Oswiecim and Auschwitz-Birkenau

This has been the most difficult post I've had to write so far. I wondered if I should write about it at all, since no words can cover the scope, the injustice, the horror of what happened to the victims of the Second World War.

I read some other bloggers to see what they had to say on this subject, and one person in particular, who was a Jewish visitor, said that he'd gone against some of the Auschwitz State Museum's "no photo" policy in certain areas of the site, and that he did not regret it, since he felt that the atrocities that happened during 1939-1945 should be remembered, and that was what photos and words did: they kept alive the memories of what had happened, to commemorate them, and to ensure that nothing else like this ever happened again. People had risked their lives to take photos and escape with them, to expose the horrors of what was happening, he said.

Nevertheless, I didn't take too many pictures. I took a few of the Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extermination camp, but that was all. I didn't have the heart to take any more. The few photos I've taken are all here.

When I was very small, probably around 7 I think, my parents bought Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank, for me. It was, and still is, one of the most powerful books I've ever read. It was so hard for me as a child, to comprehend the brutality of the Nazis, the war atrocities that occurred, and that Anne, vivacious, bubbly, achingly normal Anne, whom I thought wrote and acted a lot like me, at times - had her life so brutally cut short. I still find it impossible to comprehend.

Auschwitz is located in the town of Oswiecim, which it took its name from. I took a bus from Katowice to Oswiecim, which took about 90 minutes, and then a bus from the Dworzec to the railway station. Oswiecim is a small, grey, dismal little town, which seems to have retained all the unhappiness of its past.

Oswiecim's main train station.

Apparently it was about 20 minutes walk from the train station to Auschwitz I, but I decided to take the bus there, since I didn't want to get lost - and getting lost in Oswiecim was a rather terrifying prospect.

There are guided tours for Auschwitz I, but since I was running rather late (thanks to the hostel providing me with faulty transport information) and I had no idea how much time I would need for the second site, I walked around a bit, and didn't go in, proceeding straight to the shuttle for Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This was the first scene that greeted me, as I stepped off the shuttle.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a huge, desolate, place. The weather was grim and grey, the air was stagnant and stifled even though it was a huge open space, and I felt my heart sink as I walked in. So many people came here, never to leave again, including Anne and her family.

The rail tracks that carried the Jews to their barracks.

One thing I noticed about Auschwitz-Birkenau, was that there was no sound of wildlife whatsoever. No birds singing or chirping, small animals rustling, or any of the sounds of nature you'd expect to hear in an open space like this. It's as if they knew what happened here.

There aren't any words that can come remotely close to describing the emptiness and horror that you feel when you walk within this space where so many people died in such misery and injustice. I'd done a lot of research before coming here, and I'd read extensively on WWII and the Holocaust, watched numerous documentaries and movies, but still. I could not comprehend what had happened here, what had driven people to act the way they did. I couldn't even think about it directly, it was so horrific. As I walked back to the entrance, where the train used to unload arrivals, I remembered what had happened to the Frank family, how Anne's father Otto Frank had been forcibly separated from his family, and how they'd never seen each other again. All these families torn apart, all these lives, ruined.



How far have we come?



***



I returned to Katowice for a quick dinner. To be honest, I was relieved to leave Oswiecim. The whole place was just so bleak.

Caught a polskibus to Wroclaw (which I couldn't pronounce until after I'd left the place, embarrassingly) which was fully booked. The journey took two hours, and it was past nine when I arrived. To my annoyance, a very fat man sat next to me. He poured himself into the seat adjoining mine (can't think of any other verb that's more suitable) and it was really very uncomfortable.

Last few in Katowice. I can safely say that I never want to come to this place again.

I really liked Wroclaw, but that'll have to come later.

Part VIII - Last few in Gdansk and and the airport as my hotel

Just witnessed our World Cup hosts being wiped off by Germany like bugs on a windshield. Whew. That was a match and a half..and it’s not even over yet. Emotions running high. Neymar and Silva are sorely missed.

