Kraków was always somewhere I’ve desired to go – when you think of horror tourism, Auschwitz is probably the first place that springs to mind. That infamous ‘arbeit macht frei’ gate – the train tracks leading to the hellish Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
We will get to that later.
My girlfriend and I were lucky enough to be offered a trip to go to this part of Poland by my parents. Me and my siblings were all old enough to visit Auschwitz and pay it the respect it deserved, and I think my parents wanted another trip with all their children, as I had gave the last few beach holidays a miss.
We arrived and dropped our stuff off at the apartment my parents had rented for the weekend. It looked very worn from the outside and was a 5 minute walk from the heart of the Jewish Quarter. However it was very modern on the inside. The outside deception was a charm.
We began walking around the local area – scoping out a local grocery store and a restaurant for food, and briefly exploring the extravagance of the Corpus Christi Basilica located smack bang in the middle of the Jewish Quarter. And if you pick up anything from this – it’s to enter any fancy looking church building when you’re away (or at home) the wealth and ornate windows can be mind blowing – and events, such as the Notre Dame fire in 2019 can make you regret not doing so.
After getting our bearings of the local area and doing a little drinking, we retreated to our apartment for an earlyish night before going for our big day of sightseeing. We left at 7.30 before being dropped at Auschwitz I by our driver an hour later. Before 9 that morning I was walking under that infamous gate.
We explored the different rooms and exhibitions displaying the horrid history which occurred there within the lifetime of my grandparents. The abhorrent conditions people were forced to live in, and the experiments carried out on them. I’d heard about it before through film, and reading – but actively being there was intense. I was told it was big, but you can’t brace yourself for how large Auschwitz II-Birkenau was – we walked the length of it – but it continued as far as the eye could see in width. Prior to liberation this distance was filled with sheds used to house these poor people locked within these cold fences.
After leaving the concentration camp, we travelled to the salt mines – which were mesmerising. You walk down a seemingly never ending staircase – and keep going once you finally reach the bottom of that mineshaft. You are led on a tour which encourages licking the walls (apparently the salty environment kills all bacteria), the tour includes an underground lake, an underground church with decor carved out of the salt. I don’t want to give too much away, but the salt mines are a must which are often overshadowed by the darker tourist attraction in the area. The tour ends with the mind blowing elevator ride where you’re told you’ve only saw about 3% of the mines’ total area.
After a day of heavy sightseeing it was time for a heavy meal (before some heavy drinking). We called into a dive bar beside our apartment called Ra Bar Bar (which translates as rhubarb from Polish; and which I’m saddened to announce has since closed down). We entered looking for cider, and got vodka. About 10 different flavoured variations of Soplica vodka. We left seeking a dance and went to Prozac in the city centre – and after a bit of dancing, we decided to venture back to the then 24 hour Ra Bar Bar for a nightcap nightcaps.
The following day we did some more exploring of the city centre, we did the Schindler Factory tour (I’d recommend you just watch the movie), a wax museum, the hall of mirrors, checked out the main square and tried more of the local food (and drink).
Poland has left a very fond memory with me, and I not only recommend visiting Krakow, but the whole of Poland as I had a great time in the Northern city of Gdańsk.
