Berlin, Germany

 

We arrived in Berlin in the morning via the strange train from Poland. Berlin was beautiful. As I got off the train I realized that my bag lock was stuck again! If you remember from India I had a lock for my bag that I had to bust open with a can opener. Carmen brought me my sisters old lock (identical to the one I was using earlier) after several days it too became stuck. So, being skilled at breaking apart locks with a can opener, I reached into my bag and pulled it out, starting to pry it apart on a bench in Berlin. I was successful at breaking into it and destroying the lock.

I was very impressed by Germany, it was very clreean and organized as I figured it would be. We caught the S – Bahn into town, (S – Bahn stands for Schnell Bahn, or Fast Train). We wandered around for a bit and then found the Berlin Wall.

Their was a historical marker with some information about the wall and the division of Germany, and about the art along the wall. They had hired twenty some artists from other countries to paint on the wall. Some of the spaces were very interesting, some cute and some confusing. My favorites were of course the ones with Batman on them.

and who could forget Mr. Potato Head!

The area where the wall is the longest and has the paintings is called the East Side Gallery

After the wall, we basically explored Berlin for the rest of the day. It was beautiful. We saw the gates at one end of the city, many of the historical buildings and sights. Along our way of exploring we decided to try to get some German food at a local resturant. We were reading a menu in German doing quite well and about to order when the waitress realized we wernt from around these parts.She asked if we  wanted to trysome Berlin food, we said of course and give us whatya got. The drink below is Beer. Green Beer, very tasty with a hint of lemon lime in it. The food we got was a giant piece of pig. I say pig and not pork because it still had the skin and some of the hair on it! She warned us that it would look disgusting but taste… Amazing! She was right on both things.

We could not find any couch surfers that could host us in Berlin, as they were all either out of town or busy with other people. We tried looking for hostels but found that they were about 20 € a head which would have been about the price of a hotel room, very expensive. So, I had a crazy idea, why not take a night train someplace and sleep on the train see the place for a day and then come back to Hamburg Germany. So, the next train to Copenhagen Denmark was our decision, however it was overbooked so we had to wait until the train at 5.17AM, we slept in the train station…

and woke up at 5.15am and then ran to the train, which left right as we got up to it. CRAP! We missed our train! No worries, we got on the one that left about an hour later…

We were then on our way to Denmark!

Warsaw, Poland

Arriving in Warsaw Poland we met up with our couch surfers in the evening. They took us on a drive around the city and showed us some of the monuments and sights to be seen. It was a very nice city. We then went to a very cool cafe where they like to go and sat and ate a bit with our hosts, they are very nice people and we got along great with them. We picked up a bit of Polish and then headed out for a tour of the old town by night. It was very pretty. Old monuments and buildings just seem to look so much prettier at night with the lights hitting them just right.

We meandered through the old town square where there sat a mermaid on a fountain thing. It wasnt a fountain persay it just stayed wet, so it occassionally threw up water around the base. It scared our host pretty bad when he was trying to take a picture next to it.

Fire Dancers

 I think fire dancing was invented when someone accidentally lit their ribon dancer on fire and kept going…

 

That evening we sat around with them at their flat telling  jokes and sharing YouTube videos, such as Powerthirst, Mandles, and Sleepwalking dog.

The next day we caught up on some much needed rest and slept in all day.

Later in the evening on the way to the train station we passed by a park where we played for a bit on a spiderweb thing. Childrens parks in other countries are so cool! They are not safe at all. So far ive seen Pirate Ships, and high rope-like spiderwebs that you could totally fall off of and break your neck.

On our way to the train station we tried to find a geocaching spot for Carmens mom. It was near a hospital, we searched around for a good hour or so in the dark near a creepy hospital building in Poland before giving up and getting to the station…

 

At the train station we had an interesting experience with our train to Berlin. The woman at the ticket counter did not want to help us at all. She was quite rude to our Polish friends and only told them that the train was coming from Russia, and that she didnt know how much it was going to be.

Knowing very little we went down to the platform and awaited a mystery train. A blue train arrives with Cryllic on it and we knew it was ours. A woman dressed in normal clothes guarded the door with a displeased look on her face. Our polish friends tried to communicate with her and after some debating we managed to get on board. It did not seem like they wanted to let us get on the train. We stood in the hallway of the train for a little while while they gave us dirty looks and ushered us around the hallway, back and forth back and forth, they would usher us this way and that and into a small room that looked like a cabin but was actually one of the ladys private cabins. We were very confused about where we were going to stay. At this point we still had no idea how much it was.

Finally we got into a cabin with one other gentelman from Poland who told us it was 50€ for the train. We made our beds and tried to sleep.

Before going to poked my head down to her bunk below and told Carmen (my travel buddy) that I have heard on Russian night trains they gas people and then go through their stuff and take things.

I am assuming that is not true, but who knows. So far Im not missing anything… I think.

Auschwitz

We left from Krakow in the morning to Auschwitz concentration camp. After a nice ride through Poland we came to the gates just outside Auschwitz.

Fortunately the Auschwitz museum is free. We did stop and buy a map and an information booklet that you read as you walk and guide yourself through the museum. Which was very helpful for explaining some of the history behind each of the different buildings we were seeing.

Entering into the museum grounds it seems like any other tourist attraction, bathrooms, ticket counters, baggage areas, etc, nothing special, once you step into the “Museum” you realize its not a museum but the Auschwitz concentration camp just as it was during WWII. The gates of Auschwitz were very creepy, as were the electric fences around the property.

The buildings inside the complex house some of the artifacts and the actual “museum” pieces. Some of the buildings have artwork depicting the holocaust, some have examples of bunk beds that prisioners would sleep on. A very wide variety of things could be found inside the various buildings.

