Krakow is a nice city with old world charms. You sill can find horse-drawn carriages in the main square of the old town, which mainly caters to tourists who want to experience traveling like the aristocrats in the past. There are also 750 bars/pubs/clubs in the area, as boasted in the tourist brochure. I guess this is my favourite Polish city so far because of the vibrant night life. Wawel castle is a short distance away and from there you can admire the amazing decorations inside the cathedral which is very different from the interiors of Western European cathedrals that I’ve seen so far. There is also the Jewish quarter which has many synagogues and Jewish restaurants. Thanks to my couchsurfing friend Olga, she brought me to a cheap restaurant to sample authentic polish cuisine and recommended me a good hostel to stay for the night.

A trip to Poland would not be complete without a visit to Auschwitz concentration camp, which is about 1h20min by bus. Although it happened many years ago, the thought of so many people exterminated in such a horrific manner still brought chills down my spine. In the gas chamber especially, where the prisoners were led in naked and told that they were going for a bath, but the Germans then released poison gas and killed everyone instantly. Many of the barracks are still intact and you can see the poor living conditions of the prisoners, who were forced to work and given little food, they either died from exhaustion, cold or were murdered. A visit to auschwitz is a grim reminder of the past and we hope that future generations will learn from this lesson and not commit such atrocities again.

Warsaw is the capital of Poland, it’s either you like or hate it. It was mainly destroyed during WWII, so the city was painstakingly rebuilt and it is now a UNESCO city. I feel that the buildings are too modern for my liking, except maybe the museum of science and culture. It is Soviet looking and was built by the Russians as a gift to Poland. It looks like one of the seven sisters buildings in Moscow, hence it is nicknamed the eighth sister of Stalin. While in Warsaw, I joined a free walking tour on communism and learnt a lot about Poland’s history and its struggles with the war, communism and its economy. All these information that I would never have learnt in the classroom. My host Michał was a nice guy and his mum cooked delicious quiche for us.

My last stop in Poland was Poznan, I was there to visit my penpal Dominika. However, it was a pity she fell sick and couldn’t bring me around. I explored the city on foot on my own, going to the old town, Cytadela park, Lake Malta (which even had a ski slope!) In the afternoon,  I went over to her flat where she was ill and lying in bed. Her other flatmate was so stressed because he couldn’t speak much English and tried to make me feel at home. Afterwards, other friends of Dominika came over and they were so hospitable to me. We wanted to play board games, but I needed to rush to the train station to catch my train to Berlin, so we just talked. Rosaline was so afraid I would be hungry during the 3h train ride and packed for me much food! She and Maciej also sent me to the train station, so nice of them although we only met for a short while. We took the wrong tram and in a bid to catch the next one without missing my train, we climbed over the barrier and got onto the tram to the station in time whew!