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Rough Notes on Poland
May. 10th, 2012 06:12 pmBreman, May 2, 9:51am
- been at the airport since 4:45 am. Sitting at quiet coffee table with Aga and Joanna. I'm Peaceful because I'm too tired to be anything else. I don't look as bad as I normally do while traveling. This is surprising to all parties involved.
May 2, 2012: on a train bus plane bus train
- Poland looks nothing like I'd ever imagined. It is lush and green and warm and alive. We drove through dusty fields and forests of liquid emerald. I keep wanting to turn to Joanna and ask her, "are you sure we're in Poland? Cause it looks like the savannah to me."
Auschwitz:
- women's hair
- camp warehouses called CANADA by the prisoners because it was a symbol of wealth and freedom, and all prisoners' valuables were stored there
- the little girl who was part of our tour - an old soul
- every single pair of shoes tells a story. Children's shoes. Baby clothes. One doll. Too many stories.
- this is what your freedom doesn't look like
- I'm measuring every step I take and imagining taking it undernourished and barely alive. Would I have the strength?
- I don't know if I want to touch the stones.
- Death Wall
- Gallows
- starvation cells in basement of Block 11
- standing suffocation cells: 4 people per room (1x1 square meter) vent hole one cubic inch, no lights, no windows, no air
- we went into he gas chamber of Auschwitz I - and came out. No one does that.
May 3, on bus back from Auschwitz:
- saw a chainsaw on a billboard. Considered stopping the bus to snag a picture. (thought Of all the inside jokes we made in yellow kitchen with George, Trang and Tamas about chainsaws and political prostitutes)
Warsaw
- the old town in Warsaw isn't old; it was rebuilt to look so after WWII. War hurts
- old Warsaw doesn't look like it does because of a tourist attraction or for novelty value: it looks like it does because when the Germans destroyed he old city, they destroyed Polish identity along with it.
- not for tourists but for identity (war hurts)
May 5, 2012:
- on train from aga's village (Zalesie Gorne) to Warsaw
- Poland continues to be amazing. I continue to be amazed. The scenery here is so beautiful, I still can't get over it. Velvet brown fields. Pristine blue sky. Forests so lush and plentiful it's as if we're already in he Garden of Eden. It's not at all what I expected and I cant help but feel cheated that I didn't know about this before. Is this the world's best kept secret? That Poland is luscious and gorgeous and no one talks about it? I feel like Liz Gilbert: Poland rocks, why did no one tell me this before?!
- been at the airport since 4:45 am. Sitting at quiet coffee table with Aga and Joanna. I'm Peaceful because I'm too tired to be anything else. I don't look as bad as I normally do while traveling. This is surprising to all parties involved.
May 2, 2012: on a
- Poland looks nothing like I'd ever imagined. It is lush and green and warm and alive. We drove through dusty fields and forests of liquid emerald. I keep wanting to turn to Joanna and ask her, "are you sure we're in Poland? Cause it looks like the savannah to me."
Auschwitz:
- women's hair
- camp warehouses called CANADA by the prisoners because it was a symbol of wealth and freedom, and all prisoners' valuables were stored there
- the little girl who was part of our tour - an old soul
- every single pair of shoes tells a story. Children's shoes. Baby clothes. One doll. Too many stories.
- this is what your freedom doesn't look like
- I'm measuring every step I take and imagining taking it undernourished and barely alive. Would I have the strength?
- I don't know if I want to touch the stones.
- Death Wall
- Gallows
- starvation cells in basement of Block 11
- standing suffocation cells: 4 people per room (1x1 square meter) vent hole one cubic inch, no lights, no windows, no air
- we went into he gas chamber of Auschwitz I - and came out. No one does that.
May 3, on bus back from Auschwitz:
- saw a chainsaw on a billboard. Considered stopping the bus to snag a picture. (thought Of all the inside jokes we made in yellow kitchen with George, Trang and Tamas about chainsaws and political prostitutes)
Warsaw
- the old town in Warsaw isn't old; it was rebuilt to look so after WWII. War hurts
- old Warsaw doesn't look like it does because of a tourist attraction or for novelty value: it looks like it does because when the Germans destroyed he old city, they destroyed Polish identity along with it.
- not for tourists but for identity (war hurts)
May 5, 2012:
- on train from aga's village (Zalesie Gorne) to Warsaw
- Poland continues to be amazing. I continue to be amazed. The scenery here is so beautiful, I still can't get over it. Velvet brown fields. Pristine blue sky. Forests so lush and plentiful it's as if we're already in he Garden of Eden. It's not at all what I expected and I cant help but feel cheated that I didn't know about this before. Is this the world's best kept secret? That Poland is luscious and gorgeous and no one talks about it? I feel like Liz Gilbert: Poland rocks, why did no one tell me this before?!
