Off White Business Leisure Apartments Krakow

... wonder around everywhere, not really doing anything except looking at old buildings, a number of cool photo exhibitions, strolling through the park that surrounds the old town etc.

We make our way down to the Wawel - the Royal Castle and Cathedral, that for hundreds of years was the residence of the Polish Royal Family. The Cathedral is still a very important place for most Polish people. For more info check out ...

... place, before I continued a walk to the northern part of Krakow. I then walked back to the hostel and relaxed before starting out again later in the evening. In the main square I saw both a group of break dancers and the same fire troupe from last night. It was really cool. I also was still hungry, so I went looking for dessert pierogies, and I thought I had found some. But apparently it wasn't summer, so they didn't have the fruit. Instead I had to settle for sauerkraut and ...

... it would be too soon. This was before returning back to the hostel for another night's vodka consumption. When I was leaving for my train the next morning it was with a tinge of sadness that I left the hostel but with some relief too. I had met some great people, been offered a job as a bbq entertainer, had my camera stolen, fallen down a marble staircase, and was by all accounts lucky to be still alive. I think you will agree it was a lot to pack into 5 days. Andrzej and the guys at the ...

... we just sat there. Oh well. So we get into the "old quarter" of Krakow, which is where our hotel was situated. Luckily our hotel was located strategically right off the rail line and we easily found it and checked into our ultra modern, ultra new hotel. This place, is what you'd imagine a new modern hotel would look like and more. Lots of thought was put into this architecture and design. Felt very Euro again, checking into this very high end, modern hotel. With our ...

... is what we think of when we think of Europe -- squares (places, piazzas, etc.) full of strolling pedestrians, surrounded by quaint old buildings, with restaurants spilling out onto the cobblestones. Street performers, horse-drawn carriages, even pigeons have their place. (Still flying rats, if you ask me.) Quite a contrast between modern, sparsely-populated, super-clean, rich and efficient Norway to ...

... that, all those sweaty naked people saw the tin cans drop from the holes in the ceiling, and they knew what was coming. Panic ensued and the gas was released. People scrambled to the top of the piles of humans. On the bottom were the weakest; babies, toddlers, other children, crippled people and old people. Then there were the women, and on top of them were the strongest of the men. There was a fight for the fresh air remaining at the top of the chamber, and no one was ...

... sent to these cells didn't live past a day for once the air supply was used up that was it. The guards would sometimes put a candle in the dark cell to suck up even more of the air to make the process quicker. It's the eeriest place I've ever been. Even surrounded by the constant flow of tourists coming down here it's hard not to feel the isolation and lonliness of these cells. The knowledge that this was 'the end' and wishing for it to be over fast. I can see how people ...

... Chris, it was a unique opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the former Pope. And for Allan, it was a chance to experience a new Slavic culture and refine the ideas which one day will finally be put to paper and printed for the world to read. For all of us, it was a chance to spend precious time with good friends. The vacation started on my family's farm where we were treated with homemade food, drinks ...

... were immediately gassed. Some were transferred into jail blocks and these lie east of the gas chambers and crematoriums. They are long rectangles fenced with barbed wire and they were filled with semi permanent cabins jam packed with people. The cabins are gone, but their foundations and the barbed wire remains. I walked into one of the rectangles and, without another single soul in sight, peered at the places where people were hung as examples, where the masses of prisoners used the ...

... a stair case for about 5 minuets, we were about 60 meters below ground at this point which is about 196 feet. The mine consists of caves were salt has already been mined. The miners must have started to get bored down there because they stared carving statues and relief's into the walls. The most astonishing part of the tour however is St. Kinga's Chapel that has relief's carved in to the wall of the life of Jesus, from his birth to his death an alter and salt ...