Last Thursday Marko and Iida (my finnish friends) rented an Opel Corsa. Google it and see what you think. Thursday around 4pm we left Pécs with Jay, Marko, Iida, Margareta, and I in the car. Marko started out driving with Margareta as his navigator. I was to be Iida's navigator whenever she was driving. First stop on our journey was in Budapest to drop off Jay who would be taking a bus to Prague because she did not want to see Auschwitz. We basically threw her out of the car because we couldn't find a proper place to stop in Budapest so we pulled over and she jumped out with her duffel bag. And then the rest of us were on our way to Poland. We first drove through Slovakia. Small trip through but already the roads were getting worse and then came Poland. lol lol I've never seen so many of those reflective traffic marker cone type things. They didn't really help point out a way because there were so many of them. But we did eventually make it to Krakow. It was freezing by this point. Literally. We arrived in Krakow around 3am and decided to find food and an ATM. Found ATM but of course there was no food open at that hour so we headed to Auschwitz. Iida and I drove while Marko and Margareta slept in the back. We made it to Auschwitz around 4:30 am so we decided to sleep some in front. So we parked in front of Birkenau and slept a few hours. How creepy it was to wake up and look back to see this huge structure where you know so many people walked through and died! We drove to a gas station for some breakfast and to brush our teeth and then headed to Auschwitz. So incredibly sad. So many of the buildings hold remnants of people's lives. For instance, all the shoes that were collected are in one huge room or the hair that was shaved off of people's heads. It was so intense to see. And then we drove to Birkenau which was even more depressing for me. The sheer size of Birkenau. It took sooo long to walk around. There weren't many buildings still standing like at Auschwitz but you could see the remnants of so many and read about the atrocities that happened there. We also walked through the area where they first came in and had their heads shaved and new clothes given and showers and then many of them went on to the gas chambers. They had so many pictures and stories of people that were at Birkenau. Many of them didn't make it out alive. They had an entire wall filled with pictures of orphans. And all I could think about was how all of those children could have been something in this world but they weren't even given the chance.
After spending the day there we finally headed back to Krakow where we were staying with this guy for the night. He was very nice and Marko, Margareta, and I shared one fold out couch and Iida slept on this tiny bed lol Marko, Margareta, and I ended up sharing a bed most nights on this trip. I always ended up in the middle *sighs* At least that meant that I didn't fall off the bed ever.
One phrase that will stick with me is "Arbeit macht Frei" which is at the entrance of Auschwitz. Work makes one free...
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