riot gear and poland

Fridays, I often only have about 10 minutes of class. The way my program is set up, we have an entirely different class, taught by a different professor, every week. This is great in some ways, as I am getting an overview of cognitive science, and bad in other ways: Fridays are always test day. Even this is generally not too bad. This semester is notably easy, especially in comparison to Carleton, and the tests never require too much preparation. They're just a pain, and they are all oral, which can be difficult. The best part, however, is that this means that usually, I simply have a short oral exam on Friday and that's all.
Today, I had a test from 9:30-9:32, give or take. I then chatted with some girls from my program, and headed home with the intention of picking up orange juice, swinging by home to grab my suit, and going swimming (which I have NOT been doing enough). I get to the grocery store, grab my orange juice and paprika chips (the best food on earth - I'll be petitioning Lays to start selling them in the US), and walk back outside. The square is covered in police in full riot gear.
This requires some explanation. Hungary, at this point in time, is not the most stable. I'm sure many of you remember the Budapest riots last fall that got a fair amount of press. As it turns out, every year on October 23, which is both the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt against the Communists and the anniversary of the 1989 founding of the Hungarian Republic, Hungarians riot. The current government is extremely unpopular, due in large part to a scandal involving the Prime Minister admitting that he had lied to the electorate and troubles with police corruption, misconduct, etc. We were told to be out of the country on October 23. On October 23, little happened. There were more police than protesters. However, protests will be continuing for awhile. There have been reports of emails leaked from the police saying that on a particular bridge today, police will not stop rioters. The police deny saying this. And now, my square is covered in riot police. I'm going to stay in for a little while longer - although I'd love to see a riot, I heard that they recently changed their rubber bullets for stronger tear gas. I like my eyes how they are.

So, I'll report on Poland. Last weekend we were given a 4-day weekend in honor of October 23rd, the national holiday. We were also strongly encouraged to leave Budapest. My friends went in many different directions - Serbia, Prague, Munich, and for me and my friend Dan, Krakow.
We took a 10-hour overnight train up on Friday night. We arrived at the train station just in time to hop on the train and grab a compartment. However, we didn't realize until later that this compartment was first class. We went back to second class and found every compartment entirely full. So, we sat on the ground and waited. After a difficult "conversation" with the Hungarian tickettaker, we were fairly confident that eventually people would get off the train at stops before Krakow and we could take their seats. This worked out, and eventually we ended up with a compartment to ourselves. When we woke up at about 4AM and looked outside, we saw SNOW. Yes, the fluffy white stuff was falling from the sky. We arrived in Krakow at 5AM and had 9 hours to kill until our hostel would allow us to check in. It was freezing. The flowers were covered in white.

It being too cold to walk around outside and too early to go anywhere, we sat in the train station, then a mall connected to the train station until the snow was melted, it was light out, and we could stroll through Krakow to our hostel. We dropped our stuff at the hostel then went to grab some sandwich gear for lunch. When that was over, it was late enough that we could check in and take a long, long nap. Trains are not the best for sleeping, even when you do have an entire seat to yourself.
The next day was the day for exploring. It was still freezing, and neither of us had packed enough warm clothes. However, that was not going to stop us. We bundled up in everything we owned and wandered around the city. I'm going to warn you right now - I was absolutely terrible at taking pictures during this trip. I took a grand total of 15, most of which are terrible and/or repetitive. Sorry. The looks of Krakow will, I guess, have to remain a mystery. I'll tell you though. It was beautiful. It's smaller than Budapest, and less cosmopolitan. In many ways it feels like an overgrown town, but in a good way. The core of old town is a central square with a market and the church where Chopin's heart rests. Around the old town is a narrow ring of park, which struck me as a great way to design a city.
We eventually made it down to the old Jewish Quarter, where we found an outdoor market that was, unfortunately, just closing up. However, we also found some nice bars and cafes and... drumroll... a BAGEL/TEX-MEX PLACE!!!

Budapest does not have bagels. These were delicious. I miss bagels. I mean, I miss bagels when I'm in Minnesota, where they manage to even ruin Bruegger's, but here, there's absolutely nothing. So this was a huge treat.
We also stumbled across the castle, where Dan took pictures (which I'd like to post, Dan, can I have them?) and I followed my friend Joanna's advice. Joanna had told me that every Pole has a picture of them with the Krakow Dragon. So, now I do too.

The next day we went to Auschwitz. I'd never been to a concentration camp before, and I felt that it was really important to go. It was unbelievably intense. This I have no pictures of, as I didn't think it was okay to take a picture of me walking under the Arbeit Macht Frei (Work shall set you free) gate. I saw other people doing that - ugh. Auschwitz was as I expected, I guess - intense, scary, terrible. I guess there's not that much to say about a concentration camp. The camp is still its original plant, but the barracks are set up as exhibitions. They were all very well done - in particular, there is one building in which all the rooms are full of people's possessions - a room of combs, a room of suitcases (one of which had the address of my street in Budapest - I live in the Ghetto), and, probably most movingly, a room of shoes. I mean an entire room of shoes.
While the exhibitions were moving and overwhelming, the worst part for me was the gas chamber and crematorium. You walk through this very small building - just three small rooms: preparation, gas chamber, crematorium. It was at this point that I realized not only that millions of people died, but that other people killed them. After that, I was done. We headed home on a bus so crowded that we actually sat in the stairwell.
Our last day, it rained. It was still freezing, and it was raining. We decided to ignore the fact that we were in an unknown city and go to the movies. So, we found an english movie with subtitles - Stardust. I really enjoyed it. I haven't seen a movie since I've been here, so it was kind of fun. We also ate at an American restaurant - I had a burger where they actually asked me how I would like it cooked, and Dan had baby back ribs. Not exactly a Polish experience, but a really great rainy day far from home.
That night we came back on a night train, and arrived just in time to start school again!

I'm hoping the streets are safe now. I'm going to go swimming.