Wesolych Swiat! *

"...do they know it's Christmas time at all..."

It's impossible to ignore the fact that we are near Christmas, here in Wroclaw. As you can see, the streets, and the Rynek are fully decorated with traditional Christmas lights, and there's something in the air that announces that Christmas is almost here. Although I'll return to Portugal for Christmas and New Years celebrations, I would also like to live this "season" here in Poland. It would be nice to get to know the different customs and traditions of the polish people during this "winter main events". The good thing is that, some polish friends, already invited me to have a meal at their home, after I return in January, with all the typical Christmas and New Years celebration dishes and traditions. So I guess I'll be doing a lot of party this next weeks...

* Wesolych Swiat! (PL) = Happy Christmas! (EN) = Bom Natal! (PT)

Krakow & Oswiecim (Auschwitz)

Krakow pics (hope to return there & take some more!)

After some time of numerous attempts of going to Krakow, me & Filipa, finally made it! The two of us and some German friends manage to find some free time to visit this city, of which everyone was talking about. And what a great city it is! Full of history, great buildings, and with a great night-life! We managed to stay in a great hostel in the city center, just next to the Rynek of Krakow. We also had in mind to take this chance, and do something that everyone that is Poland for some time, should do. After one great day in the city we headed over to the concentration camps in Oswiecim (Auschwitz). We knew it would be a hard experience, but we were anxious to go there and testify, by our selves, one of the remaining "items" of the Nazi "horror era". When we got to Auschwitz I (the main concentration camp, although smaller), it was hard to realize what kind of crimes were really committed there. We visited the museum, where there was an exhibition (in the old camaratas of the prisoners), that contained, among other things, a lot of belongings of the poor souls that where trapped there. For instance, they had in one of the rooms, something like 2000kg of human hair (every prisoner should shave the head), in the other thousands of shoes, reading glasses, prostesic limbs. It was quite hard to deal with that reality.But the worst was still to come... Bierknau. When you get to Bierknau, there's a sudden' silence, as you get a glimpse of the famous tower with the trains entrance below. The same tower that appeared in the Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List". That tower, and it's gates where the last entrance for 1.5 millions of people. And when I went to the top of it, and got a glimpse of the camp itself... I lost my speech. You just can't see the end of the thing! It's huge. You can see some of the wooden houses (if it is possible to call it house...), and the remainings of the ones that were destroyed. If keeping in mind that each house had 1000 men inside, and that there were hundreds of them through out all the camp... I mean, it's quite chocking to learn it in school, and read about it, but face it, there, in front of you... It just makes you wonder, what the hell were those people thinking???... And the amazing thing about it, is that all of this occurred not even 60 years ago! I think everyone should visit this place. There you can really get an idea of what mankind is able to do, when it looses all sense of humanity.
For further information on these monuments, I'll leave you here the link to the official site of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) Concentration Camps: http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/ Take a look, you won't regret it...

Auschwitz I

Bierknau (Auschwitz II)

At the Wroclaw Zoo

Some photos I made in the zoo. Some of the animals can be really photogenic...

There's a nice big zoo here in Wroclaw! I've read somewhere before that this is one of the biggest in all Europe. Although now it's closed for winter season, I've been there before that and had a great time. Here is a collection of some photos I took there. If you are interested in further information about the zoo, here's the website (in polish...) :

http://www.zoo.wroclaw.pl/

Just a new perspective

A slightly different glimpse of the Katedra and the surroundings

Because, some times, it's better to change the perspective in order to see things better...

Karkonosze Mountains

Some photos of the Karkonosze Mountains and the Samotnia Hostel
Some of the Erasmus that went on the trip, great group

Now this was a hell of weekend! It was great! It started in really strange way, but it turned out to be great. Me and Filipa were supposed to meet the rest of the group in front of Olowek, to go on the private bus that should take us to Karpacz (the village near the mountains), but you got stuck at home... Our landlady changed the lock, and gave us the wrong keys! So she left early in the morning, locking the door from the outside... Needless to say, we lost the group bus! But Sebastian called us, and said we could make it there in a regular bus, and so we did. After 3 hours we were in Karpacz, ready to start climbing the mountain until the Samotnia Hostel. The only problem was the time: it was already 16h & something... It was getting dark, we add a 2 hours mountain climbing to do and only a small flash light! Well, at first it didn't seem so hard, but in the middle of the way we had to leave the main trail and start climbing through the woods. And let me assure you, the woods during the night, can be really scary... and the flash light, wasn't that good! After some time, some phone calls to Basia that was already in the hostel, we made it, and the vision of the small lights of the Samotnia Hostel in the middle of all that darkness, seemed like heaven on earth... When we entered the dinning room, because everyone else was already having dinner, me and Filipa had a huge round of applause, which was a great welcoming, and felt really good, along with a nice warm meal!

There was a nice small "party", after dinner, with music and beer and everyone got the chance to know themselves better. It quite a nice group of people! The next day we climbed to one of the tops of the Karkonosze Mountains. It was an amazing view from there, specially for me, because I only flighted by plain once, and it was to get from Portugal to Poland! So now I was above the clouds once again, but this time standing my both feet! I had the chance to be on Czech Republic ground once again (besides Praha!), since the Karkonosze Mountains are a part of the border line between Poland and the Czech Republic. In that night, after coming down from the top to the Samotnia Hostel, and after dinner, we had a fire outside, were we roasted some "Polska Kiełbasa" (polish sausages), with sticks, and drink some beer. Great evening! Everyone sang typical songs from their home countries, and told stories.

The next day (Sunday) we had some time in the morning to sleep a little bit later, before going back to Karpacz, to catch the bus back to Wrocław.

I wont forget this great weekend easily! From what I've heard there will be a second trip there in January, and if I can make it, I will join that one also!

Here's a nice advice from me to you: if you have never been to the Karkonosze Mountains, and to the Samotnia Hostel, you should! It's not that much expensive, and its sure worth it! If you are interested in some more information about the place, here's the site for the Karkonosze Mountains National Park and the Samotnia Hostel:

Karkonosze Mountains National Park:

http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/pnp/kark.htm

Samotnia Hostel:

http://www.samotnia.com.pl/