Never heard of this place until Wanshan told us! Christiania is in fact an independent area, where drugs are peddled and one would not be caught in the independent vicinities. Interesting that such places would exist in such an advanced country like Denmark.

Eleven, Twelve. Krakow. That morning we took a train to Lübeck. This train is special as it brought us on a ferry across the sea from Denmark to Germany, as the land route would take a much longer time, in which we had to exit and proceed to the upper deck of the ferry, before proceeding with the journey on land in Germany. We unfortunately took a 2-carriaged, 1-toileted, stinky and old train to Sczezin Glowny in Poland. The train arrived late in Sczezin, so we had to run to our platform only the get on the train on the dot. That meant that the train was moving once we got on the train. In a mad rush, we got on the wrong carriage, which meant we had a long way to walk with our huge bags. Polish trains are nothing like DB trains. The lighting was definitely dimmer, the walls seemed a little dirty, the doors creaky and heavy, so it was quite a challenge walking down about 10 carriages before reaching our cabin. What was worse was that halfway through, a man made a big fuss about us passing over his tandem bikes which we had to shift aside so we could squeeze through. Fortunately we had the backing of the train conductor who showed us the way to our cabin. We had to share the cabin with another 3 persons, which meant we could not be too loud. Polish trains were well-known to be dangerous, with plenty of pickpockets. This, on top of the fact that the cabin was so claustrophobic, meant that we were reluctant to change to make ourselves comfortable, or even to take out our laptops to use for fear of attracting attention to our valuable. We even had to hug our money to sleep!

The next morning I woke up at 6.30am in anticipation of our arrival at about 7.50am at Krakow station. However, to our horror, we were awaken at about 7.40am by the train conductor that we have reached our stop and had to get off immediately! I was so groggy I could not even carry my bag properly, such that the train conductor had to help me with it and swing it off the train. Same for Xinyu, and thus we were literally thrown off the train! This had to be one of the most crazy moments in my life!

Fortunately we arrived in civilization, with Carrefour as the first recognisable brand we saw. This was followed by a wonderful hostel, with breakfast, wifi and laundry included, with a wonderful lounge and toilets! All for only 8.50eur! Best deal we found so far!

Started the tour with Wawel Castle, only to coincide with the President’s arrival then. Admission to the castle on Mondays are free, except that the glamorous rooms are not open for viewing. Thus we had a visit to the Cathedral Museum and Cathedral in the castle. Apparently, the Poles are very religious people, Pope John Paul II was from Poland, and the Poles respected him a lot.

We also visited the Dragon’s Den, which was kind of like a cave in the castle. The story goes that there used to be a dragon that lived in the den. In order to kill the dragon to save the princess, the people put a poisoned sheep outside the den. The dragon ate it and got so thirsty it drank all the water from the Wisla River, such that it died. Kinda like a story and place to appeal to children, but we realized that the mascot for Krakow seemed to be the dragon.

At the Kamizierz area, the Jewish quarters, we had a visit to the Remuh synagogue and cemetery, which was my first time in a synagogue. Men had to wear a headgear within the holy grounds. It was also my first time visiting a Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was so ancient, dating back to 14th century, of varying eras such that the tombstones were of different designs. Stones were placed on the tombstones in place of flowers, as stones are eternal, while flowers will wilt.

The Galicia Jewish museum also provided further insights to the lives of the Jewish people, during the WWII. The photo exhibition was particularly impactful, making use of modern day photos to depict the past. After 60 years, much damages, scars and ruins could still be seen in the Galicia region in Poland. One thing that struck me was that never once was the word ‘Nazi’ used, but ‘the Germans’. This made me wonder what will a German feel when he reads that. However, from the point of view of a Pole that we were going to hear from the following day, the people who inflicted harm on these innocent Jewish people were people like us too. They had their families, they were countrymen and they were Germans. Besides, the Germans supported the Nazis, so he had no qualms about calling them Germans or German Nazis, instead of Nazis.

As with every European town, there is an old town. The square was bustling with children, locals, vendors and tourists. The church was going through mass at the time. The trumpet was sounded off every hour, and would abruptly stopped to commemorate the war in 16th century when the Tartars killed the trumpeter for informing the rest of the threat.