In the first building they had some very sombering facts and information about the holocaust, numbers killed at Auschwitz, and the history of the camp and what its sole purpose was. As many of you know, the concentration camp was designed as a work camp for basically anyone the Nazi’s thought to be a threat to their grand plans. These people, many of which were Jewish were transported in via train like cattle. They were packed into box cars used for cattle and then sent on a very long journey to Auschwitz. Along the way many of them died from the abhorringly terrible situation and environment they had to deal with. Once they got off the train they were looked over and those that were deemed fit to work were taken and disinfected and assigned a number and put to work. Those who looked too weak or ill were then told they needed to be “disinfected” as well, they were taken to an area with faux showerheads and once the doors were locked they were poisoned by gas. After which they were stripped of their hair, gold teeth and anything else of value. All of their personal effects were taken and many of them are on display in the “Nazi Plunder” room inside one of the buildings.

I knew going into Auschwitz was not going to be a happy day, however nothing could truly prepare me for some of the sights I saw.

After going through several floors with information on what had happened at Auschwitz and what the Nazis did and how they did it, we went to the next building that had more of the human aspect. Not only did we get to see the terribly small bunks which two people would sleep on, but also an area filled with eye glasses, brief cases, childrens toys, shoes, pots and pans, all of which stolen by the Nazis when people arrived to Auschwitz. It was very heartbreaking to see all of this. I felt very sick the entire time I was in there. Then, we entered one of the last rooms in the building, it was a bit darker than all the rest, respectively so. There was a glass case measuring 12 feet deep and about 50 feet long. Inside were thousands of bundles of human hair, shaved from women entering the camp. It was in this room that I completley lost it. I went directly to the nearest wall and cried. After a long time of standing and crying I went through the rest of the room and took it all in. There was also an area where they had “hair cloth” they would take the hair and weave it into fabric, after seeing that I almost lost it again.

There was another room that had childrens toys, clothes and other things, seeing that and knowing they were killing children made me run out of the building.

We sat outside sobbing for several minutes before going into the next building. They got progressively worse the further we got down the street. At one building was more or less the jails where people were sent to rooms without light for several days, or in very small rooms where they were forced to crawl into a small opening and stand for days, and another set of rooms that were used to suffocate people.

Outside that building was the death wall where people were taken out and shot on a regular basis. Many many people were shot here over the course of the time the camp was in operation.

In another building there was a list a mile long of names in small font of people who were killed at Auschwitz.

Lastly after we had enough we were heading to the exit, the last building was the gas chambers, (thinking about what I saw makes me want to cry again) it is a concrete bunker, the walls are sturdy, cold and baren, except if you look closely you will start to see fingernail marks on the walls, some of them are several millimeters deep, and some of them are up the walls and even on the ceiling. It was painful to see that building and that area.

We left sobbing and didn’t talk much the rest of the day.

(gallows)

Later we caught a train for Warsaw.

Krakow, Poland

Amazing Ice Cream!

We got into Poland in the morning and walked around the town aimlessly for a bit because we didnt sleep much on the night train. But, all was well when we found Ice Cream!!! It was soft serve, but it was hands down the best soft serve Ice Cream I hav had! I got the small, pff look at that! They know how to dish it out in Poland!

We wandered through the old town, which was beautiful, there were a lot of birds…

Very pretty buildings and churches in the main square. We spend the majorityof the day walking around taking pictures and seeing the sights.

We kept walking around the old town and we went up to the castle and cathedral atop one of the nearby hills.

At the top of the castle

Courtyard

We wandered around the streets until we found some of the traditional food of Poland, it was very tasty.

We then met up with our couch surfers later in the evening. We actually got on the correct bus but the name of the stop we were supposed to get off at had been changed, and so we rode the bus all the way until the end of the line, and then tried to ask the bus driver about where the stop was. He was very nice and let us stay on the bus and he told us where to get off. Our surfer met us at the bus stop and we went almost directly to sleep once we walked back to the flat.

In the morning we met his wife an d talked with her for about 30 minutes, so all in all we saw our couch surfers for about an hour, maybe less. They were very nice and it was great to have a place to stay.

All in all a very nice day in Krakow

Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

Getting in to Mikes home town, we stopped at his moms house to meet her and his brother, we sat for a while and had some nice conversations over some homemade cake. Later that evening we went out with Mike, his brother and a few of their friends to a local pub, where we got to try some of the local brew and such. After a very long night of hanging out and dancing at an underground club, which was very cool on the inside, it was brick and looked like an old celar, we woke up early in the morning and headed for the “Low Tatras” mountains to hike to the top of one of the peaks.

I of course slept on the car ride to the trail head. But when I got out I was very impressed with the wilderness of Slovakia. When we got to a certain point on the hike, Mike told me that there was a cabin/resturant at the top of the mountain that has to haul everything up on foot, they had a stack of logs and if you carry one up to the top they give you a FREE cup of tea, me being one who enjoys free things, grabbed one of the logs and headed up the mountain.

Me and my log…

Once at the top I got my free tea and a pancake thing it was really good! We continued up to the very top and took pictures next to the Slovak cross. We headed down a different way than we came up and we ended up going down a very very steep ski run. It is much easier when there is  snow.

My free Tea

Amazing pancake thing

Trying to do a hand stand on the top of a mountain

After coming down we headed to a small village where Mikes dad lives, he had made goulash and invited us to eat with him. It was really great, eating homemade goulash in an old house in a small village in Slovakia. The cabinets were real wood, they had a real wood stove, and all the things of that nature that are uniquely “small village” .

The next morning we got up early and headed out for Poland.