Polish Pottery: Girls Weekend Trip

Last weekend my friend Paige, from Wanderlust and Dogs and I, headed off to Boleslawiec, Poland to purchase pottery! I never understood what the fuss was all about when it came to Polish Pottery, but after our first trip back in February, I knew I HAD to go back and pick up more things.

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MSC Orchestra: Gdańsk, Poland

Our second stop on our anniversary cruise was to Gdynia, Poland. To us this stop was the most pathetic, (no offense to anyone who lives or loves it.) The only reason I can assume MSC actually ports there is because it's cheap. At the port, there is nothing beside rude cab drivers that don't want to take couples anywhere. We were told by MULTIPLE cab drivers that they would only take us somewhere if we found other people to go with. Isn't that their job? This part of the trip was stressful. If a cab driver actually pays attention to you all they want to do is take you to Gdańsk, which is an hour away! After our annoyance with the cab drivers we followed a crowd of people which took us to where a HOHO Bus was. We had the choice to either take the bus to HOHO Gdynia or take it further into Gdańsk.

I briefly looked over my Rick Steves book and I remember that their was nothing to do in  Gdynia so when the bus offered to take us to Gdansk we jumped at the chance. We got to see Gdynia on our way back to the ship and wished we would've hung out in town. I'm jumping a head of myself.

We boarded the bus with a bunch of other people and headed down to the Old town of Gdańsk. Gdańsk is the historical capital of Gdańsk Pomerania and the largest city of Kashubia. The city was close to the former late medieval boundary between West Slavic and Germanic seized lands and it has a complex political history with periods of Polish rule, periods of German rule, and extensive self-rule, with two spells as a free city. Between the World Wars, the Free City of Danzig was in a customs union with Poland and was located between German East Prussia and the "Polish corridor" to the sea where the harbor of Gdynia grew up. Gdańsk has been part of modern Poland since 1945.

The tour bus dropped us off at the side of the road in Gdańsk, the drivers said that that part of the town was in that direction, he then pointed in the direction of town and said that he would be back at 6:00pm to pick us up.

So we headed off into town. We found the main part and made our way down the street. The main street was closed to cars because they were having a market, usually the HOHO Bus would've taken us around the city, but we got to explore on our own.

Our first mission was the find a Pharmacy, the week before when I was working at the CDC there was Pink Eye going around and guess who was the lucky adult who got pink eye? ME! I had finished off my antibiotics and thought I was clear to go but maybe my eye wasn't ready? Or maybe I was just over cautious because after I got the eye drops I was fine.

Look at all the pretty colors on the buildings!

We walked around the town for a little bit finding the cutest shops. On the main strip of town there was even a Hard Rock Cafe! You know Drew loves them, so of course we had to stop and let him get a quick picture.

HRC are Everywhere!!

There were a lot of jewelry stores on the main street. It was pretty in expensive. The famous gem in the Baltic's was Amber. Baltic amber is an organic substance, a “fossil resin” produced by pine trees which grew in Northern Europe. My favorite Gem stone is a Sapphire, I think it has mostly to do with the fact that I am born in September. But I absolutely loved the Amber stones. I ended up dragging Drew to one of the many jewelry stands "just to browse". I ended up finding Owl ear-rings with Green Amber stones that I loved for 12 euros! I just had to have them. Gotta love the conversion rate. Drew also found an Amber Charm that would fit on my Charm Bracelet and insisted on buying it, I didn't put up a fight.

The main town was packed, but we made our way through it. There was a lot of construction going on. Maybe this place would've been nicer at another season?

Some famous churches in the town.

We did find some cool little land marks, and a Pirate ship! It was across from the restaurant where we had dinner.  I had Perogies for the first time! Drew actually ate the Perogies, I had a traditional Polish dish of Fried Pork and Potatoes. It was a great meal, we were both stuffed!

We walked around town for a little bit. We found the famous landmarks in town, but didn't venture out too far. We though Gdansk was an hour a head of Germany and thought we were going to run out of time to see everything. But to be honest, I wasn't impressed with the city. Our time there was eh. Drew and I both said that if we never went back to Poland it would be fine with us, but of course we went back to Poland, it's only 3.5 hours to the boarder, besides Polish food is amazing!

To me Gdańsk, wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I'm glad we were able to go and see it, I can say don't make it a must on your list of places to go and see.

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Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland

In February 2015, we packed up the car and headed off to Poland! This trip was a last minute decision. Since we had done a big Christmas Vacation, 11-day Mediterranean Cruise, we decided that we were going to hold off on doing any trips until March when Drew's mom Gwen came to visit.

The 4-day weekend in January passed and we didn't do anything. When the 4-day in February approached I started to get antsy. I had taken the Friday off of work back in December because I thought that we would do something, as it got closer we still had nothing planned. So Drew and I sat down and decided that we were going to do something.

