POLAND

well... we set out on our journey on saturday morning at 4:30 am. we went to the airport and flew to krakow poland. (short layover in warshaw) and it was BEAUTIFUL weather. seriously, i had no idea how badly i had been missing the warmth and beauty that is the sun. i was so happy all day long. YAY!!!!

anyways, we went to our hostel The Dizzy Daisy and it was the cutest thing ever. we were anxious to go explore and see the city of Krakow.
we went to the main square to see the fun shops. it was beautiful. we walked through the park, around the streets, in the square... EVERYWHERE. i was surprised because i thought that poland was going to be a dark, dreary and bleh place but it was so pretty and full of things to go and do! for lunch i had a salad and once again.. i was SO happy about it. seriously i have been craving a green salad for months (literally) and it was so amazingly delicious.

market in krakow

 the wavel castle

the high of this day was, we walked to this catholic church and it had this cool look-out wall and it over looked the river and an amazing view. well we were tired from being awake all day, our feel hurt, and the sun just felt too dang good, so we just sat on the wall for probably an hour or so just laughing, talking and having so much fun. i love all of the girls i am here with. we are all different but i love them all SO much! there isnt ONE of the them that i dont love dearly! 

after that we decided to go and eat dinner. we got mexican food because we were missing it... and it was less then spectacular. not what we were wanting it to be. but oh well, i guess thats what we get for being in poland, eating mexican. silly american girls.

after dinner we did some more shopping and we decided to go to this HUGE mall that they have here. we went into H&M and browsed for a few hours... and then decided it was time to go back to the hostel. we shared a room with 4 other people which made for an interesting experience.... (im sparing the details for my mom/familiy's sake)

we woke up the next day and went on a tour of auschwitz. holy cow. there are no words for all that i felt there. we went on a guided tour which i am very thankful for. we were able to hear so many more stories and different facts about everything. it was such a humbling experience. i had assumed i would cry throughout the whole thing because we all know how sad the holocaust was, but i didnt cry at all for the first hour or so. i was holding up great until this one part of the tour. we weren't allowed to take pictures in certain parts because its a memorial site but it was so hard to take it all in. there was one room where they had 2 tons of actual human hair from when they would buzz it right when they got there. there was so much hair, and it was crazy because the tour guide said that they found 7 tons. can you imagine!? that is the part when i lost it and started crying. seeing all of the children's shoes that were taken from them. oh my heck... it was heart wrenching  i couldn't believe it. and then we walked into the next room and it was FULL of shoes, the tour guide said that it was only 5% of what they had found... about 80,000 pairs.  and then we saw pictures of people that died there and it just became so much more real to me. to be able to put faces and shoes to actual events... it just hurt my heart.  there were other things that were very interesting to me...

-hilters plan was to kill 11 million jews/poles/gypsies etc and by the end of the war they killed a little more then 6 million. 1.2 million were killed at this camp.
-90% of the jewish and polish population died during the war.
-A Hebrew sign at the gas chamber entrance proclaimed: "This is a Gateway to God" 
-Slave labor at Auschwitz generated about £125million for the Nazis
-there was a room that they would squish 4 grown men and make them stand all night, go to work the next day for a 10 hour day and then back to the standing area without food or water to see how long it would take for them to die. 
-they tricked a lot of people to thinking that this camp was a "happy place" so they brought with them pots, pans, utensils  clothes, everything.
-when people escaped from the camp they would kill 12 in their place. one man was begging for his life and so another man took his place. that man ended up living through and just passed away a few years ago.


after the camp we walked around and wandered the streets a little bit. we went to this place called Babci Maliny... so good! my friend Brandon recommended it and i am sooo grateful he did. it was absolutely delicious! we ate and then wandered some more. 

i had forgotten my toothbrush and was DYING. i refused to wash my teeth with my finger so i found some toothbrushes in this little dispenser. how perfect was that!?

my boots were mad at me throughout the day and gave up on me. 

that night we took a sleeper train to prague. i was the lucky one who got to be on the top of three beds. it was us 5 girls plus a cute little old man who didnt speak much english. he was so cute!

squished at the top!

i was out!!!!

the next morning we has a beautiful view before we got into the city of prague....