Krakow is lovely and although it doesn't feel as lively as Wroclaw (this may be because we were in Wroclaw on the weekend and Krakow during the week) it does have a lot of interesting sites to see.
On Monday we took a trip to Auschwitz which was very shocking. It rained most of the day we were there which felt quite fitting, as a place that has experienced such horror I can't imagine it any other way. Auschwitz itself has a museum set up which gives some of the history behind World War II and has memorials for all of the nationalities affected during the Holocaust.
We then went on to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) which was absolutely massive. It was so saddening to see such an enormous camp and to think that over 75% of those who arrived at the camp only lived for a few hours.
In Krakow itself we went to the old Jewish town, Kazimierz, and visited the New Jewish Cemetery which has grave stones dedicated to entire families killed during the Holocaust.
On a lighter and happier note we also visited the Salt Mines outside of Krakow which are over 700 years old. Our tour lasted almost two hours and we saw just 1% of the mines, they are HUGE!! Absolutely everything was made out of salt, the walls, floors, ceilings, sculptures, it even had an underground cathedral.
We are now in Vilnius and it's cold and rainy, but a lovely city nonetheless. We are heading off on the overnight train to St Petersburg tomorrow to start our Trans-Mongolian journey, very exciting!!
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