Today is day number six in Krakow. While this city has defininitely held my interest more so than Berlin and Prague, I think I'm ready to move on. From this point on I'll be spending only a few days each place I go, instead of a whole week. It's often too long of a time and now that I'm more confident in traveling I think I'll be hopping around a lot more. I pushed my bus ticket to Budapest back a week and instead I'm spending that time in Poland. I'm planning on doing three nights in both Warsaw and Wroclaw before heading back to Krakow to catch my bus south. Wroclaw is supposed to be a nice college town, and while all I've heard about Warsaw from the locals is that it "is a shithole" I still would like to see it. And I figure since I'll only be there for two days, it's no big deal if I hate it.

I went to Auschwitz yesterday, and the weather was horrible - raining and about 47 degrees. I could of went another day, but when I looked at the weather it was more of the same with even colder temps. Because I was cold and wet, I had a hard time concentating which was a bit disappointing. The tour through Auschwitz wasn't bad because we were mostly in the buildings, but then we went over to Birkenau and it just started pouring and there was no shelter. Birkenau was built after Auschwitz - it's about thee Km down the road, thee times the size, and where most of the prisoners were mudered. It's such a vast area, and it looked really eerie in the rain. We made our way to the end of the camp where there's a memorial, and then we had to walk back to the entrance - at least 1/4 of a mile directly into the wind and the rain. My pants were completely soaked through and I felt so miserable, but then I felt bad because of where I was and the stories I just
heard. You can't really complain about anything when you're at someplace like Auschwitz. I think the most awful thing I saw were these "stalls" in the basement of one of the buildings. I'd say they were about 3x3 and the only way in was this tiny door you would have to crawl through. Inside, prisoners were made to stand each night, four to a stall, sometimes for two weeks at a time, and then go out and work each day. I can't even begin to comprehend how the ss officers that worked in these camps could be so inhumane. Of the 1,300,000 prisoners brought to Auschwitz, 1,100,000 of them died.

The bus back to Krakow was completely full and I had to stand for the entire two-hour ride. It wasn't the standing I minded so much as the abrupt stopping and going - I got extremely car sick. If I'd had anything to eat recently, I would have thrown up. As it was, it was just an exceptionally queasy ride.

I'm so annoyed - there was a great flea market right across the street from my hostel today. I looked around briefly this morning, but I needed to go to an ATM, so I just decided to come back later. I went to the mall to get an iPod charger (they wanted $50 for the Apple one! I think I paid $5 on eBay) I ended up getting some shady off brand, but thankfully it works fine. Anyway, I came back to the hostel to eat lunch and decided to take a nap. When I woke up - three hours later, oops - the flea market was completely gone! It's only four! There were sweaters I needed! The highs in Poland for the next week and a half don't stretch farther than the upper 40s! I am sacrificing drastically warmer weather to stay in Poland another week. Hopefully it's worth it.

I picked up some yogurt to eat with this muesli I had, and I open it up and apparently it's milk. Vanilla flavored milk in a yogurt container. I saw the word Dannon and grabbed it. Apparently Dannon sells milk in the yogurt section here in Poland. I ended up eating some of it - it wasn't too bad, just a little sweet.

Has anyone heard of Vegemite? It's this paste that Australians eat on bread - I think it's made from yeast - and it's disgusting. I made the mistake of sticking a whole glob in my mouth without knowing what it tasted like - bad decision. It's like eating a spoonful of salt, but about five times worse. Definitely must be an acquired taste. Weird Aussies. I actually don't like Australians much. I think because so many of them travel, you get a much wider range of people, and a lot of them are rather loud and annoying. The girls all seem really preoccupied with hair, makeup, and fashion - something I didn't think I'd run into backpacking, but I've since learned it is apparently possible to live out of a backpack and still look like a model.

Back home I rarely ate pork, but I don't have much choice here. In fact I'm not sure I've eaten any meat that wasn't pork since I left. It's not making me sick though, which makes me think it was the chemicals in the food back home, not the actual pork that made me ill. It's a lot harder to follow dietary guidelines here, but nothing is processed and I know things are healthier just because they don't use all those preservatives.

I actually wrote this post yesterday (Sunday) in two different parts, but I didn't have a
chance to post it. Sorry if it seems sort of disjointed. The hostel I'm at right now is really small and they only have one computer. I felt bad monopolizing it to post an
entry. I ended up writing this on my iTouch so excuse any grammar -
it's a pain typing on this tiny screen.

I'm staying in an 8 bed dorm right now, and seven new people checked
in last night - all Australians. That's seven Australians too many in
my opinion. I have two more full days here, but no one to hang out
with, so I'm not looking forward to them all that much. Tomorrow I'm
taking the bus to this national park - it will be nice to get out of
the city. Four weeks now in big cities is starting to get to me. There
are these beautiful mountains on the Slovakian border, just south of
here that I'd love to go to, but I think it would probably be
freezing. The high in Warsaw on Thursday is only 37! But temperatures
dropped drastically all over Eastern Europe this week, so it's cold
pretty much everywhere now. I'll just have to deal. I got some wool
knee high socks yesterday.