Greek Goddesses, Beaches and Tolls

02 August, Sunday

It was amazing how things changed from leaving the old Eastern Bloc countries and into Greece. The vegetation changed almost immediately from scrubby trees and roads lined by hedge rows to cultivated plant life and olive trees.

We took it as a good sign when it started to rain once we crossed the border. We then took a wrong turn and headed west instead of east (a very similar named town was put into the GPS without it being checked). We came within 250km of Anzac Cove at the turn around point.

There seems to be less unoccupied buildings here, both unfinished and abandoned. We were wondering what circumstances led to so many abandoned buildings in the previous countries.

The roads. OMG THE ROADS!!!! They’re smooth to drive upon and you don’t have to worry if you and the oncoming vehicle will fit. There is still the horn honking and speeding by drivers but not in the way it seemed to be a national mental issue in other countries. The great roads also meant amazing tolls. In the drive from Mt Olympus to Stilida, we clocked up about 35 Euro ($52) worth of tolls on the new highways (today's drive cost us 39 euro...). It’s worse than driving on Sydney’s toll roads, just… I don’t mind it as its money going into Greece but I wasn’t expecting it.

Things seem cleaner and the people friendlier and more prone to speak English. Now, this could be just us looking forward to Greece but I don’t think so.

One of the best things about being in Greece and meeting Greek people is they don't tell you that they're Greek within 5 minutes of talking to them. Something that Australian 'Greeks' should think about.
:)

It does make you consider our lot in life. Even though the Bulgarian houses may have been made with 5 different type of brick as it was being constructed, they still have running water, sealed roads, electricity, satellite TV and internet. It’s not that they are badly off, it’s we are so much more affluent as a nation. I think people who complain about Australia have never left to see the difference.

Our first tourist stop was Thessaloniki to check out the awesome Archeology Museum. The skill taken to work the marble and gold is unbelievable.

Gene has been anxiously awaiting Greece only because of the Percy Jackson series of books. She’s been asking for an orange shirt for the last week (it indicates she’s in the Greek team and not the Romans). She’ll probably be asking for a Roman purple shirt soon.

As we drove to our first night’s stay, I asked Gene what she saw on the right hand side. She looked out the window and replied, ‘Clouds? Trees?’ I did ask as we were driving past a copse of trees that obscured the view. Then we went through a tunnel…. Eventually, she had a clear view and still couldn’t guess. She lost her shit when I told her she was looking at Mt Olympus.
J

Our stay was right on the beach and very beautiful.

The next day was our 16^th wedding anniversary. Luckily, Dee liked the brooch, earrings and ring set I bought her at Sighisoara, Romania.That was a great relief as I can never guess what things she likes at any one time.

We spent the morning driving up and around Mt Olympus and the visiting the Greek Orthodox Church of St Dionysius. 

We took some photos of Gene wrapped up in a fitted sheet looking like a Greek Goddess. It was only after she saw the photos she realised how much of a beautiful woman she’s becoming. Best I start teaching her self-defence again.

J

On our drive south towards Athens, we pulled over for a late lunch at a highways parking spot. There was a friendly homeless dog wandering around, looking for scraps but we cut open a large waterbottle to make a bowl and gave him a drink since it was over 30 degrees. In the end we gave him 4 bowls of water. We had to close the back door as Dee was getting all emotional about the dog. I’m sure he understood.

We had hoped to stay in a hotel room for our anniversary but we could only find a camping place that had bungalows. It wasn’t bad but the rooms only had single beds (very romantic), only the bedrooms had air con, no wifi, a water heater in the bathroom that seemed to be in competition  with the air con and no kitchen appliances in the kitchen. There was also a cat lady next door to Springy with at least 9 cats.

Dee and I had a romantic dinner at the camp's restaurant and locked Gene in the bungalow with books, a laptop and Greek TV.

Today, we drove to Marathon with plans to stay at the camping grounds there but a local told us it was closed. We had lunch, hid from the midday heat and finally drove on, quickly visiting the Marathon beach (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marathon) which had been turned into a massive party place.

