Krakow! Krakow! Krakow!

Here is the rest of my trip to Krakow and Poland!

Poland was an interesting adventure. On the way to Krakow we made a side trip to visit a soviet steel factory which was a lot cooler than I expected. We got to walk around the factory and were told the basics of how the steel was produced. Our tour guide was seriously awesome and I’m glad we had her for our tour or else it might not have been such a great time.

Part of the steel factory

Our awesome guide (in the orange vest on the right. FYI) We took this cool glass elevator up towards the top of one of the stations.

No idea what this thing was but they call it "The Elephant." It made me giggle so of course I had to take a picture.

Now this is the inside of the "The Beast." This is where they would melt down the material to make the steel and pour the molten material out of spouts on the other side. This is also the only place where you can stand inside one of these things. Cool huh?

                The next stop was to the Salt Mines in Krakow. When I heard that our tour would last two to three hours I was not thrilled. All I could think about was what is there to see in a salt mine for THREE hours?! Plus I had thought we were going to stop at our hostel before going to the mines so I wore shorts on the bus to be comfy and was going to change when we dropped our stuff off. This was not the case. And of course Martin (one of our fearless leaders) kept giving me a hard time saying it was going to be soooo cold in the mines and I would be “frozen forever young.” Yeah I was not excited to go on this tour. When we finally got going we ended walking down countless amounts of stairs, always looking down to see how far we had left to go. At the deepest part that we had visited we were over 400 feet below the surface. Walking into the chambers of this mine was seriously not what I expected. It was actually warmer in the mines than it was outside and almost everything around us was composed of salt. The floor, the walls, the ceiling and even the statues and decorations. My shining moment of this tour was the fact that I licked a wall. Yes I Shelby Smith licked a wall of salt hundreds of feet below ground and it was awesome. I regret nothing. We learned how the minors found the salt pockets, how the removed the salt from the mine and even the different properties and the level of purity of the mineral. There were underground lakes that had such a high salt content that they didn't erode the salt walls around them and if you went into the water you would float no matter how hard you tried to dive below. The chamber that most surprised me was the church. It was a huge space that had chandeliers made of salt crystals, reliefs and carvings of famous artwork and paintings decorated the walls and floor had been carved to look like tiles. The floor was completely comprised of salt but because so many people had visited and walked these floors it gave the ground a sleek marble look. This place was beautiful and the cool thing was that it was carved by the minors themselves and not trained artists.

This is one of the amazing chandeliers that is made up of salt crystals. It was absolutely beautiful! (Sorry I only have this one picture, we weren't allowed to take any and i was only brave enough to sneak this one!)

                One of the museums we went to as a group seemed like more of an art gallery. As you walked through the exhibit there were amazing, depressing and thought provoking photographs with captions and explanations from the artist. I learned a lot not only about the holocaust but about the Jewish religion as well. For instance there was a picture of a place of worship with a circular window above the door, the caption said that this was a custom because not only were the people searching out their God but that their God was also searching for them and that the window was more for Him to be able to see them when he looked. The entire exhibit was amazing and was a great lead up to going to Auschwitz.

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist;

They came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Martin Niemöller

This was one of the posters hanging at the entrance to the museum that really caught me attention. I remember seeing these exact words on a poster in a classroom back in high school (shout out to Ms. Phillips!) For some reason the words always stuck with me and I think it was a perfect lead in to the exhibit.

                I also got to visit the Krakow palace. After seeing so many palaces and cathedrals over the past two months or so I felt this one was a little lack luster but I think that could be due to the fact that the next day I was going to Auschwitz and nothing was as exciting or beautiful to me as it usually was. The armory was actually pretty cool to see. There were suits of armor, swords, guns, cannons and so much more. It surprised me that these items that were created to end a life had such beautiful designs. One gun that I saw was covered a mosaic of flowers in mother of pearl. It was crazy. At the end of the palace tour we went to this place called the dragons den. Again we climbed down a spiral stair case and walked through this series of caves with all these different formations. Apparently there were dragon bones at some point but I didn't see them L.

The castle in Krakow, Poland!

                One of the happier highlights of the trip was that I got to visit Oskar Schindler’s factory. For those who don’t know who I’m talking about this is the guy from the movie "Schindler’s List." The entire museum was beyond belief. There was a short film that showed interviews of the people that worked for Schindler during the war. They talked about how they were treated, what it was like working in the factory and even their own personal interactions with Mr. Schindler. It was really neat to see. Another thing that I really liked was that as you went from one year to the next in the museum there was a place to get a stamped card with a date and an event that happened on that date. You collected these cards as you went through the museum and they gave me a better prospective to how the people under Nazi control felt when they had to get their passes or identification cards stamped for every change of statues. This museum was not originally on our schedule but everyone in our group was adamant that we visit. Oskar Schindler’s factory was our first stop they day I visited Auschwitz and I was glad I had something positive and life affirming to hold onto as I visited the camps and I hope this museum is added to the schedule for future groups here.

Me in front of the gates to Oskar Schindler's factory.

One of the halls inside the museum. There were cut outs from magazines, newspapers and letters all over the walls.

The view from behind Mr. Schindler's desk. The area in front is a container filled with the enamelware that was produced in this factory before it was (unsuccessfully) used for the Nazi war effort.

The front of his desk. Not sure if its the original or not but it was cool to see his office either way.

This was a circular room at the very end of the museum. It was covered with sacred words, names, places and prayers.