Auschwitz Concentration Camp

It has been lot written, said, and heard about Holocaust at Oswiecim Concentration Camp in Poland. As the political leaders and institutions vow not see such atrocities repeated, Yet, we are astonished with pictures of Genocide from Rwanda, and former Yugoslavia. 

Our trip towards Auschwitz started with mixed reactions, two of our friends were reluctant to visit as they could not carry the heavy emotions back from there.

Tour operators and agent's flock leaflets across Krakow, starting with tourist information office, Hostels, to Cafeterias, We took our local friend advise to board on transport from Krakow Glowny (Main Station), she suggested it should take us 5-6 hours to and fro from the destination.

At Krakow Central bus station friendly clerk at desk handed us 12PLN single ticket, and advice on how to get in there and return. We knew, first English guided tour starts at 10:30am from Auschwitz Memorial and museum web page, As we were waiting for 8:30am bus, I thought of taking bite of sandwich prepared fresh in the morning by my friend Angel while stepping down the stairs to catch bus from basement level of depot.

By 10:20am we reached the main museum building, The entrance is free but I knew it would be worthless going in without learning from escorted guide as the area is vast, we deposited 40 PLN (Polish Zloty) guide fees in return we were given headphones to follow our museum guide.

    

It was early February, as we entered my hand's were getting freezing cold, I had to reach out for my gloves so did the rest of us. I have came across many guide's, coaches, but this guide look serious, humble showing empathy towards museum, I can see frown faces, speechless emotions, finger on lips or either hands locked among the group while listening transmitted voice through headphones of our guide, as she was taking us to various blocks of Auschwitz -I

Photographs taken at Museum

The museum exhibits on how prisoners were transported in from various cities by cargo trains, many times straight to Gas chambers, 

             

Above Empty Cans, containing Zyclone B, used for killing in Gas Chambers, Prisoners most of them who had no clue, what is going to unfold next, had to quietly give away carried belongings upon given order's, Suitcase's, Shoes, Toys, gold tooth among many even their hairs were been shaved off so can be used to sell away.

Polish photographer Wilhelm Brasse have estimated to have taken 40,000 to 50,000 identity pictures from 1940 until 1945 as a prisoner in Auschwitz during world war II. His works are displayed at Auschwitz-Birkenau State museum and at Yad Vashem. 

Death wall were executions carried out by firing squad; with heavy weight of emotions and silence, we proceeded slowly back towards the entrance, our guide gave us 30 minutes break pointing us to free shuttle Bus stop towards Birkenau, She said we will continue from there on.. 

Birkenau is larger in size than Auschwitz, Most of us in group had five to six layers of clothes on us, yet the cold was unbearable some one said it's 5.C but the blowing wind across left us shivering, holding tight on to our gloves with fits closed and hands folded. It was then we realised what pain must have been for the prisoners, who were sleeping tight to each other in a confined area.

          

As we walked towards Gas Chambers, hairs on my forearm raised upright, it was not because of freezing wind, but the terrified shaking soul telling me you are walking on a ground where once thousands have lost their life's .

Model of Gas Chamber (on left) on Right Memorial at Birkenau

I hold my hand's tighter to Angel, as she was about to break, we followed the rail tracks back towards the main gate of Birkenau, thinking deep raised by many questions which I knew even the guide won't help, we have forgotten our sandwich, drinking water won't help either, taking deep breath we gathered ourself thanking to our museum guide, and praying not to come across such atrocity again.

With deep emotions, I leave a short video below, please excuse my friend's shaking hands terrified by winds and emotional eyes.

If your Planning to visit other cities then you may also like to read Cost of Living in Poland          

Where is Katowice

An hour and half distance from Krakow and Cieszyn (Border with Czech Republic) further 4 hours away from Capital Warsaw. Katowice is largest Upper Silesian city in Poland. I have spend six Months in this City as an Erasmus Exchange student at University of Economics. The city has given me lot in terms of Education, Culture know-how and most importantly friends to cheer around Europe, Latin America and Asia. As usual I made Katowice as my hub to catch nearby destinations around Poland,Scandinavian nations and far East Europe to Romania and Bulgaria. One of the most amazing thing of Katowice is it's Airport which offer's cheapest flying option in and out of City.

Katowice is more known as an Industrial city pooling in IT and host to business and Trade fair events rather than a Tourist Destination, Don't expect to find Castle's, landscapes, beaches or archaeological landmarks, compared to it's neighbouring cities Krakow, Worclaw, Gdansk, and Warsaw. That's the reason I have to come up with the title Where is Katowice?..

Warszawa Hostel

Hostel Apiano was our choice made, We logged in through their website and emailed them our preferred choice of Double room.
After couple of hours we got confirmation on the availability of the room along withit facilities to expect, and a link for our payment of 150 PLN around 33€ for night, as mentioned on their web page.

