Poland and Paris

Although Poland and Paris were very different trips, I am falling behind and hence things are getting put into one post together!

I went to Krakow, Poland the weekend of April 25 through 27. This was the one place I most wanted to ensure I made it to this semester. I really wanted to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau. And, although my father's family is from Poland, I was the first person to return to Poland in 64 years- since the Holocaust. Michelle, my best friend from high school, met me and 4 other BSM students in Krakow for this trip. Most the BSM students who went decided totally last minute and it ended up being a really random group but it was sooo much fun! We stayed out partying Thursday night getting maybe an hour of sleep before our 6 AM bus ride Friday morning. Some people did not have such a great time on the bus; one person got to know the bus bathroom well! When we got to Krakow, we met up with Michelle and had a great Polish lunch of pirogies. After that we toured the salt mines, which were pretty cool. You can lick the walls and it tastes like salt. There were also all these statues carved out of salt and these beautiful rooms where all the decoration was made out of carved salt- even the chandeliers!

Saturday was Auschwitz-Birkenau day. Seeing Auschwitz was... weird. Anytime I saw train tracks (anywhere in Poland), I immediately associated them with deportations. Myself and the other Jewish girl there were adamantly against the idea of taking the train to Auschwitz (people generally take a bus but you can take a train but that just didn't feel right at all). It is a mostly incomprehensible place to go to, like not a lot can be said about it because it can't really be understood. I thought the tour was well done and it is weird to see that there are just normal restaurants and a town and normal people living right there now (you can see houses from the barracks at Birkenau, but they weren't there before, but could you imagine living in a place where that is your view from your window everyday). Auschwitz looks like a cute little town, like the work camp, it's the weirdest thing. It is really pretty with nice trees and pretty buildings- it's just doesn't seem to make any sense. The only place I felt really uncomfortable actually being was inside of a gas chamber- I had to kinda edge past another guy in my group so I was standing closer to the doorway, it just felt too weird. It is very weird that it is a tourist attraction. It is good that people see what happened and are trying to learn from it, but it is weird to have all these gifts shops (although they are mostly like book stores, so educational). I did see a group of guys probably about my age posing for a very touristy, "cool guy pose" sort of picture under the "work makes you free" sign, which just didn't feel right. It's just a very weird and different thing to see.

Krakow itself was a cute town. Nice and little, completely walkable. There was a pretty river (like all European towns it seems...). We took the bus back Sunday afternoon. The roads of Poland are awful so it was super bumpy and we played spades so I was sitting backwards in my track, practically falling into the aisles half the time. They also showed American Pie on our bus, which was fun! All in all, Poland was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, trips.

But, in exciting news, I brought Michelle back with me! So Michelle was in Budapest with me from Sunday evening til Wednesday evening. I finally made it to the baths but somehow we were inside when they were supposed to be outside- it was basically the most confusing thing I've done in Budapest. They were alright but I'm a pool snob- I would rather have a private hot tub in my backyard. I went to a European flat party; a friend of Michelle's is studying in Budapest so we went to a party of her program and it is mostly European so that was very different for me. I missed my American math majors! We ate gyros for like at least half our meals. A guy in my program made hot wings for people on Tuesday night and those were really good and then we went out for another girl's 21st birthday.

And then, Wednesday, I was off to Paris for my May Day long weekend! My friend Nicky's family was going to be in Paris so they got a hotel room for four of us. This weekend was planned months ago and always felt like an end of the semester thing so it was so weird that it actually came! We got to Paris late Wednesday night after running through Frankfurt to make our connection and were picked up by Nicky's mom in a rented car- how upscale! On Thursday, we wandered Paris and saw Notre Dame, the Seine, the Louvre (but didn't go inside as it was May Day), Moulin Rouge, and Montmarte. Friday, we absolutely killed ourselves with waiting in line for 4 hours to go up the Eiffel Tower, then walking to the Arc de Triomphe then down the Champs Elysee and finally through the Louvre. I have never been so exhausted in my life- standing for 4 hours is ridiculously hard! We never really recovered from Friday forcing the rest of our weekend to be mellower. Saturday, we went to Versailles but the wait to go in the palace was 4 hours and we were not doing that again. We choose to wander the gardens instead, which were really impressive but Scott and I were tired so we ended up mostly sitting on the steps and watching the fountains! Saturday night we played some spades and then it was bedtime. And Sunday we basically just woke up, ate, and flew home. The flight home was really fun- I bought a Cosmo and we read aloud and then Nicky and I planned our weddings! All in all, Paris was fun and relaxing (after Friday). I was impressed with how much of Paris I recognized once I was actually there after having gone to Paris when I was 13. But, I'm kinda over big European cities. Next time I do Europe, I would try to fit in more small, cute towns and scenic places. But, now I also have covered a lot more big European cities so I won't necessarily have to go see them!

Currently, I am suffering from a really silly mistake. As we don't have dryers here, everything line dries so it takes a day or so. Well, I accidentally washed every pair of jeans I own yesterday. So... my choices for what to wear today are wet jeans or shorts... I really will enjoy dryers immensely when I am back home! Less than three weeks- I can't believe how time has flied!