Auschwitz

Today, we were visiting Auschwitz, the biggest concentracion camp and a big part of german history.

In nearly every building there is some kind of sub-museum where you can see an exhibition to a special topic like the holocaust of hungarian or polish jews. Already after the first building I felt pretty sick because everything was so bad and disgusting and unhuman I just wasn't sure how to deal with it.

It started with a place they put the dead people they shot when they wanted to break out of the camp as a warning to the others. All the people they burned (after shooting them or killing them in the gas chamber) were even reused by taking the ashes and dunged the fields where the camp inhabitants were working on with it. It was like fully sustainable in a really really sick way.

People who were getting sick were sorted out by the probability that they would be able to work again. They just treated people who would work again, the rest was just killed. They even performed experiments on women to see if they could make them infertile.

This wall is the wall were the people got shot. There were so many ways to die in those camps. They say about 1,2 million people were killed in Auschwitz in total.

And I asked myself: If the war had taken another few years, if they had been successful to kill all the jews and gypsies and so on - who would have been next?

Krakow

Yesterday we did a trip to Krakow. Unfortunately, the planning was not that good and we had like 3 hours for the whole city which was really not enough. But we managed to see some great aspects of the city.

This was the first impression of Krakow and now I am feeling sorry that we don't have something like that in Austria. I know that there is a place to relax at the Donauinsel in Vienna but this is actually next to the castle, therefore really close to the city center. I even found my favourite place to relax where I would go if I would live in Krakow. There were also lots of tables where people of every age were coming together and playing chess.

After that, we were in the Jewish quarter and it was really impressing. This was really lively and there was this place where all the people just sat together and ate and the bus was a bar and so on. I have never seen a bus that is a bar now.

In the middle, there was a synagoge (unfortunately it was already closed) and lots of bars around that sell jewish stuff, like here: hummus & happiness. The funny thing is that the hand on the building is the hand of god for the jewish people, but I saw it too in Istanbul, where it is the hand of Fatima. It's like they all use the same stuff but for different meanings.

The buildings were mostly very interesting to look at - in most cases the face of the buildings was partly destroyed, but they did not restore it but just let it like that - like it was polnian style. And it actually looked good and fit into the face of the city. That was really interesting for me to see.

Of course they also had an old town - it is acutally a pretty big one. If you just walk straight ahead through the old town you need about 15 minutes to cross it. And outside, there is the wall, which is still in a great shape and around the wall there is a small park which probably used to be the moat. Therefore, there is a really big park area in the center. The city center was beautiful too and looked a little like Prague but for me the jewish part was more impressing.

And here I have a picture of all the Austrians at the Euroweek project for you that we took before we had to leave again. But I can really recommend you to visit Krakow!

City of Katovice

I want to tell you a little bit about the city I am currently staying in. Katovice is in the south of Poland near to the Czech border and close to Krakau and Auschwitz. We are actually planning to visit both before leaving again. It is a city with a pretty big university, the University of Economy Katovice. This really makes a difference - because of all the students, the city gets pretty lively. Until now, I haven't seen the city center at daylight, but next to this beautiful church, there is the "party street" where you can eat at lots of restaurants in the daytime and have a drink in the nighttime. And for some reason, there is always somewhere to go, even on uncommon days for going out in the evening. And everything is pretty cheap. If you eat something expensive, it's about 5 Euro, for a drink you normally pay 2 Euros or for a Cocktail 3 Euros. I could get used to that prices.

Yesterday in the evening, we were not in the "party street" but in a pub a little outside and I must admit, it looked like a place where horror movies could take place. When you entered the small street, this was what you saw:

And the pub was around the corner, so we had to get into the darkness. Good thing we were not alone. The pub itself was actually pretty cool with really simple furniture.

On our way to the university where we are doing the project, we walk along this view:

I am not sure what they are, there are lots of them all over the city and I guess they are garages, because my grandparents have one like that except theirs is out of bricks and not out of panel sheets. Also, I guess their car is now too big for this garage.

