). A-I is actually really small compared to A-II. There were lots of sites to cover and I wished I had had more time on my own. I would recommend it to anyone who is able to go there, to do so, but on your own.

Afterwards, they took us to Krakow (Auschwitz is the name of the city... separate from Krakow). We were kinda abandoned at our hotel for a couple hours with no knowledge of the language, transportation system, where we were on the map, or way of exchanging money... and we were all hungry. It kinda sucked. Mary, Mandy, Jamie, and I decided to walk to the city center rather than risk getting caught w/o passes on the tram. Our hotel was way out in boofoo and we just headed in a general direction of big buildings. An hour and a half later and two-three miles father along, we finally get to a currency exchange place and grabbed some food from a street vendor (BAAAAD idea). We bought tram passes and worked our way back to the hotel where we met the rest of the group for an organized dinner.

I can officially say I had a real Polish pierogi, just don't know how to spell it. I also had sadlo... before I knew what it was (pure animal fat that they spread on bread). It's actually really good if you add salt and don't mind shaving off ten years of your life. We went back to the hotel and ate chocolate and went to bed!

Street where much of Schindler's List was shot

The next day we had a guided tour of the city, which was awesome. I didn't know this is where they filmed Schindler's List, or that it even mostly took place here. Anna was the best tour guide, showing us things we actually wanted to see, and guiding us towards other places. The only bad thing is that it's a Catholic country, and thus, everything closes really early on Saturdays... museum- and church-wise. We ate at a real Pizza Hut (THE BEST EVER!) and wandered around shopping and trying to sneak into churches. We saw the Pope John Paul II memorial (he was from the area and it's the one year anniversary of his death). Then we got really tired and decided to go back to the hotel early... and got extremely bored, man if you could only see the pics. We actually got yelled at for being too loud, but once Eva (our group leader) saw why we were laughing... she kinda gave up yelling at us. We ate more Polish chocolate, no not that great, and watched Pretty Woman dubbed (horribly) over in Polish.

Statues in salt mines.... made of salt!

On the way back the next day, we stopped off at some salt mines and traveled 400 feet below the surface... it's really interesting down there... kinda neat! Got back, and have basically been vegging out ever since. Finished my paper for Marriages and Culture class (last paper of my college career!!!), ate some more chocolate, avoided the salmonella plague that's going around, and am now looking up stuff for Paris. Almost there, guys, three weeks left!! Miss you!