On Monday night while cooking dinner, Matthew Zoey and I were discussing our upcoming "Autumn holiday". Thursday Oct 28th was a national holiday in the Czech Republic (celebrating Czechoslovakia's independence in 1918) and most of the schools gave the students Wednesday and Friday off as well for a fall break. By the end of dinner we decided that the best way to celebrate this time off was to book an overnight train to Krakow, Poland and spend a couple days in eastern Europe!
After the nearly 9 hour overnight train ride (which I'm sure I'll never forget) we arrived in Krakow as the sun was rising. We found Matthew, who had to meet us in Krakow because he came from Bratislava, Slovakia, got to our hostel, and set off for a day of exploring the city. It was a surprisingly charming city, and thanks to our Rick Steves book we learned a lot about the city's history and it's sights. I learned that Poland is the most Catholic European country, and it shows by its numerous cathedrals that were all packed throughout the whole day. I have never seen so many people standing in line...for confession! Since Pope John Paul II was from Krakow there were many statues and shrines for him.
We explored the Warwal Castle and the "up and coming" Jewish quarter. The castle grounds were beautiful and is one of the 7 spots around the world that has a pure balanced chakra. We felt very balanced. The Jewish quarter was very interesting-since the Jews were all forced to live in one area of Krakow only later to be completely deported and their neighborhood and history nearly destroyed, this part of town had a lot more character. It was dark and not as glam as the city center, but we all enjoyed walking the synagogue tour and decided to spend the evening there for dinner.
On our last day we went to Auschwitz, but that deserves its own blog post.
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