Auschwitz-Birkenau

TODAY was a very humbling day.

We woke up at 6:45 AM after maybe 6 hours of sleep. We needed to make it to Auschwitz before 10 AM if we didn't wanted to be forced into a guided tour that I knew would go quicker than the pace I wanted, and confined into a small area with too many anxious tourists. If you know me, I do not do well with big crowds and small spaces all trying to get somewhere...Rome, Paris, and Venice should be interesting for me...I know this already. Kevin is prepared!

We checked out of our hostel around 7:10 AM. Breakfast is served from 7:30-11:30. We did not get breakfast. It takes about 80 minutes by bus to get from Krakow Glowny to Auschwitz. We were nervous. We walked the 20 minutes to Glowny and were in search of the bus station.

When we found it, we talked to a disturbed...Maybe English hater...polish bus lady and asked her where to get tickets for our desired bus. She told us that she didn't need tickets, in an interesting tone, and that we could find our bus downstairs on platform 8. We have been told that we don't need tickets before, this is sketchy advice.

We went down to said platform and found our bus. It already looked mostly full, we were nervous. The driver was letting people on that HAD tickets...again the sketchy advice (force people to sell you tickets in advance, you are treated better). By the timetable next to the bus, it looked like the next one after this 7:50 bus wasn't until 9...which meant we would be forced into a guided tour. Silent prayers began. 2 people came with tickets and they were allowed on...as Kevin and I with a couple other people waited patiently outside the mini bus for our chance to get on the bus (they were given bad advice as well). We kept waiting. Then 3 more people with tickets came and they were allowed on. My heart sank. I was for sure now the bus was full. After the 3, the driver went and say in his seat...looked for open seats...looked at us with a stern glare...What seemed like forever passed! THEN a miracle happened. He lifted his hand and waved us onto the bus. We had done it, heavenly father had done it. We were on the bus in the two last available seats, knowing that we would make it to Auschwitz in time. The people behind us were allowed on too, but they had to stand the whole drive.

We arrived to Auschwitz at 9:10. If you enter without a guided tour, it is free. We just had to pay about a dollar for them to store our oversize bags.

When we entered the grounds, words could not describe the emotion I felt. We had just passed through the same area thousands had passed through in world war 2. Not only that, but right through the gates we were met immediately by an open field where SS would mercilessly execute innocent lives.

Just a warning...if reading about gruesome things is not your cup of tea, then don't read further. This was on my bucket list because this is history I care about. It was a horrific time, but something worth learning about, which is what I did today. I will try to word everything in the most respectful way possible...however just know that there was nothing respectful about what the Nazis did. I'm am writing this so I remember today in detail because it does not deserve to be forgotten. I saw it for myself, the holocaust was VERY real. This will be a long post for that reason...to remember.

After walking past the open area, you immediately see the familiar Auschwitz sign of "Albeit Macht Frei"...which translates roughly to work sets you free. Around this sign you will see a double barbed wire fence guarded by a watchman post. If someone tried to escape, they would be shot and placed by the sign as people exited to work to deter people from trying to escape. There were guard stations everywhere around the perimeter of the camp, so escaping certainly meant death...whether you were successful at escaping or not, considering the camp was in the middle of nowhere.

We continued on finding out that there was a camp band that played every morning when the workers left, and again when workers came back in carrying the dead. Work was usually 12 hours without food or water, and you could be killed by the SS at anytime for whatever reason they felt. The first barrack we entered contained information about the polish resisting the Nazis. It was really awesome to read and see how they slowed the army down. Next we went into barrack 4. The most shocking things here was an urn of ashes from those cremated at Birkenau, the large model of how the gas chambers worked, and the many cans of empty and one full can of Cyclon B...the crystal used in gas chambers to murder millions. It was very intriguing.

Next was barrack 5, which was quite possibly the most depressing. Here you saw many different rooms of the things the Germans collected. For example...combs, spectacles, shoes...lots of shoes, children's shoes, empty suitcases, toothbrushes, metal objects, prosthetic legs, and hair...they had cut off. I actually got rudely interrupted while trying to take a picture of it, not knowing that you can't. Polish people are not the nicest.

Sad story, cloth was found later and they were testing the material. After doing this, they found it was woman's hair that had traces of the same acid used to kill those in the gas chamber. So sad. They killed them, cut off their hair, and then made cloth out of it to sell...sick people!

