Day 9 and 10: From Auschwitz via Krakow and Warshaw to Vilnus

We started our day with visiting the biggest former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. The camp itself is enormous and is divided into three parts; Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Brickenau, where the biggest gas chambers used to be and Auschwitz III that was completely distroyed after the Germans lost the war. It really was a factory designed for killing people. Those that were lucky enough to survive the first separation and weren't murdered right upon the arrival, were later badly humiliated and forced to work in unhuman circumbstances under the slogan ˝Arbeit macht frei˝. More than a million people were brutally murdered either by gassing, lethal injection, shot in the head or died from exhaustion and starvation. Seeing all the pictures there was quite schocking.

After visiting the camp we made our way to Krakow and strolled around its streets for a bit and then went to Warshaw. We stayed at Paulina's yesterday night, thanks again for the hospitality!

We are about to set off from Warshaw to Vilnus, we have a lot of driving to do!


Entry to the concentration camp Auschwitz I


Auschwitz - Brickenau

The museum sticker

The hair of 40 000 women and girls that were killed at Auschwitz

Victims' glasses. According to the Nazis nothing should have been wasted

The victims

The memorial to the victims

The train station where the victims were separated to those who were capable of working and to those who weren't and were sent to the gas chambers immediately

In Krakow

The Krakow castle

The knitting marathon starts today!!!! Let's see how fast we can complete the mission!

*UPS*

Day 8: Reunited with Elza

After a day more spent in Wroclaw, the Polish mechanics (unlike the Slovene ones) managed to fix our car and we are ready to go weiter. We stayed at Monika's tonight and we really did feel like at home. We are driving towards Auschwitz today, where we are going to spend the night (outside the camp, no worries).

*UPS*


Wroclaw city center


Lu and the dwarfs

Do you need a ride?

Together with Monika

Day 7: Welcome to Poland

Today, when we woke up in the morning the sun was shining through the window, which was a pleasant change after the last couple of days of pouring rain. We said goodbye to Marek and Ola, sat in the car and were about to leave for Auschwitz, looking forward to seeing Krakow in the afternoon. And then it has started...

When we were waiting at the crossroad someone started banging on the car and told us that we have an empty tire. This is the sum of the converstion that followed for those that are privileged to understand Slovene:

5ra: Jah, welcome to Poland, ane.
Urša: Matr, sam lih včeri smo rekl kok mamo letos sreče z avtom...
5ra: To nm je en zih gumo prerezu ponoč
Sabrina: Iz čiste zabave, ja...
5ra: Ej, sam to so men doma rekl, tlele okrog so sami cigani. Pa kr verjamem, veš.

Well, it turned out that no one cut our tire during the night, we just somehow managed to drive across a nail. We started changing the tire right in the middle of the street, which was a nice show for everyone around here; three girls with a foreign car, walking around with black hands and rolling around the tires ...

The spare tire we had was only an emergency one, so we had to take the real one to the mechanic as soon as possible. At least the GPS was functioning know, as we managed to charge it during the night, because we can't do that from the car, as the car charger's fuze burnt out. We were all set and ready to go and then the car wouldn't start. We tried doing everything. Changing the keys, opening the hood, plugging out the battery (the everyday procedure; we've had the same problem last year) and waiting but nothing helped. Luckily there she was - our saviour. Monika helped us take the tire to the tire mechanic, called the towing service and told the mechanics that we are coming, because very few of them spoke English.

At the moment we are sitting in a bar drinking beer knowing that we won't be driving today anymore waiting for the mechanic to call us and tell us what's wrong with the car. It looks like we will be staying in Wroclaw for a bit longer than we expected...

Urša

Goodbye photoshooting with Marek and Ola

Welcome to Poland!

You should have seen Sabrina's face when she saw the speed limit on the temporary tire :O

Urša unscrewing the tire screws

Sabrina unscrewing the tire screws

Petra unscrewing the tire screws

Ol' Dirty nail Bastard (R.I.P.) :D

Top shit!

The tire mechanic

The only rock in town to ensure non-movement of the car

Putting the real tire back on

Elza loaded

*UPS*

Day 6: Walking along Teplice Rocks

We are back together again and are in Wroclaw in Poland at the moment.

While Sabrina and Petra were exploring Prague I was running on European Open with Lu.

If this year's EO had to be described with one word only, it would definitely be wet. It was really VERY, VERY, wet. On the first night our tent nearly got blown away, it started leaking and Barbara and I spent most of the night deciding wheter or not we should evacuate together with all three dogs and just sleep in the car. Other two days were a bit better, but still cold and windy, which caused loads of people to move out of the camp into a nearby hotel.

Our camp after the storm


Otherwise the venue was amaizing, the stadium was big enough for even more than four courses, but we completely distroyed the grass and all that was left was mud.
Lu and I had a bit of a bad luck on both days, we had one clear round and one elimination each day, but it was a good practice for the coming World Championship in Germany anyway. Others from our team did really well, Brigita & Ela finished third in small and Zoli & Pilko second in medium kathegory in the final round. Our Croatian friends did well too, Željko & Tip finished third in large. Big congrats to all!!!

We visited a church full of skulls in Kutna Hora and went walking into Teplice Rocks national park, which is known for its unusual rock formation. Our GPS charger broke down today and we were trying to navigate using the maps, which turned out to be very interesting. Sabrina and Petra left a little souvenir in Prague, they both forgot their favourite pair of shorts drying on a chair in the camp. Well, at least the person who will take them home will be happy.

We are staying at Marek and Ola's tonight, thank you both for letting us stay at yours!

Urša


The church in Kutna Hora

A family of backpackers

Teplice rocks

The hunter on the watch

She just couldn't move away from the frame ;)

Fancy some climbing?

Wroclaw at night

The lover's bridge - couples come here on Valentine's day and put the lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the river

View from the island on the river

The dwarfs, the symbol of Wroclaw

*UPS*

Day 3, 4 and 5: The Prague overview

These days it got so cold in Prague that even our official homeless guy got himself a sweater!

After those few days in Amsterdam (last year Urša had the European Championship in the Netherlands and left our lost souls wandering alone in Amsterdam;), Prague hasn't quite stood up to the expectations.

After some hard-core rain showers on Friday and the dissapointing discovery that our tent is not really waterproof :S we spent most of our days strolling the streets of Prague trying to find some peace and quiet away from the mad bunch of american tourists.
The day routine: coffee and tuna in the morning, beer and crisps in the evening.

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town City Hall


The Dancing House by Frank O. Ghery


Škoda kicking Mercedes' ass

The Church of the Sacred Heart by Jože Plečnik

The inside during the Mass

The best approximation of Laško Zlatorog in Czech Republic

Sunset take one ...


... and sunset take two



p.s.: To make all of us useful during the drive, we decided to knit ourselves three beanies for the final photoshooting on Nordkapp. From now on our roles are: the driver, the codriver and the knitter.

another p.s.: We've cut some sheep today :D

*PS*