Spent 3 nights in Poland. First night was on a hostel on Katowice. The next morning I got up early to tour Auschwitz. Fittingly, it was gloomy and rained the whole time I was there.

I got there around 8:30am and there wasn’t an English tour until 10:30am. So I decided to take it on by myself. I pretty much followed the Polish tour guides just so I had a general path to hit all of the camp. Luckily most signs were in English so I had some context when exploring. On a train ride, even before I decided I would go to Auschwitz, I read Night by a Holocaust survivor (Ellie Wiesel). I was really glad I had that narrative in my head because it made the camp come to life. I think without reading that book many things wouldn’t have resonated quite as much.

I had a lot of friends ask me how it was and how it made me feel. Honestly, I expected to be a little more somber afterwards. There were something, like seeing the room full of human hair they literally harvested from people, that hit me pretty hard. However, for the most part it was pretty cleaned up and seemed a little removed from the horrors that once happened there. At least in my perspective after seeing the Killing Fields in Cambodia (https://www.wildboom.us/2017/10/15/cambodian-adventures-part-1/). There I saw piles of human skulls and even saw bone fragments still in the grass…

After going through the first camp I took a shuttle bus from that camp to the other main camp that was constructed once the original Auschwitz camp was filled. The other camp was huge… There were horse stables (designed for 52 horse) everywhere that were used to house around 400 prisoners. You could see these stables almost as far as your eye could see. This camp also had a replica train car on the tracks were the prisoners first came in.

After I finished at Auschwitz I hopped on a train north to Leszno, Poland. Here my friend Z picked me up at the station. We are friends back from working together at CMU. He came to the university from Poland on a track scholarship. I guess for a time he was the fastest man in Poland in a certain event. Everyone at Central called him Z because no one could pronounce his real name, Ziemowit.

It was a real chill visit and I spent two nights on the couch in his living room. It was really fun to see his son! His wife was pregnant while he was in his last semester at CMU and I remember him trying to work extra hours to provide for his family. I remember thinking how hard that must have been to be on another continent while your wife is pregnant. So it was a joy to see them all together and happy!

I didn’t do a whole lot with Z besides talk and catch up since he was on daddy duty all day. He did go to the mall with his son and played with him at a play park. I also have to say Polish KFC is much better than American KFC. They have some really awesome chicken sandwiches and they had a promotional Oriental menu as well.

Now, I’m on a bus to Berlin. In Berlin I have a two hour wait before I transfer to another bus to Paris. I intended on meeting up with some of my German friends from my high school foreign exchange program, but with my poor planning we were unable to make it work. Instead I’m going to see if it is possible to get to the Berlin Wall quick during my bus layover.

I learned pretty quickly that the Grand Budapest Hotel is a fictional fabrication and not a real building, but fortunately Budapest has many other “Grand” sights to behold.

Firstly, my journey from Kiev, Ukraine to Budapest, Hungary was an anomaly by backpacking standards. I have gotten used to long waits and inconvenient departure times. The only wait was for the roughly 5pm departure time from Kiev which brought me to the utmost edge of Ukraine in Chop, arriving at 9am. The approximate 16-hour train ride cost a mere equivalent of $5.75 US. That included a sleeper berth, which at this point has become quite common for me. I am usually able to sleep soundly despite the crowdedness, maybe even better than a hostel bed, in thanks, part to the rhythm of a moving train. That train was a pleasant surprise for the price and then upon arrival in Chop, Ukraine I only had to wait 20 minutes for a train to take me across the border to Záhony, Hungary. The immigration and passport control went smoothly and I arrived in Záhony with my Hungarian entry stamp and my official entry into the EU. While the 20-minute wait seemed like a quick turnaround, upon arriving in Záhony I had 5 minutes to quickly purchase a ticket taking me straight to Budapest. My receipt showed a 10:01 purchase with the train leaving at 10:03am. I doubt I could have even planned it that perfectly! It’s very rare that things line up that perfectly especially when flying by the seat of your pants, as I usually do.

My first day in Budapest was greeted with the visit of my Summer camp friends Mark and Veronika at the train Station. Veronika had to quickly get back to work, so Mark took me to grab some food since I had ridden through lunch. Mark then had to leave for soccer practice, leaving me to wander the famous Danube river at night. It was gorgeous with the Parliament, a cathedral, and a castle all lit up along the river walk.

The next day after a nights rest in a downtown hostel Mark, Veronika, and now Balazs gave me a tour of the city! I really didn’t have any expectations for Hungary since I really didn’t know much about it, but I was really impressed with how nice it was. Super nice public transport, very clean, and all sorts of nest old buildings.

We went inside the St. Stephen’s Basilica and it reminded me of the grand cathedrals I visited in Italy on my first trip to Europe. Not sure when from China to Russia to Hungary that I officially entered Europe, but I can be sure I’m there now!

Then at night I met back up with Veronika and we climbed to the top of the Citadel. I guess that statue there in the picture above is the Hungarian equivalent of the statue of Liberty. The views from the top were great as well!

After, that I said goodbye and I made my way by public transport to the bus station. It was a quick trip, but a good one!

Now I am in Czechia after a 5 hour bus ride. Through the night I went right through Bratislava, the capital of Solvakia. My layover here was from 4am to 8:30am. Luckily I’ve been camping out in a 24/7 bar and cafe. I witnessed drunken fights at 5am and then almost immediately afterwards the crowd changed to older folks getting there 5:30am coffee. Kind of interesting to see…

Tomorrow, I plan on touring Auschwitz and then I’ll head a little further north in Poland to visit a friend from University.