Krakow, Poland

This is going to be shorter because I am at the hostel and there is only one computer and people are waiting to use it, and part of the post is taken from an email I wrote to a special someone about what I did today, so enjoy:

This week has been a mixture of good and bad. Krakow is beautiful, a very unique city and I have enjoyed spending time here. Sunday was a good day. We didn't have anything until the afternoon, so I spent the morning sleeping in and reading. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter. We saw where many Jews lived before World War II, and then the ghetto they were forced into during World War II. Krakow's Jewish population was essentially eliminated during World War II, and all that remains are these areas where Jewish people once lived.

Monday we went to Auschwitz. This was very difficult and I still have not finished dealing with it an processing it on my own, so I will not say much. It was very surreal to tour a site where so much senseless death and violence and hardship occurred. Walking around Auschwitz III, the major death camp, was an experience that will stay with me the rest of my life.

I had a crazy day, we went on a crazy communist tour and it was madness.

This morning we left the hotel, not really sure what we were getting ourselves into, but our tour guide said it would not disappoint. So we walked out to meet the coach, which turned out to be a redish bus that looked like the Oscar Myer Weiner mobile. We all crammed in, except for six people who rode in two cars, which were designed under communism in Eastern Germany. The bus was old and loud. We rode for about 20 minutes to our first destination, which was a restaurant in an older part of town. We all shuffled into the restaurant, still a little sleepy, only to be greeted by blaring Eastern European techno music, at 10 o'clock in the morning, mind you. This was quiet the surprise, and a little annoying because I had a nagging sinus headache. We all sat down inside and were served some "delicious" beat soup, which smelled like ketchup and tasted even worse. Then the next course was looked like an oversized egg roll, but turned out to be some sort of delicious meat filled deep fried treat. Then the best part of this meal, shots of vodka for all, at 10:30 AM! Dr. Pointer did not look amused, but we all toasted and put down our traditional Polish communist meal. Then one of the guides got up and gave a thirty minute talk about Poland under communism, but was interrupted, not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times by some random Polish man trying to peddle goods to our group. First he brought in flowers, which the tour guide actually bought and these were later distributed to all the girls in the group. Then he brought in some pears, to which our guide told him, in Polish, that we were all allergic to pears. Then he brought in some more veggies, which he couldn't sell to us either. His last attempt was to sell us some sort of coin. The best part was that all four times our guide did not tell him to leave and was extremely nice to him. We are all dying with laughter. Then after this we proceeded to walk outside to the center of the communist planned portion of the city and heard some more on communism in Poland. I had a hard time paying attention because there was a film crew tagging along filming us and our guide, all day, which was a complete surprise. So I spent a good portion of the day avoiding the film crew because I didn't want to appear in whatever film they were making. In the center, which was a circular area surrounded by streets, there was a street named Ronald Regan Street. During the communist times it had been named Lenin Street, but was renamed Ronald Regan Street when Poland joined NATO. Then most of the group got back into the communist bus, while I piled into one of the cars with Ryan Zoradi and Ryan Newton. This car was a box of death on wheels. If we would have gotten in an accident we would have been done, luckily we did not get in an accident. Then we saw a foundry that was built which employed 40,000 workers, and 100,000 people lived in the town at this time, crazy. For those of you keeping score at home, that's 40% of the towns population. Anyway, from here we went to go see the apartments that the communists built. These things were tiny, essentially two rooms: a living room and a kitchen. The living room also served as the bedroom for the whole family, and there was also a tiny bathroom as well. One of the guys employed by the company actually lived in the apartment we saw, and lived and worked here in Krakow when it was communist. He only spoke Polish, but we had a translator, and he had some interesting things to say. The most interesting part was that he liked things under the communist times because everything was free, but now he likes it because he can buy what he wants to; an interesting dichotomy there. After the apartment we saw a Catholic church, which was built during communist times. The church was hideous, extremely industrial looking. Inside there were a series of paintings of Christ's life, but adapted to take place in Poland. Then our communist tour was done. Like I said, crazy, but very interesting and unlike any tour I have ever been on before.

This afternoon I went to the mall with Zoradi and our friend Madison, who goes to APU. I bought a new t-shirt from H&M because all my t-shirts are dirty and smell bad and I don't have means to do laundry right now. Then this evening we had a lecture by someone, I don't remember who he is or what he does, on the history of Catholicism in Poland. Catholicism and Poland have a very complex and detailed history, and he tried to give us most of it in an hour and a half lecture, which didn't work. I gave up taking notes about 20 minutes into the lecture, but it was still informative. To give you a basic idea, 90% of people in Poland are baptized Roman Catholic, and 93% of people self-identify as being Roman Catholic. So being Polish and Roman Catholic are intimately linked in many ways. This played out in very interesting ways under communism because communism is very anti-religion. Throughout the communist time in Poland, the communist government and the RC (Roman Catholic) Church both clashed and coexisted. The RC church played a significant role in the fall of communism in the late 70s, early 80s, especially through the Solidarity movement, which had a strong Roman Catholic backing. These is much, much more, but too much to really get into. After the lecture I went out to dinner with Zoradi, Newty, Haley Smith, Brandon Woods, and Marley (don't know her last name). We had fun laughing and talking.

That's all for now. I will try and write something more substantial soon and share about my time at Auschwitz. I am doing great, but may be catching a cold. Please pray I don't get sick.
Love and blessings,
Mikey