Breakfast in Poland, lunch in Slovakia, dinner in Hungary - on the road again

I love the long driving days on this trip. We get to rest our feet, nap when we feel like it, listen to our guide Katka, and reflect on all we've seen.

We take a lot of backroads, so we get to see villages, ski resorts, and wide expanses of beautiful terrain uninterrupted by billboards, traffic or even other roads. There is an advantage to passing through countries whose tourist industries have not yet been fully developed.

Here's some of what we learned from Katka, who was born in 1975 in Prague, during the time of Communism.

• Communist society could feel safe. Everyone had enough to eat, jobs, and were taken care of when sick and old. But it could also be scary. You never knew who was listening to your private conversations and whether that person would report you to the authorities. You were not free to cross the borders. If you did, and then tried to return, you could be arrested and put in prison.
• If you saw a line, you stood at the end of it. When you got to the front of the line was the first time you knew what you would be able to buy there. And you would buy it.
• The Velvet Revolution of 1989 was part of the breakup of the USSR. It started in Prague with a peaceful demonstration by students, and within six weeks the country was independent, with no violence and no tanks.
• Czechoslovakia was a single country until 2003, when it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This was actually done without a vote and it was peaceful.
• Many families live in three-story houses, with three generations, each on a separate floor. Katka grew up in the same house as her grandparents. Now, her brother and his family live in that house and Katka and her husband and children have a separate house. 
• Houses are built piece by piece as the components (e.g. windows) are available to purchase. It can take years. That may be one reason why, when people work in a town and then lose their jobs, they may not be willing to move to a place to find another job. They are attached to their homes.

Last night our group feasted on a typical Hungarian dinner: goulash (soup), pasta and beef (like stroganoff), stuffed cabbage, pickled cucumber slices, peppers, goose liver with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce (the goose liver also called foie gras, was much better than what we had in Paris some years ago, where it was quite salty), and crepes and apple strudel for dessert.

Here in Eastern Europe, we are eating like royalty.

Salt mines and Schindler's Factory - last day in Krakow

Fourteen members of our tour group visited the salt mines at Wieliczka. The place had been recommended by a friend of mine. Wikipedia has a good description, so I give the site credit for these words:

The Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka), located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland, lies within the Kraków metropolitan area. The mine, built in the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest salt mines still in operation.   

The mine's attractions include dozens of statues and four chapels that have been carved out of the rock salt by the miners. The oldest sculptures are augmented by the new carvings by contemporary artists. About 1.2 million people visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine annually.^[1]

The Wieliczka salt mine reaches a depth of 327 metres (1,073 ft) and is over 287 kilometres (178 mi) long. The rock salt is naturally grey in various shades, resembling unpolished granite rather than the white or crystalline look that many visitors may expect. During World War II, the shafts were used by the occupying Germans as an ad-hoc facility for various war-related industries. The mine features an underground lake; and the new exhibits on the history of salt mining, as well as a 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) touring route (less than 2% of the length of the mine's passages).

We descended 350 steps into the mine. Everything is well lit and structurally well supported, so I felt safe.

Descending the stairs was easy but the next day my quads and calves were very sore.

In the afternoon our group took a tour of the Schindler Factory. The movie "Schindler's List" memorialized the story of Oskar Schindler, who hired 1,200 Jews to work in his Krakow factory and protected them. The factory was converted to a museum several years ago, and it's a powerful representation of the history of Krakow before and during the war. Many images, touch screens, sounds, creaky floors, voices. It was kind of an immersion experience; I felt like I was there, at that time and in that place. An absolute must-see in Krakow. 

At historyplace.com, I found additional information:

In 1939, Oskar Schindler set up a business in an old enamel works factory in Poland, employing Jews from the Krakow Ghetto as cheap labor. As the Nazis intensified persecution of the Jews, Schindler increasingly feared for the safety of his workers. He managed to convince the Nazis his factory and thus his Jews were vital to the German war effort and prevented their deportation to the death camps of the East. Following the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto in March of 1943, his workers were relocated to Plaszow concentration camp, a forced labor center under the brutal command of Kommandant Amon Goeth. Schindler helped his workers to survive their confinement at Plaszow by befriending and bribing Goeth. Toward the end of 1944, Goeth was ordered to liquidate Plaszow. Schindler saved nearly 1200 Jews from certain death by convincing Goeth to allow him to relocate them to Brunnlitz, Schindler's hometown, where they were eventually liberated by the Soviets. Following the war, Schindler stayed in contact with the Jews and travelled each year to Israel to be honored by them.

As usual, I was through the museum in about an hour; Art emerged two hours after me. Neither of us took any photos inside the museum; its layout of vertical screens and labyrinth of walks made picture taking impossible.