We also entered barrack 6, which was designed like the sleeping quarters there. Sleeping was right but not as awful as Birkenau. Both were awful though, don't get me wrong. I would never want to be in either situation. There were also only 24 toilets for 700-1000 people at one time in the barrack. As well as one washroom. I could only imagine how awful this smelt and I'm sure they were rarely cleaned.

Then there was the "death block". This is where many polish POW's were tortured, stripped bare, and then thrown out into a square where they were either executed, hung by their arms, or flogged to death. It was a very humbling place to be standing.

As we went around the barracks, we came across ones they had turned into liberation museums. The France one was actually very creepy. I didn't stay there very long. The barrack about the Dutch was extremely sad as most of the Jews were captured there and killed. We didn't go into each liberation barrack as time was of the essence and I was freaked out by the France one.

We did pass the hanging pole, where 12 polish men were hung for aiding the escape of three men. Everyone in the camp was forced to watch and stare for hours at this as they were made an example. Near these polls was the area of roll call. The guards had a watch tower they could stand in if weather was poor. Not the prisoners...they had to stand there in the open for hours, no matter what...and at any time could be executed.

There was also kitchens in this area, but it was not open to visitors. The last thing we saw as we left was the crematorium. Right beside it was also a spot for hanging. Where the first commander of Auschwitz was actually hung for what went on at this camp.

Journey to Poland

We started out the morning by waking up at 7:30 AM...after a very restless sleep. I am still having a hard time falling asleep at night while adjusting to the time difference, even though I am exhausted. Kevin had a hard time falling asleep too, for the first time on our trip.

It was probably our nerves with traveling to a new country. If this didn't work out today, our trip would need to change immensely to get on track.

We had breakfast and checked out of our guest house at 8:40 AM. Next is the part that got scary. We were trying to make a train at Stockholm Central at 9:40 AM. The place we are staying at is 30 minutes from the desired train station AND the train was delayed because of signal failure. Prayers...began! Our train arrived at our station at 9...giving us 40 minutes to travel to Stockholm, run through the station to the SJ to activate our eurail passes, then run back through to find the right platform to our train to take us Stockholm Skavsta...an airport an hour out of Stockholm.

We arrived at Stockholm Central at 9:30...as promised, there was running! I was wearing flip flops, which sounded like gun shots every time I was running. I may...our may not...have taken them off to keep up with Kevin. At 9:33, we got to the place to activate our eurail, took a number, and waited "patiently" for someone to help us. Finally, a booth opened up.

The lady we came to seemed nervous and shaky. Maybe new. We quickly told her of our situation, and she doubted we could make the train. (We still had faith) She slowly and shakily filled out and stored our eurail passes. Finally done! She told us the platform the train was leaving from and we took off.

We ran back through the station, down a set of stairs and up another to the correct platform. At 9:39, we stepped on our train and into first class. Realizing we were in the wrong area, we calmly walked back to second class, relieved we had made the train.

There was another one at 11:40 we could have caught, but closer to our flight departure time than we were comfortable with. I prayed again in thanks that we made it.

While on the train, we were healed by a maybe insane...Maybe spiritually connected...older Swedish lady. She loved taking to Kevin as he knew Swedish. She later had to move as she was sitting in a place that animal owners had to sit, as a dog owner stepped on board. I was grateful to see a dog, yet it made me miss Zelda immensely, almost to tears. I did get to pet a dog yesterday on a train! It was very heart warming! :-)

Finally we got to our airport after taking a bus. We waited for our fight for the hours, which isn't so bad knowing that we made it there with plenty of time. We got on our flight, which left promptly at 2:30.

There was a very loud bachelor party on the flight, as they announced a groom was getting married in Poland...the party got a little louder. The were speaking who knows what language. I thought I heard German, Kevin hard Swedish. Kevin said they are most likely immigrants to Sweden and learned rough Swedish. Anyways, we were still able to get about 15 minutes of sleep.

We landed in Poland around 4 pm and caught a bus to Warsaw. Warsaw has cool buildings, but we had no time to explore.

We got to the Warsaw central train station and realized very quickly that not very many people know English. Like NO ENGLISH! Let's just say our train ticket buying involved a lot of hand gestures, body motions, and pointing. You can imagine Kevin dancing as we talked to the ticket lady. Also, we went through the ticket line twice....waiting 20 minutes for tickets each time. Apparently they don't take cards in Poland. The first lady pointed vigorously at a sign at her ticket box that was in only polish. We figured it said no card because she was pointing and shaking her head no. Anyways, we got cash...because she was NOT taking our card even though they had a card machine sitting right there.

