046 - thu 15 jun - auschwitz

we were picked up in teplice by two marvellously friendly polish men driving minibuses. our driver, peter, had the most striking bright blue eyes that i have maybe ever seen. if you have ever seen the movie dune, and you know about the sand people who eat that crazy stuff and then have crazy eyes, well he had those crazy eyes. if you walk without rhythm, then you won't attract the worm. come on, people! he was also extremely keen to teach us polish, none of which i now remember, and was also very keen to expand his own english vocabulary. for much of the trip he was driving with a polish-english dictionary unfolded in his lap. somewhere between 50% and 83% of the passengers in our minibus fell in love with this polish man.

auschwitz is not really something i can go into great detail about here, except to say that i'm sure everyone has their own reaction to it. i had the eerie feeling that i'd been there before, thanks to tv and movies no doubt, so i think i was desensitized to it before even getting there. add that to the fact that is kind of impossible to even get your head around the scope of the tragedy, and also that i have no personal involvement with it, that i came out feeling like i had been walking a movie set. it was solemn, but for me not harrowing.

in krakow we had time for a short tour around town before grabbing dinner. after dinner our tour guide took us to a favourite jazz club of hers and we all drank polish vodka, which is of course the best. krakow at night seems like the ratio of bar to person is 1:1.
click here for photos