Hotel Maria Ostrava

... raining before they started but the band brought the sunshine especially the small drummer note from Alena/ Romain put down the small but he wasnt small at all. Correction he was.

We also saw Speed Caravan, a French band performing a mix between algerian and electro music. Interesting...After Jamie Cullum, well not our cup of tea, in short. But Asian ...

Stayed a night in Rybnik at Aleks house, the first polish man who picked us up. He offered us his home and hospitality for the night, once again amazing people we meet on this journey and such kind hearts! (im just writing quick entrys since its been a while and I want to write from where I am, not to menntion it would take forever, since no computers at the Rainbow)

We left Olsztyn early in the morning to head to Warszawa by Train. Sadly we arrived late at the train station, so instead we cought a bus a couple of hours later, but this bus was not guaranteed to get to Warszawa in time to get our 15:00 departure to Vienna. We spent a rather stressful 5 hours or so on the bus but ...

We stopped in Roznov pod Radhostem to visit an Oppen Aair Wallachian Wooden Village Musuem. It was neat to see the traditional ways that people in this area lived - with all of the buildings made of wood. We got to see exhibits of welding metal, a saw mill, and working water wheels. This would be a nice stop especially for those with children.

... around the mine area itself, looking at all the machinery. It was a nice stop, but I would not really recommend Ostrava for the city itself is not that exciting even though it is the fourth biggest in the Czech Republic. If you are in the eastern part of the county and have limited time, I'd recommend going to one of the smaller towns, possibly one of the castle towns that I talk about later.

... at Orzesz Jaskowice, I was going to be in real trouble! I kept in the back of my mind something on of the girls in Krakow told me. She was also from Belk, and she told me Orzesz Jaskowice was first station after Orzesz. Polish train stations are poorly marked, and I kept my eyes peeled for the sign marking Orzesz. The train whizzed by, and the next time it stopped I jumped off, not knowing if it was the right station or now. Before the train doors shut and ...

... Justin nezabije proteze on naucil cesky za ctyri mesici, on zabije, proteze on zabije." (Justin doesn't "kill" because he learned Czech in four months, he kills because he kills.) I thanked him. Cert zabije! Otik and Dandy are cool too - and especially Petra. She and I stood before the fire. Ivo had already asked her if she had space in her "pension" hotel room for me. By five a.m., I was tired, so she accompanied me to the room. I'd been waiting for this ...

I spent my second day in Poland visiting the German death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau situated 60km East of Krakow towards the German border. In 27 months 1.5million people died here. The Nazi's wanted to double the size of the site to kill 11million Jews and political prisoners. It snowed all day and gave the impression of how the day would have been for the many that suffered here. Most ...

... tuve libre para asimilar la situación, y me dio durísimo. Se me empezaron a escurrir las lágrimas de la frustración y la impotencia, y yo hablando con ella a traves de las ventanas. Su inglés no era el mejor así que se volteaba para preguntarle a su asistenta alguna palabra, y en ese momento yo aprovechaba para enjuagármelas, pero obviamente era visible. Y un momento, no con mucha simpatía pero bueno, me dijo "smile"... y fue lo peor que pudo ...

... were assigned to barracks to stay. These barracks are unsanitary since 5-6 prisoners need to share one cell. The Nazis then would subject the prisoner to 10 to 12 hours a day hard labor with little food and sleep. Most of the prisoners later died from starvation, disease or simply worked to death. The displays showed some graphic pictures of prisoners moving bodies of the dead to the crematorium, very sickening. The most powerful of the sites is the crematorium. We saw ...