Day 2: Cracow + Auschwitz

First and only morning in Cracow started pretty early with breakfast at the hotel. Then, I had one more hour to go see a few things I had missed the other day (like the Main Square! I'm still not sure how I managed to miss it the other day, maybe because we were so hurried). 

I took the map and firstly went to visit the synagogues from the Jewish district. I found myself in a quite suspicious and "deserted"area. Only a few people were on the streets and it was a pretty clouded and gloomy morning so I decided it was best to go to the Main Square. When I got there my hour had almost passed and my phone was not working anymore. I tried to call my father from a hotel to announce him I would be late but there was no signal so, to avoid any possible problems that might have arisen from this, I had to take a taxi to get back on time. It was quite fun to choose a taxi driver that might know some English only by looking at their faces :)) And I was lucky. ;)

At noon we set out for Auschwitz, which was our main point of interest from the very beginning of our trip. We visited only Auschwitz I - Birkenau ('cause we missed the other one, shame on us). It's the biggest concentration camp ever and it feels pretty terrifying to see it and walk around it. Some of the still standing barracks were open for visitors and you could see in what terrible conditions had the prisoners lived (if you can call that a living). Man, women, children, they were all brought there with goods trains and sorted out on the platform in two categories: uncapable of work - those were sent dirrectly to the crematoria - and capable of work - those were the ones that had their death "postponed". The only way to get out of that place was through the crematoria's chimney.. . At the entrance of Auschwitz II is ironically stated "Arbeit Macht Frei" as in "work makes you free". I guess that "free" was the Nazists' metaphor for "death". 

I've read the guide and learnt a lot about all that happened there, the cruelty that marked that place is unbelievable. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to take as good photos as I wanted because of the great amount of visitors at that moment, so you'll have to enjoy what I've got. :)