One of the main tourist tours to do when you are in Krakow, and one of the main reasons for me even going to Krakow, is Auschwitz. For those of you living under a rock, Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps. Many people think it was just one camp, but there was actually three camps (and many many satellite camps), the most known being the main Auschwitz and Auschwitz II – Birkenau sites. Together these were the largest of all the concentration camps of WW2. I actually ended up going their twice, the first time doing the guided tour, and the second time going around on my own more slowly.

‘Why go there?’. I believe everyone should go to Auschwitz, or at least one of the WW2 concentration camps still standing. Places like this need to be visited and remembered, to realise what humans are capable of and to never let it happen again. As it says on the memorial – ‘For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe.’

‘What was it like?’. This question is a little harder to answer. I guess if you really were that rare someone that had no idea what a concentration camp was or who the Nazis were, then visiting Auschwitz, or any camp, would be an insanely shocking experience. The fact that I know about Auschwitz, and have been to two other camps previously, made it different for me. I knew what to expect, I knew what went on here (as much as one can). However, walking through the gate of Birkenau, along the train tracks that brought in the hundreds of thousands of people for death, and seeing the sheer size of the place, it definitely hits you. Something like 90% of Birkenau is actually flattened, only brick chimneys from the barracks remaining, so you can see just how huge an area it was. And its not like they used the area to spread people out either, they were crammed in as much as possible.

The main Auschwitz camp is a lot different to Birkenau. It was the administrative centre, and all of the barracks were brick buildings that used to be for the Polish military. Because of this everything is still standing, and still original. All of the trees, all of the signs, all of the fences. Inside the barracks is full of original things on display, such as shoes, hairbrushes, briefcases, used gas cans etc. The most talked about, and shocking, is the room that is full of hair, some still in braided ponytails. When ‘prisoners’ were admitted to Auschwitz, they were stripped of everything, including their hair. This hair was then used to make such things as mats, which are also on display. In the Block 11 basement was the first test of the gas Zyklon B, which was later used in Birkenau. These gas chambers, and the crematorium, are all still standing and original.

There is a tonne more information on the Wikipedia page. I think thats all ill say about this, ill let the photos do the rest.

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Market Square in Krakow

Getting to Krakow was fun. But not. It takes a ridiculous amount of time for the relatively short distance that is covered. It was two trains and the first one left Vienna at 7am. The good thing was although the entire journey is two trains, the first leg was about 6 hours of the 7.5 hour journey. First train stopped at a place in Poland called Katowice, or ‘shit hole’ as I prefer. Its the worst train station ive come across. All of the signs above the platforms don’t work, and some showed trains coming from who knows how long ago. I went to the platform that my next train was scheduled to leave from, and thats the first problem. They have platform numbers, and then a separate number for each side of the platform, but the timetables don’t tell you that number, just the main platform number. So there was a train sitting on one of the sides, but I had no idea where the hell it was going so thought it best to just let it leave so I don’t end up in Warsaw or something. Read the timetable for the next train coming, found some others trying to get to Krakow, and 30 mins later a train came that we hoped went to Krakow. Luckily it did. The problems didn’t end there. Arriving at Krakow station and the place is a maze. There is hardly any signage, and what signage there is makes no sense to an English speaking tourist. Eventually found my way out, then followed directions to my hostel.

Krakow is fast becoming, and sort of already has, a must see city on travellers itineraries. The place to go used to be Prague, its now a combination of Krakow and Budapest, always cities that have had shit thrown at them by everyone over the years. And its not hard to see why they are so popular now. I actually originally only booked to stay four days and ended up staying seven. Everything is extremely cheap, and its good. The hostels are about $20 a night, and the one I was in offered free breakfast and dinner in that price. The food even from a restaurant is cheap. I ate out quite lavishly one night, ribs and beer etc, and it was about $20. Theres also a lot of things to see even though the city is quite small. And then theres the women. Oh the women. It is just insane and just plain mean how good looking they are. And I mean all of them. Every woman in the city could be a model. They all look quite fit too, no fatties anywhere. And being near winter and it being cold they are all wearing awesome boots and tights and other distracting items of clothing. And if they’re young then they’re English is really good and they’re super friendly and don’t mind using it. There were many poles that I nearly ran in to whilst checking out this walking scenery (HA! get it, poles and Poles).

