Our Adventures in Poland!

Growing up, I never put Poland on my "must visit" list, but now that I've been there, I think it should be on everyone's list!!! (So cross off Hawaii, Jamaica, and the Bermuda Triangle; Poland is the new "it" country).

I can't believe Poland and Ukraine share a border; they are different in so many ways. Poland is so friendly! Everyone speaks English! They are efficient! They will bag your groceries! It's amazing!

Our trip started with 14 or so hours in the Stoddard's Dodge van; we left around 7:00 P.M. and drove through the night. Around 4:00 A.M., we came to the border. Doug, Suzie, Daniel and I were all over our 90 days (as soon as you enter Ukraine, you have 90 days to register your visa, but we didn't because Ukraine had just changed all its visa laws and nobody knew what was going on or what to do). Doug's van was also overdue. The lady at the border control booth gave the ok for everyone's visa............except mine and Daniel's. She said we were past our 90 days (which is true, but so was everybody else, including the van). We had to go and talk to the head hancho of border control (Doug came with us to translate), and we sat in this room with this lady and watched as Doug argued 'round and 'round and fought for us to get through! She kept asking "what are we going to do about this?" which means she wanted a bribe. Doug refuses to pay bribes, and so he kept saying "Just give us a warning!" She kept asking questions like "why do you even have visas? You're Americans, you don't need visas!" What? That's a first. Finally, after what seemed like ages, she set our passports down, using a little more force than necessary, and we were on our way! Thank you Doug, for the great show! We owe you one!

We arrived in Krakow at around 8:00 in the morning, and spent the day shopping, resting, checking out the sights around the main center, listening to the famous trumpeter of Krakow, and doing jumping jacks. Krakow has the funnest little shops ever; we had so much fun shopping funly for fun Christmas presents for all those fun people in our fun lives! You can find stuff in Poland that you can't in Ukraine, such as cherry coke, canned green beans, KFC, Pizza Hut, different kinds of cereal, slivered almonds, plain potato chips, beanie weenies, powerade, and other such delicacies.

The next day Daniel, Lexi, and I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau and did a 5 hour tour. How can I describe what it's like to visit Auschwitz concentration camp?

 I'm not sure if I can.

We walked under the sign that reads "Work will set you free." Thousands upon thousands of people walked under this sign, the majority never came out. As the people walked in, an orchestra was forced to play cheery music. The prisoners naturally fell into step, and therefore the Nazis could count them easier.

Barbed wire fences stretched as far as my eye could see. When this camp was operational, these fences were electrified, making escape from Auschwitz nearly impossible.

Then we walked through a barrack similar to this one. Up to 1000 people lived in each barrack. What really struck me was how ordinary and almost nice the buildings looked.

 Inside we saw giant displays of things collected from the Jews. Things like eyeglasses.

Shoes

Hair, luggage, prosthetic limbs, pots & pans, & children's shoes.

Then we walked through a gas chamber, and saw the vents where the gas was dropped.  These are the cans the gas Zyklon B came in.

The gas chamber we walked through was one of the first ones, and therefore smaller. Later on the tour at Birkenau, we saw the remains of a larger one. It could hold up to 1200 people at a time.

We also saw where they kept prisoners (the prison within a prison), including the starvation cells and standing cells, where 4 prisoners had to stand in a space 4 ft. x 4 ft. Next to this block was the shooting wall where thousands of people were executed.

It was a day I'll never forget.

Moving on, the next day we went on a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter in Krakow which held the 2nd highest concentration of Jews in the 1930s (the first being New York). When the Nazis forced the Jews to move to the Ghetto, it forever marked the end of Jewish culture in Krakow. After we saw the Jewish Quarter, we walked to the location of the Ghetto.

Then the Nazis started the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, and the Ghetto was liquidated. Most Jews were sent to concentration camps save for a few that had to work at factories. After we saw the Ghetto, we visited a Jewish cemetary. The cemetary was demolished and desecrated by the Nazis, but later restored. There were so many broken tombstones that the cemetary could not be restored properly, and so there is a wall and monument built out of all the broken pieces.

Here's what the wall looks like.

The tour ended at Schindler's Factory museum. There was so much information; you could spend days reading all the displays. Schindler saved over a thousand Jews; we saw pictures of every single one. The museum was well done; it's good to know that there are people working hard to make sure no one forgets what happened during WWII.

Our last bit of time in Krakow was spent doing more shopping, relaxing, and eating Pizza Hut pizza. They don't have stuffed crust there, but they have what they call "corona" which means crown, with cheese in it.

Yeah, we love Krakow! We had a wonderful time with our team, and are excited to go back someday.

After Krakow we headed to a city called Katowice where we stayed the next few days. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and we still had to find a turkey. We went to a store called Ashan, and had 20 minutes before it closed to find a turkey. No luck. There was still hope though, that we could find one early in the morning. We did, but it was frozen. So we settled on some turkey breasts and a chicken, and it was noon by the time we started cooking. Then we couldn't get the oven to work, but Janna the Genius figured it out and and eveything was cooking fetchingly when the power went out. Thankfully it was only out for an hour, otherwise we would've had some serious problems (half cooked poultry in the oven you know). Finally we sat down and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner: poultry, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (with green beans bought in Poland!), rolls, stuffing, peas (for Suzie) and a can of cranberry imported from the states. GOD IS GOOD!

Moving on:

Doug "Hi! How are you?"
Polish police "I am fine, but you are breaking Polish law."

Yes, of course Doug got pulled over in Poland.

Well, we had to leave Poland and it is with much sadness that we said goodbye. The good news is, because Ukraine's visa laws are nuts, we will be back!

You thought this article was over, huh? It's not! Our teammate Meisha went to Poland for a new visa and came back with a car. How do you explain that one? Like this: the missionaries that let us borrow their house for a few days had a friend that was trying to sell his car. He had imported it from the states, and it was registered there, and so basically he had to sell it to an American. Along came Meisha, who was looking for a car, and it was perfect. Within a day, she bought it! We were worried about getting it into Ukraine, but God's hand was in every step of the way and we had no problems at all! Doug, however, did have problems. The border guards said we had brought too much stuff back! It's true the van was packed, but the claim was ridiculous; they just wanted a bribe. Does Doug pay bribes? No! After arguing and waiting, they finally let him go.

The trip home took twenty-four hours. Five and a half of those hours were spent sitting at the border. It's nice to be back!