The second time around we got out train ticket...40 minutes later. Luckily we planned for this. We got dinner from McDonald's...something familiar and easy to order. The high school looking girl looked surprised and excited that we were speaking English to her. She obviously listened in school, because she spoke English back...very well! We were so happy to FINALLY have an English speaker.

We caught our train at 6:30 PM. It was a very long train with lots of unexpected stops. It lasted an hour over the time it was supposed to get to Krakow, but we made it here a little after 11 PM. We walked through the old town of Krakow for about 20 minutes to get to our hostel. We checked in to our place and found out that a pipe broke in our double bed room. We are sleeping on bunk beds tonight with no ac. BUT we made it safely and that's all that matters. Tomorrow I knock something off my bucket list and it will all be worth it!

I love my husband very much! He has been so positive and supportive this whole time, despite his newly blistered feet. I am a very lucky woman!!

Ta ta for now.

Stockholm Culture Differences

They say when you go to a new country you get culture shock. I wasn't shocked when I came to Stockholm, but I did notice things!

1) People often get around by train, bus, bike, or walk. It is not often that someone drives a car as that is very expensive here. However, there are tons of smokers!! Surprising, since they seem so healthy. You won't see very many overweight people around. Someone even joked when they found out that we were American. They said we were the exception because we are not large, haha!

2) Mostly everyone here is very connected to media. What I mean by this is a lot of people have phones, iPhones to be more specific, with earbuds coming out to their ears. Swedes keep to themselves most of the time, just listening to their music or whatever is coming from their phones.

3) There are tons of people rolling around suitcases! Not just at airports, but everywhere! What could so many people possibly be carrying? They can't be homeless because the Swedish government pays for everything.

4) The teenage/younger generation seems very rebellious! Punk clothes, short shorts, short clothing...smoking, strange piercings. Although it seems to grow out of them because the older generation is fine. There is also graffiti/tags EVERYWHERE! Even in the country area of Sweden. Why is this necessary?

5) Getting married is free in the churches. However, it is extremely rare to find a Swede that is married. They even have a term for when you are living with someone but not married, it is called sambo. In America there is at least a hint of disgust or sadness when you say you are living with someone and not married. Not here! So sad.

6) The rumors are true! Most people, or the norm, in Sweden are blonde hair with pale skin. If you see someone different, they are most likely immigrants. Or Swedes that have tanned WAY too much!

Top 10 Things to Visit in Stockholm

If you are planning on traveling to Stockholm, I suggest you have these things on your must see list. The top few are my personal favorite! :-) You won't regret doing anything on this list though.

1) Skansen on the island of Djurgorden
--This is a must see for animal lovers and those that want to learn some history about Sweden. In Skansen they have an amazing zoo of Swedish animals. Get there before noon, as they are very active in the morning and you get to see them feed the animals throughout the day. Feeding time is at 2...after that, the animals go to nap. There are also great views of the city as well as little Swedish towns here. At the bottom of the park, you will find Little Africa and the Aquarium. It costs a little more to go in, but standing outside of it and watching the Lemurs just as good. You will also find Viking rune markers around the park where Vikings wrote stories and remembered their dead.

2) Gamla Stan
--This is the island of the royals. There are beautiful buildings and cobblestone streets everywhere. The Storkyrkan cathedral there is where royal people were knighted, buried, and got/get married. You can see all the grave stones on the floor. Also in Gamla Stan is the old town square. There you will see a red building with 92 white stones, symbolizing the 92 Swedish nobility executed by the Danish king. This is known as the Stockholm blood bath. They say when it rains, you can still see red on the streets from the blood of those that were murdered. Here is also the royal palace that you can tour, and the parliament building. However, don't be fooled by the guards standing outside. They are guarding nothing as the royal family doesn't live there anymore. They moved to another palace outside of Stockholm.

3) Churches
--They are everywhere! Go inside them when you find them. They are beautiful! Most are free and open to the public for prayer, but we went in and explored and took pictures. Just don't turn the flash on! If you are religious, you should totally attend a mass! They are really special and don't take very long. Go to the Storkyrkan mass if you can!

4) Sodermalm Lookout Point
--The walk to it can be tough, as the path is very steep. The view of Stockholm is unbeatable though. Just do it! You will find many treasures on the way there as well, as Sodermalm has beautiful buildings.

5) Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet)
--This can be found as you enter the island of Djurgorden. It is a huge building and hard to miss! It costs 100 crowns to enter. We were actually not able to go into it as it was closed when we left Skansen. It houses Swedish cultural history, including a section on the Sami...native people in the north of Sweden.

