So something I realized while I was trying to write the next few blog posts from Poland was that it’s going to be incredibly difficult to fit so much into one spot. So, I took the executive decision to break it up into segments of “Sites and Bites”. We’ll start with the first set of sights.
Let me start about by saying that our first night here was unlike any that I have ever had traveling. I have never been in a country where I just could not understand the signs or anything. In most modern, industrialized nations in Europe there is the English translation right underneath the native script. Here, No! I learned to appreciate it in the end and we learned the tram system. I now feel I can navigate practically any metro or train or tram system except in Asia aintnobodygotskillsfadat yet.
On the first full day we thought it best to venture furthest out from where we were staying, at the great Dragon Aparthostel near the center, to the Jewish District. It was time for me to get cultured. First Stop, Schindler’s Factory. Maybe you have seen Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg (I haven’t but I will now) but this was where Oskar Schindler, a non-Jew, managed to protect the lives of around 1700 Jews during the Holocaust by providing them work in the factory and its offices. Read about him here. It has been completely transformed from a factory to a museum showcasing the happier times in Poland before Nazi occupation leading up to destruction of millions of lives. It was a great experience to say the least and I could tell it was the beginning of an inner movement in myself.
After we left the fabryca we went on a synagogue search in the Jewish district. [A little bit about this area] Kazmiriez became the Jewish district after the Jews in Krakow were rounded up and relocated there to live and work. They carried many of their possessions by hand all in the belief that this would protect non-Jews from contracting diseases. They were led to believe that the relocation was an effort to increase their productivity. I had never seen one in person and we ended up finding the Remuh synagogue and cemetery. Afterwards, I also had the opportunity to see a modern, active synagogue.