August 20 & 21- Bratislava Slovakia

We spent just a short time in Bratislava Slovakia. One of the highlights was going on a free walking tour of Bratislava. The guide was named Timmy and he had a ton of history to tell us about Slovakia. One of the most interesting stories was when Napoleon invaded in the early 1800´s. He tried to seige the Bratislava Castle, but was unsuccessful, so he shot a cannonball into a bell tower instead. The cannonball is there to this day. What did the Slovakians do? They built a commemorative statue to Napoleon. No one knows why. A couple years later the castle caught fire from some Italians inside. Apparently, the castle survived a seige by Napoleon but does not survive an Italian dinner.

We also learned about the role Slovakia played in WW2. Before the war, Slovakia was Czecho-Slovakia, but Hitler put pressure on the Slovacks to become independent. Instead of being taken over by Germany, they agreed to be allies. When they realized how bad Hitler was, they switched sides. Ever since the end of the war, they have been trying to save their tarnished image brought about by siding with a monster.

We were there on a special day. Exactly 42 years before, Soviet Forces rolled into Bratislava. After WW2, Slovakia were taken over by Soviet Forces. A little while before that, Alexander Dubcek gained control of Czechoslovakia, but didn´t do what the Soviets thought he should. On the morning of August 21, the people of Bratislava were woken up by Soviet tanks driving through the city. A lot of people credit the events happening in Prague, but we stood on the same streets it happened.

After the tour, we had a nice lunch and saw a large group of people dressed as zombies and dancing to Michael Jackson´s "Thriller" in the town square. That was fun. Later that evening we decided to go see a movie. It has been 4 months since we saw an Engish movie. It was quite nice.

To find out more about the events and the photographs of Prague Spring, go to:http://www.fgslovakia.com/2008/8/21/august-1968-when-the-tanks-came-rolling-in

August 19: Auschwitz/Birkenau

Today was a difficult day. We went to the Auschwitz/Birkenau Concentration Camp. It is a huge camp constisting of 3 seperate parts. We went to the first two. Just the size of it alone is heartwrenching. It is also known as a death camp because many people were lead straight to the gas chamber when they got there. The train tracks were literally a few feet away from the gas chamber and crematorium for easy access. Over 1 million people died there: over 90% were Jews, but also Gypsies, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, etc. Most people have heard the statistics, but it is really hard to get a grasp on the horrors. Auschwitz is a little different because it is more personalized. It is the only concentration camp that kept records of the prisoners, so we got to hear the stories and see the pictures of the actual people.

Here are some pictures we took at the camp. Some of these are very difficult to look at, but I think is is very important to be aware of what our fellow man has suffered.


The toilettes the prisoners used.




The gas chamber.




The window the poisonous gas was dropped through.


The crematorium.


The ash pit where the ashes were thrown after the bodies were cremated. It is the size of a small swimming pool.



Children who were being experimented on.


Wall of people who did not survive.


Four people would be made to stand in these boxes for days on end. They were the size of a small telephone boxes.


The yard that victims were shot. It was close to all the other buildings, so when someone was executed, all the other prisoners could hear it.


Combs and brushes taken from the victims.


Dolls and children´s clothes.


Children´s shoes.


This only shows a portion of shoes taken from the prisoners.


Cooking pots taken from the prisoners.


Eye glasses taken from the victims.


This was unbelievable! This is hair taken from women to be later made into fabric. The wall of hair was about 8 feet high, 8 feet deep, and at least 40 feet long.

Gas canisters used in the gas chambers.



The gate entering the camp. The words above say "Work Makes You Free". No one was ever set free, but some of the time, if the Nazis could use you for slave labor, you weren´t killed, at the time.

August 18- Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today has been one of the coolest days on the trip so far, and I don´t mean weather. We went to the nearby town of Wieliczka to visit the salt mine. The mine was in operation for 700 years until it became a major tourist draw. We took an English tour that lasted almost 3 hours and we still only saw 1 percent of the mine. We went into the ground over 400 feet. The place is huge! Along the way we learned about how they mined the salt and saw many impressive things. There were many sculptures that were done by the miners, an underground lake, and 3 chapels, and a banquet hall. In the biggest chapel (a full sized church really) everything is salt: the floor which looks like tiles, the sculptures, the chandeliers, and the alterpiece. It was amazing! It was actually a grey color instead of white because there were different minerals combined with the salt. However, there were pockets of pure white table salt that came through the walls and we were invited to try it. We did. Pure table salt. We tried to get good pictures, but because of the low lighting, we really couldn´t. You´ll have to believe me when I say it´s much better in person. If anyone is planning a trip to Krakow (which I definately recommend), you have got to see it for yourselves. There are alot of stairs to climb down (I believe around 800 over three levels), but there is a kart that takes you back up. Wow, what a day!