I really need small bills.

Today was a long day, but thankfully a day that I was able to take a nap twice!  We started early this morning with a 6:15am wake up call. We had to be packed, had breakfast and check out of the hotel by 8:15.  We were headed to Kielce and then on to Krakow today.

Here is the route we took today: (It's in yellow!)

Here is Jen and I outside the hotel in Warsaw...

It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Kielce from Warsaw.  I must have fallen asleep right away because I don’t even remember leaving the city, or taking my shoes off!  I probably slept for about an hour then spent some of the rest of the ride getting some work for my project done on my lap top.

Right now as I am typing this I am sitting on the bus on our way to Krakow.

We arrived in Kielce at about 11:30 this morning.  We had an “organized” lunch at a hotel right in Kielce before heading out to tour the city.  All 21 of us were at the table and none of new what we would be served!  Our first course was a soup.  It smelled really good and looked like it had bacon in it.  I tried it and it was very good!  After a few bites I was very surprised to find ¼ of a hard boiled egg at the bottom.  Needless to say that was a surprise!  I didn’t eat the egg, but ate the rest of it.  It was good and I’m glad that I tried it!

Next we were given a salad and the main course.  The salad was pretty basic, lettuce tomatoes, cucumber and what looked like a balsamic dressing.  We were also given at the same time the main course, which was a piece of grilled chicken topped with mushrooms and cheese.  The chicken was on top of a white rice, corn and pea mixture.  It was very tasty and I ate almost the whole thing!

After we were done with lunch we started our tour.  I had no idea that the tour was going to be as long as it was.  I think it ended up being over 4 hours, but was very interesting.

We started by going to a half buried menorah, a monument to the Jews of the city.  Before World War II 1/3 of the population was Jewish.  Only 400 survived the war and today there are only 50-100 Jewish people live in the city today.  The location of the menorah was also the center of the ghetto in this city.  On average there were 2 ½ families living in one room.  Living conditions in this ghetto were terrible.

Next we went to what used to be the Synagogue but is now the home of the city archives.  We got to go inside and see the archives, which I guess is a special honor.

Here is most of my group inside the archive.

From there we walked through the nice downtown area, it was a long street with lots of shops and restaurants.  Our tour guide brought us to a specific corner in the city where there was a tragedy after the war.  Just because the war was over doesn’t mean the anti-Semitism went away.  He told us of a story of how the Poles were tricked by the Soviets into thinking that the Jews had taken some children of the city and turned them into matzo.  As I was listening to the guide tell the story I couldn’t think about how silly at all sounded, that is until he finished by saying that because of this story there was a group of about 100 Poles who killed 40 Jews because of the story. 

The reason I told you the story is a little ways away from the street corner is a statue of … a man that I can’t remember his name.  But he was able to dress as a German Guard and snuck into the concentration camp and discovered what was really going on there.  He left and went to America and tried to tell people what was going on, but no one believed him, they thought he was crazy.  I’ve heard this story about this man before, so I’ll have to find out his name.  Anyway, the statue if of him sitting on a bench and the direction that he is looking at his towards the square.  Almost as if to say had people listened to him in the beginning what would/could have been stopped?  How many lives could have been saved?  There is an identical statue in New York City, Washington State University and IN Telaviv.

From there we walked towards the castle on the hill, but not before stopping to see another monument of my new friend from yesterday.. the guy that helped out during the American Revolution!  Our tour guide also told us a silly joke about him… I’m going to try and upload the video of it!

Finally, we went inside the castle, which was very pretty.  There were many original details that are very very old.

It was time to get back on the bus, but 2 more pit stops before we began our 2 hour journey to Krakow.  What I did not know existed or know we would visit is a monument to the victims of September 11^th.  (It’s sad to think Poland has a monument before NYC!!)  Fast fact… it’s the only monument in all of Europe to the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.  On the ground it says “September” in Polish, and then 2001.  Then the 2 tall statues are supposed to be the number 11, and I’m sure you can tell how they are being split in half.  I thought it was beautiful.

There are also markers on it for other terrorist attacks around the world, too.

Now it was time to get on the bust and head to Krakow.  I took another nap and feel much better now.  As I am typing this I am sitting on the bus going through the gorgeous countryside of Poland.  It’s very different from home, as you can see.

It’s just about 6:30 and I’m not sure but it looks like we might be entering the outskirts of the city.  (At least I hope so!!!)  And hopefully later tonight I’ll be able to copy and paste this text into the blog and add my pictures!

We plan to have an early night tonight because tomorrow is going to be a very long day, both physically and mentally.  Tomorrow we go to Auschwitz.  Many people have told me going to Auschwitz is a “life defining moment” and your whole perspective on life changes.  You have life “before Auschwitz” and life “after Auschwitz.”  There are some people on the trip who may not even go tomorrow.  I am going for sure, and will hope for the best possible outcome (if there is one!).

On a happier note… I’ve had fun doing this the last few days and hope you’ve enjoyed seeing what I’ve been up to!

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Now it's after midnight and I'm finally in my hotel.  It's time for bed.  But just quickly... here's the hotel we will be at the next 3 nights... (it's much nicer than the last!  And I finally have a bed, not a cot!)

Here is Jen trying to buy stamps at the post office.  She was successful!!

We decided to go to the Jewish District because tonight is the start of Passover (Jenn is Jewish so we joined her!).  We had dinner at the oldest Jewish Restaurant in the district.  It was very yummy!

And we ended the night in the town square.  It's a very lively place and was so pretty at night!  There were lots of people out and about and it was a very fun place to be.  I cannot wait to go back during the day to see it all.

And that was my day today!

GOOD NIGHT!