But I also have to point out, the main building of the university we are currently working on our project is probably new and really well done. They have all the newest technology we don't even have on my FH or any other university in Graz I have been to. Everywhere around the Campus there are Couch corners to sit together or work on something and there are lots of big balconies to sit outside in the sun. All the newer buildings look a little bit like Limerick because there you see they are built out of bricks. All in all, it really looks like an ambitious region, but right now you can't forget that it was not always like that.

Going to Katovice II

As I promised, here is the music we heard when watching this guys:

Going to Katovice

Today I arrived at Katovice in Poland, where I am staying until saturday for a project of my university. Therefore I will spend a lot of time working on the project and I won't have so much time to get cultural impressions. But I will do my best.

To get to Poland, a study colleague picked me up in Vienna and we took his car through Czech Republic. The whole drive only took 4,5 hours so it is not that far away. On the way we drove through Ostrava, a city near the polish border that is known for its steel industry. The highway was more or less built over the city so we had a nice look down on Ostrava. It is like the most industrial town I have ever seen. The whole skyline was filled with big chimneys and funnels of all the factories operating there with smoke coming out of some of them. In the center, we saw all the different factories next to each other. Around, there were those big panel buildings with lots of flats in them and a little bit farther around there were even small houses for j ust one family and some churches. It looks like the industry came first and then they made a city out of it. Not like all the beautiful towns you talk about where there was a castle first and then people moved next to the castle to be safe. It was really interesting to see because I always thought Linz was a really industrial city. This is like the last place I ever want to live.

Until now, Katovice is really nice. They do have those creepy buildings that have wood panels instead of windows or sometimes don't even have that just standing around near to the center but they also have a really nice downtown and everything is pretty cheap. I already met some people from other countries and we were out to eat and drink.On our way back to the hotel we saw the police and heard loud music coming from a building (that looked creepy as well). Turned out some .. movement occupied a flat there, putting up banners and seeking attention while wearing all black. For some reason, my photo of the scene got lost but I will add another one tomorrow.

The music was acually pretty cool, if you want to, I will put up a video in bad phone quality.

New Experiences

I really want to share some of the experiences I had while staying there.

First, the houses are not made for cold weather. When in bed, I always felt like there was some window open because it was so loud and felt like the cold was coming in. Also, the air conditioning is fixed outside below the window - it looks really strange

 Another difference was that you can't drink the water from the tap, so you always have to buy it. Therefore you always need a new plastic bottle. Furthermore everywhere you buy anything you get a plastic bag with it. After two days I felt like I had to throw away about 10 plastic bags and 5 bottles and it was really annoying so i started to tell them I don't need a plastic bag - and they were completely confused what I was talking about. So probably the whole "plastic is bad"-concern has not arrived there yet.

When we watched a movie at the cinema, the ticket said it will start at 19:00. For some reason my brother told us to be there early. So we sat there 10 minutes early waiting for the movie to start. In Austria it normally advertising starts 5 minutes early and goes on for 10 minutes and then the movie starts. In Turkey there are some differences. The advertising started at 19:00. On 19:15, the trailers of other movies started, interrupted by some advertisements. And when I was nearly falling asleep somewhere between 19:25 and 19:30 the movie started. It went on for an hour and then suddenly everything went dark. Turned out they always have a 10 minute pause inbetween a movie. Needless to say they filled it up with advertising.

But, while our Metro-Stations are all filled with advertisements, there aren't any at the Metro-Stations in Istanbul. They were all really nicely decorated and some even showed some art.or historical information on the wall.

Also in the cinema, the movie we watched was english, and for some reason most of the time I felt like we were the only ones laughing. I already thought about the possibility that it's not normal to laugh in the cinema but afterwards I found out that they probably just didn't get the jokes as the english was not that easy to understand. And besides sellers and waiters in touristic areas nobody speaks any english. They don't even understand you when you want to ask where to go. Not even most the students are able to speak english.

