Poland

It is finally time to talk about our grand spring break trip to Poland and Germany! We had about a week and a half off of school for Easter and planned a big trip throughout northern Europe, beginning in Krakow, Poland and ending in Berlin. Along the way, we visited several important World War II and Cold War sites and learned a lot about twentieth-century European history - not exactly your typical spring break trip, but we had fun! 

In this post I will tell you about our time in Poland, which was spent in the historic city of Krakow, along with a day trip to the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz. Let's begin!

An Overview

A random art market by the old city wall

The old city-center of Krakow has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978 and is one of the only cities in Poland to have conserved any significant portion of its historic buildings. Many other cities, such as Warsaw, were almost entirely destroyed and rebuilt during the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. For this reason, along with its relatively cheap cost of living, delicious food, and vibrant nightlife, it is one of Poland's most popular travel destinations.

The Wawel Castle & Cathedral

Like any good European city, Krakow has an old castle and cathedral in the heart of its old town. Set on top of a hill overlooking the Vistula river, the castle was obviously initially used as a fortress to protect the city. Originally built in the 14th century, it was the official residence of the kings and queens of Poland until King Sigismund III Vasa moved the capital to Warsaw in the early 1600's. It was expanded and added on to so many times that it now comprises a ring of buildings around a central courtyard, creating an entire royal complex on the Wawel hill.

Across from the castle is the royal cathedral, where the kings and queens of Poland were crowned and where other important ceremonial events took place. Most of the tombs of the royal families are still located inside, along with the remains of other famous Poles, such as Frederic Chopin!

Main Market Square & St. Mary's Basilica

In the heart of the old town is the Main Market Square, the largest Medieval town square in all of Europe! Like so many main squares in Europe, it was originally a center for trade and commerce, and the site of the main Medieval market where everything from clothes to food was bought and sold. In the center is the Cloth Hall, a building dating from the 14th century whose purpose was to provide a closed space where these transactions could take place and be regulated. The building is still used for sales, although nowadays of a more touristic spin, but the area next to it is still used for weekly food markets where people can come to buy cheap and fresh traditional dishes and eat them along picnic tables next to the old Town Hall Tower.

Top Left: Inside the Cloth Hall / Top Right: The Cloth Hall / Bottom Right: The Old Town Hall Tower / Bottom Left: A market next to the Cloth Hall

The other significant site on the Main Market Square is St. Mary's Basilica, another ancient building dating back to the 14th century. With its soaring towers and intricately-decorated interior, it was, in my opinion, one of the most impressive buildings in the whole city.

St. Mary's Basilica, inside (right) and out (left)

Delicious & Cheap Food

Aside from all of the beautiful sites, the highlight of Krakow was probably the delicious and unbelievably cheap food. There was a bakery around the street from where we were staying (see picture below) with all kinds of interesting danishes and sweet rolls. An extremely generous three-course meal cost around 20 Polish Zloty, or 5€ (roughly $7). The delicious pierogi we ate at the 24-hour pierogi shop you can see in the picture below, along with a cup of hot soup, were only 3,75€ (roughly $5)! As some of you may already know, I loved pierogi even before going to Poland, and was therefore very excited to eat some "authentic" ones while there. Pierogi are a traditional Polish dumpling stuffed with potatoes and some other vegetable or meat, and they are oh-so-tasty!

Krakow also has a huge café culture, with trendy and homey cafés around every corner. They even had REAL American drip coffee, something we hadn't tasted in a long time thanks to its complete nonexistence in Spain. The not-so-great weather makes it even more enjoyable to pop into a warm, cozy café and get a delicious, affordable cup of coffee!

Auschwitz-Birkenau

And now for the more serious part of our Poland trip - our visit to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Only about an hour and a half outside of Krakow, and with a very organized and well-run system of tour guides, they are an easy day trip in terms of logistics. But, as you can imagine, it is emotionally an extremely difficult trip to make. Even being present at the site of such incomprehensible atrocities, it is still hard to wrap your mind around the fact that anything like this could have ever happened. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest concentration camp and the one where the greatest number of people were murdered. We do not know the exact number of people who died in these camps as the documents were destroyed after the war, but various estimates suggest it was in the millions.

