I will try to update a crazy summer in a series of out of date, surely inaccurate and probably dreadfully insufficient posts. Starting where I left off.
Krakow, June 16th and 17th. My bus arrived earlier than I thought it would. I had time to kill and a bladder to empty before Claire and Nina would arrive at 9:30. The only problem was Central Europe's obsession with pay toilets. It was not expensive, but I had no local currency, so, beginning to move into the pain stage of bladder control, I found an atm and got some money. Went back to the bathroom, but my money was too big and the toilet lady could not give me change for such a large bill, so, back upstairs to find some breakfast and break the bill. It all worked out in the end, but I wish that some public funding could go to free toilets in all big cities. It would make metros and city parks so much better smelling.
As the train stopped, I happened to be standing exactly outside the window of the train car that Nina and Claire were in.
The night on the bus made me quite tired. Krakow is beautiful, castles, churches, dragons, rivers. Only one night in the hostel. Day two out to Auschwitz and Birkinau. Overwhelming death and sadness. Almost dulling to the senses, especially walking through a room full of shoes, human hair and a reconstructed gas chamber. The sense of memory is strong, but I think I feel more touched by the synagogue I walk past everyday in my town, a more relatable level of history, where the actual reality is imaginable, horrible and terrible, but not overwhelming. No more internet time here. Next entry, Claire and Nina's visit to Lviv and Velyki Mosty.
