Week 20, Poland and Czech Republic: Disappointment, Donuts and a Drippy Nose

The experiences
It was an especially long trip from Vienna to Krakow but I was very pleasantly surprised upon arriving in Katowitz for my transfer. I don't know what I expected from Poland, but this wasn't it. A completely modern and beautiful train station with cute shops and restaurants including the obligatory McDonald's. When I finally made it to Krakow it was dark and I took a few wrong turns but enjoyed the scenery in the old city which was rather small. When I checked in I immediately signed up to go to Auschwitz the next day at 8am. I didn't want to give myself any reason to sleep in.

Welcome to Krakow. Minions have taken over Europe.

When I arrived at the tour meeting point I discovered a much larger group than I'm used to (37 English speaking, and at least 10 Spanish). I started talking with a British woman and her boyfriend. She said she'd already been to Auschwitz but that she was here with her boyfriend and it's just something you "have" to do.

Some American or Canadian girls arrived late and made us more late by running to get breakfast at a shop a few blocks down while we waited. Come to find out they had a very active night out the day before. Krakow, like many of the formerly "eastern European" cities has a party reputation. Young people show up just for cheap alcohol and to stay up all hours of the night doing crazy things. I don't mind much, had it not been for the group of American/Canadian guys coming in at 6am in the dorm room I was in, I might not have made it up and to the tour in time. But what I found later in the day is that I was angered by these girls and a few others in the group. They reeked of hangover. What possesses people to get very drunk and not wash before going in to the world's largest cemetery? It's beyond my comprehension.

Yes, there were even people taking selfies in front of "Arbeit Macht Frei"

I found things like this and the normal tourist habit of walking two steps and stopping without paying attention to those around them or say the 50 people behind them that also want to go in that room, infuriating. Normally I'm able to at least tolerate it or only let it bother me for a short while but this was a day-long kind of anger--likely displaced based on what I was seeing in the two camps we visited in Auschwitz. I was indignant. How could these people be so self involved at such a place. If ever you were to practice consideration for others or even awareness of others this would be the place to start. And every time I got a wiff of one of the youngens who decided to party until just before such an experience, I started to fume. It took a very large (and delicious) beer later in the afternoon to calm me down.

The enormity of Birkenau is dumbfounding. I couldn't take a picture right to show the scale, how many chimneys there were and then the open air burning of bodies.

What you see at former work and extermination camps is beyond writing, beyond comprehending. I always use my German heritage as explanation for my efficiency and ability to get things done. Seeing first hand how that can be used for evil is the most disgusting, unfeeling, incomprehensible, again words don't really work. But what I have to say here is that you don't "have to go" to a concentration camp. You should only go if you are fully prepared to treat the situation and your fellow man with the reverence they deserve. Hopefully they all got something out of it. I got a heaping pile of anger towards humanity. Later I was talking with my new friend Canadian Courtney and she mentioned how someone on one of her tours in Prague asked in all seriousness "who's Hitler." Words again fail.

Six across

Three layers

I spent that evening trying to recover and relax, catching up on correspondence and general business then went out for late night Pierogies at a 24 hour place around the corner. The following day was my last one in Poland so I tried to get in touch with my roots--of which I know very little. I'm mostly German by heritage but my next highest percentage belongs to the Poles. I enjoyed some of the town squares, wandered the markets to see traditional clothing, the heaps of amber they produce and well, the donuts or Paczki. They do know how to make a doughnut, how to smile in the face of adversity and rise up…these are definitely my people.

I saw a few very beautiful churches and walked the castle grounds before getting thoroughly creeped out by the same older guy who'd been drunkenly bothering me in other areas of town the previous day. He must do this all the time because I caught him talking with the police on my late night walk to the castle the night before. So I grabbed my bag and headed for the train. I took an overnight train to Prague where I ran into the same Canadian guys from my dorm in Vienna. I'd also run into them at the mall in Krakow (attached to the train station). We had our friendly chats and settled in to try to sleep. It's fun when you end up on the same path as others since you are mostly meeting strangers day in and out. Most uncomfortable sleep of my train journeys so far. My back aches. Next time I will insist on the first class berth my Eurail pass gets me.

One of Mucha's windows at the Franciscan Church

Altar piece at St. Mary's 

Anyway I arrived in Prague with no issues and settled in at a Starbucks with my first honest to God American iced coffee. As I got more and more done via the wonderment that is free and fast internet at Starbucks, I overheard a pair of business school students (Human Resources from my eavesdropping) talking about the US. They were laughing at the absurdity that fast food workers in the US were asking for a higher wage. They translated the hourly rate (minimum wage) into Czech Crowns and exclaimed it ridiculous that anyone making that much would ask for more money. At this point I interrupted them as rudely as any American can. "As an American I can tell you there is no way to survive in America on that wage in that job." For a multitude of reasons I'm sure you all agree with me. Even as a single person, in America reliable transportation means having your own transport and affordable housing is not everywhere let alone reliably close to work. For so many reasons including the biggie--healthcare--it just isn't feasible for one job paying minimum wage to accommodate a single person, let alone one with dependents.