On our way back to the hotel we stepped into a sidewalk restaurant, where I had one of the finest meals of my life: chicken breast in a bed of green lentils, pureed carrots and cauliflower. Delicious!

So far, so good. Knock on wood.

We've been in Eastern Europe for a week now and so far Art and I are both healthy. Several of our travel companions have been afflicted with travelers' ailments. I am drinking bottled water here in Krakow - though not anywhere else, so far. We're eating foods we've never experienced before - all of them quite good - and our energy levels remain good. So far!

Yesterday our group took a walking tour of Krakow. I stayed in our hotel room, resting my feet and catching up on emails and writing a blog post and reading a description of what the group was seeing. I find every five days or so I need a morning or afternoon off - not only not touring, but alone. Works for me. The rest of the day we wandered.

 The view from our room

Just around the corner

Mr.Photogenic

Clip clop

The Main Square at night

Auschwitz and Birkenau

I was looking forward to visiting these two camps in Poland and I'm glad I went. Both have been established as memorials to the millions of Jews and others who were killed by the Nazis in World War II. Walking through the narrow corridors of Auschwitz and seeing the grim reminders of the dead were memorable.

We heard about the overloaded trains arriving at Birkenau. The healthy men were selected to live a little longer than the women, children and old men who walked immediately to the gas chambers they were led to believe were showers after their long and crowded journey from all over Europe. We stood in the very spot at Birkenau where the selection process took place. We walked through the gas chamber and the crematorium.

My husband Art took these photos at Auschwitz. Those Jews killed thought they were simply being relocated when they got on the trains. They brought their most essential items from home. When the camp was liberated at the end of the war, the soldiers found the items.

Eyeglasses

Shoes of children

Clothing

Medical devices

Household goods

Luggage

One of my distant relatives?

Shoes of adults

Personal sundries

The "black wall". Prisoners considered enemies faced this wall and were shot in the head. The smaller wall was erected so the brick wall behind it would not be damaged by bullet holes. The shooting was done by SS officers and the bodies were removed by Jewish prisoners.

Auschwitz had been a military barracks prior to being a camp for prisoners. Birkenau, however, was built specifically as a death camp as the number of prisoners exceeded the capacity of Auschwitz.

Birkenau layout

Memorial plaque

The long walk to the crematorium, alongside prisoners' housing

 Remnants of housing

Sleeping structures for female prisoners -four to a pallet

I have some thoughts.

• The number of people killed - Jews and otherwise - was enormous. But human beings have done terrible things to each other throughout history; the massacres during the Holocaust are not unique. I especially remember My Lai, in Vietnam. Art and I visited there in 2005. The number of people massacred by American soldiers is much smaller, but the memorial there is powerful and unforgettable. Here are three photos of that place.

• The memorials at both Auschwitz and Birkenau are clean. Was that the case when they were full of death?

• Visitors to the camps yesterday toured in groups of about 30. Everyone wore a headset to listen to their guide. So the memorials were quiet places except for the voices of the guides. Were they quiet when they were full of prisoners and the dying?

• Art took many photos, but none of the gas chamber and crematorium ovens. I wanted to ask why but I didn't.

• The prisoners arrived at Auschwitz and Birkenau by railroad car. People undoubtedly knew what was going on. How many said anything? If I know of a wrong that's happening and I don't say anything - out of fear or disinterest - am I participating in some way?

• As we were walking to the bus, we were surrounded by teenagers wearing white shirts. They were visiting from Israel. One of our travel companions, Tom, commented that they are an "f*** you" to the Nazis - two generations later, the Jews survive.

On the road to Pustevny - a history lesson

Our group traveled by bus today from Prague (largest city in the Czech Republic) to Pustevny (tiny place on the top of a mountain). It was 92 degrees yesterday in Prague. Today it is 52 and foggy in Pustevny. I love it! Most of the drive was through country that looks a lot like where we live, in the Pacific Northwest.

During the time of communism in Czechoslovakia there was a baby boom. To accommodate the growing population apartments were built. They were gray. Once communism was no longer the system, many of the buildings were painted.

During our drive, Katarina talked about the history of this area. It's over a thousand years of conquerors, brief periods of independence, then more invasions. The Nazis took over before World War II, and after the war Communism was put in place. It finally ended in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution. Katarina's parents are about my age; they were involved in the protests of the 1960s that culminated in the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw nations in 1968. I remember the events since the 60s only vaguely. You know, the "behind the Iron Curtain" stuff. 

Some of our group took a walk from our hotel. These are Art's shots:

During dinner we were entertained by a troupe of Czech musicians and dancers.

And here's our room for the night. Mind your head, Art!