"Dubche" (good) Times in Krakow

On our way to Krakow from Berlin, which was a full day in a train.  It was nice to enjoy the countryside, but we're excited to make the trek to Krakow. Mark and I are enjoying our first class train rides, the first train we had our own room, but this picture above we just had a larger area with lots of leg room.  Mark is a big fan of that as he repeated it multiple times.

Poland Countryside

We didn't get to our hostel until about 9:30 or so, because there was a protest covering a section of the tram track right as we walked up the stairway outside.  Luckily, we were just a 20 minute walk to our place, and a nice Pole stopped to help us find our hostel that was quite hidden.  We ended up passing the tram that we would have taken, too as it remained at a stand-still.

After we unloaded our bags, we immediately asked for dinner recommendations, and the guy told us about this AMAZING pierogi place.  We fell in love with the 24 hour place instantly.  Not only was it cheap (10 pierogis for about $5 USD), but they tasted delicious! Needless to say, we went back again on our trip with another couple we met to introduce them, too.

When Mark and I began planning our Europe trip we both gave at least one “must-see/do” for the trip, to help figure out where we wanted to make sure we went.  My “must-see” was Auschwitz.  Ever since I learned about the Holocaust in middle school, it has always been a high interest of mine.  I’ve read several memoirs of various survivors and had a passion to visit Auschwitz in person.  Mark also thought it would be neat to see Auschwitz and wanted to go to Poland, as one of his favorite student’s (Alexandra) family is from there and had a great impression of the country based on her family. I met them last summer and couldn't have agreed more about their welcoming and warm personalities.

On our first full day we took a tour around Auschwitz which had multiple sub camps both big and small.  Walking around the grounds of the camp will remain an unforgettable experience.  It was quite a somber mood, but interesting to hear more about life on the camps while getting a visual for everything I have read and learned about in the past.   To witness mounds of hair (4,000 pounds worth and that's not even close to all of it), shoes, suitcases, etc. from the victims was so depressing.  Walking the streets through each barrack and thinking about the starvation, disease, and further atrocities that took place was numbing.  I’m grateful to have been able to visit the camp, as my heart continues to go out to the millions who died during the Holocaust. 

It's hard to see the sign that means "Work Makes One Free", which clearly wasn't the case here as this was just one of the sinister tactics employed by the Nazi's against those sent here.

View of where the train came in at Auschwitz--Birkenau Concentration Camp built to house up to 300,000 people

On our second full day in Poland, we visited Oscar Schindler's Factory & Museum in hopes to learn more about Oscar Schindler, as both of us enjoyed the movie "Schindler's List" with the more realistic portrayal of WWII events.  Although there was some interesting information about the war and such, there was VERY little about Oscar Schindler and his factory which we found to be rather disappointing.  I think both of us would have liked it better if our expectation wasn't to learn more about Oscar Schindler and his factory, which by the name of it and what we read that's what we thought it was mainly about. 

Pictures of those Oscar Schindler saved

The pots and such the workers made in his factory

We walked pretty much everywhere in Poland, and on our walk back from the factory we couldn't help but laugh at the random pig in the river.  We don't know the meaning behind it, but Mark stopped to model the statue in the river which was a pig with all legs pointing to the sky like it was ready to be roasted.

I seriously LOVE the architecture in Krakow and took quite a few pictures of the aesthetically pleasing buildings.  A lot of the buildings are still from medieval times, and I appreciated that all the more. Although I loved the history in Berlin, Krakow was a lot prettier which made sense, because Berlin was heavily destroyed from the daily Allied bombing raids during WWII.

We went on a walking tour around Krakow and met at this beautiful St. Mary's Cathedral.  We were there at the perfect time to hear the trumpeter peek his trumpet out and place a song to signal the top of the hour.

We are at the oldest gate in Krakow

This is where Pope John Paul II peeked his head out and spoke to the students and people of Krakow.  He is from Poland and was Bishop of Krakow, so pictures and statues of him are throughout the city.  We learned that when talking about Popes, in Krakow he is "the" Pope and all other Popes are "a" Pope.  

On our tour we met another couple who was from the good ole' USA.  We all left the tour early to catch the US vs Germany soccer game and went to a nearby Irish Pub to cheer on the Americans.  Although we didn't see a victory, we continued to celebrate anyways.  We went to a bar that served Belgium beer, and Mark and I had the Delirium beer that we fell in love with in Israel.  Unfortunately, I don't think we got the same type of Delirium, so we'll have to try it again later in the trip.  

On our last day, we went to the Krakow Salt Mine

I was super excited in this picture as we were descending down 50 flights of stairs...I'm just glad I didn't slip, as I tend to trip going both up/down stairs. The mine was interesting, as we saw entire sculptures made out of salt and different scenes of how they mined the salt back in the day.  Although it was interesting, we thought it was pricey for what it was and probably wouldn't recommend it to someone else.  Our tour guide mentioned how you could, at any point, take your finger and swipe it along the wall to sample the salt.  However, Mark and I were rather deterred by the unimaginable germs left by who knows how many people who went before us.  We decided to take the guide at her word.

