A Sad History

DAY TWO.

I thought things will get better once the Irish blokes have been put to sleep, but disappointingly I was wrong. I wasn't lying when I said before that one or two of them were even farting while asleep, in tune with the snoring and moaning of the rest of the gang. It was like having a nightmare. No, actually, it was a nightmare and I wanted to get away with it by running to the showers at 6 am when I didn't even have to get up until 9. Even the mixed showers were dominated by men and I have no idea where the hell the women have gone. And surprise surprise, I was able to go back to sleep. Hey our Irish roomies, I guess you weren't annoying enough huh, bwahaha!

For the third time I woke up, it was almost 10 and Wayne have also woken up so it was time to get some food because we haven't really eaten properly for over 24 hours. It was free breakfast at the hostel first and finally, just when I thought I booked a bed in an exclusive for men only hostels, I saw two or three women who were having breakfast at the same time as us. We were eating slowly, as slow as possibe that we would only have a couple of minutes to run to the train station to catch our train to Auschwitz. It says on my journal our train was at 10:54am and it also says that I felt like I almost died from running to catch our train which we almost nearly missed. Phew, I'd die not to miss my train because you know, I'll have to wait another hour for the next one and that is quite crap, so I'd rather erm.. die.

It was probably an hour to get to Auschwitz from Krakow, but I am just taking a guess, I could be, I dunno, right? We took this opportunity for me to write in my journal and Wayne in his diary. He's got this ugly little black notebook which I found very ordinary and yet it has made Wayne believe that it's a legendary notebook. Those two are definitely on crack and I couldn't care less. Anyway, the train ride was ridiculously wiggly I couldn't write very well, like I can ever write well anyway, so I decided to not write and do something that is not writing on my journal.

After taking 7,900 photos of Wayne and an hour after, we have finally arrived in Auschwitz. It was in the middle of the day and the sun is very high up we felt we needed a drink or two so we stopped by a small restaurant that seemed to have to sell alcohol because it's a must. Wayne and I bought a bottle of water each and not beers and Vodka like I remembered it wrong! But they did sell alcohol. Oh shoot, my memory is really awful and worse, I now think I have been drinking all the time!

Anyhoo, we took a taxi to the old Nazi camp maybe because we thought buses don't exist, and if they do, they take ages to wait for. Finally, without any much more blabbers, not that I don't enjoy senseless blabbings because I do, it's just that I just want to get to the story sometimes, and I really really do honestly, seriously, really.... really really do, erm finally we have arrived at the camp! But, before we actually got inside the camp, we first paid to watch a short film that was awfully sad and even though I have been to the camp in Dachau before and have seen a film that was, for me, sadder, I was still affected! Darn.

We didn't have to pay for the entrance to get inside the camp as it was free. The day was nice, sunny and warm but I still couldn't help but worry if i'd end up in tears after only a couple of hours (or minutes) like I did in Dachau. So I thought I needed a distraction and thankfully I was given a distraction and I actually had it for almost 24 hours now. It's Wayne of course! The poor old boy has been sneezing a lot due to the pollens here in Poland! I tried not to laugh because it wouldn't be nice unless we have been traveling for more than 2 days already, the boy needed respect, at least for the first two days though I did just give him the name Bastard. I didn't have my moment of silence for every five seconds Wayne would be 'Acheeeeeng!!' and I would pretend that I didn't hear it, that I wasn't laughing inside and that he reminded me so much of Popeye The Sailor Man only with hair and withouth the spinach (or rather green steroids).

Seriously now, though I have not joked yet and I am not a liar, as we all know, Auschwitz concentration camp has been the largest Nazi Germany's concentration camp and some 3 million people died in here. As you enter Auschwitz I, the original camp, the motto at the gate that says 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (Work will set you free) will welcome you. Most of the buildings here were turned into museums where in some you can even see things like shoes and suitcases owned by the victims, and utensils that they also used and even the hair shaved from the victims' heads which were supposed to be used in making cloths. They also displayed personal photos of the victims. The other camp known as Auschwitz II- Birkenau was used as an extermination camp and held around 300 barracks which kept most of the prisoners, but only 19 remained standing today as most were burnt down by the Germans before the war totally ended. It also contained the gas chambers where thousands of people have been killed.


*to be continued*