The Sphere Effect

Well the rest of Prague was very nice, we had a bit of a walking tour through the city, but it was raining and freezing, which put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. It’s supposed to be Summer for goodness sake - 14 degrees just doesn’t cut it!

We have joined a small tour group of 8 people (one boy) and our driver Pawel (pronounced Pavel). Pav is Polish and he is fantastic.

We left Prague on Wednesday and made our way to Kutna Hora which has an ossuary made of bones. Basically they have used the bones of about 40,000 people to decorate the inside of a church, and it completely creeped both Kath and myself out. If you have ever felt the spiritual presence of evil, it was like this, and it was inside a church. Not a nice sensation at all.

We left Kutna Hora and drove to Olumouc, which is still in the Czech Republic. We spent the night in the Hostel, Poets Corner, which was very cozy. Unfortunately only got to see the city at nighttime, but it looked very lovely and very empty. Would like to see it again in the day time if I ever get the chance.

Then Thursday, my 34th birthday. Funnily it didn’t bother me anywhere near as much as my 33rd birthday. It doesn’t feel quite so real when you don’t have so many friends and family around you. Also, it was a bit of a surreal day, as we spent most of it at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

I was prepared to be horrified by Auschwitz, but I don’t think I have ever really been aware of the full scope of the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish race. The Nazi Regime really did have the intention of the extermination of the entire race, they were not considered people and were put to death in the most disgusting ways - the sheer volume of murders and violence shock me to the core of my being.

I was reminded constantly throughout the tour of the current situation in the middle east - and although I do not support what recently happened in Lebanon, and I am of mixed feelings about the creation of the Israeli state in Palestine, I can understand the feelings of the Israeli people when they make a stand and say ‘We will never ever let anything like this happen to us again. If you attack us we will fight back. Don’t come against us, we will no longer be a people who sit back and take this’.

I was also reminded that this is not only a historical situation. The racial extermination of entire people groups is still happening all over Africa and in different nations of the world. As we were unaware of what was happening in the Death Camps of Germany, so we too often turn a blind eye to what is happening in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda, the Congo and other areas in Africa, where people are being exterminated and screaming out for help, but they are unheard and unhelped. We in the west simply have more important things to do with our time.

Feeling a little somber we left Auschwitz and it’s gas chambers and made our way to Krakow (pronounced Krakov). A beautiful city indeed - well worth a good visit. I have just finished a tour of the old town and thought I would take some time out to reflect on some of the things I saw and experienced yesterday, and to get it down in writing.

For any of you who plan to tour Eastern Europe at some time, I thought I’d rate our hostels out of ten:

Prague
The Czech Inn
Cleanliness: 10
Friendliness: 4
Ambience: 6
Kitchen: 0 - No kitchen
Convenience: 8
Beds: 10
Showers: 10 (Huge shower heads - 20 cm diametr - woo hoo!)

Olumouc
The Poets Corner
Cleanliness: 6
Friendliness: 7
Ambience: 8
Kitchen: 8
Convenience: 8
Beds: 7
Showers: 8 - but only two showers and two toilets in the whole hostel

Krakow
Hostel Centrum
Cleanliness: 8
Friendliness: 7
Ambience: 8 (Drunk Irishmen across the hall, and drunk Italians next door - oh and banging workmen at 7.30 in the morning)
Kitchen: 8
Convenience: 9
Beds: 8 (With reading lights on all but Kath’s bed)
Showers: 10