Day 78 - Before I start talking about Friday, I'll catch you up on the rest of Thursday. After class, I went home and found my clothes still hanging on the drying rack outside. I had no choice but to panic for a few minutes before I rationally told myself to just figure out how to get them down. I took the essentials and literally threw everything into my suitcase (without even folding it!) and ran out the door. I waited 25 mins for the next bus to the airport and hopped on. I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and met up with my friends. The flights to Krakow went smoothly and we even saved money on food because they gave us sandwiches! On the first flight to Munich I ate a chicken and feta cheese sandwich and from Munich to Krakow I tried the cheese sandwich with zucchini and eggplant. They were both really good! By the time we arrived at our hostel it was around 1 am, luckily it was close to the train station. We all decided to wake up early the next morning to explore the city and headed to bed. Friday morning started with a free awesome breakfast provided by the hostel and a walk to the Old Town of Krakow. There we found a "free" 3 hour tour around the city. (It was "free" because at the end you pay how much you think the tour guide deserves.) Our tour guide, Damian, was a historian and gave a great tour that included information about the buildings, history, culture and even great places to eat! After the tour was over, we had about an hour to spare before the next tour in the Jewish Quarter started so we stopped at a pizza/kebab place to get a quick bite to eat. I was speechless because my beef kebab was amazing! Even better, it was less than $3.50 in USD. I really love the pricing in Poland. Everything was sooooooooooo cheap. I almost cried. I should have studied abroad in Poland. The 2.5 hour tour of Jewish Quarter was shorter than the first but just as interesting. Damian was our tour guide again and showed us different synagogues and explained the history of Kazimierz. Unfortunately, the sun set around 4pm so even though it was still the afternoon it felt like it was 9pm by the time we finished our tour. Since we were only a 10 minute walk away from Schlindler's Factory we stopped by to check out the plaque that Kelsey's school put up on the outside. On our walk back to the hostel we bought a Chicken Zapiekanka, which is basically like a pizza sub with a ton of different things on it. We shared it between the 5 of us as a snack before our free dinner at the hostel. Our dinner was a nice spread of chicken, beef, potatoes, pasta, and salad; everything was delicious. Since the kitchen was too small for everyone to fit, we all ate in the living room and mingled with the other people. Most were from Australia but there was also a couple from Canada. We stayed down there for a while talking before going to bed. Day 79 - Our day started with a 6 am alarm and a race to catch the bus to Auschwitz. I realized too late that I left behind my hat and gloves and had to sprint back to get them. I made it to the bus with 2 mins to spare! Our 6 hour tour at Auschwitz started with a cold and rainy day. It was an unreal experience and there are barely any words I can put to describe it. We were shown the life of the prisoners, walked the same path, imagined the experiences together and even had an opportunity to enter one of the gas chambers. That was intense because if you looked at the walls you could see the scratches on the walls. In some of the buildings they had exhibits that showed different valuables once belonging to the people who had lost their lives. Rooms full of pots, pans, suitcases, clothes, shoes, children's toys, even human hair, which was used to make carpets for German residents. BLAH. Just writing about that freaks me out. After 3.5 hours at Auschwitz our tour guide gave us a break where we stopped at a cafe and shared Pierogi's as a snack before moving on. Our next stop was Birkenau, (aka Auschwitz II or Auschwitz-Birkenau), mostly a women's camp but the biggest concentration camp. We were taken through the selection process and walked along the path that many children and elderly did, except our final destination wasn't a "shower." Everything about that visit was powerful and despite the fact that it was depressing, it was an amazing experience. Many people were trying to discourage me from visiting Auschwitz because "it's not important" and "spending time in a nicer place like Paris or London would be better." I'm glad I didn't listen to them. It was an experience I will never forget. After catching the bus back to Krakow and taking a pit stop at the hostel, we ventured out for souvenir shopping at a market followed by dinner. Lauren remembered Damian's suggestion for authentic Polish food at a restaurant called Grandma Rasperberry's. It was decorated really cutely and there was even a man playing piano! I ordered a bread bowl of Goulash and it was amazing! The rest of the night we all relaxed in the common room of the hostel. Day 80 - Instead of getting up early with Joe and Kelsey to visit the cathedral, Matt, Lauren and I slept in. We packed our bags, ate breakfast and headed out to the airport to catch our flight. Of course, the airport was tiny and we went through security within 5 mins, which gave us plenty of down time. Unfortunately, our flight to Munich was delayed an hour which caused us to miss our connecting flight to Bilbao. We were reassigned seats for a connection to Bilbao from Frankfurt. After waiting 4.5 hours in Munich we boarded our 30 min delayed flight to Frankfurt. On the flight to Frankfurt we were freaking out because the layover between our flight to Bilbao was only 20 mins. Needless to say, we ran off the airplane, sprinted across the airport and made it to our gate with a couple mins to spare. Of course, that flight was delayed too and when we landed in Bilbao we had to run out of the airport to catch the last bus to the city at midnight. By the time we all got home it was around 12:30 and were exhausted. At least they gave us snacks on the flights...
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