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My trip to Poland and Germany Day 1 After two hours of waiting, we drove from Oslo bus terminal at 9 o'clock in the morning. In the bus there was little space for our legs, and the bus was out-of-date. We were to travel together with a class from Tangenåsen school. They were pretty lucky because their trip had nothing to do with school, because their parents had arranged the whole trip. Finally, we could start driving towards Sweden. We stopped at "Håby", where everyone who had nothing to eat could buy lunch. About nine in the evening we came to the ferry, we had some food there before we went to bed. Day 2 At 07.30 we could step out of the ferry and enter Poland. Before we could get on the bus again, the passcontrol had to check our passports, and we stood waiting for almost one and a half hour. After a long bus drive we stopped in Torun to get some food. We walked around in the city for about two hours,waiting for free tables in the restaurant, but the meal was worth waiting for! But I didn't like the toilet! I also learned something new; Copernicus is from Poland.There is a huge statue of him at the marketplace in the middle of the city. About 11 o'clock we came to Trojak hotel not far from Cracow. We just checked in and went to bed. Day 3 Today we were going to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. To get to Auschwitz we had to go by bus for one hour. There we started by watching a documentary film about Auschwitz. Actually the camp was the biggest centre for mass extermination for Jews in Europe. After the film we got a guide who showed us around. There were many buildings, but we could enter only some of them. At first we just looked at some pictures while the guide was telling us about the concentration camp.Many groups, and guides speaking at the same time made it difficult to listen to our guide. That was irritating. When we came to the next building, we could see the Jews` belongings in a display case. We saw their clothes, glasses, shoes etc. When I saw their shoes, I really understood how terrible the living conditions in the camp was. I didn't understand why they didn't let a little child live in freedom. Even their hair they had in a display case. After that we took a break. We also stopped at the Execution Wall, where there were many flowers. Karoline and Torstein read some poem and we had one minute silence for the people who got killed. It is terrible to realize that the Jews had to stand there knowing that they were going to be killed. An hour later we were to see the rest of Auschwitz. We went to the building with the prison cells. In one of the cells there was a picture of Jesus on the wall. It was so special because it was made by nails. When we walked further into the building there were small cells 90*90 sq.cm, and I was thinking of what they used them to… The guide told us that after the Jews had worked the whole day, they put them in the small cells. Maybe five or six persons at the same time, they had to stand and sleep. I think that is terrible. The last thing we saw in Auschwitz was the gas chamber and the crematory. In the gas chamber we saw holes in the roof were they dropped down small tins with gas. Then the corpses were burnt in the crematoria.
Birkenau was
built as a relief camp of Auschwitz. In the barracks there were
many beds. I don't know if I could call it a bed because it was
3 floors without mattresses.
Day 4 Today we walked around in Cracow. First we walked to Wavel Castle. The guide stopped us in front of a dragon and told us a little story of a dragon that once lived there.
Day 5 We got up at seven to eat breakfast. At 8 o'clock we had to be in our bus, because we were to visit the Salt Mines in Wieliczka. Our guided trip started by walking down almost 380 steps. All in all there are 200 km mine corridors, and at the deepest it is 327 metres. The guide said that our group could only get to the third level, which is 120 metres down. She also told us that the miners had made over 2040 chapels. In the small chapels there are lots of statues of men who are working. After we walked a little bit longer, we came to a big chapel, which was like a church. It was only one man who started the decorations in 1895, and the chapel was finished in 1964. The pictures there are very beautiful. The chandelier and the altar were beautiful too, and it's amazing that everything in the mines is made by salt. When we came to St. Kinga's Chapel we took pictures, it was a marvellous sight! I have only one word to descirbe it, and that's woooow. I had never believed that it was so big down there. In the end we took an elevator up again. We stayed at a hotel in Zary that night before we went across the border to Germany.
We had to wait pretty long at the border, because they had to check our passports. The first we saw when we came to Berlin was a memorial of the Berlin Wall. Next to the real wall, there was raised an iron wall that was a symbol of the iron curtain that split east and West Berlin.Strange thinking about families and friends separated by a wall! Afterwards we went to Hard Rock Café to eat. Then we could go on our own for two hours. We went only in one street, Kurfürstendamm, that is Berlin's busiest Main Street. In that street we could see Kaiser Willhelm Gedächtniskirche, which was bombed during the Second World War.Next to the ruins they have built a new church of steel and glass. We visited Check Point Charlie and Die Mauer Museum. In the museum we could learn of many different ways to escape from East- to West- Berlin. Here is one successful escape: There was a man called Robert (didn't remember his last name) who escaped from Tsjekkoslovakia to Austria with a lift machine. He climbed up the telephone pole and practised railing at the telephone lines. He only did this when it rained and at night, so the soldiers didn't see him. The trip took 140 minutes. At the way back to the hotel we past by the Television Tower, which was only two hundred metres from our hotel. The 365 metres high Tower was built in 1965. It is a symbol of GDR`s economic power. Day 7 Ravensbrück was a concentration camp for women.Today this camp is a museum. The first thing we saw looked like a corridor. I thought it was not so bad, but when I heard what it was used to I changed my mind. Our guide said that when they were going to kill the women, they let them run in the corridor while they were shooting after them. The point wasn't to hit them, just to frighten them. And in the evening, when they had run all the day, they just shot them. Afterwards we visited an interesting exhibition, one exhibition room for each country that had had prisoners in the camp. It was a bit strange visiting Norway's room and reading all the prisoners' names. After leaving Ravensbrück we drove to Swinoujscie, where we travelled by boat back to Sweden.
We had time to eat breakfast before we arrived Sweden again. We arrived Tangenåsen at 19:30. It was terrible to say goodbye to everyone after becoming friends. I promised to keep in touch with some of them, and I hope that one day we can meet again. After saying goodbye we drove to the bus terminal. I think we had to wait there for about three to four hours before the night express came. Then went back to Ørsta. I think the
trip to Poland and Germany was ok. But I got some terrible thoughts
when we were in the concentrations camps. And it was real fun to
travel with another class, get the chance to make some new friends.
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