6) Stadhuset
--We also didn't have time to go here, but it looks like a sweet building. This is where the Nobel Prize ceremony is held every year. You can go into the tower here for 100 crowns for a beautiful view of Stockholm. There is also a museum somewhere in Stockholm that showcases all the work of the Nobel Prize winners Google it and see where it is and comment below! Maybe we can find it :-)

7) Hotorget Market and Hotorgshallen
-- These are both markets where you can buy goods and food. The strawberries are delicious and a must! They are so sweet and juicy. Hotorgshallen is an underground international market. If you are looking to buy/try cuisine from all over the world, this is where to do it. We had fun just walking around and looking at everything. If the smell of fish makes you nauseous, don't go down there.

8) Drottingsgaten
--A cool street with restaurants, shops, and street performers. If you like to shop, go there! We also bought delicious gelato and Godis/candy on this road. If you walk long enough, you will find yourself in Gamla Stan :-)

9) Sergelstorg Shopping and Kulturhuset
--This is kind of like their city center. Kulturhuset has a very neat model of Stockholm as well as some interesting art galleries. The art galleries are free to enter if you are under 25 years of age. The art will definitely...spark some thoughts.

10) Bike/Kayak rental...boat tour if you have more money to spend
--This is just a different way to see the city. A lot of sightseers like this option as there were often lines.

One more for good measure...
11) Vasa ship
--this is now a museum, also on the island of Djurgorden. You can see the top of the ship from most places on the island. A few hundred years ago, king Vasa built this ship as a symbol of how powerful Sweden was. It was decked out with gold and expensive decorations, so much that it sank as soon as it left the harbor! It laid there until they had the technology to pull it back up, and turned it into a museum!

Go to Stockholm...Just do it! There are very few tourists and short lines...if any! You will not regret it. It does get cold in the winter, sometimes -20. We went in the summer and it was perfect!

I wish you safe travels...ta ta for now!

Skansen

This is the happiest place on earth...for animal lovers! Best day ever! I've been so excited about Skansen since Kevin told me they had a zoo, which was two days ago, but the weather has been rainy and today was the best day to go...I was not disappointed!! This is now my favorite place in Stockholm, followed closely by Gamla Stan!

We started the day with granola, then headed straight to Skansen! We got there around 11:30 AM, along with all the other tourists in Stockholm. We hadn't seen very many until today. Skansen is located on the island of Djurgorden, which is pretty much a huge park. On the island, along with Skansen, is a sweet Nordic Museum and Vasa ship...a decked out symbol of the Swedish empire with lots of gold, carvings, really ornate...that was so ornate that it sunk as soon as it left the harbor it was so heavy. Luckily it sunk down so far that the mud preserved it. Years later when technology was available, they pulled it out of the mud and water and put it in a museum. Sadly we didn't have time to see it, but maybe some day.

Back to Skansen, the first thing we went to was the zoo part! We saw many much moosen, reindeer, seals, otters, a lynx, bears, wolves, a wolverine...kind of, guinea pigs, cats, a Fox(by the way, they say nothing), owls, snakes, lemurs, prairie dogs, and peacocks. Pictures are below!

We went in the morning, so the animals were extremely active! We spent a good three hours at the zoo and got to watch them feed most of the animals! The seals have such an awesome personality, they kind of remind me of a dog, and were my favorite! Followed by the wolves, who were very active before feeding time. One wolf was even walking around with a huge bone until he decided to bury it.

After the zoo part, we walked around the old Swedish town part. They took old buildings from around Sweden and brought them to Skansen and made a town. We took fun pictures and even watched some glass blowing of a cup being made.

After all this, the park was closing and it was time to leave. Just a note, Skansen is not for those that don't get around well or have trouble walking, because you do this a lot here!

Next, we had a hot dog in the park and laid down with our shoes off and reviewed our pictures. It was nice to be off our feet.

We then walked for about 30 minutes back to Stockholm Central train station. On the way back we saw a Palestine protest. We continued on to the town we are staying in, where we got some dinner from the grocery store. It was "treat yo self" night! I bought a Magnum ice cream (chocolate really is better here), and Kevin got Mazariner (they are indescribable except that they are amazing).

Tomorrow we head to Poland. It will be a long day of travel, but nice to be off our feet.

Today budget:
Skansen= $40
Food= $18

Stockholm Day 2 Part 2

After visiting the church, Kevin and I went to Sergelstorg, it is a Swedish square near Drottningsgatan. Here we visited a very strange place called Kulturhuset. I felt a lot less innocent after I left this place and I will tell you why a little later!

