Krakow, Poland (Bittersweet interactions between travelers)
On the 4th Marianne and I decided to take a little finals study break and head to Krakow, Poland. With only 2 days to actually see the city, we needed to cram as much as we could into a very small time frame. This undoubtedly meant waking up at 4am for a 7am flight and then traveling for 7 hours to get to Krakow. Upon arrival we dropped our bags, grabbed a sandwich and hopped onto an Auschwitz tour bus. In the hour and a half drive there they showed a horribly graphic film of the concentration camps including the bodies of deceased, the people coming off the trains thinking they were just going to work, and the doctors looking over the victims who managed to escape with their lives. It certainly set the mood and left me absolutely speechless. I will never be able to accurately describe what I felt when I stepped onto the camp. I am going to use the word surreal. That Auschwitz sign has filled every documentary, text book and lecture I have ever heard on Nazi Concentration camps, and yet, seeing it was something entirely different. It wasn’t real. I couldn’t seem to fathom the thought that this was actually a thing that occurred. That people walked under this sign and never walked back out. I couldn’t see it, or imagine that humanity could actually be that bad. For this reason exactly I was numb. Desensitized. I then saw the glasses, the prosthetic limbs, the shoes and the HAIR, of the victims. Hair. There, sitting innocently behind the glass were heaps upon heaps of shaved hair. The thought of the people being shaved without a clue as to what lie before them shook me to the core. There were no longer owners to the hair - the shoes. Another part that got me was standing directly where the doctor would make the decision whether you worked or went straight to the gas chambers. My tour guide actually pointed to a group walking to the left of us and said that was the path that those destined for death would walk. How? HOW? I still cannot fathom the reality of the situation; The darkness that embodied this experience. At what point did they realize there was no fighting against death, and how did they rationalize it in their minds? I can’t think about it anymore because I start imaging my friends and family walking the same path and I just can’t. I’m sure everyone else on the tour got the same feeling because it was 3 hours of complete silence before re-entering the bus and lightening the mood with talks of a beer crawl.
We arrived back to the hostel and met some of the nicest and most enjoyable people I have ever encountered in my travels. There were five British boys that were so friendly, charming and funny that I could have sworn I was friends with them in a past life. Along with them I met a lovely Canadian girl, a Dutch guy with the EXACT voice of Frank Sinatra (thank god for hostel karaoke nights) and a couple Australians. The first night we played cards in the common room and sipped on sangria provided by the hostel. We then geared up for our bar crawl which involved an hour of free beer and vodka shots. DANGER. I will repeat, DANGER. The Polish love their vodka, and more than that, they love making people drink their vodka. With an effort not to go into too many details, A LOT of liquor was consumed and I had a great night. The next day Marianne and I went on a free walking tour. Which if you’re traveling, you should always do. They are fabulous and the people doing them LOVE the city and work on our tips, so they’re really the best people to go to. Of course it rained all day, but nonetheless the city was beautiful, preserved and full of tradition. It is a small city though, and we really only needed the 3 hour tour to see the whole thing. We returned to the hostel exhausted and had tea with the British boys because that is a thing that the British actually do (haha). They also add milk to their tea, which is gross, but I like them, so I guess I can look past it. This night the hostel did a karaoke night. The hostel called “The Pink Panther Hostel” (and I would recommend it 1 million times) was great at fostering relations between the travelers. I sang Journeys “Don’t stop believing” with a couple of the guys and had a ball. We then went out for some more drinks and called it a night since we had an early flight.
Three of the British guys we had met had just finished exams and were travelling around for 30 days. They had a disposable camera and wanted to take one photo everywhere they went. They took one with Marianne and I saying that we had made an impression on their trip. This struck me as incredible. A hard copy photo of people you enjoyed some time with. This is probably the first time I felt real connections to strangers I met. I am always a person who loves to meet strangers. I think it is so fascinating to have someone in your life for a small amount of time where everything is new for each of you and you know that it ends there. Any impression you make or relationship you create only exists there in that memory. I love this, and I hate this. I love it because a memory of an interaction between strangers can never be bad. You have zero expectations and if you choose to continue communication after about 5 minutes, then clearly you see the person as worth associating with. I like being able to laugh and carry on with strangers as though we have known each other forever. And in that exact moment, you are a part of each other’s lives. I will always know that I, that WE had that time together. And I love knowing that there are people out there that I really like, and perhaps haven’t met yet, or perhaps have, and every once in a while I can think “I wonder how so-and-so is doing” and I genuinely care. At the same time, I hate this because sometimes you meet people that you wish you didn’t only meet in passing. You wish you had more time to make a better impression, to show off who you really are and what your values are. AND THEN AGAIN, what if after all this happens, you realize you’re not meant to be friends. THIS is the magic of meeting other travelers. You are all in the same mind set. You all know that you’re doing the same thing; Looking for the same thing; Adventure, challenge, novelty, company. I found all of this with the group in Krakow and can only hope that everyone in some point of their life feels as connected and at home with a group of strangers as I did. Life is far too short to not dive in head first. You will always be surprised with what you find.
areudirty
vaporwave
gracieabrams
prguitarman
tangentwithtanner
