Seeing horrible things in Oswiecim

Hello everyone, at the moment I'm in Krakow, Poland. Been here now for 3 days and planning to head to Budapest tonight by nighttrain.
So you all might be wondering what has Joost been doing the last week between Berlin and Krakow. Well....
Monday the 17th after I posted my last blog, I went cycling on Tine's bike through the city. And seriously you need a bike or public transport if you want to see some sites in this massive German city. Visited Checkpoint Charlie, the famous checkpoint between east and west Berlin but there where so many tourists around aswell in the museum about the checkpoint. And went to a photo exposition about WWII and to a museum where they had a exposition about an old ancient city divers found near the coast of Egypt (Zou wat voor jou geweest zijn Dutch).
Next day did the same cycled around Berlin visited the Holocaust monument, the Jewish Museum and another museum about Egyption art. And I saw the location where Hitlers bunker probably would have been located and where the russians burned his body.
Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Tine's roommates and left before 8 by train to a station in the suburbs close to the road that would take me to Dresden/Prague.
Ooh and I really want to thank Tine again for letting me stay in her room. (Thanks Tine)
After waiting for an hour on my hitch spot I decided to look for a better location, walked for an hour then took the train to a better location where I was being picked up within 10 minutes. The guy with a really nice but slow van brought me all the way to the border with the Czeck Republic, and he only needed to go to Dresden so made a detour of about 2 hours and he gave me a free coffee at a Rasthof. I arrived at the border around 14:00 after a 3 hours ride, had to walk another 40 minutes to get to a gasstation where I was looking for people heading to Prague. Allot of people had there cars already pretty packed but eventually around 16 o'clock I found a ride with 4 dutch guys who rented a car and who were driving through europe. Arrived at 18 in the capital, found a hostel walked around the city and the same evening I bought a ticket to get to Krakow for the next day. Why? Well in the few hours I walked through the city I finded it extremly touristic and not allot of travellers and just wanted to leave again.
The next morning got up early walked around the city for a few hours saw the amazing castle and bridge (highlights in the city) but I just didn't like it to be here. I have heard it from allot of travellers that Prague is not worth it to visit, there are somany tourists and maybe because of the heat it just made it unbearable to stay longer in this city. The rest of the day I stayed in the hostel and watched some TV.
Left at 20:00 o'clock to the trainstation to catch my train, because I had sort of an open ticket valid for 2 months?!? and without a seat number or anything I went back to the ticket office and asked about which seat I had. Then the guy said that the train was already booked full, God-f**king-damned, and I especially bought a ticket to leave that night. Well shit happens right? So I made a reservation for the next night and got a trainticket with a seat number. Talked to some young people from Czeck and they said that the hostel on the campus of Prague would be cheaper to stay. So took a bus up the hill close to the stadion, checked in the hostel and bought a nice Pizza and some beers to make me feel better.
Friday had to check out at 10 and spend my day reading, listening to some music and fixing my sandals in the park up on the hill till about 15 o'clock when a big thunder storm was coming closer and closer. Took a bus and subway back to the trainstation where I waited another 4 hours, talked to a couple of american girls and played some chess with them.
Finally it was 21:00 and jumped on the train away from Prague in the direction of Krakow. Bought a nice seat in the train because I wanted to save 10 euro's which you had to pay more when you wanted a bed on the train. Shared the compartment with 4 young 17 year old girls who were drinking allot of booze during the train ride.
Had a nice chat with them the whole ride, slept for not more then an hour. Arrived in Krakow at 6 in the morning, found a nice hostel and slept till about 13:00. Wondered through the city (still touristic but nicer) later on met 2 american dudes (Andrew and George) and went out to check on the night life in Poland.
Bought some famous Polish vodka and nice big beers and visited some cool bars.
Sunday we left with the 3 of us to Oswiecim (Auswitch in Polish), a place which has been on my list for quite some years now. It takes a little bit more then an hour to get there and we took a guide who showed us and 24 others through the museum Auswitch I and Auswitch II Birkenau (the place where all the barracks and gas-chambers were located)
It is really a terrible place and sometimes really hard to imagine what really happened here. After visiting a gas-chamber the last one remaining where the germans first tried the deadly gas Zyklon B on 600 polish prisoners and walking through torture chambers it really touches you. Well it did to me and allot of other travellers who visited the place, who I talked to later on. But there are still allot of tourist who ignore the ''Don't take pictures" signs and take pictures of places where horrible things happened. During our tour Andrew found a bone between the barracks, it looked like a human bone, a part of hip bone or something. Really strange huh?, so later on we wanted to talk to the manager, who wasn't in but a woman who worked there said that it would be highly unlikely it to be a human bone. So we asked her if she could find it out and maybe if it would be a human bone she would take care of it in an appropriate way.
Only stayed for 20 minutes at Birkenau, because we had to catch the last bus back, sad actually because I really wanted to walk around there for a longer time. Birkenau is a huge camp and I mean gigantic, allot of barracks are destroyed during the years or by the germans and there are no more gas chambers or crematoriums left, all blown up by the germans who wanted to destroy the evident. But there are still some barracks left in which you can see how the people who were kept alive, lived but mainly its a place full of ruins.
Got back around 20:00 o'clock by train.
That evening played some cards with a big group of backpackers and I decided to stay another 2 days in Krakow, because of the nice atmosphere in the hostel.
Next day (monday) played some cards started early with drinking with a big group and went out to a nice club. I also decided to go to Budapest, Hungary so bought my nighttrain ticket for the day after (this night today the moment I'm writing this story)
I was still deciding which direction I wanted to travel to because Ukraine really sounds beautifull, I heard some amazing stories about that country. And not allot of tourists at all but because the train to Kiev was already full I decided first to go Budapest and then maybe head to Ukraine or maybe Romania. Its amazing to have no plans and being able to change your route anytime you want.
Today didn't do allot because it's also so extremly hot (in Budapest it will be even hotter!), in my way back in a few weeks I want to visit Auswitch again and stay longer in Birkenau and visit the Salt mines which I heard some good stories about.
So tonight I'm gonna head to Budapest by a 10 hour train ride with a group of nice english travellers.
I hope you all still enjoyed this massive story about my adventures here in the east.

I still love to travel here and experience so many new things, seeing new places and meeting so many interesting people.

Do Widzenia.