Krakow

old town Krakow

Auswitzc concentration camp

it's entirely sculpted out of salt

Lithuanian American, me, Annabelle

Annabelle and the very tall girl Marleen

Nothing much happened on the way from Warsaw to Krakow. I was reading my Soccer World most of the time and dozing off until this big kid sitting one seat from me asked if he could borrow the mag. So he was with his mother and they both spoke pretty primitive English but still got by talking to me. Although the mother was a bit better with the vocabulary whenever the kid had trouble coming up with the right word. So me and the kid talked about how Poland got eliminated in the European Championship and went on to my journey. Most of the travelers I have come across on the train all ask the same sort of questions so I already had a formula in mind on how to reply.
Then as we arrived at Krakow since I didn’t know the place, I just asked the son and mom to take me to my hostel (not really yet my hostel since I didn’t book anything although it turned out to be one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in.)
It was called Mama’s hostel and had this great atmosphere where everyone chats with everyone. So it all started out with me arriving in my dorm wanting to get out and see the town. But then I was overhearing these two girls talking in Dutch so I asked if they were from the Netherlands. They were quite surprised that I got it right on the first try so asked me how I did it. Well so I explained that I could make out that it was Dutch and one of the girls was freaking tall. Then that girl told me she was actually 189cm (6’2”-6”3”) which was also unusual for a Dutch girl. Many times when she was in public space, people chatted about her height and usually confirmed with her right away by simply asking. And when she went out sometimes, people tried to use her height to find some person in the crowd they described to her because she could see further.
Now another dorm mate came in and she was Scottish. I chatted with her for a while and realized that she went to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, pretty close to Seattle.
Then this German girl came in without saying anything and just eavesdropped. So I greeted her but she still seemed kind of shy or reluctant to talk to us.
Next morning the Dutch girls got up extra early to go in the mountains to hike. But later we went out together and ran into 2 other guys also from the hostel. Both Americans but 2nd generation immigrants as they described themselves. One from Lithuania the other from Uruguay. But that night ended rather early. Maybe because of the rain or something, or I think I was pretty dead after some dancing. Funny thing though, I tried to get in the crowd and danced but got a bit dull after a while so I came back to the girls. Then Annabell (the small half dutch half polish girl) told me as soon as I stepped on the dance floor all the Polish guys surrounded me to block me out of their ladies. Then I remember what Gabriel had told me that Polish girls have the tendency to run away with foreign guys. But it didn’t strike until Annabell mentioned it. But also I always got weird looks from the guys at the club cuz I think I was with the two, if not the best looking, nice looking dutch girls inside.
Anyhow, the next morning I got up quite early but had to wait for the girls to get ready to go the Salt Mine, which was really an amazing site. I thas got several chapels underground entirely sculpted out of salt and about the size of a city. Although it wasn’t as pretty as I thought cuz the salt looked pretty dirty with the grayish color. It is not purified to make the white color. We toured underground for quite a walk but Marleen was always excited about everything. On the contrary, Annabell seemed a bit worn out and tired of the tour guide, although the tour guide had a horrible voice that reminded me of the Chinese reporter in the Family Guy. Her English was quite good but not her intonation. Whenever she made a joke I couldn’t sense her tone so I wasn’t able to laugh. Her attitude wasn’t very nice either when we were waiting to get in the museum. Thankfully we changed guides and this one always wore a smile and was nice and all.
We went out that night too but I was really unmotivated since we ran into those two Americans again and that Uruguayan was trying so hard with Annabell who already had a boyfriend although she probably never told him. Anyway, it just pissed me off that a simple party was turned into a trying-to-hit-on-her. And it was a shame that he wanted attention all the time and the group atmosphere just got blown away. Although I was keeping a nice conversation going with the tall girl.
As we came back from the club there sat the Spanish girl who always smiled at me although we didn’t know each other’s name and such. We seemed to click somehow. Meanwhile, Annabell wanted to go out to watch the sunrise with us but I was too busy chatting with the Spaniard so I said No thank you. After the chat we only exchanged email addresses just for the heck of it although I didn’t think I would see her again.
One other fun person I ran into was a British guy who was doing his research at the hostel. So he studied sociology and was writing his thesis or some sort focused on the British people who choose to get hella wasted and party in Krakow. So he went into bars, clubs, pubs to interview people on why they chose Krakow out of all other places, and by what means they got drunk. And the most funny thing is that he had to do the same as all those people to “get in there” so he could experience it himself. Apparently, he was ladies’ man somehow with what he was doing.
After all these funny events happened, there was one thing left for me to do and it was a very important historical event and site. It was the concentration camp Auswitcz, which was about an hour drive away from Krakow. So I paid it a visit but ended up being very disgusted with whatever I saw there. I was too overwhelmed by all the artifacts and museums which gave you the sensation you would never feel before. There was one room full of glasses from the Jews who were put in the camp and I thought it was hair from all the corpses in the first place. It was because of the quantity of the glass frames that makes you feel so. I hadn’t felt so sick for a long time. I guess you really require a strong mind to visit such a site on your own.