They used to have 40 chapels in the Salt Mine, but currently just have 20 chapels.  They are still used today and there is even a salt palace that was made where weddings are held...definitely a unique place to get married.

After the salt mine, Mark and I enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather, as it rained on and off most of the time we were there.  

We took this picture to celebrate our 2nd Year Anniversary! This is the "Love Bridge" in Krakow, where you are supposed to put a lock around a piece of the bridge and throw the key into the river.  I believe it's similar to the one in Paris.

Our lock (picture above) and us throwing the keys into the river (pictures below).

 To end our time in Krakow we met up with a family friend of Mark's former student who I mentioned earlier.  We actually met her daughter last summer as she was visiting the USA, and we were able to get in touch with her when we knew we would be going to Krakow.  We went and enjoyed delicious Polish food (stuffed cabbage with rice and minced meat covered in a tomato sauce and green onion), followed by gelato (yum!), walked around, went to the Monument of National Remembrance at sunset, and finished the evening with a drink at a panoramic restaurant with the city in the background.  

In the picture above we are with Paul (pronounced different in Polish) and Izabela (Alexandra's family friend), we are in the square of the oldest school in Krakow.  The pictures below are on top of the Mount of Remembrance.

Beautiful view of the Wawel Royal Castle (pronounced: Vavel)

 Our journey continues onto Prague.  We are in the process of taking three trains from Krakow to Prague.  On our first train, definitely not very nice as it was for a short trip, we noticed that when you flushed the toilet, it went straight onto the tracks. LOL! So, needless to say, careful where you walk when you are on train tracks. I tried getting a picture of it, but it's hard to tell what is below.

Enjoying our 1.5 hour stop in Katowice, Krakow and stopped for lunch outside.  I had been craving a good salad, and Mark was craving pizza (which is pretty much all the time), so this place was perfect for us!  

We are currently on our last train to Prague and are living it up in the 1st class.  We were greeted with complimentary glasses of champagne, followed by complimentary tea/coffee/water, etc and a snack (sandwich/fruit/yogurt). In addition to all of that, we have free Wi-fi.  This is the first time we've had Wi-fi on the train, so it's nice to get caught up on e-mails and the blog. :) 

Random things we learned:

* When you are pronouncing a word, change your w sound to a v sound in Poland.  For example: Karkow=Krakov, Wawel Castle=Vavel Castle

* Dubche (Dubshae) = good in Polish, but shouldn't be used interchangeably with the phrase "Thank You", it doesn't fit

* It is common to see brown toilet paper in Poland, so if you go, do not to be weirded out by the change in color

* If you visit Warsaw and tell people in Krakow, tell them you didn't like it or lie and say you haven't been there nor do you want to go (tip from our tour guide, but think she was half-teasing)

*Open containers (beer, etc) is illegal on the streets in Krakow unless you are hidden inside a sculpture on the street (we didn't test it out). It was a change coming from Berlin where it was common to see people walking around at all times of the day with beers in their hand, to Krakow where it being illegal.  Not a hard transition, as it was quite a shock to see so many in Berlin drinking beer on the streets, especially coming from Doha where you need a license to be able to buy beer unless at a hotel.

Overall, we both LOVED Krakow and would definitely go back again.

We Like to Ride Our Bicycles (June 21-June 24)

     Our 2^nd day in Berlin went MUCH better than the first.  We talked to someone else who recommended the walking tour and decided to do that first.  The walking tour was great and we were so glad we went.  We had a informative and funny tour guide from Australia, who really knew his German facts.  The tour was a total of 3 hours, and we learned a lot.  These were some of the high-lights.

   We met across from the hotel, Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson was seen dangling a baby from the balcony several years back.  The penthouse comes complete with a bomb shelter, butler and a fairly inexpensive price tag of 12,000 euros/night ($16,300).  However, breakfast is not included (why would it be for that price) so one must count on the plethora of Dunkin Doughnuts in/around Berlin.  We thought that was pretty ridiculous.

The Bradenburg Gate (below) wherein our tour guide proceeded to give us all of German's history in 13 minutes.  One random factoid that we found jaw-dropping at the beginning was the fact that Germany had to pay some 6.6 billon pounds for war damages/responsibilities.  The final payment to clear the debt was made in 2010 some 90+ year later.

  We continued our journey and visited a Holocaust Memorial for the Jews.  They have specific memorials for each group of individuals who were affected during the Holocaust, such as the mentally/physically impaired, gays, politicians, etc. We found out the number of stones did not represent the people lost, but was constructed to help remember those who were killed. 

