Krakow, Poland

Me on my overnight train ride!

From Slovensky Raj, I took an all night train ride to Krakow in Poland. It was a series of small train journeys, so I couldn't nod off, I just had to stay awake and pay close attention to when my stop (announced in Slovenian) was going to arrive. I arrived at my accommodation in Krakow at around 5am. I was on a tight schedule and didn't have time to sleep (although it was rather appealing by that point). I had a shower, a strong coffee, and set off on my day. I went to a concentration camp. It was difficult deciding to go such a sad place with such a terrible history. 1.1 million innocent people were killed there, just for being slightly different (Jewish, Romanian, ethnic poles, homosexual people, political opponents of the regime, disabled people). It was a devastating place to visit, deeply disturbing, but I feel like travel should be about education, and sometimes education involves turning our mind to the bad parts of life. How can we make our world a better place if we only turn our attention to good things? I believe it is good to encounter the bad as well and turn it into action to make our world better. It was a very sad place and I hope that we can work to end genocide forever. Afterwards I wandered around Krakow, a beautiful glistening city. Europe has some very sad history, but I'm glad that they are becoming more progressive as time goes on. 

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Old town in Krakow from Wikipedia commons: https://commons.wikimedia