A Summer Series pt 4

I was hoping to get some pictures in here somewhere - but our summer adventures just keep going so you will have to wait for a picture "insert" at a later date.

From Lazy - we went to Krakow. We again took a night bus with 6 people in the coupe and arrived at the most wonderful hostel ever: Travelers in Hostel- not only were prices reasonable and the location great (5 min from old town and five minutes from the Jewish district) but the hostel was super clean, super friendly, and super accommodating - allowing us to slip in an extra mattress for our friend Pete for a small fee instead of a big fee for his own room and bed. A sign in the hostel says "60% Fun" but I give it 100% helpful.

Krakow was beautiful - but expensive. A cappuccino - normal ceramic cup size- costs min 9 zloty - or $4.5. Not nice.

The city is full of parks, old and new - and our hostel had free bikes and so we pedaled all over the place.

On a day that was supposed to be rainy - we caught the bus out to Auschwitz. We joined an English tour - which got us through Auschwitz 1 and 2 (AKA Birkenau) in 3 hours. In someways, that could be said to be too little time to spend in such a place - but on the other hand it was probably as much as our brains and feet could endure. Birkenau was the more impressive in sheer size - spreading out in front a whole field full of barracks, or the remains of barracks. We went into one of them - originally built to house 52 horses - each stall was converted into a 3 level bunk averaging 10 people per level 1,500 people per barrack - a place meant to hold 52 horses.

It was a lot to take in.