Above: The infamous gate to Auschwitz, with the ironic and nonsensical statement, "Arbeit macht frei," or "Work will make you free," which certainly did not correspond to the horrific reality going on inside. Below: Some of the blocks of the camps where prisoners were held.

Just as it was difficult to truly comprehend all of the monstrous events in these camps, it is nearly impossible to explain the impact that seeing them in person made. Out of respect, I didn't take any pictures inside any of the buildings, most of which have been turned into museum-like exhibits on the nightmarish goings-on of the camps. However, visiting the gas chambers and the "death bunkers," where prisoners who were next in line to be exterminated awaited the imminent end of their lives, were the most moving and disturbing for me.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau, one of Auschwitz many "satellite" camps

All-in all, I am certainly glad that we went and think that seeing the concentration camps firsthand is an important experience for anyone to have. It gives you an intimate look into one of the most infamous and mortifying events of the 20th century, and brings it home in a way that textbooks or documentaries obviously cannot do. However, I obviously can't say that I enjoyed it, and probably won't go out of my way to visit any other concentration camps in the future.

Hiking in Madrid: La Pedriza

At the beginning of April, I did something that I had been wanting and meaning to do since I first got here in September - I went on a hike! There is a group that uses the website Couch Surfing to organize hiking trips in the area around Madrid, with a chartered bus and two guides who lead you along the paths.

The commencement of our hike!

The event attracts all kinds of people of varying nationalities and ages. There were lots of Spanish people, some Americans, a decent number of British people, some Germans, some French people, and some others from a smattering of different countries. Although one of the trepidations which had kept me from signing up for so long was the fear of going alone and finding everyone cliquish and hard to talk to, this was certainly not the case! Everybody was extremely friendly and outgoing, and I think I actually talked to almost every single person in the group at some point during the day!

Me on the ascent

The hike was in a place called la Pedriza, about 45 minutes north of Madrid, near a town called Manzanares el Real. The path basically wound its way up a mountain and then back down. It was a pretty difficult hike, but the views were amazing and definitely rewarded the effort. In addition to views of the beautiful countryside in the distance, there were also some weird and interesting rock formations, as well as some seemingly camera-conscious wildlife!

Me at the top

A perfectly-posed mountain goat!

The descent

Although I really enjoyed the hike, the "guides" had some troubles guiding us back, and we accidentally took the wrong trail down and ended up taking way longer than expected and coming out on the complete opposite side of the mountain from where our bus was supposed to pick us up. However, it all worked out in the end, as there were a couple of little bars with really nice outdoor patios where we enjoyed a cold beer while waiting for the bus.

Rewarding ourselves with beer after the intense hike

All-in-all, it was an excellent experience! I loved the social aspect, and at the end I felt exhausted in a good way - the kind of tiredness that you have to work for, and that makes resting feel so well-deserved! I'm definitely going to go on another hike as soon as possible, and I can't wait!

Paris

At the end of March, Natalie and I took a short weekend trip to Paris, the so-called "city of love." (We said that it should more aptly be called the "city of lines," because there are monstrous lines to get in everywhere!) Although the city is huge and it's impossible to see everything in only a weekend, and although the weather was not the greatest while we were there, we still had a great trip and got to see a lot of famous, interesting things. Here's a brief breakdown of the sights we visited:

L'Île de la Cité: Nôtre Dame et Sainte Chapelle

The first human settlements in this region were on and around a small strip of land in the middle of the Seine River which, cut off from the surrounding terrain, was known as "L'Île de la Cité," or the "Isle of the City." As this was the first area to be settled, it contains some of the oldest buildings in the entire city, the two most famous ones being Nôtre Dame and Sainte Chapelle.

One of the oldest cathedrals in Paris and, without a doubt, the most famous, Nôtre Dame is big and impressive. However, the inside is filled with tourists, TV screens, electrical lighting and other foreign/modern elements that obscure any sense of the building's oldness and authenticity. Nevertheless, contemplating the multitude of statues on the facade, or viewing the impressive flying buttresses from behind still make you stop in awe at the engineering and construction capabilities of the civilizations that built it so long ago.

A view of the back of Nôtre Dame over the "Lock Bridge," where lovers and friends put locks to signify their everlasting devotion to each other

Just down the street from Nôtre Dame is the slightly less hyped but no less significant Sainte Chapelle, a smaller, more intimate chapel designed to house the relics of King Louis IX, including what was believed at the time to be Christ's actual Crown of Thorns. The chapel preserves one of the most extensive collections of 13th century stained glass anywhere in the world!

