Krakow, Wraclaw, and Auschwitz

What a trip it's been so far. The choir has managed to travel quite a bit in a short amount of time, hitting the bus. Warsaw was lots of fun, but Krakow was an amazingly beautiful city, deeply affected by World War II. It was there that alot of Schindler's List was filmed, so we saw the old Jewish Ghetto and Jewish quarters of the city, along with a great many churches and castles. Our concert in Krakow was kinda dissapointing, very few people showed up because the church forgot to advertise for the concert. I had some great clubbing experiences there though and met lots of Polish students who were willing to talk about the world and life in general, and it's definately been one of the best parts of this trip: getting to know different people with different viewpoints.

After Krakow we headed to Auschwitz, and it was truly an eye-opener. Words really can't do justice to the emotion and power of the place. Most of the time "How could this happen" was going through my head, but I oftentimes would put myself in the places of these different people. When you see the results of humanity at it's greatest evil extreme, you often wonder where you would be in that spectrum: what if it was me holding the gun as a guard? What if I was interned at one of the camps? Would I have been brave? What is brave? These are powerful questions, and definately worth exploring and experiencing.

Wraclaw was also a very nice city with a big square and we had a very quirky tour guide. Highlights included getting drunk before the bus-ride to Prague.

Now we're in Prague, and the city is amazing. Not too big geographically, but very beautiful and well reserved (it wasn't touched by WWII). Our concert is in about a half hour, so I have to cut this entry short.

Cheers,


-Nate