WARNING: Ridiculously long entry ahead... excessive use of ellipses probable.
So this has been one of the busiest weeks I have had since I arrived in Europe as far as school goes. But I didn't know that it was coming because the email from my studio professor that I got just before I left for Krakow was in Czech.
So I left with 26 erasmus students for Krakow on thursday night. We "slept" on the train. But with 8 people to a car, there was more general thrashing about, trying to get comfortable than sleeping. The first day there we dropped off our bags at our hostel, "the stranger hostel", and proceeded on our city tour. P.S. our hostel was incredible, I highly recommend it!
First stop on the city tour... the historic 15th century Collegium Maius where Copernicus studied... also they have their own cukoo clock there... every city's got one.
On the way to the next place we passed the "pope's window". Can you see it behind the nun?
Second stop, the Wawel! (Thats polish for castle hehe)
Here I am in front of the Basilica of the Virgin Mary. We were there on the hour to hear the trumpeter. Sweet.
Then we walked forever... and finally made it into the Jewish quarter. I went in my first ever synagogue. We saw the place where Schindler's list was filmed. Then we checked out the cemetery.
About 2 zillion miles of walking more and and a beer in the town center later we were back at the hostel... exhausted. And, we were just in time to leave for dinner with the "highlanders"... hahaha. So we did a little Polka and watched the Robbers Dance. The boys had a competition at it...
So we had a delicious polish dinner... well, mine was sort of delicious... but small. Sometimes, it sucks being a vegetarian. Then we went out for a few drinks and headed home by 1. We had an early morning ahead.
7:30 AM> me being semi-shook awake. Apparently I was supposed to get up a half hour ago. Luckily, I took my shower the night before like a champ and was ready ahead of time despite my slumber. An hour and a half train ride with a 15 minute walk brought us to the gates of Auschwitz I. They say "Work makes you free."
We couldn't take pictures inside the barracks where the museum was, so I will just tell you it wasn't easy to see. They had rooms just full of shoes, prosthetic limbs, and human hair. But the hardest thing to see was the files the Nazis kept on the individuals being held in the camp. They had pictures, dates of birth and death, professions, etc. Its hard to believe the Nazis could know so much about these people and not treat them as humans. This is Aushwitz I, the first, smaller camp. These barracks were originally for soldiers.
This is Auschwitz II- Birkenau. This camp was built after the war started, and this is where most of the million people who died at Auschwitz came. They call this the "death gate" where the trains came in, and many elderly, disabled, and children were sent straight to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Those who were allowed to work in the camp stayed in bunkers that used to be here. Now all you can see is the chimneys which were in the center of basically a barn where hundreds of people would live. All you can see is row after row of these chimneys.
Here you can see more clearly what the landscape is like today.
Finally here is the ruins of 1 of the 4 gas chambers at Birkenau. All of them were destroyed: 3 by the Nazis attempting to hide the war crimes, and 1 by the camp prisoners during an uprising.
We were so shocked by what we saw at these camps that we lost track of time and missed our train back to Krakow. So instead, we all crammed on a bus and got back about an hour late. We had a pizza dinner and then went out to check out the night life. Of course we were all exhausted from all the walking and not sleeping, so I can't say that I stayed out that late. I can say that Krakow downtown is almost like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, minus the strip clubs. EVERYONE is out... its crazy.
The next day we actually got to sleep, except the girl next to me had an alarm that kept going off, so I woke up at 8:30 and she kept sleeping. Grr... We headed to the Wielizcka salt mines around 11. It was about a half hour train ride.. nothing major. I have gotten very used to taking the train. It is so convenient! Here is the mine from the outside. It doesn't look like much, but it is over 130 meters deep... well thats how far we went. There are actually 3 more levels.
These other photos of the mine were taken by my friend Jeff because I didn't buy a picture pass. (fyi... i can't take the credit for their coolness) This is looking down the middle of the stairway... we walked down like 300 stairs.
He is a carving of a gnome. There were lots of them down there, as well as several chapels, a light show on statues telling the story of the mine, etc. Salt used to be so valuable that the salt from that mine was 1/3rd of the entrie country's revenue. PS. the mine is like 500 years old..... can you imagine being down that deep in the earth with the technology they had back then? They had to periodically light the methane gas that accumulated on fire to get rid of it. I would hate to be that guy.
This is one of the biggest rooms down there, a chapel where they still have mass once a week. The mine is closed, except for tourism, but the maintanence alone employs like 300 people. Its huugggeee.
Here is one of the ponds down there. I liked the reflections. Oooh also its really fun to jump on the dock because it makes the most incredible echo you have ever heard!
So I now know more about salt than I ever wanted to know. But thats ok, there are worse things in the world... like the tiny elevator 9 of us were crammed into to take us back to the surface. I am not claustraphobic, and I was still about to freak out. Eek!
After we got back from the mine we had another Polish dinner. They are really big on courses... like soup, then coleslaw, then main dish, then dessert. Its pretty cool to get to eat like that actually. Then, I asked one of the Polish people in the Erasmus club about this church Dad sent me an email about. We had heard something about it being the highest point in Krakow earlier during the city tour (the castle bell tower that we got to climb is the 2nd highest). I knew it was in the suburbs and might be hard to get to, but luckily the guy I was talking to lived one tram stop before it, and he happened to be on his way home. Actually, he had never been there before either, so he came with us!
