Kiwi See the World through my eyes - Poland & Hungary

Poland

Our trip into Poland was very much an unplanned detour after Prague. Being so close by train, it was a great opportunity to visit Auschwitz, the notorious WW2 Nazi concentration camp as an important history lesson for Michael. What we hadn’t expected, was just how extraordinary Poland would be in its self and Krakow, where we stayed was incredible.

Krakow one of the oldest cities in Poland, with its old town being listed an UNESCO World heritage site was beautiful, albeit cold. It boasts the biggest market square in Europe and houses The Cloth Hall, apparently the first shopping mall in the world. Also St. Mary’s Basilica as well as Rynek Underground, a maze of underground medieval tunnel routes that run below the market square. Krakow also has its own royal castle, Wawel which looms above the city complete with a fire breathing dragon monument, worth a wander past in the evening.

We loved Krakow and even the cold added to the magical feel to the city. Our apartment located only a short walk from the city centre was idyllic apart from the 10 flights of stairs.  Airbnb apartments are far cheaper in Europe than using hotels and afforded us the comforts of home. Michael is relaxed and almost seems to be enjoying be back on the road. He prefers apartment living, as we can all find our own space away from each other and he instantly started to refer to our new abode as home. 

Krakow is also the location of Oskar Schindlers factory from the movie Schindler’s List, now a museum, its tells the incredible story where over a thousand Jews were saved from deportation to the concentration camps. All around the city are poignant reminders to the atrocities that occurred at the hands of the Nazis during the war. Including the remains of the ghetto where Jews were isolated and the ruins of Plaszow Concentration Camp. 

About an hour from Krakow in the town of Oswiecim we visited the Auschwitz Museum and Birkenau Concentration camp where 1.5 million people were murdered in the gas chambers. A camp built solely for mass annihilation of a population. The scale of which none of us were expecting to see. To walk through the gates to the gas chamber where so many people had passed before never to return, was incredibly sad and left us all feeling bewildered as to why.  I was so proud of Michael who understanding the importance of the place, behaved so respectfully, unlike some of the adults we witnessed there. He seemed somewhat crass initially with a throw away comment, ‘I’ve seen worse”. When challenged where, he replied in Cambodia and went on to describe what he had learnt in the notorious S21 prison camp and killing fields. After seeing huge mounds of human hair, shoes, bags and the remains of the gas chambers themselves he became a lot more contrite and asked lots of questions. His conclusion being that both genocides were at the hands of complete mad men, both of which had never been punished for their crimes against humanity.

Hungary-Budapest

A city for lovers? Perhaps not, but there seems to be an abundance of courting couples in romantic embraces. A reminder that travelling with a child for a year 24/7 has its drawbacks!

Our location was awesome, literally situated at the foot of Margaret’s Bridge we were an easy walk to Chain Bridge joining the two old cities on opposite shores of the Danube, Buda and Pest. We were also in the perfect spot to take in a morning run around Margaret Island, situated between the two as a pedestrian only, tranquil spot to get away from traffic. 
It really is a beautiful city, grand in its architecture, again steeped in history and famous for its abundance of hots springs and spas. With Michael complaining at having to walk for hours around yet another city, we decided to use the city sight seeing hop on hop off bus which quickly gave us a flavour for the magnitude of Budapest and the areas to explore. Buda side of the river was the more picturesque, famous for Buda Castle, which left us somewhat underwhelmed, we much preferred the Fisherman’s Bastion which looked like it should be set in the pages of a fairy tale. The Pest side of the river is less picturesque and is very much the commercial side of Budapest. Although full of hidden gems which we enjoyed finding. The Heroes park standing at the entrance to a beautiful city park was a great find and was lovely to lounge around on the grass away from the hustle of the city. Just beautiful and complete with castle and a zoo! 

One of the must-see sites is the Shoes on the Danube embankment. 60 pairs of metal shoes commemorating the slaughter of Jews, lined up and shot into the Danube execution style by the Nazi sympathisers in 1944 – 1945. It seems that there is no city in Europe untouched by the atrocities of war. Michael even after Auschwitz, seemed to have little regard for the what the shoes truly represent. I found myself pointing at people in the street. Men, women and children just like him, all murdered just for being Jews. Our journey has led to some deep conversations with Michael on how a society can denigrate and dehumanize another human being to the point that they are deemed worthless as people. What would NZ look like if we cleansed it of all those that weren’t true kiwis? That would also include half of his family. He may lack in empathy, but he has a clear understanding of right and wrong and therefore we are trying to teach him to always see people first and stand up against hatred and racism. Whether or not we are getting through remains to be seen, but we are hopefully planting a seed to grow.

Michaels patience has really been tested to the limit here in Budapest as he’s completely over cities. Feeling a little the same, we decided on our last full day to have some fun and see if we could utilise the sightseeing bus book of vouchers that normally get disregarded. The rule was we could only use the voucher and not purchase anything else. We scored a free goulash lunch, 4 beers,8 shots, a slice of pizza and 3 postcards before taking an accomplished boat ride home. Following the vouchers took us into parts of the city we would have never ventured and was surprisingly lots of fun. Michael clearly enjoying how uncomfortable I was sat in a posh restaurant eating one slice of pizza!!