Krakow:
Friday, November 8



  • Dark morning - same breakfast as yesterday, add hotdogs - hotel restaurant clean, yellow and white - Joy! Pollera is available for another night!
  • To bus station with bananas and mineral water just bought - front seat bus ride to Auschwitz
  • Two camps: Auschwitz I and II (Birkenau) - rooms full of the thick memory of human lives not lived as such, but as if deserving of humiliating waste - somber observation of the expansive, utterly effective acres upon acres - much evidence remains despite the destruction by retreating Nazis
    Auschwitz
    Birkenau
  • Rain - retreat to catch bus only to be disappointed - feeling remote - very Polish - train station across street - quick purchase - slow ride back to Krakow among students of all ages - plain, attractive, or otherwise people - catnaps
  • Still bleak, but breaking sky - sleeeeeeep for an hour
  • Krakow at night - sun sets by 4:30pm - back to Balaton - blue napkins this time - big meal for $25 - overhear sales pitch by American to South African
  • Slow walk back - stop at "Drink Bar" with fabulous interior of low arches painted with depictions of Polish history - brown colors, maps, words - young people and strong cigarettes - drunken Pole thrown out by bartenderess - call it a night and wake up late

    Saturday, November 9