staying at the hotel Kazimerz for the second night
Wawel Castle, no photos, lame
timed entry - when we turned up at 10:30am the royal apartments weren’t available until 2pm :(
no photos, anywhere but outside - this would have been Ok if they had any decent catalogues or books
we did the State Rooms (pretty, but no photos allowed and shitty little cards with literally the worst layout so it was hard to work out what you were looking at.
there’s some cool heads on the ceiling of the deputies room https://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/index.php?op=109
can’t remember much else
athena frieze on the ceiling,
the senator’s room with its soft furnishings was nice and quiet and cool
they have a nice collection of pole weapons, swords, crossbows and guns - and an inch-thick book on pole weapons - with no mention of any documentation around the guns.
did I mention guns? oh, they have a FUCKING BASEMENT FULL OF CANNONS AND MORTARS
there’s zero documentation for anything but the cannons. they had things like “15-17th century, France, Italy, Austria, Germany” around a stack of swords. WHICH ONES, FUCKFACES
trying to get back, the 2018 PZU Cracovia Maraton was in the way. We found a low spot in the traffic and ran across.
polish highways
toll booths, lol
holy shit the speed. doing 145km/h and had a vw van jammed up my arse like it was trying to hug me
Auschwitz I
we got there late, having gone to Auschwitz II-Birkenau without realising it, then having to play catch up.
Tour with Marta Berecka - clearly a gifted historian and deeply knowledgeable about the history of the place.
… since 2007 employee of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Initially, she was in the Program Section team. From 2013-2017 she was the head of Educational Projects of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Since January 2018 she has joined the Diplomacy of Remembrance. Marta is a coordinator of numerous international, educational projects for educators and teachers, as well as other groups. She is an author or co-author of educational programs for university and school students organized in Auschwitz Memorial. In addition, she is a Co-editor of the ICEAH publications. Her main area of interest is the methodology of teaching about the Holocaust.
She has a very very thoughtful way of explaining things, and communicated the stories through people’s tales
you can see the maps, but you can’t understand the scale of the place
- the gate
the hair
the shoes the brushes
zyklon b
block 11 where they were sentenced to death the place of the experiements
100m away from his house to the original extermination/furnaces
place where Rudolf Höss was hanged
the chambers
Auschwitz II–Birkenau, 3.5 km away
the arrival rail ramp
the end
the memorial
the barracks
the destroyed gas chambers
then the barracks
story of Kazimierz Piechowski who escaped while dressed up as SS (with three others) - and got away with it, to join the Polish resistance. He was denounced to the communist authorities for being a member of the Home Army and sentenced to 10 years in prison
home again
dinner at Once upon a time in Kazimierz (TripAdvisor)
amazing food, amazing staff, live jewish music
borscht with meat dumplings
“jewish caviar” - chopped chicken livers with eggs and truffle aroma pirogi - beef and thyme half boiled half fried
Fillet of trout with vegetables in orange-butter sauce for RMB, “Jerusalem mix” - chicken breast, liver, hearts in oriental spices and onion. Freaking amazing flavours and just lovely
apple cider - delicious and not too sweet wheat beer - lovely and not yeasty shite at all mead - dwojniak - “middle sweetness and alcohol” - rich and sweet and warm and alcoholic
