the highwayman

Trip to Poland was one of the eye-opening ones in recent years. Especially the second part of it, visit to ex Nazi concentration and extermination camps in Auschwitz. I'll add some historical information and facts about these camps.But let me not run forward and put events according to chronological order;

This time my road partners were the Kazakhs and the Spanish; Leila, friend and colleague, two of her Kazakh friends Dauren and Dina, and another friend from work Alex with his girlfriend Vanessa. Fun people make the trip even more fun, in all terms this was very positive and fun trip! I have to note that Kazakhs like to talk about their great nation of Kazakhstan! :))) It is interesting to sit and observe this whole process. ;)

Spanish couple Vanessa & Alex, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Kazakh trio; Leila, Dina and Dauren, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Four of us, Central Asians, rented Skoda Fabia for the 3-day trip, and Alex and Vanessa were travelling by train. Dauren was on the wheels, I don't have driving license although I could risk on the Czech or Poland roads. This reassures urgent need to go for driving courses asap, especially as I am planning to buy a car next spring (by that time Czechs will be in Schengen!).

1. day - Ostrava, Krakow

After some confusions in getting onto correct autoban (which later became a ritual in later destinations), we headed towards Brno (second largest city in CZ in southern Moravia). Plan was to go to Krakow via Brno and then Ostrava. That is not the closest route in terms of kilometers, but it would be the fastest in terms of kilometers per hour. Soon we were in Ostrava. Due to national holiday, city was abandoned as if there was a war or invasion of zombies. Czechs look for every single opportunity to escape the cities for some mountain hiking or river kayaking. Thus no open restaurants, besides junk kingdoms like McDonalds or KFC. Voila!:)

In Ostrava, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Driving on Czech roads was smooth and fast. I read that foreigners complain about Polish roads, Lonely Planet confirms that as well. The problem with Polish roads are that they don't have good autoban connections, from Czech border till Krakow we were driving on narrow roads that connected small towns and villages. So if you are lucky enough to have a village tractor in front of you, then you'll get stuck in the long queue of cars. And the road is too narrow and there is traffic coming on the other half. We lost couple of hours in that. By the time we reached Krakow, it was late afternoon.

Poland - Slovakia Roadtrip, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

From the beginning when we started planning this trip, we were not sure about the visa for Poland. Some say we do, some say we don't because we have long-term stay permit in Czech Republic. Emails to the Polish and Slovak consulates were not replied (I got reply from Slovakian consulate few days ago though, it says that I don't need!). Basicly, we were still worried when we reached the border, but they let us in without problems (only that again they put the chop on the blank page! I hate when those officers do that). But we could enter Poland only on a transit pass up to 5 days. We had the solution long time ago, to come back through Slovakia, for which we also can enter on a transit.

There it was, the ancient city of Polish kings and knights, and the previous capital city. Also, Krakow was lucky not to be destroyed by Germans during WWII, but not Warsaw. But when you look further in history, the city was twice destroyed by Tatars and then by Mongols.

After check-in, exploration of Krakow started with the Old Town (Stare Miasto). In Central Europe it seems all the cities have one Old Town with some squares, castles, towers or cathedrals around. But their square was much bigger and more beautifull than the one here in Prague. It is surrounded by the park Planty. What I liked the most was that on every corner there is some kind of street music performances. Like musicians with accordeons, or the whole band performing Polish folk songs (videos will be provided), some with guitars,etc... Just sit at the corner and enjoy.

Street musicians in Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

The highlights of the Old Town were Rynok Glawny square, St.Mary's Cathedral, clock tower and the iron head nearby, Sukiennice market with souvenir and gift shops, and many restaurants and cafes surrounding the square. And on every hour you will hear the trumpet signal from the tower of St.Mary's cathedral - hejnal. As I read later, it commemorates the trumpeter who was shot when signalling the Mongol attack in 13. century. So we spent the evening wandering around the square and with some heavy dinner in one of the restaurants. We met up with Alex and Vanessa after dinner. The plan to end the day was to go clubbing. But as girls wanted to change their dresses for the party (no comments on that!), we headed back to hostel. The rain and exhaustion killed the clubbing mood, and we ended up eating watermelon in hostel. :)

Stare Miasto in Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

2. day - Wawel Castle, boat ride on Vistula river, Kazimierz Jewish district

Good breakfast makes your day even better! Simple checking of the place where to have breakfast took us the Friends Coffee cafe. Two days in a row! "make you smile" they say and they do.

Wawel Royal Castle, Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Wawel Royal Castle was the next checkpoint. We started the visit with the Dargon's Den. There's a mythology that king Krakus built the town above the dragon's cave, a.k.a Smocza Jama. Dragon of Wawel, a.k.a Smok Wawelski, was defeated by King Krakus. Believe it or not, there's still a big cave under the Wawell Hill near the Wawel Castle area, and now it is open to public.

