Krakow & Auschwitz, Poland, 28-29 Dec 09

In the morning we had a stroll around the Krakow castle. It's a great castle up on the hill with views over the city. The cathedral was breathtaking inside and definitely the best part of the castle.

It was absolutely freezing in Krakow and we really hadn't wrapped up enough so we headed back to the hostel but Nick decided he needed another rest day so i headed out again solo.

I took in the market square and the church there. The centre hall was all scaffolded up and the christmas markets were just shutting down so it was all quite quiet but it was really nice just walking around the streets. Krakow isn't as pretty as Prague but I still enjoyed it.

I walked the green belt, a park pathway surrounding the city and had a walk through the jewish quarter. Quite a fascinating town.

On the next day we left Krakow and drove to Auschwitz in Oschweicim. We only just made it in time for a guided tour which I'm so glad we did because it was fascinating.

We spent 2 hours walking through Auschwitz and learning its history and the conditions in which people had to live there. We saw many photos and belongings of people and I learnt a lot.

The prison cells were horrible, they had standing cells where 3-4 men were jammed into a tiny space with no windows and a starvation cell. There was also the death wall behind the prison block where prisoners died by shooting squad. At Auschwitz we were also taken to see one of the only remaining gas chambers. It was awful to think what happened in there.

I didn't realise that there are two very distinct camps. Auschwitz and then Aushwitz-Berkenau a few kms away.

The pictures most people are familiar with are mainly from the second except for the famous "Arbeit macht frei" sign which is at the first camp. The second camp was built during the war and is where they kept most of the Jews. The first camp was mainly for prisoners of war such as Soviet prisoners, political prisoners and medical experimentation.

A bus took us to Auschwitz-Berkenau. The entrance is very familiar with the railway track leading directly into the camp so they could easily unload thousands of people within the camp walls. It was a huge complex, much bigger than I expected but a lot of it had been destroyed when the Germans were ordered to evacuate the camp. They burnt and demolished anything they could.

The wooden barracks where the men lived were horse stables transported from other regions, the women's barracks were on the other side and made of concrete. The conditions are hard to imagine. We saw the ruins of the gas chambers where millions were executed. It was definitely a sobering experience. I am really glad we had the opportunity to visit.

We drove all the way back to Prague in the afternoon and the trip was a lot quicker than expected so we got the Merc dropped off and found our new hostel, a cosy place in a quieter area of Prague. It had a cellar bar which was the best place to chill for the night and I finally tried Becherovka, a Czech spirit which I think is a bit of a cross between anaseid and cinnamon. Took a bit of getting used to.

Cesky Kromlov, Czech Republic, Sun 27 Dec 09

We had hired a car for a 3 day excursion into Poland. So we were up early to leave our wonderful apartment behind and find the Hilton hotel for our car pickup. What a mission! Google maps had no idea where it was but we got there eventually.

Once there we found our little Peugeot 306 hatchback had already gone so instead they gave us a Mercedes C class, black, fast and oh so stylish! Awesome! It was definitely the trip of upgrades.

It was an interesting drive, not only having to get used to driving on the right side of the road but also getting used to a left hand manual drive car. Everything is backwards!

We were actually on our way to Krakow but decided to stop at Cesky Kromlov for a couple hours on the way because we heard it was well worth a visit. And they were definitely right.

A beautiful medieval town with a large castle up on a hill overlooking an old town surrounded by a canal. The place was so cute and like stepping back in time. It was the perfect spot to chill for awhile, have lunch and take lots of gorgeous photos.

Since it was winter not a lot was open but that was actually fantastic because it was really quiet and we didn't have to battle other tourists.

Leaving Cesky Kromlov it was my time to drive. Scary! It took me ages to get used to the gears on the other side and I really didn't like driving in town but I was fine once we were out on the motorway. It was quite fun too because the speedlimit on the motorways is 130km/h & in our awesome Mercedes it was a very comfortable drive. The motorways was also good because we didn't have to deal with quite so many scary crazy driver incidents. Turns out czech drivers are a little crazy, we had our fair share of close calls with overtaking cars and blind corners.

It was a late arrival in Krakow, Poland so we focused on finding the hostel and a spot to park up the car for the next couple of days.

Prague, Czech Republic, Christmas & Boxing Day

Sadly Nick wasn't feeling well at all. What is with us getting sick on Christmas Day on this side of the world? So Nick decided he was going to stay in bed and sleep but didn't want me bored so said I should go out with Roz and Josh. I felt bad leaving him on Christmas Day but figured he needed some peace and quiet to get some rest.

Roz, Josh and I met up in the old town and watched the astronomical clock chime, a very cool clock that also shows the moon phases and other stuff, plus a little skeleton pulls the bell when it chimes ever hour. Very cute.

We had lunch at Pivovrsky Dum restaurant which was on the other side of Prague but well worth it. I had a yummy venison stew with potato croquettes and cider. It was by far the best meal I had in Prague. So delicious!

In the afternoon we visited the Jewish cemetery and synagogues (interesting but not much to them) and walked over the St George Bridge (again!). Roz showed me the Pis statue, of two naked men peeing into a fountain with their hips moving and supposedly spelling out things. Weird.

I then took them to the markets so they could try Tredlink (oh so yum!) and see the Christmas lights. I spent the afternoon back at the apartment with Nick and then we all managed to get out for dinner at the official Pivorsky Dum brewery. The boys loved the beer and the food was delicious.

Wasn't a big night since Nick wasn't well but Roz & Josh gave us Backpackers, a very cool card game, for a present and we all spent the night playing that in the apartment. Quite a lot of fun, and that game causes some firey arguments!

