In the past I've had superbly few motivations to visit Poland, the one very important exception, however, has been the chance to see Auschwitz. So when we decided to spend some time in Krakow as means to visit the old concentration camp, I was pleasantly surprised at just how charming this country is. Krakow is reminiscent of Prague with it's old, stately architecture but lacks the sheer multitude of tourists (and drug dealers) this time of year. There were local artisan markets, outdoor cafes and mouth watering sausage vendors everywhere you looked. What else could a girl ask for? Besides an ex-Nazi concentration camp that is.
Auschwitz is about what you would expect. We all know the horrible story; hundreds of thousands of Jews enslaved, tortured and killed. It's where the Nazis first experimented with Cyclone B in those infamous showers. It's depressing and sad, just like it should be. It's also an important part of history to learn from and a humbling place to visit. No one was expecting a trip to Disneyland. Unless you count several of the other tourists in our tour group.
At Auschwitz it is compulsory to have an official tourist guide take you through the complex. In addition to the valuable information, it is also for another very good reason; your average tourist is a douche bag. The kind of insensitive moron that will still take pictures even when the free guide explicitly instructs them not to. I felt weird enough joining the masses of tourists to be herded around what is now a memorial site, but how else do you get a chance to see this monumental part of history? Then you get there and your fears are confirmed in the form of those camera toting sons-of-bitches who take prohibited pictures of the human remains. It's such a intense mix of emotions, it's hard to know where to draw the line. At least the museum had enough tact to not call the souvenir shop a "souvenir shop". Rather the building just listed all the things you could normally find in a gift shop, "Information, Videos and More!" Ok, I exaggerated with the exclamation point, but that doesn't make it any less true. I personally had my eye on the "I Survived Auschwitz" t-shirt, but it only came in an XL. Ok, ok, there's the line, I see it way back there now.
Donning our new t-shirts (I kid, I kid) we headed for a pick me up in Berlin, Germany. Berlin is just a (Pacific Northwesters you should cover your ears here) bigger, cooler version of Portland, Oregon. This is with the brief exception of the blatant racism that exists here (Portland at least hides it better). Apparently Berlin recovered from their jewish prejudices and turned around and redirected them to the black and middle eastern population. We saw and heard too many stories of minorities being denied entry into local bars and clubs on the basis of their race. This was a disheartening discovery after I had already decided I loved this city so full of art, thriving coffee shops and hipsters (side note: Kelly and I were devastated to find out that we had missed the Berlin Hipster Olympics by a mere two days...you know we would have killed it in the Beer Crate Racing event).
We did get to see the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall though and I even got my official piece of scrap concrete that was once part of the wall (look what good tourists we've become!). This chunk of cement was an actual souvenir I could get on board with some how. Well, besides that t-shirt (that's the last one I swear!). The art on the remaining part of the Berlin Wall combined with the massive amounts of really interesting, quality street art is so fascinating that we found ourselves walking for many, many hours each day. I left my legs somewhere in East Berlin last week and have yet to recover them. So, in conclusion, I think I love Berlin...I'm pretty sure...I like it at least more than a friend.
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