Wroclaw - again

Wroclaw was the last stop on our trip around Poland.  We went to go visit Michal's mom and introduce my mom to a charming & enchanting little city.  Unfortunately,  they were setting up the FAN ZONE for the Euro Cup and she didn't really get to "experience" the magic and the heart and soul of this city.

The first place we visited was Wroclaw University.  They have this tower that you can climb and look out over the city.  It's magnificent.  I loved it.

We wandered the city and made sure to try to check out all the sites downtown.  But they were all plastered with Euro Cup logos... and port-a-potties... and large soccer balls.

This soccer stadium was meant to look like a "chinese lantern".  They light it up with the teams' flags and colors when different teams are playing.

 We ate at a lot of really amazing places - including this old Water-tower turned into a restaurant.  Best food in Wroclaw.  It's a MUST if you go there! And definitely worth the price!

And, of course, we couldn't have let Mom miss out on Spaghetti Ice Cream.

 I've always wanted to find this to photoshop my name with Michal's - but Michal is not a very common name in America.  However, I found one!  But didn't think that photoshop was necessary.

Wroclaw has lots of interesting monuments and things in their city that you would never think of... Michal calls the statue above, "Ticket to Heaven."

We also showed Mom the SHARKS at the mall.  Last time we were in this mall (2 years ago) there were two sharks (seen on the right).  Now there is only one housed in this mall.  

This is Wroclaw's Brand New Train Station.  It's a beauty.  It was done right in time for the Euro Cup.  I love the vivid colors and how it looks Medieval-esque.  Michal is so proud of this train station and says it's a close second (maybe even first) to his favorite train station: Berlin.

Wroclaw was fun, we didn't get to do as much exploring as in Krakow - but we got to see a lot of fun things and eat a lot of yummy food.  My mom loved going to the Wroclaw Branch and seeing how welcoming and loving all the members were there.  This is truly an incredible area, but mostly because it hasn't been taken over by tourists yet.

Auchwitz & Wieliczka

While we were in Krakow, Mom & I decided to take two different 'day trips' to Auchwitz & Wieliczka.  Both are great, both for very - VERY - different reasons.

AUCHWITZ

We went to Auchwitz first.  It was a much longer, sobering experience.  However we had an amazing tour guide!

 

When we got to Auchwitz-Birkenau it took a lot longer to walk from place to place so I caught up with the tour guide (Michal) and asked him some questions.  I asked him if it was hard working at Auchwitz everyday and if he ever got depressed or tired of it.  He opened right up to me and told me that he loved history and that the reason that he didn't mind coming every day was because his grandfather was sent to Auchwitz.  He said that his grandfather was sick one day and didn't show up to work and the Nazis came to his home to see why he didn't show up for work.  Apparently "being sick" wasn't an acceptable reason for not showing up to work - so they took him to Auchwitz.  He was there for 2 weeks and then transferred to another forced labor camp somewhere outside of Poland & Germany.  He returned home a few years later.  But our tour guide said that he wants to teach people about Auchwitz being a very real thing and not just one of those new "conspiracy theories" that few people think the Halocaust never happened.  I really appreciated his honesty and his personal story.  It made it that much more interesting for me.

This cattle car was an actual car used to transport Jews from Hungary.  It was erected here a few years ago in commemoration of those Hungarians who died here.

This is all that remains of the crematoriums.  They were blown to the ground upon the war ending and Nazis trying to cover their tracks.

 This is only 1/4 of a barrack where thousands of people lived.

 Okay this deserves a story.  This guy from England was super cute and chatted with us during the whole tour.  He walked so much and was such a trouper.  He has had both hips replaced and it has always been his dream to see Krakow.  He was super kind and gave us a ride back to Krakow so we didn't have to wait for a bus for forever.

 WIELICZKA

So, Wieliczka is this giant Salt Mine about 20 minutes away from the city center in Krakow.  It has been around for thousands of years - and it's kinda random that SALT is mined in the middle of nowhere.  

 Throughout the last hundreds of years, as an area of the mine is depleted of its salt - the miners make tribute to the area by creating statues - COMPLETELY made out of salt.  They tell stories of the area and of the history of the mine.

In these two pictures you can see the salt crystallizing on the ceiling of the various mine shafts.

Here's an interesting fact:  they used to bring horses down into the mine to help with the mining process.  Once a horse was brought down it stayed down there the remainder of its life.  Also I learned that as the salt left the mine, they replaced the area with wood.  This helped to prevent collapsing from happening.

On the left are some stairs that miners used to use to descend into the depths of the mine.  Such a work hazard.  Also, the mine contains a lot of water - which is a hazard that can cause collapsing.  Therefore they take precautions to make sure that it is pumped out efficiently.

St. Kinga's Chapel

The largest shaft is St. Kinga's Chapel.  Full of different relief carvings and salt statues (including SALT chandeliers).  The miners created this sanctuary because it was where many worshipped as they spent the majority of their day in the mine and it was the only time they had to break away and pray.

And this relief is over 15 inches deep.  Can you believe the amount of time and patience it took to create this (and preserve it).

The salt mine was interesting.  But a disappointment too.  We only got to see 1% of the mine, and during the tour I found out that they don't send miners down anymore - in fact - mining is done strictly through machinery and water extraction.  Blah.  I also felt like they really ripped off tourists.  It costed about $20 to see this mine + an extra $3 if you wanted to take pictures in the mine.  Such a rip off.  And the whole tour was only like 2 hours.  But, how many "shafts" can you really see before they all start looking the same?  The highlight of the mines was when we were done and waiting for an elevator to take us back up (we were 135m underground) - I met a group of Polish elementary kids who spoke NO english - and it was so fun for me to try to communicate with them.  They taught me Polish words and I taught them English words.  It was the best part of the whole tour.

My overall opinion - I'm glad I went.  Loved seeing both sites... but wouldn't particularly care to go again (due to the sadness of one, and the cost of the other).  But a fun little day trip and I love exploring and getting to know Poland just a little bit better.