December 30th – January 2nd – Krakow
We arrived in Krakow after midnight on the 29th so we arrived on the 30th. Still not feeling 100% and we are in Krakow now at 1am. We are sitting in the bus that was supposed to leave at 1245am but still hasn’t moved. It doesn’t leave the airport until 145am! We get to the hostel around 3am. By the time we convince the hostel guy to let us stay a night earlier than we booked because of the time we arrived and get to our beds its 330am. Just about when I was falling asleep because I am exhausted two guys come home, get into bed, and start snoring…in harmony! Oh man it was awful. I put in my ipod but that didn’t drown out the noise then I put in my ear plugs but that still didn’t work. Finally, I put in both my ear plugs and my ipod and turned it up really loud. I probably didn’t fall asleep until 6am and Hailey woke us up at 9am! I was happy about that because I didn’t want to miss anytime in Poland but still I was exhausted!
That day we went to see the salt mines. There is a giant (I can’t even tell you how big) chunk of salt under Krakow. Let’s put it this way…there is a church carved out of part of it! Salt was a big money maker for Poland back in the day. It is where the word salary comes from because of the Polish word for salt. The miners lived down there and so I guess when they were bored they carved things out to pass the time. You can even lick the walls! Salt keeps everything preserved so it doesn’t disappear or anything. That was a cool experience.
That night we went for Mexican food and I had a margarita. Now I haven’t had tequila since that awful night in Barcelona but I couldn’t very well have Mexican food without a margarita. We had tons of hot sauce on our food as well since we can’t get that in Ukraine. The dinner was good and we walked around a bit before heading to the hostel. I am beat and just can’t do much tonight if I plan on doing anything for New Year’s Eve. Also, there are tons of Peace Corps volunteers coming in tomorrow so I want to get some shut eye and I am traveling to Auschwitz.
The next day I feel like shit. I don’t know what I ate or drank but my stomach is in knots. I don’t eat anything that morning and when I go to Auschwitz I am preoccupied with the possibility of fainting. I try to take in the experience anyway which I am glad that I traveled to see this place. I didn’t take a lot of pictures out of respect. I just don’t see any reason to have pictures of everything in the museum. It was quite eerie being there knowing that 70 years ago people were being murdered by the thousands at a time. I can’t even explain the feeling of seeing this whether it is amazing or not. I don’t know what words to use to describe it but it is definitely something you should see if you have any passion or respect for what happened. I am glad I went.
That night we had a party in our hostel for NYE. We partied there and I tried to drink as my stomach was still upset. Just before midnight we all headed to the square for the countdown and the fireworks. We had a great time. There were lots of people in the square drinking and having a good time. After the New Year came we all got lost from each other and continued our night by bar hopping. Finally a few hours later we headed back to the hostel where the party was still happening. Somewhere around 3am I went to sleep. Happy New Year!
The next day was a day of recovery. I was in bed until almost 11am and still feeling queasy. Did nothing this day and left for Kiev the next day. The end of the color coded itinerary tour. Until next time – May 2012 the Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Italy tour! Then THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
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