Auschwitz I and II - Birkenau

Simply put, this was a tough day.   Our travelers invested fully.  To do so, we had to consciously commit to take care of ourselves and each other and we did.  I will not attempt to articulate my experience or generalize for the group. This is the only photo I took that day. We are entering Birkenau.  

Day one in Berlin!

This post is a recap of our first day as it was never originally posted due to wifi issues. Our tour guide, Ellie, has us look at a map of the Berlin Wall, at, well, the Berlin Wall. 

On the wall of buildings are pictures of the Berlin Wall. Berlin was separated into the east and west. Westerners could travel to the east but westerners could not travel between the borders. The west was controlled by socialists and the east was controlled by communists. To keep the east under communist control, they did not allow East Berlin citizens to leave.

Here Jeremy poses against the wall. He presses his arms against the oppressive symbol. 

Many of the parts of the wall are stripped to their iron bars. 

During free time on our first day in Berlin, Amila, Hannah F, Mikaela, and myself found a very pretty church just two blocks from our hotel! Europe is beautiful! 

On our first day we were tired. We were adjusting, slowly. Our last hotels didn't have wifi good enough to post pictures! Sorry! I will be sure to recap everything that happened. We loved Berlin, even though it was very alternative and at times seemed a bit tired. World War II was not kind to Berlin. You could tell that  Berlin seemed a bit worn down.

Some long awaited updates!

Tonight is our seventh night away from home and our last night in Kraków. We depart around 9am tomorrow for Budapest, but will be making a pit stop in the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia. It is going to be beautiful! Before we get to that though, let us provide you with some details from our trip so far, since we finally have reliable Wifi. 

Day 1: The Berlin Wall. Behind this piece is an remaining example of the militarized zone that existed to prevent people from crossing into the West. 

Here is an image of the militarized zone. What looks like a sand pit was where mines and traps were placed to punish those who were trying to flee the East. There were guard towers placed thoughtout, too.

These stones represent underground tunnels that once existed, created by people, to help East Berliners escape. Behind it, you can see steel bars that represent the wall.

These are just a few of the great pictures that we have from Berlin. Others will post more on this soon!

Prague!

St. Vitus Cathedral. Began being built on the 14th century, and wasn't completed until the 20th century. Talk about commitment! 

The Charles Bridge from our boat cruise!

A Note

Dearest loved ones, our hotel's wifi has blogger.com, this website, blocked. Therefor we cannot post pictures from today to the blog! However, I want to keep my promise to post daily and keep those at home in the loop. This morning we flew into Amsterdam. Slugglishly, we deplaned to AMS international, where we were informed we must go through passport control and a secutity re-check. Amsterdam is a lovely, environmentally friendly city. Or, it seems it from inside the airport! Some students, like Hannah Fitzgerald remarked that they would love to visit there as well. We droned through the passport control where they seemed not to care about what we were doing.  A stamp was added to our passports and no questions were asked. At least, not to myself. Immediately following this checkpoint was security. As I stepped through, the metal detector beeped! Again, suprisingly I was waved on with a laugh and a nod by the security worker. Needless to say, they were very thorough in this airport! However, Ms. Fialko, our teacher, was stopped for nearly ten minutes because of earings that were in her bag! Hmmm, that seems a little inconsistent? Maybe its her flaming red hair that instills fear in others. We journeyed on in search of our gate, for our hour and a half flight to Berlin, our destination! With some stops for breakfast, we hurried on to our flight. I myself slept this entire flight and cannot comment on how it went. Arriving in Berlin, we were pained by the sting of the red eye flight. I think I can safely say that most people were very exhausted for our first day in Berlin. We grabbed our baggage which came quickly, a nice change for airport baggage claim! When does that ever happen? Finally, we took our first steps in Berlin! A coach bus took us to our hotel, Tryp, by Wyndham. We left our bags and set out for the Berlin wall!!! We took the local train straight into town which was a nice way of getting around. Amila said that it'd be beautiful to live here, and Mikaela agreed! The architecture is stunning. Seeing the Berlin Wall truly is an experience in itself. A barrier is such a powerful thing, emotionally as well as physically. With tired legs and hungry stomachs we arrived at dinner via the underground metro. Dinner was salad, bread, beef, and a pancake-like desert. There was also a vegetarian option for students that were vegetarian. With our stomachs full and our eyes drooping we headed back to our hotel for sleep. Which, is where I am now very excited to be headed. Tomorrow we will be on another tour of Berlin! Pictures to come.

Thank you! Danke!

Goodnight!

We made it!!

We just landed in Berlin - 12pm and about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (brrrrr!). 

Off to the Races!

And we're off to the races! 

At the airport, Hannah poses for the camera. What a star!

Here is a group picture we took after crossing the Canadian border! The crossing was simple. We got off the bus and headed indoors where we were asked what we were bringing. The border was swift and proceeded without problems.

Passerby's looked as we posed for a shot at our gate (Gate 55)!

Ms. Villella eats an (overpriced!) snack.

Ms. Fialko talks logistics. We board our flight at 5:45 PM. At this point it is 2 PM and we must be back at the gate by 5:15 PM for an on time departure.

I asked Hibo about the trip and what she's experiencing. This is what she said, "I've met a lot of people I never knew! I'm making friends which is really cool considering we're only like 5 hours into the trip."

As I am writing, we are preparing to board in 5 minutes. It is currently 5:40 PM and we will be flying to Amsterdam where we will stop for a three hour layover before flying to Berlin! The flight to Amsterdam is approximately 8 hours and we will arrive at 1:30 AM Eastern time (in Burlington) or 7:30 AM in Amsterdam. The connecting flight to Berlin will subsequently be in the air for 3 hours. We will be on a tour the whole day, starting when we arrive so we are going to be sleeping on the plane!

Good night!