The coolest thing in there is the model of the Stockholm area! It was very detailed and lit up different places that you could visit when you pressed buttons! Loved this! We got ideas of other places to see around Stockholm. Pictures below.

We continued up to the third floor and found an art gallery to visit. It was free to those under 25 years of age. This was where things got interesting. There were some cool paintings and such, but there was also pictures of male genitalia and a silver sculpture of a woman's feminine bits...umm yeah. There were also pictures of dead people...also speechless. A thought provoking picture was one of a woman holding Robert Downey Jr, similar to Michael Angelo's sculpture the Pieta, or some people might be familiar with it has mother Mary holding the crucified Christ. The picture was symbolizing people being more concerned and interested in celebrities instead of Christ. I liked it.

Out of everything though, I decided to take a picture with a random teepee in the exhibit. It seemed the most wholesome, maybe I'm wrong. We left the gallery and went to one more in the building. It was more strange art. We were about to leave when we had to take one more picture in a radio room with a radio set and trees. A very interesting building, glad to have seen, but won't be going back.

We continued our journey to Hotorget, an outdoor market, where we bought strawberries and Godis, candy. Both were spectacular!! The chocolate here is great! This cost us about $2 total. Sticking to the budget!

After that, we went back to Gamla Stan...found the old town square, saw an Iran protest outside the royal palace(why anyone would be mad at Sweden, I don't know...Maybe someone can look it up), went to the parliament building to relax outside, went inside Klarakyrkan church and then went to mass at the Storkyrkan.

Storkyrkan is a must see!! It is 40 krona to do a guided tour, but free to go to a church service. This church is where the kings are crowned, the royal princess got married, and has the most history. I have no pictures of the inside yet, as we were at a mass, but I'm hoping to take pictures tomorrow. Stay posted!

We ended our day by eating at McDonald's...we felt a little more at home...as it was budget friendly. AND got free chocolate milk at a vending machine that want working for a girl, but worked for us. She put money in but had to catch a train, and didn't have patience to work the machine. After she left we passed the digits for chocolate milk and out it came...along with 5 krona. We felt really bad for the girl, but happy to be a little richer and satisfied by the very tasty chocolate milk!

Good day...time for bed!

Ta ta for now!

Stockholm Day 2

What a long day! We left our room around noon, as I had a very hard time sleeping last night. I am still on Texas time...yet Kevin slept great :-) once we got going though, I felt fine.

We went to the grocery store first to stock up on some food. This is a MUCH cheaper route than eating out. We got bananas, cheese, granola, milk, and eight rolls of bread for about $10. We also had to pay for a bag to put our food in...kind of strange, but I'm getting used to the culture differences. We came back to our place next and unloaded and had some brunch.

After that, we headed out to what we called lookout point, or what Swedes might call the trail above Soder Malarstrand. It is on the island of Sodermalm. Other than Gamla Stan, this area has the second coolest buildings in Stockholm. If you plan to visit, you NEED to come here! When we got to the island, it was fun walking the narrow, very steep, cobblestone streets. The buildings are beautiful, and the places to take pictures are plenty.

On our nice walk to the lookout point...I encountered my first cat! It was glorious! Let's call her Missy (because that's what a sign had on it near where we found her). She peeked her head through a railing as she heard us approaching. She was a beautiful calico with a collar and a bell on. I know she is loved :-) she took a few pets and then decided she was done, so she walked off and so did we. It was great! I still haven't gotten to pet a dog yet.

We continued on our way to lookout point and eventually found it. It was a beautiful view of Stockholm. We took some pictures, walked the trial, and watched as the rain came towards us and past us over the water.

Next, I had to find the church with two towers that I knew was on the island because I saw it from the train. It was an extremely long walk, but we were not disappointed! This church was called Hogalidskyrkan! It was beautiful and a must see of churches in Stockholm. The entrance is free, so we walked around and took pictures. Like all churches we entered, it has a big organ in the back that was beautiful and lots of empty wooden pews. Unlike other churches, it has tunnel like arches in the side and cool side rooms with interesting drawings on the walls. See the pictures below!

As we exited, we explored the grounds outside and found a very cool cemetery...yet it's different than what you may be thinking! I believe it houses ashes of those that passed on. Here in Sweden, cemeteries are peaceful and happy places, unlike America! Which is interesting since people are a lot less religious in Sweden.

I will continue my day in another post since there are a lot of pictures. I wish I could put the pictures under each paragraph, but I'm blogging on a phone so that makes things s little difficult. Hopefully you enjoy this nonetheless!