Oh and the vodka. Theres a long standing argument between the Poles and Russians on who made vodka first, but obviously the Poles think they did. Whether they did or not, they are pretty damn good at making it regardless. You can get every type and flavour of vodka you can think of. Me being a vodka drinker, was in heaven. My favourite one is Krupnik, which is honey flavoured vodka. And it tastes just like it. You can drink it straight like its cordial its that ridiculously good. And dangerous. And so cheap! A bottle of that runs for about $15. Can be a problem though because its so cheap its easy to start mixing it with beer and then thats not good.

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By some crazy fluke whilst walking down the road on the first day in Vienna I came across a semi ripped poster on a electricity pole, and it was advertising a gallery showcasing the World Press Photo 2010 winners. The World Press Photo awards are the most prestigious award a photojournalist can get. The winners are usually from such photo agencies as Getty/Reuters/AFP, which kind of shows the calibre.

This year was quite special because my favourite photographer, Liz Kreutz, won 1st prize in ‘Sports Features – Stories’. I originally noticed Liz’s work because she was the team photographer for the USPS cycling team (Lance Armstrong’s team). She then went on through its various incarnations as Discovery Channel, Astana and later RadioShack. I guess you could say I was only a fan of hers at the start because she had the best access for photos of Lance, and posted quite a bit of stuff on Twitter. But her cycling photos are actually just damned good, and they have a photojournalism angle to them which most others don’t. It is also great to see a woman working in a completely male dominated area of photography. Im still annoyed with myself though from when I was in Monaco the day before the start of the 2009 Tour de France and I walked straight past her, only realising later hey that was Liz Kreutz. So as you probably guessed it, the ‘story’ she portrayed in her images was Lance’s second comeback to professional cycling and his bid for an 8th Tour de France.

The exhibition was really awesome. Surprisingly I don’t think ive ever gone to a photography gallery before, i haven’t ever cared enough about anyones work to bother. But this was really cool. These photos are the best of the best, and this is where a photographer aspires to be, on these walls. They even had stations of imacs setup with videos from the photographers and all the information, it was really well setup. You can see all the images in Liz’s entry here. When I left I asked if they had the book (has every photo and captions etc) in English, the girl said no. Then one of the other girls corrected her and said they did, and she looked around for a while, and yes they had three copies of it in English. Score. Continue for some pics.

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The main shopping area in the city centre of Vienna

I needed to get to Krakow somehow from Budapest and instead of taking an 84 hour train or bus I decided to stop halfway-ish at the lovely Vienna. The Budapest to Vienna train is great because it is serviced by the wickedly awesome RailJet. Its also not that expensive. Inside tip, you can buy the 4 day excursion ticket, which is return train ticket and all public transport in Vienna, for 31 euros. You obviously just don’t use the return ticket to Budapest, unless you’re an idiot. Arrived in Vienna and shitttttttttt it was cold, and it was also raining. And like all main train hubs in Austria, it was under construction, so it was a nightmare to navigate. Although there was a lot of maps, it took me quite a while just to figure out what street I was standing on and what direction to walk. I eventually caught on, and arrived at the hostel. The hostel was another one of those little apartment style ones, but to the extreme this time. The reception person is only there from 8-2pm each day, and theres only 12 beds. It really was like staying in a shared house. Im a fan of this style of hostel, quieter and you tend to meet slightly older (read: 25ish) travellers.