La Tour Eiffel

The iconic symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower was actually built to be a temporary structure as part of the 1889 World Fair, and was loathed by most Parisians at the time. Of course, it eventually grew on them, and now it is visited by thousands of tourists every year and cherished as one of the most beloved and indispensable icons of the city.

Le Musée d'Orsay

The Musée d'Orsay is famous for its collection of Impressionist paintings by the likes of Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne and others. As a personal fan of this time period, which I also studied a handful of times in various classes at UNC, I really enjoyed the museum's collection. What's more, it is housed in an old, converted train station, and the building itself is nearly as interesting and intriguing as the works of art housed within.

One of my personal favorites, "Field of Poppies" by Claude Monet

Le Centre Pompidou

The Centre Pompidou houses Paris's main collection of modern art, in addition to various cultural facilities such as cinemas and a library. As with the Musée d'Orsay, the building is as interesting - if not more so - than the artwork, with a crazy modern design that places the piping and ventilation outside the building to maximize usable space inside. The artwork is also not of a "crowd-pleasing" nature, with many ultramodern works consisting of nothing more than lines, a canvas painted one solid color, or even empty white canvases!

Sacré Cœur et Montmarte

Another famous cathedral in Paris, although very different from the more classic ones above, is the "Sacré Cœur," or "Sacred Heart," built on top of a mountain in the erstwhile Bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre. The cathedral is not very old - at least not on a Paris timeline - but is lovely and is situated at the end of a nice, though very hilly, park. When we went inside, there happened to be some sort of concert going on where nuns in habits were singing beautiful a cappella songs, which was quite nice. As it is so high on top of the hill, the views of the rest of the city are also quite impressive.

Le Musée du Louvre

As always, save the best for last! The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums, and has an incomprehensibly vast collection, with pieces ranging from 19th-century Europe to Mesopotamia in 1000 BCE. It houses the hyper-famous "Mona Lisa" as well as Hammurabi's Code and other well-known works. You could easily spend an entire week inside and never see everything, but we felt fairly content with the two hours we spent hitting the highlights.

Our shameless selfie with the Mona Lisa

Lady Liberty Guiding the People

As with every other Parisian museum, the Louvre is also housed in an interesting building - this time the former main royal palace of the city (the bottom right picture above shows a part of Napoleon's apartments that have been preserved in a wing of the museum as a sort of testament to what the interior looked like when it was a palace and not a museum). The palace is truly gargantuan, and even when you are standing in the middle (such as where Natalie is standing in the picture below) and its unending wings are stretching out on either side of you, it is hard to take in in its entirety. It's not so hard to see how the impoverished people, seeing such distasteful displays of wealth and power, decided they were sick of their ruling monarchs!

That about wraps up my rapid-fire account of our whirlwind tour of Paris. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Paris is so huge and vast that it is impossible to cover any significant portion of the city in only three days, but we were certainly able to hit many of the highlights, and perhaps during my remaining time in Europe I'll be able to head back for another trip to seek out some of the lesser-known, off-the-beaten-track type places!

Sevilla, Cádiz, Carnaval

At the end of February, Natalie and I made another trip to the south of Spain to visit the cities of Seville and Cadiz. We had wanted to check out Cadiz, a small city on the "Costa del sol" (Coast of the Sun) in the south of Spain, for its huge Carnival celebrations. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a place to stay, but we found out about a travel company that had a shuttle bus there from Seville, which is only about an hour away, to take part in the revelries. It ended up working out perfectly, because we had plenty of time to visit Seville, the fourth largest city in Spain, but still didn't miss out on the Cadiz craziness!

An old-timey poster in a restaurant exemplifying the "spirit" of Sevilla, and of Andalusia in general

Cádiz Carnaval

The whole point of our trip to Sevilla was to spend a night in Cadiz, where the biggest Carnival celebration in Spain takes place. Carnival (or Carnaval in Spanish) is based on the same idea as Mardi Gras - a huge, crazy party to sate yourself on sins and revelry before the beginning of Lent's forty-day privations. The Carnival celebrations in Venice and Rio de Janeiro are probably the most famous ones in the world, but the festivities in Cadiz are without a doubt the best-known throughout Spain.