Since the 4-day was the next weekend, we decided that we had to do something that was pet-friendly, or somewhere we could bring the dogs. We chose to go to Poland, mostly for the food. :)

I've been hinting that I wanted to head to Boleswiec and go Pottery Shopping. Drew said that if we went to Poland, we HAD to go to Auschwitz. So we compromised, we went to both!
From Grafenwoehr, it is less than a four hour drive to Bolesweic, like Germany, Poland is one of the few countries that you don't have to have a Vignette (A tax sticker, you buy them when crossing the border). If I remember correctly we didn't have to pay tolls on the road either!
We stopped off in Boleswiec for the afternoon while I went pottery shopping crazy, Drew kept the pups company, the rooms were way to filled with pottery to the brim and I didn't feel comfortable letting them come in with us. you break it you bought it was all over the place.

Sooo many knick kacks. I wanted them all!

HAHA. No comment needed

From Bolesweic we drove 3 hours to Auschwitz. Oświęcim is a town that lies on the intersection where National Road 44 meets local roads 933 and 948. Oświęcim's old town is located east of the Soła, with the Main Market Square at its centre. There really isn't much to do in Auschwitz. The only thing in the town is Auschwitz. We stayed at Hotel Olecki, for 378 zloty (less than $100), for 2 nights. It included free Parking, breakfast, WiFi, and accepted pets. The best part about it was that it was literally right across the street from Auschwitz. I can't say enough about this place, it was fantastic, especially the food.

If you've never been to Auschwitz, I hope you've at least heard of it. After our trip there Drew had guys come up to him asking him what Auschwitz was! Can you even imagine? I have middle schooler's who know what it is! So I guess the next generation isn't hopeless. But just in case, Auschwitz was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I (the original camp), Auschwitz II–Birkenau (a combination concentration/extermination camp), Auschwitz III–Monowitz (a labor camp to staff an IG Farben factory), and 45 satellite camps. The camps were located approximately 37 miles west of Krakow, near the prewar German-Polish border in Upper Silesia, an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland.

The gates to Auschwitz I displayed the motto Arbeit macht frei ("Work brings freedom")

We went to Auschwitz on February 14, I know it's not the most romantic place to go and visit, but what can I say, we like to live dangerously.
I don't really have words to describe this place. Being here was surreal. We got up early-ish, headed next door and stood in line for our tickets, I would suggest buying them online. The line was out the door and we missed the English tour by 5 minutes! So we had to wait another hour for the next tour. I was told you could buy it online, but we weren't sure what time we were going to be there. It all worked out in the end. The line moved quick enough, it sucked that we had to wait, but tickets were cheap enough, I think it was about $10, (Polish money is confusing to me). Our tour group was pretty huge, but they broke us down into smaller groups. I think our group had about 20 people in it. Not too bad. We each got our own head set, I love it when tour groups have the head set. It makes it so much easier, I get to wander but I can still hear the tour group!

Auschwitz I was first constructed to hold Polish political prisoners. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, and Auschwitz II–Birkenau went on to become a major site of the Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish question". From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over German-occupied Europe, where they were killed with the pesticide Zyklon B. At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz, around 90 percent of them Jewish; approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in the Holocaust died at the camp.

 Original gates still up today!

This is where they had to stop other wise the prisoners were shot!

Between the medical-experiments barrack and the prison block (Block 11) stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners.

Photographs of the children that were murdered.

Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments.

Cans of Zyklon B (a highly lethal cyanide-based pesticide) that was used in the gas chambers

The first gas chamber is on Auschwitz I, when people were first being experimented on. Our guide told us that it took days for the first round of people to be murdered. I couldn't bring myself to go into the original gas chamber. It felt wrong to me some how, too much bad ju-ju for my liking. 

Gas Chamber

Scratch Marks on the door.

After our tour at Auschwitz I, we were given the option to head to Birkeanu, it is included in the tour, but a lot of people chose not to go. We chose to go because of Birkeanu's history. This is where the gas chambers and mass murders took place.

Auschwitz-Birkenau also contained the facilities for a killing center. New arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau underwent selection. The SS staff determined the majority to be unfit for forced labor and sent them immediately to the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower installations to mislead the victims. The belongings of those gassed were confiscated and sorted in the "Kanada" (Canada) warehouse for shipment back to Germany. Canada symbolized wealth to the prisoners.

Original tracks that lead into Birkeanu

The view from the outside

Aerial View

The train cart, usually would fit about 80-100 people here.

6 Prisoners would sleep in this little space.

Exit

The chief of construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau was Karl Bischoff. Unlike his predecessor, he was a competent and dynamic bureaucrat who, in spite of the ongoing war, carried out the construction deemed necessary. The Birkenau camp, the four crematoria, the technically complicated central sauna, a new reception building, and hundreds of other buildings were planned and realized. Bischoff's plans initially called for each barrack to have an occupancy of 550 prisoners (one-third of the space allotted in other Nazi concentration camps). He later changed this to 744 prisoners per barrack. The SS designed the barracks not so much to house people as to destroy them.

Birkenau is a death camp. Words cannot describe what it is like to be there. We didn't take pictures of us while we were there, for some reason it felt wrong to stand in front of a place where millions were murdered and smile and pose for a picture. 

Auschwitz is not for the faint at heart. It is a place that we knew we would have to see while we were in Germany. While we were there my heart hurt, but it is an experience that I feel everyone should visit if given the opportunity.

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