Double Room at Apiano Hostel

We arrived early morning at 7:30, Receptionist work schedules from 8:00am untill 10:00pm, since the check in time was at 14:00 hours we thought to leave the luggage and come back later, There were enough of leaflets and free guided maps to start with our planned tour of Old town.

Receptionist spoke good English, she helped us to mark the famous landmarks and shortest route to reach Old town Square. She even took my number to let us know if the room was available before checkin time.

What to do in Warsaw

Polish Cities are getting colder as we travel, Moreover me and Angel are excited as we were going to kick start our journey towards Baltic and Scandinavia from here on.

Things to do in Warszawa 

Restored from ashes after being completely destroyed by Nazis during second World War. Today it is largest city and Capital of Poland.

The city looks dynamic with modern sky scrappers, historic monuments and stunning artefacts. 

My vibes towards the city kept changing every hour I crossed, some times bringing in sadness with the amount of monuments, refreshing with the vast parks, comely with the arts and street graffiti.

Mermaid - Symbol of Warsaw City

STOP A - Old Town Square

As usual me and Angel started our walk early morning beating the rest of the tourist, we walked straight towards Mermaid (Symbol of the City).. Ow!! Our excitement didn't last long, she was out of our sight blocked by construction walls. Where Next? Royal castle should be the next catch said Angel, I can understand due to her love for painting's and arts. 

Punting Tip- Free for Visitors on Sunday

Link for Timing's Royal Castle    

Discount Hotel in Wroclaw

It took us 30 mins by walk from Wroclaw Station to Wroclawski Kompleks Szkoleniowy; a perfect quiet place around the parks and residential area.

Pre-booking was easy with Booking.com, we immediately received confirmation from the hotel administration on directions and what to expect on facilities.

Check-in was very swift with Mr. Pawal at reception he was kind enough to provide us with city map and mark famous landmark around Wroclaw.

We were escorted by his assistant to our double bed room, which was on fourth floor, unfortunately there was no elevator to lift us up with our heavy backpack.

Beds were nicely made up when we arrived, nice to see a small television, and a working desk, with curiosity I hopped towards window to find out what lies, Yeah I can see tree blocking my view, somewhat nicking up and beyond I can catch a glimpse of park.

Our Room at Wroclawski Kompleks Szkoleniowy

For Budget hackers like us, our next stop was to check out the common kitchen on the floor , I was impressed with space, a decent size of fridge, and dinner table to find, so we don’t have to run with our plates to the Room, enough cutlery’s on shelf, but my only dismay was not to find adequate pots and pans.

Taking sum of everything in need, lastly it was time to take a shower check, I'm usually cynical on this cubicles you don't know what to expect from them on entering. I was happy this time around I didn't have to work too hard to reach on desired temperature felt ease on getting out without being spanked by the walls

WIFI password provided worked well inside the room, we found couple of chairs in the corridor to relax, and a no smoking sign around.

This hotel is best suited for business Travellers and backpackers, Hotel also offer’s conference rooms and banquet halls for events. I usually prefer budget hostels or cheap hotels with breakfast included, but it was not the case with Wroclakwski Kompleks Szkoleniowy. There wasn't any breakfast on offer. The Choice for us was slightly exception due to its location and affodability.

We paid 22€ for night, which we thought was the best price, after running through other offers provided online.

"The Review mentioned is my sole Opinion, I wasn't been paid or lured in anyway to write this"

Contact Details:- 

Wroclakwski Kompleks Szkoleniowy
Sztabowa 100, Krzyki,
Wroclaw 53-310.
Email:       biuro@sztabowa.pl
With it you may also like to read the Cost of Living in Poland-  Click8

Hunt for Dwarf figurines in Wroclaw

Ever heard of ‘Dwarfs of Wroclaw’ asked my friend Weronika as she knew I was writing on Poland cities, she didn’t wanted her city to miss out. Along with my friend Angel we took six hours bus journey from Warszawa towards Wroclaw to hear her city story.

Water Tower

After leaving our backpack at Wroclawski Kompleks Szkoleniowy 
Hotel, a strange building looked like about to take off on the space drew our attention. A fancy restaurant waiter outside the building told us it’s called as ‘Water Tower’ you can take a lift to have a panoramic view of the city.

I said Angel let’s see the city from the ground first; kind waiter guided us towards the main square letting us leave for our hunt on dwarfs.

“Omg! Haha.. I see one, oh they are so cute” Angel exclaimed! I said don’t scare people around you, we will see many more like this. I can’t believe she has so much energy early morning to scream like that, thank god I met Weronika now at least I have third person to talk to, but it soon turned out when two girls met it was like a market of stories. I had to interrupt to ask what’s the stories behind this Dwarfs. 

Dwarfs of Wroclaw

Weronika said most of locals don’t like them as we keep stumbling upon them they are so small, it initially started representing political movement and later city embraced it even we don’t know how many of them are there. Wroclaw is looking forward for to be the next Krakow drawing more tourists to the city, moreover the city won the race to European city of the Culture in 2016.

