With the RS 'tour' and the many info boards all over the camp, walking around without a tour guide is perfect. We have time to linger and reflect when we want. Later in the day was better; the feelings midday are a bit destroyed by all the tour groups and schoolkids. It's good that people are visiting the camp and not forgetting history though.
It's incredible to see just the scale of the two Auschwitz camps. This was a *huge* operation. Most of the barracks in Birkenau were destroyed, leaving the remnants of their chimneys.
Also, seeing Auschwitz under grey clouds and then rain feels appropriate. (Since I do most of the picture-taking during our trips, K inevitably ends up in more pictures. It's not that great a shot but I really liked catching him off-guard in this one. It's also the only photo where I managed to capture the grey sky.)
The camp is divided into Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. Birkenau is where they built much larger crematoriums a little later. They were all destroyed though, so you only see the ruins, but it's still unbelievable to see it.
A lot of things are spooky about the Holocaust, but after seeing it again and again in different forms, I've become somewhat inured to it. The 'material evidence' exhibit was not quite old. I'd already seen piles and piles of shoes at the Holocaust museum in DC, but this was even a bigger pile as well as *real* shoes taken (not sure if the ones in DC are). They also showed piles and piles of other objects taken from prisoners. The hair was new for me. Apparently the Nazis cut and collected women's hair and used it to make textiles. Some of this hair was cut from the women after being gassed; they've found traces of Zyklon B in the hair. After the war, they found bags and bags of hair. One of exhibits was just a bunch of this hair, piled up. It was absolutely gross.
Dachau, the camp we visited near Munich, was the first and a model for future concentration camps. Auschwitz was notorious and very much used. They give you a different feel, so I'm happy we also visited Dachau.
Between Auschwitz I and Birkenau runs a shuttle bus. We had just missed the 5pm shuttle bus back, so rather than waiting for the last 6pm shuttle we ask another two people if they want to share a taxi. The taxi is only 15 zlotys (~$5). Actually, when K paid with a fifty, he discovered the taxi driver short him, only giving him 25 back. It's good K remembered to count his change before leaving the taxi.
5:56pm bus back to Krakow.
Shakes and jerks. Aaah. I'm pitched into the aisle. I look back. K's in the aisle, too, sandwiched between other people. K, are you ok?! My leg hurts, but someone's telling us we have to get out of the bus *right now*. I try to carefully make my way out and somehow manage to grab my bag, scarf, and dropped mini mp3 player. It's wet out but thankfully not currently raining much. I sit down on a patch of grass/dirt, next to this girl. She's bleeding somewhere on her head. I look over at K coming out of the bus. Ok, he seems ok. No blood at least. Someone's saying we should move away from the bus. I get up and walk over to the pavement, but my head starts spinning, so I sit back down on the pavement.
After some time, I ask K to help me up. My leg still hurts and K says his shoulder really hurts. Upon examining his shoulder, I see it's just a skin wound (his shirt & jacket rubbing against it was making it extra painful) and probably a bruise. I have a 2.5-in x 2-in (or so) wound on my right shin and my knee hurts, but I can still limp and it feels bendable. I've heard enough about knees from D to feel that maybe it'll be ok. I'm happy I always carry around some first aid in our daypack. I clean up our shoulder and shin wounds with some antiseptic wipes, dot on some first aid cream, and bandage it up. We have a few other scrapes here and there, but even more minor, so I just leave them.
Looking at some of the other passengers, we feel very grateful that the minor wounds and some pain is all we walked away with. The paramedics and police arrive quickly and start tending to the more heavily injured. There's two cars on the opposite side of the road, also part of the accident, and apparently there's still a guy stuck in one of the cars, so they work on getting him out.
With our well-being cleared away, we start thinking on other matters. First, K goes back to retrieve my umbrella from the bus as it's raining again now. And, how are we going to get back to Krakow? Someone says we're about halfway between Auschwitz and Krakow. We discuss with a couple of other non-heavily-injured people. It seems we're the only non-Polish-speaking ones though. Some people will return to Auschwitz. After some discussion, we decide hitchhiking is the way to go. Just as we're about to go with another couple to find a car that will take us, this guy walks over and asks if we're hurt in any way. He tells us we have to follow him. We *must* go with the paramedics, he says. They try to only take me, but we manage to persuade them to take K, too. So, we both end up in an ambulance carrying this other person on a stretcher. In retrospect, we think maybe the guy was helping us out. He wasn't with the paramedics; he was another passenger from the bus who happened to be a paramedic as well. I think it was the same guy who yelled that we had to get out of the bus at first. Anyways, the ambulance took us to Krakow hospital. That's why in retrospect we think that guy was helping us out. He knew we wanted to get to Krakow and that we spoke no Polish, right? Even if that wasn't his intention, we're glad he insisted we go with the paramedics; we didn't have to act on the 'how to get back to Krakow' question.
The hospital. I really think I'll be ok (the more 'heavily injured' of the two of us), so I think we'll just leave the hospital and if it doesn't get better, then we'll visit another hospital later. We wait for a while for them to have me sign a paper that says I decline medical assistance. But the doctors/nurses involved don't want me to leave. They insist on me being checked out and say they'll do it for free. Hmmm. One of the doctors moves my leg around and touches my knee for a while. After some discussion with the two other doctors/nurses, they insist on me getting x-rays (and also says it'll be free. Hmmm.). Anyways, in the end, no broken bones, just a contusion, aka bruise, but contusion is the only word the doctor knows it by. They wrap it up (compression) and tell me to ice it and keep it elevated. And of course, rest it. RICE, just like it would be in the States. We're leaving for Prague in two days and we do lots of walking! Hmmm.
In total, three hours in the hospital. Me: bruised and swollen knee, medium-size wound on shin, some other minor cuts, pain in mostly right side of body (bruised shoulder & wrist?) and a little bump near my left temple. K: small-size wound on shoulder, pain in right knee, thigh, and back. We count ourselves lucky.
While at the hospital, we meet another passenger from the bus who says she saw part of what happened. According to her, a car on the other side of the road was passing another car by coming into our lane. But it turns out there's wasn't enough time to pass and the car ended up swerving to avoid our oncoming bus, bumping our bus and hitting the other car. Our bus after being hit and also from the brakes and swerving ended up off the road, hitting a tree. The slippery-wet road certainly didn't help.
Finally got back to the hostel a little past 11pm. I'm starving. We only really ate a yogurt+muesli breakfast, two bars, and bananas all day. K also tried buying some snacks from a vending machine at the hospital, nothing really filling though -- pretzels, a wafer bar, a small choco bread thing. My hunger seems beyond repair for tonight. Instant noodle soup is yummier than ever, but my stomach's still giving me pain. So, I just go to bed with a stomachache; I'm sure it'll be gone when I wake up.
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