 

There are also small memorial golden plaques found in the ground around Europe that are in memory of individuals who died in the Holocaust.  There are 60,000 individual plaques, with more continuing to be created.  There has to be specific evidence of each person prior to the creation of the plaque.

We saw the Berlin wall and Check Pointe Charlie to hear more stories behind it and it’s destruction.   Certain parts of the wall are still up, and some parts have a small fence to block it from people who like to chip away at the wall as a souvenir.  We noticed on our way home later that day that there are other parts of the wall that does not have a fence to block it and is covered with graffiti.

 

   One of our last stops was Hitler’s Bunker, where he spent his final months of his life and committed suicide.  We did not go inside the bunker, as it was previously destroyed.  It took three detonations to completely destroy his bunker.  There is nothing noteworthy about what they have placed over his bunker, which was specifically done that way.  The Germans didn’t want to honor him in any way, and only recently placed a sign near the bunker site to inform others of the area.  This was done within the last 5-10 years. 

After our tour Mark and I went to this amazing restaurant that our tour guide recommended to get some local German food.  We got the Doner Kebab, and found out the kebabs were started in Germany.  It was delicious, and the location we ate at is where current German Chancellor Angela Merkel ate as a kid (she still does to this day).

After spending a few hours walking in the spotty rain, we decided to go to the German History Museum.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any pictures inside, but learned so much more about the history here.  They had exhibits for both World Wars, but at the time had a specific exhibit for World War I.  There was also a fascinating exhibit about military training and the targets they use.  We learned that countries all over the world will set up mock sets of the countries they are in conflict with or could go to war with and help the soldiers get used to the scenery of that country.  They also will have life size targets of various people, some with faces and some not, to help the soldiers practice shooting from various distances. 

After spending nearly 3 hours in the Museum, I was ready to head back and relax.  My feet and legs were so tired and just wanted to lay down and relax.  It was a quiet walk home, as I didn’t have the strength to even talk at this point in the day…haha, poor Mark.  I laid down for a half hour to rest my feet/legs and recharge before heading out to dinner.  One thing we love here, is the daylight hours.  It has definitely thrown off our schedule as we have eaten around 9 oclock both nights, but the sun stays up until 10:30 at night.  We are used to the sun going down around 6 in Doha, which we do not like.

I found this pub online as being the #3 authentic pub in Berlin, Brauhaus Mitte.  We visited the #1 pub our first day and was disappointed, but #3 pub definitely lived up to it’s reputation.  We enjoyed their wheat brewed beer, sausage platter, and pretzel.  It was definitely a traditional German meal and loved it.  I even tried the sauerkraut, and although it was better than I remembered what I have tried in the States, it still is not for me.  This was a great way to end our day.

We went on a bike tour for most of the day, which was great!  Berlin is predominately flat which makes it a real ease to bike, walk, etc. throughout the city. It was a bit of a rough start as they weren’t as organized with organizing each group and such, and our tour guide told us she was sick/hung-over, which instantly made us think this could be a LONG day.  Luckily, she did a great job and we learned a lot more about the country and its history.  I have such a better understanding of the history here and really respect Berlin for now embracing their history and educating others about it. 

 

Berlin is a poor city with an unemployment rate of 30%, with tourism being their 2^nd top industry.  So, people have been extremely friendly and think in part is because we are tourists.  Overall, they have just been so helpful everywhere we go…as long as they speak English. ;)

Some hi-lights of our trip include:

Bebelplatz – site of the Nazi book burning…there is now a small memorial below ground with empty book shelves representing the space that the 20,000 books that were burned would take up.

Humboldt University – one of the top universities in Germany (and well known in the World).  It is home to 5 Nobel Prize winners and former place of employment where Einstein taught back in the day for a stint.

Stopped to learn about the history of Germany with a visual from our tour guide…it was quite informative and truly educational. Mark really liked it as he is a visual learner.  Those Allied leaders sure screwed things up and probably could not make dividing up Germany (plus Berlin) any more complicated.  

Cruising through Tiergarten that lead us passed the Zoo to a hidden beer garden, where we at lunch and enjoyed a beer.  This was a beautiful bike ride and loved it! After living in sand central for the past 10 months, seeing green left, right, front, and back is incredible.

We saw several places again and learned more to the story such as Hitler’s Bunker, Bradenburg Gate, Berlin Wall/Checkpoint Charlie.  Overall, we enjoyed the tour and learned a lot.  I’m glad we did the walking tour first and then the bike tour, as we were able to see a lot more on the bike tour, but build upon our knowledge on what we learned the previous day.

A fence around a fence....perfect visual to explain irony.

Afterward we went to the Berlin Cathedral and then met up with Jordan (friend from EMS) for dinner.  We went to the Haufbrau Haus and had some sausage, pretzel, and beer. 

Overall, we loved Berlin and we were amazed at how recent the wall fell and when they began rebuilding the city.  The eastern part of Berlin is predominately under construction still in playing catch-up to what was formerly western Berlin.