Hostel Faust Krakow

This evening, Kazek, one of my new Polish friends, invited a group of us to one of his restaurants/bars in Krakow, I think he owns three. We had such a good time - Polish people know how to have fun, lots of laughter and conversation. They played a lot of techno. A lot of people smoke here. On the way there he took us to see the ...

... went back and went to sleep.  Friday morning, we left Krakow on a coach bus around 9:30 for Auschwitz-Birkenau; the camps are about and hour and half outside Krakow and before they were turned into concentration camps, were barracks fro the Polish Army. There, we had a guide who walked us through the grounds, including various sleeping quarters, a gas chamber and a watch tower. Our visit lasted about four hours and afterwards we drove back for a discussion about the ...

... as Berlin. The main sights were alllllllllllllllllll of their catholic churches and former mosques. They did take us to a place where they filmed Schindler's list and the former Schindler factory. We also saw where Pope John Paul II made addresses in Krakow. We rounded out the day w/ the some delicious Polish food. I had potatoes, ham, and eggs. And we all shared some pirogis ...

... was sure to have innured him to the horrors he supervised and witness on a daily basis. Where are his kids? According to our guide, the Germans to this day avoid these camps and consider them Polish, not German. The camp is actually 3 different ones. Auschwitz I where most of the prisoners in the forced labor area were kept; Auschwitz II Birkenau which was the site of the gas chambers and Auschwitz III, site of a forced labor ...

... I met so far. We were kind of talking most of the trip even though they couldn't speak any word in English and I couldn't speak any word in Polish. We used Italian as the common language but neither I nor them knew it very well so it was a very interesting conversation, probably very funny for a third person watching the scene. We all got off in Krakow but unlike me they would just change trains to go to Zakopane, maybe to pray for the souls of snowboarders ...

... SS and police authorities deported approximately 175,000 Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. * January 1 - March 31, 1943 German SS and police authorities deport approximately 105,000 Jews to Auschwitz. * January 29, 1943 The Reich Central Office for Security orders all designated Roma (Gypsies) residing in Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to be deported to Auschwitz. * February 26, 1943 The first transport of Roma (Gypsies) from Germany arrives at Auschwitz ...

... by tunnels that go all around the place. It's almost enough to get lost, but your in a bar, so who cares if you get lost. Friday I had planned to catch a train to Ukraine at 10pm. I've checked this train route multiple times, wrote it down, etc. I go to buy a ticket and the lady says no train goes to ukraine today. WTF! Now what? I suppose I need a place to stay. I check the internet and find 1 hostel has beds ...

... city, but unfortunately, it's where most everything is in the city. There's not much else in the city aside from it. There's Schindler areas and there's Wawel castel - but that's so close to the main square anyway. The big things in Krakow are located outside of the city like Oswiecim or the Wieliczka salt mines. I liked Krakow a lot, and it was a good and positive representation of Poland.

... IKEA-based colour scheme, this, added to the leg room suited to a leprechaun, fatty's ( Ritchie will occasionally be referred to as fatty) snoring and the kid behind me using my seat as his personal 3 hour football made for an interesting 3 hour flight. Sadly i endured every minute as they weren't handing out Valium on board. But alas.......we made it to Kraków Balice Airport. After the exchange desk refused fatty's Scottish money ...

... guy who thought he was behind me and glared right at him as I walked by (these were little guys and his friends had put themselves too far away to help out) and that was over. They left me alone after that but I'm not sure what they were up to. Anna tells me that young polish women are more interested in internationals then the locals (and I don't blame them...polish women are glamourous and beautiful and polish guys look like street urchins...eastern europe is the ...