(A/N: 0:7. This is surreal.)

(A/N: Half an hour later. Germany’s in the finals, 1:7. Am looking forward to seeing all the bad memes tomorrow morning when I wake up.)

Watching Germany hammering Brazil to bits was one huge emotional rollercoaster, accompanied by the whooping shouts of the other spectators in the halls, and my roomie’s quips on the horrified/elated expressions of the audience in the arena. Oh gosh golly. Will attempt to focus on the task at hand.

As mentioned in the previous entry, I took the 15:28 bus back to Gdansk central station. And what do you know, they have wind turbines here, exactly the same as the ones in Scandinavia.

When I got back to the city centre, walked around ul. Dluga for a bit, and bought some of their soft ice cones - which are the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. This country never fails to surprise me, and I am of the staunch opinion that one’s life is not complete if one has not tasted a Polish ice cream.

 YUM! I didn’t take a picture of the ice cream since my hands were too full, so had to make to with the big plastic uneatable one outside the shop.

The ice creams are incredibly cheap as always, 5 zloty for a medium sized one and 6.5 for a large one.

Found a fairly nice place to have dinner, and these are some of the best potatoes I’ve ever had in my life.

Took bus no 210 from Gdansk Glowny to the airport after dinner, which cost 1.50 zloty (again, LOVE the cheap transport) and took around 40 minutes. My flight back to London was at 6am the next day, and I figured that I’d just kip in the airport, since the timing was just too bad. I don’t like being outside after a certain hour.

I’ve never actually had to wait in an airport overnight for a flight, and for a first timer, this one wasn’t half bad, and I do see myself doing this again in the near future. Gdansk airport was very nice, and the wireless was free, although negligible, and not provided by the airport itself, but by one of its shops/sponsors/clients. You just have to keep clicking till you find one that works for you - in this case, ING. I found a seat next to a power outlet, and used my tablet for about four hours whilst waiting for it to charge.

I have a love-hate relationship with these flight announcement boards - I’m always hurrying to some boarding gate or terminal when I’m looking at them, but when I see the names of all these cities and destinations, just waiting for me, my heart floats away.

The lights in the airport began to darken, and since it was 12, I decided to get some sleep. I found a VERY comfortable spot in a coffee shop.

The sofa was made out of plush white leather and it was one of the most comfortable surfaces I’ve ever had the pleasure of lying on. I actually managed to get in about 4 hours of real sleep here (a lot more than I did when I was flying to Copenhagen), complete with my earplugs and eye mask.

No one told me that Poland could get this cold in July though, and I woke up at about 4, shivering. When I got on the flight at 6, my breath formed a white mist. That's how cold it was. 
The airport had begun to fill up at this point, since the check-in desks were opening. I looked up, and saw that my flight was ready for check in, so I bade adieu to my freezing sofa and went off.

Goodbye, Gdansk airport!

And that was pretty much it - I got on the flight at 6, arrived back in London after two hours, took a shuttle back to central London, and was back in my room before 10am, safe and sound.

Poland’s probably my favourite country so far. Sometimes it’s so hard to judge places, because they’re so different, but if I’m going to go with the “feel-good” factor per se here, then Poland takes the crown and cherry. Everything about it was just so right, from the food and the people and the scenery to the transport and the hostel. You name it, they nailed it. Poland completely and utterly surpassed my wildest expectations, and I highly recommend this lovely, severely underrated country to the intrepid explorer. I know I’m certainly going back.

Abject apologies if this entry comes across as somewhat vague - am still reeling in the aftermath of Germany’s resounding victory, and for some reason I’ve been feeling really lethargic recently. That coffee earlier on in the evening worked, but not as well as I hoped. Am probably experiencing post-holiday, pre-dissertation blues. I want to go back to the Continent ASAP.

