Last weekend definitely took the spot for my favorite weekend abroad so far. We went to Krakow, Poland. Getting there sucked because we took a three hour train then had a four hour lay over in a little Czech town and then took a two hour bus and finally ended up in Krakow around 10pm. There were four of us so we decided to stay in a hostel, which turned out to be in a perfect location right near the city square. First of all, I didn’t know much about the city of Krakow and I definitely didn’t expect it to be as beautiful as it is. We went during the day and saw the castle and went to Schindler’s factory museum and walked around and it was a beautiful day. I really enjoyed the city. Also, the night life was a lot of fun and everything was really close to our hostel so we didn’t have to take ubers or taxis anywhere. The reception person at our hostel told us really cool and cheap spots to get food and drinks so the weekend wasn’t that costly either.

However, the main reason we decided to go to Krakow was to visit Auschwitz, the notorious concentration camp. We went here Saturday morning, we took an hour bus ride from our hostel and started at the extermination camp first. It is worse than I imagined it. The barbed wire fences go on for miles and there are rows and rows of gas chamber ruins. The barracks where the prisoners slept were just pieces of wood stacked together. In the back there’s the crematorium, where the Nazis would burn the deceased bodies. Now there’s a tombstone there for all the people who lost their lives. 1.5 million people were murdered at Auschwitz alone. We also headed to Auschwitz I, which has been turned into museums. You walk through the buildings and you see different stories about the people who were imprisoned. It was heart breaking. To see where they lived and how they were treated was truly an overwhelmingly sad experience, but I’m glad I saw it.