Dragon's Den, Wawel Hill, Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Then before visiting the State Rooms and the Treasury we went for a boat ride on the Vistula river. Last time I did similar ride on Bangkok River. Weather was fantastic, a slight breeze and the shy sun sometimes hiding behind clouds. There was nothing much to see on the riverbanks, but ride itself was relaxing and enjoyable. Of course, with lots of phototaking sessions.

Vistula River in Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Colleague & friend - Leila, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

For me the rivers and seas always had positive therapy effect, I feel rested and relaxed just by the sound of the water and the slight breeze. After retirement, probably fishing will be my hobby if I won't be able to afford a small yacht and a house near Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan.

After the boat trip, we returned to the castle, and spent time wandering in the State rooms and the treasury. The knights' metal clothings and weapons attracted most of my attention. How is it possible to fight with that metallic outfit?! Right, normal field soldiers had more light stuff, but the cavallery knights were helpless if they falled from the horse. Maybe we are more lucky to live in current age of guns and bullets, death is more simpler and faster this way. Another interesting item was the Coronation Sword that was used for the Polish kings. Nothing much interesting in the State Rooms, the rooms once used by the Kings and rulers. Also, surprisingly there were no Royal Crowns displayed. Stolen? Damaged? Lost?

Wawel Castle interior, Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Newly married Polish couples spend their day on the Wawel hill taking photos and walking around. Especially Dauren enjoyed phototaking them as well. Typical decorated cars with the plaque "Droga do raju" ("Road till the heaven") written on it.

"Road till the Heaven", Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Around lunchtime, we had an idea to sit somewhere in Kazimierz, Jewish district in Krakow. Somehow there were too many Pizzerias, and not many local restaurants. Travel books put Kazimierz in one of the important highlights of Krakow, but we didn't see anything special there, and even the main suggested synagogue was dead closed. And Jewish cemetery as well. You may ask what we expected to see in the cemetery? I am also thinking now that really why we went there?! To see what, seriously?! :) Sometimes even Lonely Planet suggest weird things. Next we were back in the main square and spent the rest of the day in there.

Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Dinner was at Polish restaurant. Polish food is not much special as well. Kind of similar to Russian cuisine. Lots of pork inside, so I couldn't try much food. And the names are similar to those in Russian; szaszłik (shishkebap, grilled chunks of meat), pierogi (dumplings usually filled with cheese and potatoes), jajecznica, baranina, kotlet, kiełbasa, etc.

Krakow - Poland, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

The day ended in a jazz bar, again no energy left for the club. I am not a jazz fan, but sometimes you have to force yourself for such things, then you seem to start really enjoying them. Same thing happened with opera and ballet.

3. day - Auschwitz, Maly Tatry mountains in Slovakia

After one beautiful day in historical Krakow, we encountered another different side of the history. Early breakfast in the same Friends Coffee breakfast shop, we drove out of Krakow. Only four of us, as Alex and Vanessa would go back by train. 60 km from the Krakow, small town Auschwitz is located. Nothing much of the town, but it hosts the one of the humanbeing's dark histories; Nazi German concentration and extermination camps. When you watch such things from the screen or read about them, it's hard to realize real war situation and evilness of humanity, the overall picture is vague then. But even just a short visit to empty camp gave us slight idea about what really happened there half century ago. And that was shocking enough. Human brain is really strong asset, it can come up with unimagineable things, and when it is used for the sake of torturing and destroying each other, it is the most dangerous weapon ever!

Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp, Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

My grandfather fought in WWII, was captured by Germans and spent some time in one of the concentration camps. My parents don't remember the name of the camp, and no chance to ask my grandfather. Maybe it was even there, in Auschwitz. Later he was rescued and went till Berlin.

Another thing that shocked me was the way how faschists tricked the Jews even before taking them to death. They never told Jews that they'd take them to the camp to destroy. They told them that Jews must be "relocated" to some other places in Europe. Especially the Hungarian Jews were tricked this way. So fascists first sold them imaginary lands, houses, shops in the places where Jews would be "relocated" to, then also told them to bring with them the most valueable things as they wouldn't come back, and loaded them onto trains and directly took to the death camp in Auschwitz! Yet they still never told them they'd kill. At the unloading platform they immediately sorted out those looking fit for hard works, and took rest of them (mainly children, old men, women, and sick ones) to the gas chambers. Then Jews were told to undress for the shower inside the "shower" rooms and locked them in there, and instead of the water the Zyklon B gas poisoned them. The death bodies were immediately burnt in nearby crematorium. Even today you can see the pool of ashes near the destroyed crematorium ruins...

I read somewhere that around 20000 people in average could be poisoned and burnt there per day. Now we should thank God that we are living in the peaceful years.

And those who stayed behind worked hard on arm factories and other places, and many of them died from hunger, weakness and sicknesses. They stayed in wooden and brick barracks, some of them are stil preserved till these days. Normally these barracks were horse stables and each barrack was planned for 52 horses. But there were around 400 prisoners staying in one barrack.

Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp, Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Here's the brief information about them from Wikipedia, photos were taken by us.

The three main camps were:
- Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly Poles and Soviet prisoners of war.
- Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp, where at least 1.1 million Jews, 75,000 Polish people, and some 19,000 Roma (Gypsies) were killed.
- Auschwitz III (Monowitz), which served as a labor camp for the Buna-Werke factory of the I.G. Farben concern.

Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp, Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testifed at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 2.5 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum revised this figure in 1990, and new calculations now place the figure at 1.1–1.6 million, about 90 percent of them Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most of the dead were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon-B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and so-called medical experiments.

The camp was initially used for interning Polish intellectuals and resistance movement members, then also for Soviet Prisoners of War. Jews were sent to the camp as well. At any time, the camp held between 13,000 and 16,000 inmates; in 1942 the number reached 20,000. The entrance to Auschwitz I is still marked with the ironic sign “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work (will) make (you) free.”

Block 11
The harsh work requirements, combined with poor nutrition and hygiene, led to high death rates among the prisoners. Block 11 of Auschwitz (the original standing cells and such were block 13) was the "prison within the prison", where violators of the numerous rules were punished. Some prisoners were made to spend the nights in "standing-cells". These cells were about 1.5 metres square, and four men would be placed in them; they could do nothing but stand, and were forced during the day to work with the other prisoners. In the basement were located the "starvation cells"; prisoners incarcerated here were given neither food nor water until they were dead. Also in the basement were the "dark cells"; these cells had only a very tiny window, and a solid door. Prisoners placed in these cells would gradually suffocate as they used up all of the oxygen in the air; sometimes the SS would light a candle in the cell to use up the oxygen more quickly. Many were subjected to hanging with their hands behind their backs, thus dislocating their shoulder joints for hours, even days.

Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp in Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

The execution yard is between blocks 10 and 11. In this area, prisoners who were thought to merit individual execution received it. Some were shot, against a reinforced wall which still exists; others suffered a more lingering death by being suspended from hooks set in two wooden posts, which also still exist.

Death Wall in Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp in Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Construction on Auschwitz II (Birkenau) began in October 1941 to ease congestion at the main camp. It was designed to hold several categories of prisoners, and to function as an extermination camp in the context of Himmler's preparations for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

Hitler seemed to 'prophesy' the coming Holocaust of European Jewry when he said: "Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe! " At first, vague plans were made in Nazi Germany to deport all European Jews to Madagascar. The plan was to use the British navy after Britain's defeat. However, when the British were not defeated as expected, the Madagascar Plan had to be abandoned.

Extermination camps
By November 1, 1941, the first extermination camps were being built: first Belzec, then Sobibor, Treblinka, Chełmno extermination camp and Majdanek, and finally Auschwitz-Birkenau. The mass execution of Jews began in early 1942.

Prisoners were transported from all over German-occupied Europe by rail, arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau in daily convoys. Arrivals at the complex were separated into four groups:
One group, about three-quarters of the total, went to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau within a few hours. they included all children, all women with children, elderly, those that are not fit. In the Birkenau camp more than 20,000 people could be gassed and cremated each day. the Nazis used a cyanide gas produced from Zyklon B.

Crematorium, destroyed by Germans while escaping (to remove their crime scenes) Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp, Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Nazi Concentration Extermination Camps Auschwitz, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

A second group of prisoners were used as slave labor at industrial. At the Auschwitz complex 405,000 prisoners were recorded as slaves between 1940 and 1945. Of these about 340,000 perished through executions, beatings, starvation, and sickness. Some prisoners survived through the help of German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who saved about 1,100 Polish Jews by diverting them from Auschwitz to work for him, first in his factory near Kraków and later at a factory in what is now the Czech Republic.
A third group, mostly twins and dwarfs, underwent medical experiments at the hands of doctors.
The fourth group was composed of women who were selected to work in "Canada", the part of Birkenau where prisoners' belongings were sorted for use by Germans.

The Soviet army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they liberated 7500 abandoned prisoners.

Among the well-know victims of Birkenau was Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko, father of Viktor Yushchenko (third president of Ukraine).

Maly Tatry - Slovakia

After depressing and eye-opening visit to Auschwitz, we headed south towards the Slovakian border. Although it would took longer to get back to Prague, we had to do that due to transit issue, but also it was a chance to ride on Maly Tatry (Lower Tatras) mountains in Northern Slovakia. After driving for few hours in narrow Polish roads, we crossed to Slovakia and spent 2-3 hours on the mountain roads (I mean, it is not even the mountain road comparing to what we have in Kyrgyzstan!).

Poland - Slovakia road trip, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

That was probably my shortest stay in one country. Till the time we reached Prague via Brno, it was almost mid-night. Dauren did great job by driving on whole trip! I got to know Leila even more better besides the lunches at work, fantastic girl! Dina is the most peaceful and sweet road companion!