I spent the first day walking around the city. It doesn’t take you long to realise why Vienna is always in the top 10 most liveable places in the world. Everywhere is spotlessly clean, everything runs on time, people look healthy, they all dress nice, and on a whole seem to be quite well off. They can also speak English really well. The metro system is unbelievable as well, quick, clean and runs frequently. One of the streets that leads to the city centre has all the expensive fashion shops on it. Dolce Cabana, Armani, Hugo Boss, Tiffany, Ferragamo, Versace, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc. You name it, its there. There was also multiple stores right near each other. For example there was two swatch swaps, pretty much across the street from each other, and 3 H&M stores within 200m of each other. So yeah, they love to shop. Like a lot of European city centres, its all car free, and cobbled. But not like old school original Bruges style cobbles, this is new school Austrian done cobbles, all perfect and flat. Walking down one of the streets I came across a lot of press photographers and a woman posing next to a bunch of plush little kids toys. I have NO IDEA what the hell this was all about, it was all kind of weird. The rest of the day was spent walking around everywhere, seeing things like the Town Hall, Parliament building, Opera, various parks that are scattered around, and the main cathedral.

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The Széchenyi Baths…relaxation heaven

I had a few different options on where to go after Ljubljana. Once you get down to this area of Europe the train links aren’t nearly as direct or fast, so you either have to stop at more cities or endure long slow train rides. So I could have either gone to Zagreb, then Budapest, or even Zagreb then Belgrade then Budapest. But the season isn’t right for Croatia at this time of year, and I didn’t want to get shot in Belgrade, so I decided to just head straight to Budapest. And now there is two options, take the 7am train (which has parts running by bus at the moment due to sludge) or catch the 2am train. I opted for the 2am train. I was lucky that the hostel let me stay there chilling out in the common room for as long as I wanted. It was around 1am and I left for the train station. The place was a ghost train and I had the feeling that this train was a joke and wasn’t really arriving. But it did, right on time.

I knew this train ride was going to be shit, and I was right. It wasn’t crowded at all, so I was the only person in a bank of four seats. The problem with the journey though is that it goes via Zagreb, and Croatia not being an EU country, there is passport control. And as you can imagine Croatian passport officers mean serious business. Burly dudes that look pretty damn serious about everything. They even pull down the false ceilings in the carriages to check for anyone hiding. So all up in the journey I had my passport checked twice (and stamped!) and my ticket multiple times. This means a night of no sleep. On the plus side I saved money on accommodation. Eventually the train rolled in to Budapest at about 11am, I stumbled out and found the station exit. I followed the directions I had written down the night before and walked to the hostel. Walking in to the hostel someone shouts ‘Dave!’ from behind a curtained window. I have no clue who this person is as I cant see them let alone, like, who the hell knows me in Budapest? Turns out it was a chick who stayed at the same hostel in Bled. Complete coinkidink. So I checked in and they stuffed up somehow and had overbooked the place, so I got the single room for the same price for four of the nights. Sweet.

I ended up staying in Budapest for seven days, initially having only booked four. I just kept extending it because, well, why not. The place is super cheap and theres enough stuff to do, and even just wandering the streets its a great city. For two of the days I just went to the baths, specifically the Széchenyi Baths, which are the largest in the city, and one of the largest in all of Europe. The payment system is mind boggling, there is about 4023 different combinations of what you can pay for. Both times I end up just paying the all inclusive ticket because I have no idea. Then there is the change rooms and lockers etc which go back to old school soviet times so they are also confusing as hell. The baths are wicked though. There are a few different ones indoors, but the smell of sulphur is too overpowering, so I hit the outside ones. There is three large pools, the two outer ones are at 38 degrees, and the middle pool is a lap pool at 24 degrees. Ordinarily a 24 degree pool would be normal, but after being in 38 degrees it feels like ice. Its all extremely relaxing though, hence why I stayed all day, twice. You just sit in the pool for a while, go to the ‘fun’ pool and go round the whirl pool thingo, then just sit on the side and read a book. And although there are many fine looking ladies roaming around Budapest, they seem to not frequent the baths. Ive never seen so many old fat people in clearly inappropriate swimwear.

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