I don't think they liked my interjection but I was fuming. You can criticize the US for so many things, but when it  comes to the common every day working Joe/Josephine you don't get to judge them unchecked. The phrase we were raised on is "walk a mile in their shoes" and maybe some people forget that lesson or other countries don't think we'r qualify for that adage when it comes to judging but I am still livid if you can't tell. How presumptuous. I know from going to the Czech Republic now and talking with people who live and work there that, yes, minimum wage in the US would be a solid income and you could live a great life there with that kind of money. But we live in different countries under different governments and costs are different.

I spent that evening wandering about a bit and had my first talk with one of those infamous head hunters in the healthcare IT world. I was very surprised by the opportunity proposed to me but we'll see how that pans out. It definitely was a means to thinking about my future and what I want not just professionally but personally so overall I'm thankful for that carrot being dangled.

Scenery for contemplating...

As it turns out Canadian Courtney was also in Prague so we met up for a rambling day of seeing some of the hidden gems of the city. We started with some very big lunch of potatoes and fish (not kidding we both ordered different things and this is what it really came down to. Then we wandered to a bar that just serves Absinthe in its many forms. We'd never tried it but wanted the authentic experience so we pointed to the menu that showed the shot of absinthe with the flaming sugar cube over it. The bartender looked at us funny and when it was on fire (an impressive blaze) Courtney said "that's going in our bodies" and of course after we took a sip the two older women next to us laughed at our faces, showing us that they split a shot. If I were to go again, I'd sit there all day to watch tourists try it. But it seemed we were the only ones--everyone else seemed to have acquired a taste for it. We met a woman who is Polish by birth but currently lives in San Diego. She was very cool and finished her's in no time at all. She also ordered it with water over the sugar cube instead of flame so it made a cloudy white emulsion instead of our gasoline colored and flavored mix. Neither Courtney or I finished our shot but I tried so hard, and believe me it was hard. The bartender freaked a bit when I asked if I should down the whole thing or sip it. Courtney and I agreed throughout the process that various things on our bodies went numb, we didn't feel drunk just couldn't feel my lips, and for the rest of the day something was just off.

Courtney was very smiley before the taste sank in...

We spotted the John Lennon wall where Czechs shared their feelings after his assassination and continue today to leave messages of peace for the world. Even in the communist days they would sneak to write on the wall just as the government would paint over the wall again and again. We visited a very ornate church and then journeyed to the other side of town completely. We wandered about to a walled in area which I would say is the park locals go to. There's a great cemetery there where many famous Czechs are buried and a beautiful church that was closed but also just a lot of great green area to wander. And needless to say there were great views all over the place.

John Lennon wall

St Nicholas' Church, so much marble

View from the other side of town

Alphonse Mucha's buried here.

Something I found made Prague difficult to enjoy is Hitler's plan for this beautiful untouched city. No one bombed it out, it remains as beautiful as it did in the generations of old. Why? Hitler intended to rule his empire from Prague's castle, constructing museums to his greatness and the former Jewish race, he even started sending some of the precious artworks and relics from the Jewish people he was exterminating here. No matter how I looked at the city, it was hard to see anything else. And the Czech people are very conscious of their history and how much they were pushed around which really makes for a rather pessimistic group of people.

I got pretty sick after that day with Courtney. The cold rainy weather and me going from wearing a jacket to not got the better of me and I had all the wonderful symptoms of a head cold. So I settled in with a box of kleenex and a quart of OJ. I used some EmergenC to make an outing the next day to see the Municipal House which is a fabulous concert hall complete with restaurants and art exhibits . I booked the tour and a trip to the Art Nouveau exhibit. I managed the hour and  a half it all took pretty well, but was still miserable. Our tour guide was probably the most upbeat Czech person I met the whole time I was there--it's nice when people like their job and enjoy sharing information. I had to see this if nothing else--during my first trip to Europe Anna made a whole tour of Art Nouveau buildings to see.

This building is gorgeous

I took this Mucha piece as an omen. Get a job Melissa.

After, I headed to the hostel, showered, rather sat under the hot water for a half hour, and headed to a nearby hotel with a great spa for a set of treatments. I should have cancelled but I'd already put a deposit down that I wasn't going to get back so I went for it. Runny nose and all I sat on a massage table for 3.5 hours trying to relax and instead was paranoid about my running nose. I spent all of the next day in bed and the following morning I took an early train into Leipzig.

So, all in all I didn't do much in Prague, I didn't see the castle or get a picture of the Charles Bridge at sunrise like I'd intended. The cold lasted longer than expected/desired and my attitude stank.

The lessons

• When we think of liberating concentration camps we were taught it without much detail. The Germans evacuated each camp as the allies got closer, leaving behind those too sick to walk to the next camp. Liberation meant we got to save a few while the rest had such severe health damage they were beyond recovery.
• Stop the madness of going to these countries to party and drink insane amounts of alcohol. This brand of tourism is so strange to me and seems fairly disrespectful.

Interesting

•  I did manage to see another Frank Gehry building--last one I saw was in Auckland, New Zealand. This one is called the Dancing Building. Supposedly the curved shape is Ginger Rogers and the other section is Fred Astaire. 

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• On our rambling day out, Courtney and enjoyed two colored beer. Yes, as Davin once proved to me in the break room at Epic, like an Arnold Palmer the two different colors of beer do not mix. It's a beautiful picture but not my favorite by any means.