Will be moving my old stuff over during the next few days/weeks, but it’s really time to focus on my dissertation, so will have to hold off Europe entries for the time being. Do expect to see posts on England, though, since I plan on visiting Stonehenge and Warwick Castle in the next month or so, at the very least! And now, if you will excuse me, am off to read some biting reviews of the Brazilian side’s crushing defeat. They’re going to be talking about this one for years to come. The funny thing is that these pundits probably can’t kick a ball to save their lives, but that’s okay, because they build their happiness money on the torment of others Brazilians.

Part VII - Frombork Cathedral

I was just reading through my old posts yesterday, and was appalled by the amount of typos I found. Oh, dear. Well, at least I found them.

The weather in London has been simply horrid for the last few days, and I love it. My heart sings whenever I see heavy grey clouds overhead. Of course, I only enjoy bad weather when I’m indoors. I also think that I’m drinking far too much coffee.

I did a teetotal of all the pictures that I have left, and I’ve got two entries left, including this one. I went to Frombork on the second day, the town where Nicolaus Copernicus did most of his work on astronomy, and where he was finally laid to rest.

I don’t think there’s a train to Frombork (not when I looked it up in London, anyway) but there was a direct route by bus. I had enquired at the bus station the day before, and they told me that there were two buses a day. I took the 9:50 one from Gdansk Glowny, and arrived there at around half past twelve. The journey cost 19 zloty, and was fairly enjoyable, as far as bus journeys go. I bought the tickets from the bus driver. Ha - when I remember my first sojourn to the Continent and all that meticulous planning and pre-booking, it seems all so distant to me now. Now I go along with the flow. I do think it’s a good idea to plan ahead where and when you want to go, or to have a general idea at the very least, but it’s not completely necessary to work it out to the last minute. And for some of these central and eastern countries, you really can’t do that, since they don’t have websites or other pre-booking facilities available. I miss travelling ever so much.

When I arrived in Frombork, the sun was still shining, but there was a patch of ominous grey looming up behind the cathedral. And, ah, the cathedral, where Copernicus is buried. The bus stopped right in front of it, and it’s huge. It’s on a hilltop. There’s no way you can miss it. Again, it was blown to smithereens during the Second World War, but restored to its former glory.

I know that this picture has endless blue skies, and yes, I cheated by putting a later picture up, because at this point, the clouds were seriously photobombing me. I decided to go to one of the restaurants right across from the cathedral and wait till the clouds had drifted away. And have lunch, in the meanwhile.

Not at all shabby, the restaurant.

And I was provided with a very good view of the cathedral.

The menu was Transylvania all over again - only this time, rather than Dracula steak, we have Astronomer’s dessert.

I ordered an iced espresso because travelling really takes the stuffing out of you.

And Polish meat rolls, which were very delicious. The sauce was cream of onion and very savoury.

In the meantime, the clouds descended upon Frombork and the skies split open, releasing a colossal deluge, the likes of which I haven’t seen ever since I left tropical Taiwan. The rain and thunder was terrific. Less amusing was the fact that it went on, and on, and on, effectively stranding me (and quite a few other tourists/patrons) in the restaurant. The wifi there was free, but it was starting to get very dull nonetheless, waiting for the rain to abate, which it did not. It was like waiting for a pot to boil, and we all know what happens when you watch that.

After around two hours of hiding in the restaurant, I decided that I was sick of being indoors, and that I would go outside nonetheless. I charged out resolutely, and made for the cathedral, and at first it was miserably freezing and wet, making me question my sanity and the wiseness (or lack of it) of my decision.

But then the sun broke through, and I saw this.

It was like finding an oasis in the desert, and I was able to gaze upon the full glory of Frombork Cathedral, in all its summer splendour.

I walked on, basking in the sun that comes after the rain, and the leafy shade of the trees. It was a very pleasant walk up to the cathedral.

The main entrance of the cathedral.

