Soooo... here are the Europe trip pictures that everyone has been asking for. Sorry for the delay!
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After Koln, Germany we headed to Berlin. There are two things that really stand out about Berlin: a.) it is really spread out - especially for a European City and b.) there is construction everywhere.
Things have very much changed in East Germany since the wall was torn down. For that reason, new department stores and buildings are being built everywhere. It seems like East Germany has been gone for a long time, but you get there, and you realize that it wasn't really that long ago.
After that we went to Dresden. Truth be told, I didn't take a single picture in Dresden. It is a beautiful city though. Definitely recommended!
After that it was off to Krakow, Poland. Krakow was full of great people and night life. We sat in this huge courtyard (shown below) and ate dinner. During that dinner we met a bunch of Dutch Rugby players and a couple guys from Sweden. Very random. Everyone was super nice though! Krakow was one of my favorite cities.
We made one stop (which I will tell you about later) before going to Wrowclaw (pronounced vrow-sw-ah-v). Wrowclaw was a diamond in the rough. This was the scene from our outdoor cafe table. Beautiful, huh?
We found a McDonalds for breakfast after leaving Wroclaw. The kicker? The inside was under construction. So we had to go through the drive though windows instead. We shared with the cars, (literally)... a silver car was in line after us!
I will never forget it as long as I live. First of all, let me educate you on the basics: there are two camps in Auschwitz. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau. Auschwitz I was an old Polish army barracks that was converted. Birkenau was built by the Nazi regime when they ran out of room in the first camp. Two things immediately struck me: The "quaintness” of the first camp and the sheer size of the second.
I am not going to talk at length about it, a picture says a thousand words, and so I think I will let the pictures do most of the talking here. When I learned or saw something profound, I tried to remember to take a picture so I could share it...
This is Auschwitz I. See what I mean with nice red brick and green trees? NOT what I expected...
But then you take the same place and look at other views... (same place: Auschwitz I)
See that pointed building in the top right of the picture above? And then bent fences? They are the same ones in the picture below. Now of all the places to sit on a summer day, why would this peaceful cat choose that place? (I know, I know... he doesn't know... but it doesn't make the irony any less!)
And then, I saw this group. My favorite are the two boys on the right. I wanted so bad to get a close candid of them, but I felt obligated to respect their privacy.
That's when it dawned on me. This place, Auschwitz I was large, but it wasn't capable of housing that many people. I then realized Auschwitz II must be large. But I wasn't prepared...