But they were totally happy if you could speak some turkish words - and were even nicer than before. I must really admit I liked the Turks I met. Some told me to be careful and trust no one and that my brother should always accompany us and watch out and so on but really everyone I met was so nice and friendly and helpful - not only because they wanted to sell me a carpet ("come in! my shop is your shop"). They also have a creative way of approaching. One guy asked whether he sould take a photo of us 4 (two german girls we met at the hostel and us) and then he gave the camera to his friend and just joined the photo. The best story I heard was of the flatmate of my brother who is a Turk. He saw a girl standing outside the flat and thought she is beautiful so he got out and talked to here. She is a Finn and now they are engaged.

What really bugged me was that toilet paper was a rarity in the whole city. Maybe this was so bad for me because the toilet in our hostel was also pretty bad and combined I just didn't want to go on the toilet anymore.

Also, there were just so many people everywhere! When taking the Metro, does not matter which time, it was always so full. We once took the Metrobus, a bus with its own track on the street to go faster, and people could not get into the bus anymore because it already was too full - and it wasn't on rushtime. And when we wanted to a quick side trip into the shopping center, we got stuck inside a procession-like crowd of people all walking into the same direction. I found out they were all heading to the shopping center too - as were the crowds from all the other directions. I am glad I do not live in a megacity. They don't even have that many parks. I have no idea where they go when they want to catch some fresh air.

Another interesting information was about how to know whether people are more conservative or liberal. When a cafe or a restaurant was serving alcohol, it was pretty liberal, because in conservative eyes you are not allowed to drink alcohol in public because it would dishonour you. That does not mean people don't drink alcohol - but they do it at home where nobody can see them. Second, a sign of a liberal shop / cafe was that they were employing women - and I saw nearly no cafe or restaurant employing women. It is a pretty strange thing with women - they do study as much as anyone else, but I have no idea where they are working afterwards, maybe somewhere nobody can see them. On the campus there is even a student home for just female students so they are secure and won't get in touch with the bad world outside. Also, in mosques there are seperate praying areas somewhere in the corner behind a wall for women.

Also, five times a day the muezzin sings or prays - I am not sure about that - and you can hear it everywhere in the city and also everywhere in the country where people live. In Austria they don't even manage to install emergency sirens that are heard by people living in some smaller villages. Maybe we should convert to Islam too so if there would be an emergency we would all be warned.

But not to forget the food. Turks always accompany their food with bread - if there is no bread the meal won't still the hunger. Also, they do strange things like putting fries into sauces. Or giving you yoghurt so you can put it in afterwards. They are even drinking yoghurt (Ayran) everywhere. And in the kebap (they call it pide et döner or something like that) there is no sauce - for some reason they don't put yoghurt in there - but there are pickled gherkins inside. And nearly every dessert is dripping of honey - best of them was the baklava. Also, they have a really really good rice. I have no idea how they make it but I will miss it.

Last Day in Istanbul

I came home yesterday and had no time to post earlier, but I still want to share a little bit about the last day in Istanbul and show you the photos. Also, I really want to share my experiences about the differences between Austria and Turkey and decided to do this in an extra post.

It was the first sunny day, so we seized the chance and took the ferry over the Marmara Sea. It's really great that it is more or less just another means of public transport, so it costs about 70 cents - way cheaper than any ferry in Austria. It gave us another opportunity to look at all the beautiful places we already have been when they were covered in snow. I found out that it was the snowiest winter they had for the last 25 years.

We used our time wisely and went up the Camlica, the biggest mountain on the asian side of Istanbul, about 270 meters high. When going up the streed was more or less a river bed for all the melted snow flowing downhill.

The Camlica was totally worth the hiking. The view was marvellous, we could look all over the city, the Bosporus and the Marmara Sea.

Also, they had really cute cats up there that were looking for attention (and food) - if I would live in Istanbul I would totally come up there every sunny day, enjoying the sun and feeding some cats. Unlike the cats in the inner city, they were really trusting. You will need some help getting up there but it is totally worth it!

We spent the evening in a rice house - a plate of rice and chicken for less than 2 € - I will totally miss the cheap food and the tasty rice!