The main building of the cathedral.

The other side.

And I’m already beginning to see Copernicus all over the place.

The Planetarium which he worked in. This was also destroyed during WWII, and this is a modern reconstruction.

I enter the cathedral. There a large coffee machine adorned with the image of..Copernicus.

I paid (can’t remember the price but it certainly didn’t cost more than 5 zloty) and went in.

My view of the cathedral upon entrance:

And a majestic statue of Copernicus.

Further on in.

And finally, the moment I’d awaited.

The tombstone of the great astronomer himself.

It was quite daunting, and extremely thought-provoking. I stayed there for some time before leaving.

The statue of Copernicus that stands guard in the town he lived and died in.

I caught the 15:28 bus back to Gdansk, and arrived there at 17:00, but I’ll talk about that in my next and last entry. Till then, the final resting place of Copernicus seems a good place to leave you.

Part VI: Gdansk and the old town - Żuraw and the Mariacka

This is beginning to feel like the neverending post, but what do I know.

Tour de France is due to come by Tower Bridge anytime soon now, and I am going there to witness history.

(A/N: Back from witnessing history, and got in a few pictures too. Should probably write a new post on this.)

I noticed several extremely ominous-looking clouds overhead, and decided that they would ruin my pictures anyway, and since it was dinnertime I might as well have a bite and watch the Switzerland-Argentina match at the same time. Sure enough, right after I was seated, great dollops of rain began falling down upon the amber city, and there was a huge clap of thunder. I coughed and checked out the menu, and looking at this exquisite and extensive palate in London now only makes it worse.

I ordered Polish dumplings again.

With hot chocolate pudding as dessert.

When I finished dinner, the clouds were still there, but at least it had stopped raining, and sitting in a restaurant without wifi can be very boring. I walked out and went to ul. Mariacka, one of the most famous streets in Gdansk.

In the aftermath of the thunderstorm..

Walked around a bit after that, and went to see the Bazylika Mariacka, the largest brick church in the world. It commenced work in the mid 14th century, and was unfortunately severely damaged by the Red Army in 1945. Most of the cathedral today is a modern reconstruction.

It’s the building on the right, but the angle of the sun prevented me from getting a clearer picture of it

A/N, 2017/12/21. Thanks to improvements in modern technology, I am now able to present an edited version of the photos of the Bazylika Mariacka, in which you can see the cathedral in all its full glory. Four years too late, maybe, but late is better than never. And these newly enhanced photos really are stunning, if I do say so myself.

Walked back to the lovely Motława to see the shipyard, and the famous medieval port crane, the unusually phallic shaped Żuraw.

The Żuraw can be faintly discerned from behind all those boats

And here’s a clearer picture of the Żuraw. It’s the building with the oddly shaped funnel-like structure.

And this is the part where I sort of went crazy and snapped loads of photos again, because it was that time of the day, and this was that kind of city, and I’m an indecisive person who just wants it all.

I went back to the hostel after that and met some of the new arrivals in our room, and talked (as we always do!) about politics and history and visa restrictions. Went through an awful lot of cider too, courtesy of one of the Polish guests.

I really liked Poland, and it’s a rather odd feeling, sitting here again in my London Bridge student room, typing this up, reliving the emotions and feeling of being there. A profound sense of displacement, tempered with a dash of nostalgia and regret. Listening to my roommate cooking in the kitchen, and to the skateboard idiots trying out their tricks in the quad. Wondering who’s going to break through in tomorrow’s match. Thinking about certain people, and the fact that it’s past nine again, and very soon I’m going to go to the kitchen and try to wrap this up. Wanting so much more out of life, even though I already have so much, because that’s the essence of human nature. In the end, if one’s not careful, they’re left with a handful of what-ifs. Humming “Lemon Tree,” and you’re wondering how, and wondering why, that yesterday all you saw was a blue blue sky, but now all that you can see is just another lemon tree.