We figured out a bus to Aushwitz though it was a little difficult in figuring it out. Some Swedish girls were insisting it was on one platform but we made a quick decision and got a seat on a mini-bus (a lot of people were left standing).
Aushwitz was very moving as expected. I still remember Dachau, but when they took us to the expanded Birkenau site, there were about a 100 houses, each holding at least 2 or 3 hundred prisoners. We also went through the crematorium, you could see the fingernail scratches in the concrete.
We went back to Krakow and our mood lifted when we went out for dinner. We had the local favourite, Kebobs, which was a type of pita filled with hand carved meat and spicy vegetable fixins'. It was so good we had it two nights in a row.
Next morning we hopped on the the train to Trenčin, a small college town which has one of the most important and spectacular castles in European history. The castle was at a crossroads to many important trade routes. In the base of the cliff on which it is built is etched some Roman phrase and it is dated at 205 AD. It is a commemoration of some battle that occurred where 800 soldiers triumphed.
We walked around the castle (which was built in the 1200s) and found it was very non-touristy (give it a couple of years), saw some very old weapon relics and an awesome view of the surrounding countryside. That evening we took in dinner and drinks and saw sunset over a big church on the cliffside.
Today we are off to Bratislava, then on to Budapest,
Mark.
No comments:
Post a Comment