Border Crossing between Czech Republic- Český Těšín and Poland-Cieszyn

Firstly you won’t click this page if you weren't interested in saving few bucks, The post was so popular among students on facebook.com/travelpunter that I have to move it permanently for our international readers on this blog. After all our goal at Travel Punter is to fetch you more beers and spend less on transit services.

We would like you to read this carefully until the end, as we provide you two options, Time-Consuming/ Time Saving both are cheapest option with mere differences depends on how much time you got.

At Border Crossing Point

Cost of Living in Poland

A Survival Guide to living cost in Poland, Compared to its western neighbours. Poland is much friendlier to our wallet. Below are some of rough product price to ease your preparation, Since we know you value it so much.

Save Money on Travel Punter

Day in 'Manchester of Poland' - Łódź

The silliest mistake I have ever done,

Cont..d from Gdansk Post,

We had made reservation from Booking.com which was giving away 50% discount the deal was great for a perfect apartment near sea side, But somehow things don’t go as planned always.. We found out from the front office the reservation was done for Wednesday, which meant two days later...What? Angel exclaimed!!!, I now started to hate myself how can I do this silly mistake...?? It happened to be, that booking.com returns you to the closest date to the available offer, since our earlier booking was turned down by another hostel at last minute, I hastily booked non-refundable studio without even rechecking on...date’s; Now what? The staff at Golden Tulip hotel, were kind enough to understand our problems, gave us couple of options but neither of it felled under our budget, Thanks to their hospitality in offering us WIFI we took few minutes and figured out the best way is to spend another night in Train towards Lodz. Since we have weekend unlimited journey ticket.. Why not Angle said....with a frown on her face, I knew she really didn’t mean what she said, But what else we can do... we learned something here.

At the Train Station,

We showed our weekend tickets to the clerk at Gdansk station, requesting to reserve seats for Łódź, I knew she won’t get my accent, as I was repeatedly saying (Lords) thanks to the gentlemen standing next to us, who pronounced it in local dialect, what sounded as (WOOJ), Which raised our eyebrows, and letting the clerk back to work. 

On Saturday November 2013, at 22:25, train took off from Gdansk Glowny. “It’s our second night in Train” I said to Angel, “Yeah...thanks to you” she said... stretching her feet, she closed her eyes....Angle had put on the alarm. As usual again the train was on time waking me up early...”It was 4am still too dark for sightseeing I said, we thought to spend some time at Lodz station benches.

From my solo trips, I have learned lot on how to strike a conversation when idle. I caught up with a guy in his 30’s who was busy doing nothing on his cell, with few shared conversations I learned he was a working for a textile industry. “Lodz is often called as ‘The Manchester of Poland’ due to its links with Textile industry”, He said now it is turned more in to Films, than it would be as ‘Mumbai of Poland’ reframing to Bollywood, Nooooo! not yet he replied.

Public Toilet- 2.5PLN at all Main Stations in Poland

Walk on longest Street of Europe

Visit Gdansk - Danzing

This year around national day of Poland felled on Monday, November 11, fortunately for us, it’s going to be a long weekend. First thing came to my mind where and when to hit the road, after hitting some clicks I found the Polish trains have a great deal on weekend commuter tickets (see more information below on how to get there). I immediately made up my mind to get most out of the deal in travelling across Poland during the weekend. On Thursday night, I gave call to my of friend, to whom I always trusted and knew she will never say no to my plans, I was still sceptical as we just came back from our Baltic/ Scandinavian trip week ago.

Five Things to do in Poznań

In order to catch every country in the world, the capital cities are on my usual check list mainly due to her ease, convenience in getting there and later to move on further. With so many social networks in place these days, It’s still hard to find whereabouts of whom you know, But Thanks to Facebook I found an app MochaMeet it sources cities in which your friends are living, through which I came to know one my good Friend, (Oh!! Yeah I got many) who has just moved from Berlin to her birth city Poznan, in Poland.

That was it, after few emails exchanged I took my comfy bag to head to her place for 2nights from Katowice, She told me "Poznan is fifth largest city, considered as birth place of Poland, with many Universities around it’s also known as student’s city, which can be easily explored on foot.

 Ø  Top 5 things you shouldn't miss to see when you are there:-

A) Old Town Square :- Everything Polish talk about is Rynek, literally means the Main Square, unlike other town Square’s, I found this one more less crowded. Anna, had already prepared me to be fascinated about old medieval houses and beautiful renaissance town hall from 13^th century in the middle of square, which once stood as city administrative office. The building now houses a historical museum. The Grand vestibule, the royal room and the court room of the Building are famous for its beautiful stucco and artistic crafts. Every noon crowd gather outside the building to see famous billy-goats (a symbol of Poznan) emerging out, above the clock horning each other.