Today we visited Auschwitz. This was my fourth visit to this camp but for many in my group it was their first. The expectations were set for this place to be the most intense on our trip and for many it was, including myself. A lot of visitors exclaim how unbelievable it is, you can’t truly think that anyone would take part in such hideous crimes. A holocaust survivor on our tour mentioned that “this was the gas chamber I…
Today was the most powerful of the trip so far. We spent a good part of the early afternoon touring the Kazimierz part of Kraków, the old Jewish Quarter. After visiting the old, we went on to see the current Jewish Community Centre in this modern and trendy city. Firstly we heard from one of the survivors, Marla, who now lives in England. Her story is a horrifying first hand account of life in the harsh ghettos of Poland; she…
Another incredibly intense day seeing so much history in such a short space of time. Bełżec was the first death camp set up during the Nazi regime, close to the border with Ukraine. It was constructed in the middle of a huge forest, surrounded by tightly packed Nazi planted trees and with an extra layer of leaves on top to hide it from aerial view. Unfortunately again this place has a sense that the Nazis won here. They closed down…
Today was a very long and difficult day. We visited the Majdanek death camp which was the most moving place I have been to. To many of the group, it was their first visit to any sort of physical camp of this nature. Initial reactions from the main memorial overlooking the whole camp was that it was a lot smaller than they thought it would be. Several hours of walking later, they realised how big it actually was. The camp…
March of the Living is an annual commemorative walk from Auschwitz 1 to Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland. It’s main purpose (in my view) is to show the world that we (“the Jews”) are still here. The much longer death marches took place in 1945 when the Nazis knew the Russians were close; the purpose then was to remove the Jews from the death camps. Many died on these marches and we march to show that we are still here. The…
Very few people actually know the details of how WWII started. Most generally know that Germany walked soldiers into Poland on September 1st 1939 and the rest of the world reacted by waging war. This is partly true, but it leaves out an incredibly interesting story that I only found by visiting the site itself. Silesia (now owned by Poland) was an area to the east in Germany that bordered Poland. On the 31st August 1939, a day before the…
Cycling to Krakow from Katowice A few weekends ago we (my girlfriend Basia and I), spent the Saturday on a fairly flat 80km cycle from our flat in Katowice to Krakow. The weather was perfect blue skies and not too hot at about 16 degrees. Having not done too much cycling since the big ride out here, almost 6 months ago now, where I averaged 100km a day for 22 days cycling, I was still in a good place to do a…
I thought I would give an update on my blog as it has been a while since I did so! A major project that I have been working on for almost 6 months now is about to go live. I am looking forward to releasing it next week and showing the world what me and (now) a team of developers have created. Recently I also managed to get a bit of spare time to start developing a side project in…
Recently I went through the overwhelmingly difficult task of buying a new HDTV. Being an keen gamer (mostly Xbox 360 FPS games) I wanted to make sure that I got one good for gaming. My requirements for the TV: Needs to be full HD (1080p) – which almost every modern TV has these days Needs to have a low input lag – to make gaming responsive I do not really care about 3D TV features (there isn’t much shown in…
Below are some cycling specific rules I have given myself whilst touring (usually solo) over the years. It is by no means a bible and I know many other people who do things completely differently. Water Always have water. If you are running low then you MUST stop at the next available place as you don’t know when you might get lost! Never get dehydrated – down what you have and fill it up as often as you can. Remember,…