On Boxing Day we did nothing! hehe it was fabulous! In fact I don't think we even left the apartment. Nick slept most of the day trying to battle his cold so I slept in, drank lots of perculated coffee (awesome coffee at the apartment), read and watched movies all day. The best way to spend Boxing day. But dammit I can't beat nick at Backpackers, he's just too good. I haven't won a single game against him yet!

Prague, Czech Republic, Christmas Eve

We moved accommodation on Christmas Eve and were staying at Miss Sophies Hostel. The booking had been quite eventful. Firstly when I had booked it I screwed up the dates and booked for November. So of course when we never showed up we got charged and then I had to rebook everything. I mean seriously how do I screw up the dates of Christmas?! Only me.

So anyway we check into the hostel and it turns out we were given an upgrade from a private room to one of their apartments. Score! And when we saw it I almost jumped for joy. It was huge with a king comfy bed, flash bathroom and a whole separate room with dining & kitchen. Double score! What a perfect place to spend Christmas.

Nick wasn't well so we had spent the rest of the day in the apartment (I mean who wouldn't!) but we did head out for dinner and ended up across the road at a mexican place. We had been eating a lot of Czech food (which basically consists of meat and potatoes but oh I do love goulash!). Sounds strange but virtually everything in Prague is closed on Christmas Eve because they have their big dinner on the Eve. The food was average but they had 2 for 1 cocktails so we made the most of that. Nick ordered a molotov cocktail which was redbull, vodka and absinth! Man they were lethal.

Then it was back to the apartment for the million skype calls home :) I think in the end I called Mum, Dad/Janine etc, Nana/Lyn/Stacey, Nicks mum, David/Kirsty etc and even Hannah in Canada. Pretty good! By the time we got thru all that Roz and Josh had arrived so we caught up with them and worked out our plans for Christmas Day.

Prague, Czech Republic, Sun 20th Dec & Days leading up to Christmas

We decided to spend this years Christmas and NY in Prague (Czech Republic), Poland and Berlin. Enjoying yet another white Christmas. Well we may not have had all the snow but we definitely had the cold! It was -15 deg C when we landed in Prague and apparently one of the coldest winters they had had in Prague in years. Fantastic!

We ended up staying in two different places in Prague, a cheap as chips apartment for 4 days and then a much nicer place over Christmas. Turned out we were lucky that we switched places because our first apartment had no hot water! Not pleasant in freezing temperatures that's for sure.

I have to admit is was really nice having a bit longer in one place so we could actually relax and have a bit of a holiday rather than being on the go the entire time. On our first full day we visited the Castle. The castle is beautiful, up on a hill overlooking one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. It is very obvious why it's called the city of spires. It was such a gorgeous day too, we were so lucky to get perfect views over the city.

There were guards everywhere and although they looked frozen I couldn't help but want to throw a snowball at them and see if they'd crack a smile. I thought better of that tho. The castle is quiet different to ones in England. It is centered around the Cathedral with a maze of other buildings, courtyards and lanes. Very cool. The cathedral was gorgeous, apparently Baroque style, I didn't really know what that is but it's incredibly

opulent.

We had a nice walk through the Mala Strana district stopping off for some Gluwein and a Christmas specialty - Tredlenik, a bread rolled in sugar, cinammon, almond & fire roasted. So declicious! I ate a

lot over the week!

We walked over the Charles bridge, the famous one in Prague. Cool statues yes but the tourists, street sellers and construction really killed any beauty it might have had. The late afternoon was spent in the old town at the Christmas markets. With the trees and the stalls all lit up it was beautiful (it gets dark at 4pm).

Wondering the markets was the perfect way to end a day. The smells were amazing, T

redlenik, crepes, Gluwein, grog, some crazy pizza croissant things, caramel waffles, chestnuts, sweets, seriously a foodies heaven! One of the best parts was watching them make it all. Tredlenik is fascinating to watch as they roll it out on skewers and fire roast it. Really cool.

On the second day we walked up the big hill near the castle. It's a garden area with lots of paths and tracks to the top. There is also a funicular railway (basically a cable car) but we decided to walk. It was wonderful all covered in snow and there were great views back over Prague. The climb wasn't easy, it was pretty steep in parts and being dressed up like Eskimos didn't help. At the top was an Eiffel tower like replica which we climbed for the best views over the whole city.

On the third day we took the train out to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary (or the bone church). I was amazing. A church full of human bones made into chandeliers, wall hangings, a coat of arms and pyramid piles. The history of it all was fascinating.

The big chandelier had to be the most impressive, using every bone in the human body and surrounded by scull candelabras which marked the entrance to the crypt. I liked the coat of arms too with a human head with its eye being picked out by a bird. Nick was most impressed by the warrior skulls in a glass case showing various head wounds. I think about 40,000 humans' bones had been used. An amazing experience.

We walked into the Kutna Hora town (which is actually quite far away) and had lunch in the old town. Kutna Hora only really had one other good attraction - it's beautiful cathedral, unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. The outside was pretty though and it was up on a hill so had nice views back over the town.

Prague is an amazing place to spend the lead up to Christmas. With all of the Christmas markets, lights everywhere and of course the snow it was a magical place to spend Christmas.

A big tradition in the Czech Republic is to have Carp at Christmas so everywhere you go in Prague you'll find Carp sellers on the street and you look at all the fish in their big tubs, pick the one you want, then they take them out, donk them on the head and either give to you whole or fillet for you on the spot. Apparently a lot of people also buy the Carp alive and have it in their bath tub for a couple of days before killing it fresh to eat on Christmas Eve. Quite fascinating.