Krakow, Poland

Krakow was my favorite city on the trip! I am Polish, so I may have had some bias going into it...but I think I still would have like it as much as I did! One aspect of geography I find interesting about Krakow relates to human geography. Poland went through a lot of hardships during WWII, including Krakow. Krakow in itself was controlled by two different parties at two different times. First, the Nazis controlled Krakow and set up a Jewish ghetto. They then sent people to Auschwitz. Later on after WWII, the communists took control of Krakow. We went to the Nowa Huta, which is a part of Krakow that the communists built a steel mill for the working class. The communists wanted an area for the working class, hence this area that houses 200,000 people. The communists lost some money making steel because the land around did not naturally produce it (they got it from Russia). It worked for the communists, though, and made a large working class population. After everything Krakow has been through, it really seems as if they have been able to pull through. Krakow really seems to embrace their culture, even if it once was taken away. Jordan and I ran into an example of this when we were walking down the street one day. We came across a recently married couple and their were kids dancing and singing around them (I’m assuming it was a traditional wedding dance).



A church the Solidarity, an organized labor union, fought to put up during communism control

Auschwitz was definitely the hardest, most emotionally draining day on the trip. But, it was also my favorite academic experience in Krakow. There was talk amongst our group of how it doesn’t seem right that Auschwitz was made into a museum after everything that has happened. I absolutely see this view, but I also see the good in turning it into a museum. The museum educates people on all the horrible things that happened. Education is key in preventing something as horrible as the Holocaust from ever happening again. There was actually a quote inside Auschwitz that related to this—“The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again.”-George Santayana. So I of course understand why on the surface turning it into a tourist attraction and museum can be seen as a bad thing, but I think it is more of a good thing. It reminds people of not only the horribleness of the Holocaust, but it also gives honor to the millions of innocent victims whose lives were unfairly lost due to unimaginable murder.

 

Going through Auschwitz (the work camp) and Auschwitz-Birkenau (the death camp) was definitely hard and emotionally draining. But, I am so glad we went. I don’t want to be ignorant of what has happened. I’m not going to go into grave detail of how I felt and what I saw...I did that in my journal. But to put the number of people’s lives who were lost in Auschwitz into perspective, 9/11 would have to happen every single day for 5 years straight for the number of people who were killed to even out. If we were to take a minute of silence for the victims of the Holocaust, we would be silent for 3 years.

 

My favorite extra-curricular activity in Krakow was walking around the Old Town Square with some friends from our group and looking through the Renaissance Clock Tower, which has many stands selling unique Polish items. It was cool to browse around and pick up on what the Polish culture was all about. I noticed Amber was popular to sell for jewelry...we learned they get the Amber from the Baltic Sea and make it in Poland.

One day, Jordan and I decided to just sit on the bench in the park close to the Old Town Square. This was also a great experience. We sat in silence and took in our surroundings, noticing and discussing differences and similarities.

I also really enjoyed watching the Klezmer music band at Klezmer-Hois. Klezmer music has Jewish roots and it is beautiful music! There was a violin player, a bass player, and an accordion player. Like when we were in Hungary, I really enjoy watching the performances that are have so much culture in them. I like these intimate, fun performances much more than the fancier performances we went to on the trip, though I see the importance in both. I even bought the band’s cd so I will be able to show the music to others!

I would recommend to future students to eat at Number 7 Restaurant, right by the Old Town Square. The food was good and the staff was so nice! We stupidly decided to eat outside without thinking it was cold and looked like it was going to rain. After 5 minutes of sitting there, a waiter came out and brought us blankets. Later when it started raining, our waitress moved all of our things inside and made us up a table there.