These are some Aushwitz photos:




















I have left Minsk.....I LOVE YOU YOU COMPLETE ME TONYA!!! :) (inside joke)

Well, I have a long night train ride to Warsaw, Poland. I shared a room with a girl who lived in Minsk who was visiting her sister in England. She spoke about as much english as I do russian, but she was really nice, and she attempted to teach me a card game. Imagine trying to teach someone a card game not speaking the same language....there was a lot of laughing, hand gestures and putting our hands in the air making the internationally know "who knows?!" signal. Nonetheless, she was a really sweet girl, even got me a cup of tea in the morning and translated to the customs officer who was inspecting my documents that I don't speak russian and that's why I was looking at him like I have no idea what's going on.

I got to Warsaw around 6am, me and Olga (my roomie for the evening) parted ways. I was now on my own. In a foreign country where barely anyone speaks english. I stood in 4 long lines and then finally got my eurail pass validated and was directed towards the right platform. I was on the train heading for Krakow at 8:05am. (sigh of relief)
The train ride was interesting. There was 8 seats in my compartment, and I was the eighth person to arrive, so I was squished between a large older woman who took up a 1/4 of my seat as well as her own, and a skinny polish businessman. I was very tired, as I did not sleep much on the nighttrain, so I tried to take a little snooze on my way to krakow. The seat's headrest has little wings on each side, so you can rest your head on each side without putting your head on the person next to you. So, I leaned my head towards the businessman for a bit, took a little snooze, then my neck got tired, so I leaned to the otherside. Bad idea. Miss I-am-taking-up-half-your-seat-but-i-dont-care, next to me, decided that 3 minutes into my nap, I was too close for her comfort (I guess my shoulder was touching hers or something) so she threw her elbow into my tricep and I flew awake while she proceeded to yell at me in polish. I was still a bit drowsy so I just looked at her with a confused face and then put my head towards the businessman. I looked at the clock and there was still an hour and a half left to go. great.

Once I got to Krakow, I navigated my way out of the train station and I was in a world of culture. There are so many beautiful buildings and stone streets and parks and monuments and everything! I couldnt take the smile off my face. I pulled my map out and within 15 minutes I navigated my way to the hostel. I walked inside the Tutti Fruitti (yes, thats the name of it, and its not gay:) and my friend Chris was inside waiting for me. Perfect timing. We were lead to the room where our bunk was. I took a shower and we were off to the Salt Mine. We got lost when we got off the mini-bus, accidentally said thank you in german to the man, and forgot to shut the door to the bus, so we were off to a good start. We eventually made it to the salt mine and got on a tour. We had a sweet tour guide who loved his job, so we had a great time. Chris was our guide and he had a dry sense of humor that was hilarious and at one point we had lost a person in our group and he said that it was okay and we could leave them behind because he is allowed to loose up to 20% of his group. I still dont know whether he was joking or not.

Today we went to Aushwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. It was very moving and well worth seeing. I think the pictures are better than words.