Poland

From April 11th to 13th, Rotary Hungary took all of the exchange students to Krakow to meet with the Polish exchange students and to visit Auschwitz. Unfortunately, none of the Canadian exchange students in Poland were able to come to meet with us in Krakow, but I did get to meet many other students, and I will be going on the Polish Euro Tour so I will have my chance to do some Canuck bonding at that time.

Krakow's city centre was absolutley gorgous. One of the things I like most about European cities is that almost all of them have a great big square in the middle of the city where only pedestrians are allowed. The main square in Krakow has a big building in the middle which was orginally a carpet market, but now sells tourist knick knacks. Both days in Poland were spent outside of the city of Krakow visiting Auschwitz and a salt mine, so I only got to see Krakow during the night, but I will be going back to the city just before my Euro Tour starts so I will get to see the city during the day.

The salt mine we went to was not really that interesting, so I don't feel compelled to share with you. Auschwitz, on the other hand, was a very powerful experience. Auschwitz was the biggest of the Nazi concentration camps. I had the privelege of seeing Elie Wiesel, novelist and Auschwitz survivor, when he came to give a lecture in Calgary last year. Elie wrote the novel 'Night' which is a memoir of his holocaust imprisonment. I studied this novel in school last year, and having Elie Wiesel's story in my head already made the experience that much more powerful.

Below is a picture of the main gates into Auschwitz I. The words above say 'work sets you free.'