Hotel Solny Wieliczka

... and sitting on a bench having a nice chat when the rest of the group appeared.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been in operation for hundreds of years but due to a flooding on one of the lower levels in the 1990’s, its license to mine was revoked and now it is just one of Poland’s biggest tourist draws. It’s really quite worth a look too. The mine has 300 kilometers of tunnels ...

... The countryside was beautiful, and I have to remember that Poland is slowly building a more modern interstate type of highway system. It has only been free of communism since 1989, so it will take some more time and it is happening as time goes by.

The salt mine is located in the middle of a small town, but is the largest salt mine in Europe. It has been in operation for centuries, and the entrance is in a nondescript building. Many tour groups were there, and we were assigned ...

... group nipping at our heels. I had a hard time believing that they were built over 200 years ago, although the facts speak for themselves. The Poles that built these caves must have been one hard working folk, with much dedication to mining, putting security below their interest in the world geological formations. It would be tough to describe them, and picture are inadequate to full describe the feelings of inferiority of these 5 story rooms, supported by wooden ...

... there was a huge thunder and lightning storm with pouring down rain there while were were there which definitely added to the ominous mood. we got back from Auschwitz and met a lot of cool people at our hostel. it was a bummer we had to leave for Prague that night, we had already bought our train tickets, because it would have been fun to go out with all of them. the group had people from Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Michigan, and Boston. we ...

... houses, the rest of the place is wilderness and hills. So pretty. And there is fruit growing everywhere and it is delicious! Bad thing: there is no indoor plumbing. That means using the woods as a toilet and then drawing water from the well, heating it up, and washing yourself in a basin. My niece showed me the proper way to do it. Start with your head and end with your feet basically. So we spent time just wandering around, eating fruit, catching up, and ...

... to the party!. Every table got like seven million bottles of alcohol. A fifth of vodka per two people. yeah i have not seen that much ever. I was a huge hit at the wedding hahaa. I think it's cuz I was American. i was asked to dance by every single man there lol. and i was teaching them new dance moves lol. once i got on the dance floor at 8, i got off at 5 am...and we were there till 6 am. great stuff. Polish people love to party and they know how to party. I went ...

... spend that 3 hours in Auschwitz walking around by myself, without the guide. Living quarters Washroom facilities for 1000 people Anyway, we race back to Krakow so that the driver's dinner won't get cold, and Jane and I walk back to the Jewish district for some dinner of our own. We find a fairly authentic-looking garden bar and chow down on a whole pile of Polish food - sausage soup, kielbasa sausage, goulash and pierogies.

... and intensive part of my trip so far. As we arrived, I nearly wanted to turn back as I saw the hordes of buses throwing down hundreds of tourists with cameras and mickey-mouse-shirts. But the guided tour there was brilliant, and in the end I was convinced that actually every single human being should visit this site once and remember the events, so including those who take pictures of themselves ...

... use the bathroom, throw down your luggage, use the bathroom, and get your guides for the camp. The guide is a combo pack of a thin booklet and a laminated fold-up map of the camps. The tour yesterday lasted 3 hours with a very extensive history of the camp. It was quite depressing. This is the third type of camp style; Auschwitz was designed purely as an extermination camp, which is what everyone mostly associates their knowledge of the ...

... government perimeters surrounding mysterious labor camps that almost no one has seen and only a few defectors speak of. That sounds very familiar and I think smart money is they are up to the same thing on a smaller scale. And that's not even mentioning the ethnic cleansing that goes down in africa. So where is the israeli army? Or anyone's army? You listen to a backpacker or berkeley student or michael moore complain all day about the evil american empire, the invasion of iraq ...