A few views of the crazy Carnaval celebrations in Cadiz

The celebrations basically consisted in dressing up in a crazy costume and drinking in the streets. This would have been a whole lot more fun if it had not been freezing and miserably windy! Nevertheless, it was pretty impressive what an insane amount of people came from far and wide to cram into this tiny port city, dressed in all kinds of silly costumes. However, because the Old City Center is quite small, and made up of tiny, winding, labyrinthine streets, it got quite crowded and quite claustrophobic at times. It was difficult to stay together with your friends and there was beer, broken bottles and all kinds of other unpleasant substances all over the streets. To be honest, I can't say that "enjoy" is really the best word to describe my feelings towards it, but it was certainly a unique experience, and all-in-all I'm glad we went!

Sevilla

Aside from the one night in Cadiz for Carnival, most of our trip was concentrated in Seville (or Sevilla in Spanish). It is the fourth largest city in Spain, has the third largest cathedral in Europe, and unending layers of history dating back at least to Roman times. It is also the capital of Andalusia, a province in the southern part of Spain famous for Flamenco, orange trees, warm weather and countless architectural monuments left over from Spain's Islamic period.

La torre del oro (The Golden Tower)

I had already been to Seville once before when Elizabeth came to visit me at the end of my research summer two years ago, but I enjoyed it even more the second time. The weather was about ten degrees warmer than in Madrid and lovely almost the whole time we were there: mid- to upper-sixties and mostly clear and sunny.

Young people taking advantage of the weather to drink in a park by the river. Drinking in public, or botellón, has long been a big part of Spanish culture, and although it is now illegal, the tradition still persists in many parts of the country

Seville was once the official port of entry for all ships coming from the Americas during the days of Spanish colonialism, and many of its famous monuments derive from this period of wealth and commerce. All of this was made possible by the now no-longer navigable Guadalquivir River, which cuts picturesquely through the heart of town.

A view across the river to the neighborhood of Triana

The Royal Castles and the Cathedral

Seville's two most famous attractions - the royal castles and the cathedral - both date back to this time period of bustling trade, lively commerce and great wealth. The castles, which have their oldest roots in Islamic fortresses which preceded the current buildings, were added to and expanded over a long period of time by various Spanish kings and queens. They feature a style of architecture called mudéjar which is found in few places outside Andalusia. Although they seem enormous and labyrinthine as you are wandering through them, what remains of the castles today is actually a tiny percent of their original extent.

Right to left: Patio de las doncellas, Royal Gardens, Entry Courtyard

Famous mudéjar tile-work, found throughout the castles

The cathedral also has its roots in Islamic architecture - in fact, the tower, whose height gives the cathedral its claim to fame as the third largest in Europe, is not a "Christian" construction at all, but a leftover from a mosque that once stood in the precise location of the current cathedral! You can still climb the tower for great views of the city: the most interesting part of this experience is that, instead of stairs, you ascend the entire tower via ramps! The Muslim architects built it this way so that the muezzin, or the man who sang the call to prayer five times a day every day, could ride his donkey up instead of having to walk.

The cathedral tower, which is called "La giralda"

Other Sites

In addition to its medieval cathedral and castle complex, Seville also has many buildings and parks which were constructed in the early twentieth century in preparation for the city's hosting of the World Fair. The largest and most famous park in the city - Parque María Luisa, with its enormous plaza which is famous for having been featured in a number of movies, most notably Star Wars - along with one of the nicest hotels in all of Spain - Hotel Alfonso XIII - were constructed during this time period. The hotel is still running today and is so fancy that it holds a rating of "5 star plus!" We went one night to have fancy drinks in their beautiful courtyard and spent an hour feeling like we had been transported to a ritzy mansion in early-twentieth century Spain.

Plaza de España in the María Luisa Park

The Hotel Alfonso XIII

We were able to learn all of this information, and come to appreciate the city's conflicted and multifaceted history, thanks to a couple of "free walking tours" which we heard about from our hostel. The tour guide, whose name was Medi, was absolutely fantastic - not only was he funny and engaging, but he really knew his history and did a good job recounting a lot of dense, difficult stories in an enjoyable way. His tours really made the trip, and have encouraged us to do more walking tours during our future travels whenever they're offered!

Our guide, Medi, in the midst of a fascinating story