Poland: The perfect balance

Two 9-hour overnight train rides, a day in the heart of World War II and a day and a night in Krakow, Poland combined for yet another unforgettable weekend for me during this semester-long adventure in Europe. Historically overwhelming, then some fun.

Friday night, about 20 of us from the CEA program – along with Radka and Marta, our CEA supervisors, who are awesome – boarded a 9:15 train from Prague to Krakow, which was interesting. Each room fit six people and no more. You could sit six on the ground level pre-sleep, which transformed into six “beds,” three on top of each other on each side of the “cabin.” The comfort level was minimal, but we got enough sleep to be able to function the next day.

The train arrived in Krakow at about 6:30 a.m., a pleasant time for a bunch of college-aged kids to be risen from their less-than-ideal slumbers. We got on a bus, which took us to our hotel. Of course, it was too early to check in, so we all left our bags in the storage room and re-boarded the bus, headed for Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is difficult to put into words. Somewhere between 1.1 and 1.5 million people were killed there, tough numbers to fathom, although being there somewhat helps with the reality of it all. Standing in a gas chamber is also a bit of a life-altering phenomenon. Really makes you appreciate the privilege to wear Oakleys and a polo whenever you feel like it. It also makes you wonder how such a horrific scene could actually happen in the 20^th century, let alone last for four-plus years.

Our tour of the concentration camp lasted about four hours, four hours of a lot of silence, head shaking and some tears. Again, very difficult to put into words, but I’m certainly glad I went. Everyone should go, not only to turn history lessons into reality, but to help prevent such future catastrophes. Even after being there – at the biggest concentration camp in the world – it still boggles my mind. How? Why? Really?

You picture Auschwitz as cold, dark and dreary, partly because Poland is freezing in the winter, but also because all the pictures you see are in black and white. Being there on a cloudless, 70-degree day makes it kind of surreal, but standing on the train tracks where so many innocent Jews from all over Europe, who had no idea why they were there unloaded trains only 65 years ago adds a sense of reality to the experience, despite the weather.

After our tour, we got back on the bus for another 90-minute drive back to the hotel in Krakow. We all needed some physical and mental relaxation after the morning’s activities. Max and I shared a room, which was nice (good work, CEA).We had a sauna in our room, the only sauna in the entire hotel (don’t ask me why it was in our room), which we took full advantage of that afternoon (and Sunday morning). Max and I went into town (which is very underrated, if rated at all) with some girls out to a late lunch/early dinner. We walked around for a while, came back before going out with nearly the whole group that night to a club downtown. Also very underrated nightlife in Krakow.

Although Poland is part of the European Union, it, like the Czech Republic, is not yet on the euro. The Poles’ currency is the zloty, and the exchange rate is about three zloty to one dollar. It ended being even cheaper than Prague, which shocked me. I guess the further east you go, the cheaper things get. I only spent about 120 zloty, or $40 the entire weekend, since the trains, hotel, tours and Sunday’s dinner was paid for by CEA (originally with our money, but still, it’s a nice mid-semester gesture).

Another cool thing I noticed was the true versatility of the English language. As Americans, we expect people to be able to speak and understand English (so nice of us) because it is supposed to be the world’s universal language. But actually seeing Radka (a native Czech speaker) speak to the Polish hotel receptionist in English was cool. Both speak English as their second language, but were using it because neither spoke each other’s native tongue. Does that make me a dork because I think that’s cool?

Sunday we had a formal tour of Krakow. Castles, cathedrals, churches. They were all interesting, but to be honest with you, I’m pretty castle-cathedral-churched-out at this point. But Krakow is still an awesome city, with a river splitting it down the middle with grassy banks you can (and we did) lay on. Sunday night we boarded a 10:45 train back to Prague, six to a room. Got back at 7:00 this morning. Another weekend, another country. It isn’t getting old, either.

It was nice to go on a trip with our group (CEA is broken up into three groups since there are so many kids; each group goes to Krakow a different week – we were the middle group, sandwiched between the two). We all bonded well and had a great time together. I wish we had done a trip like that earlier in the semester. I finally feel like I know everyone in our group now, which wasn’t the case prior to this weekend. We told Radka that, so they can change it for next semester. At least we have four weeks left.

Jordan comes to Prague tomorrow. He and I are going to Milan, Italy Friday for Saturday night’s Inter v. Lazio Serie A match. Don’t have tickets yet; just gonna wing it. I thrive on just wingin’ it.