Poland April 10-13 2016

I had no idea what to expect about Poland... but my main impression was that it was very green with a lot of fog. And it was beautiful!

Day 1: We flew into Krakow and just ventured around a bit, ate, and took a bus all the way south to Zakopone and stayed in a cute little cabin hostel. (We were literally on the border of Slovakia).

Fancy water is all I could find. No free water. Anywhere.

There were loads of fancy horses and carriages.

A traditional plate of potato pancakes and chicken stew.

This street looked fake to me. Like one of the streets in Disneyland or something. 

Day 2: We went to Tatra National Park and hiked up to Morskie Oko Lake. It was a 2-hour hike and it was beautiful. The mountains, trees, and snow made me miss Utah.

Waiting for the bus. Very very few people spoke English over here.... that was interesting. 

Morskie Oko Lake

Good Bye Lenin-- the name of our hostel

Our hostel!

The view from our window.

We're so cool.

Day 3: We went back to Krakow and took a tour of the Jewish Quarter and Schindlers Factory.

Helena Rubinstein grew up in this green house in the Jewish Quarter. (She was the eldest of 8 daughters and as she become older, her father said "oh, she's not that bad looking! I can get her married!" Long story short... she was arranged to be married to a 50ish year old when she was 18ish and so she ran away to Australia. She lied about her age to get places (saying she was older) and people believed her. She was a very smart business woman and had made her own cosmetics. They become very popular because she would blame her "young" looks on the cosmetics that she used (even though she was just lying about her age). She sold her business but like a year later the economy dropped and she bought it back for super cheap which made her even richer! So there ya have it: a little history about Helena Rubinstein Cosmetics.)

A traditional Jewish restaurant that became famous because Steven Spielberg ate here while he was filming Schindler's List.

Our tour guide.

Original buildings.

Jewish cemetery.

Pub that looks like Narnia inside.

The famous stair case. (Do you recognize it from Schindler's List?)

Lover's locks. The netting that the locks are attached to gets ruined as some return to remove the lock once their relationship has ended. They have to cut the netting as they have thrown the key into the river below when they first attached the lock.

Art installment of chairs to represent all of the chairs that were brought to this square when Jews and Poles in the Ghetto were told to bring what they could because they were being "relocated to a better place".

A very small portion of pots and pans collected by the Nazis from everybody's suitcases and houses.

little baby matches!!

Day 4: We went up to Auschwitz and toured the concentration camp. This experience is simply in-explainable. I definitely think that it is something everybody should experience if they can get the chance. I took very few pictures because I did not feel the need to take them. The experience itself is all that is needed, I took no pictures of anything we saw inside. Sorry.

All of the buildings are the original.

Bus ride back to the airport

On a happy note: please watch this video. :)