The church is called St. Faustyny Sanctuary... or something like that. Its all different in Polish and English, so its hard to find it on the internet. Basically, its some really cool modern architecture as it is only 4 years old. When we arrived we were delighted to find it was the church's festival that day! I have never seen so many priests and nuns in one place in my whole life. Come to think of it, I may not have seen that many period! Here is one group walking down through the carnival.
It worked out perfectly to visit the church because we had like 4 hours of free time before we left. So really me, my Polish friend, and about 4 other Americans went to look at the church... some architecture, some not. It was really cool to see everyones reactions... only 2 of us were catholic so I liked seeing what people thought. Here is the approach to the church.
The statue on the tower. We wanted to go up it, but it was closed for the festival. Also, there was mass going on, so that might have had something to do with it. There were so many people at mass that they were standing outside listening to it on big speakers.
Here is a picture of the interior through a window. It is sooo gorgeous.
Here is a view of the outside from the side... sweet architecture. Even though we didn't go inside or up the tower, we were all glad we went that day and saw the church and its community at its best.
After seeing the church we took a scenic tram back to the city, got some ice cream (for the second night in a row), and headed back to the hostel and the train station. Here are some night shots I took on the way. This is the town center with its line of carriages.
This is the backside of the block our hostel is on from a large parking lot... one of the only ones I saw in the city.
SO.. we took the night train back from 10 PM to 7 AM. I slept a little, took a shower, ate lunch, and SUPRISE! Phone Call-There is a workshop I need to go to for studio every day this week and it started 20 minutes ago, Can I go? UM... can I just say how much I wanted to say no? But, being the sport that I am, and ignoring the fact that my professor always sends me emails in Czech that I can't read, I agree and head off to the "Dutch Ladies" workshop. Little did I know... ha Im giving a presentation monday and tuesday. By the grace of God I had just put my work into a powerpoint the week before, and I ended up looking pretty good because I was more put together than the other students who knew about it. What a blessing! It was kinda random that I did that... so go me! This is the work area our atellier is using on the 14th floor. Notice my computer is ridiculously small compared to everyone elses... (its the little white one) I miss my desktop, but this one is still working pretty well so its ok.
Here is the view back towards the castle from the 14th floor of our architecture building. Actually, I think it is one of the tallest buildings in Prague... maybe.
The studio space. The 14th floor is cool because of the round skylights... I feel so artsy in it... its like a palace compared to Seaton Hall.
So yeah, after the Monday presentation my professor, some colleagues, and I all went for beers. Turns out I had the only project that the critiquer actually liked... but I didn't know because all the criticism was going down in Czech and I put my headphones on. Oh yeah, I do that a lot because it doesn't matter if I listen or not... I don't understand. Tuesday went well also. I presented first, probably because I was the most ready... which is funny because I feel like I never do schoolwork. Ha oh well. I guess all that hard work back at KSU is paying off for me now. :)
Wednesday consisted of running to Tesco in the AM, Czech class, watching movie, a 3 hour nap, dragging myself out to the PM bar and getting home way too late to be getting up at 6 AM... so I got up at 7 instead... oops. But, I still made it to Brno with the rest of the group (I am that awesome) on Thursday morning so it all worked out. The reason it worked is because the bus got full and we had to take a later train, but I'm not complaining. :)
First stop, the Villa Tugendhat by Mies van der Rohe in 1930. Probably the most significant piece of modern architecture in the Czech Republic, not gonna lie. It was GORGEOUS. Pictures don't do it justice. It is closing for 2 years at the end of May for a complete restoration, so we were lucky to be here at the right time to tour it.
Here is the whole group of us that went to Brno at the Villa. We are all from KSU and all architecture students. Good times.
This is the backside of the Villa.
Here you can see the extensive damage the villa has undergone through years of neglect.
From the Villa we went and got some lunch at a local Italian eatery... mmm vegetarian pizza. Love that. After lunch we headed to this crypt that through some special ventilation system preserves bodies... I started wishing I had ate less for lunch very quickly...
This guy died back in the 1700's but he still has his skin. And it wasn't just him. There were like 30 people down there who have been dead for 250 years but you can still see their ears and toes and everything... only black. Eww. I wanted to get out of there pretty quick.
So we headed to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. It is the huge one you see in all the skyline pictures (just wait for it).
This is the inside of the church. Its pretty sweet. I am getting spoiled with all these amazing places.
Next stop, a cubist house that was semi cool. Then to the castle! We just kinda walked around the courtyards and the outside for a while.
I took a picture with this statue... it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Last stop: Town hall. We climbed the tower and then toured some of the interior galleries.
This is the "dragon" of Brno at the town hall. Also, that wheel on the back wall has an interesting story that goes with it. Apparently a man said he could cut down a tree, make a wheel out of it, and roll it the 40 km from his farm to Brno all in one day. No one believed him, so he did it. After his task was completed, the people insisted that it was impossible for one man to do so much work in a day and said he must have had help from the devil. They refused to ever buy any of his goods again. HA! That shows the value of hard work in these parts. :) jk.
Here is a view of the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul from the tower of the town hall.
The castle from the town hall tower.
Before we left we had some time to kill, so we hit up McDonalds. Also, I bought a new book, Life of Pi. It comes highly recommended, so I am pretty excited about it. This last picture is of the sunset from the 2.5 hr bus ride home.
Ciao!
