Busabout part two

We left Olomouc the next morning and headed to Auchwitz. We did a three hour guided tour of bouth parts of the concentration camp. When we were there we saw where people were gasses using a substance called cyclone 10. We saw where the bodies were stripped of anything valuble, ten where the corpses were cremated. Auchwitz one was a converted barracks for polish soldiers. Achwitz two was specifically built for the effecient killing of unwanteded. The whole experience was very sobering and very full on. not something i want to see again.

From Auchwitz we went to Kracow, a lovely city with a great old town surrounded by 4km of garden that used to be the town wall. The main square in Kracow is argued to be the largest in eastern europe, measuring at about 200m by 150 (i think) When we arrived, we were taken on a walking tour of the main sights, but didnt stay long because we were doing a cycling tour the next day. (its now been a while since this happened, so the details my get a little fuzzy) After that, we did the usual thing of getting ready to go out that night. We had traditional polish food for dinner, then went to a local bar. Steph and i decided to leave early for the hostel to try and get a good nights sleep. However, neither of us really took much notice of where the hostel actually was or what it was called. So we set off to look for it, but with no luck at all. we ended up wandering up and down a very similar looking street, swearing to ourselves that it was right here, but either way we couldnt find it.

so i had the bright idea to try and call daniel on his phone, who was out with Carlos, our tour guide. however, i had no credit on my phone, so i had to use my credit card to pay for it. It was around midnight by this stage so i was tired and not thinking straight. I tried making a couple of calls to daniel before remembering he had no credit either, and since we were on international roaming, he wouldnt be able to receive any calls.

shit

steph and i then went to the local maccas that was open to try and stay warm while i sorted this out. i then had the bright idea to call home and get them to message daniel to tell carlos to message me the address of the hostel. at the time i was quite proud of this little idea i had, but looking at it now, it was...a clumsy idea.

so i called home and spoke do dad and clare, and they eventually got my step sister steph to msg dan. some time when by and we got no msgs or anything, so with one more quick call home, we decided to check into another hostel i saw right on the square (by a quick call, i mean i had to call the credit card charging number from the paphone, then enter my CC number, the expiery date and security code number 33 digits so far, then enter the phone number i was calling- another 9- so a quick call was 42 digits long before i heard a ringing tone.) also, it was a weekend, and this hostel had rooms looking right on to the main square. the beds cost us about 60 aussie for the night, with breakfast included.

we slept badly that night because kracaow had one the polish soccer competition, so there were hooligans everywhere.

more to follow later

cheers
jash