We’re now in Athens and have just booked the ferry crossing to Italy in a few days. We don’t think the trip will be great from reading the reviews but it has to be done and we’ve lashed out and booked a 3 person cabin as the trip will take over 13 hours over a night.

A big day visiting Athens tomorrow. It should be about 36 degrees, so we’ll try and take it easy.

Sliding into Greece tomorrow

Thursday, 30 July

I know we were travelling through Europe in summer but this is silly. The last week has had the days in the high 30's and low 40's. I can't recall the last time I've worn flannel.

The new fridge works well on gas when you don't try to place it on the coldest setting. The heat created by the gas, heats the back of the fridge and counteracts any cooling benefit. I'm on the lookout for heat resistant tape to stop the fridge's 'exhaust pipe' from emitting heat through the length of pipe.

In the morning we visited Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It was a nice place with a mixture of ancient, Communist and modern. We visited The Church of St George built in the 4th Century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._George,_Sofia). It's not large but it was a fantastic experience. A Greek Orthodox service was finishing when we arrived. It was interesting to see the service and the differences.

We also looked at a hand made craft shop but the buggers were closed. We did have a fantastic morning tea in a estrogen filled tea room.

As a surprise gift to Gene, we found a Captain America Minion. It took us a while but we finally found out that he sings a song in Romanian about a laughing frog.
:)

We are now at the Bulgarian/Greece border and enjoying the air conditioning and BBC news in English.

Hopefully, we'll be camping within sight of Mount Olympus tomorrow.

Fridges, heat and dodgy addresses.

27 July, Monday

As I sit here on the outside steps of the Class Hotel in Bucharest watching a Romanian father and son put a new fridge into Springy, I can think about what we’ve done over the last 2 days.

After leaving the Camping Fagety we headed toward the city of Sighosoara which has a nice hilltop medieval town which, luckily enough, was holding a medieval weekend. It was lunch time when we arrived, so we headed for a local restaurant, not knowing it was the town’s upper class hangout. We gazed over the hotel’s pool and watched the visitors sunbake and occasionally use the actual pool. We still can’t get use to people just lying in the sun (us being pale blue skinned).

We were hoping to visit 'the most haunted forest in the world' but it wasn't on the roads were travelling and nothing gave an actual location.

:(

It was still a warm day and I put it to the girls that we rest in Springy for a bit and then go to the hilltop town or I just go when they rest. Since it involves walking up a hill and looking at old stuff, both of the girls opted for the staying in Springy option.

I ambled up to see what I could see. The town itself is very nice but was infiltrated by people selling anything related to Dracula, fairies, Medevalish items and just stuff. I did spy a parade of people dressed up funny and decided to assess what Romanian re-enactors were like. Lots of modern boots, polyester, heavy swords and such. Hopefully without sounding too much a snob, it wasn’t high-end re-enacting but I didn’t mind as I’ve seen it before and understand. They were dragging around a ginormous steel sword on their shoulders and I couldn’t figure out why. I tried to see what they were doing but the crowds were too big, so I continued my wander along the cobble stone streets. That was hindered by a great metal fence put up by the council that blocked the main street of the town. I finally realised it was put there to channel the visitors around the back ways to see all the things. It’s a pity that I couldn’t speak Romanian or find someone who could speak Australian.

After visiting the towns museum and gazing from the top of the town’s tower, I bumped into people I recognised as re-enactors due to period footwear, tablet woven belts, etc. I had a great conversation with them, saw their encampment and they informed me that the other re-enactors were trying for the Guiness book of Records, largest sword put into a stone (like Excalibur) or something like that. When I was leaving, they were still puffing and panting and trying to do what they had set out to do.

The girls hadn’t died from heat exhaustion so we headed for our night time destination which was about 50km down the road. When we arrived, Dee let me know that they had discussed the matter while I was gone and would like to go to Hotel Dracula, a hotel somewhere down the road. I was feeling OK , so we continued down the road

Tuesday, 28 July

As we’ve spent over an hour in Springy at the border crossing from Romania to Bulgaria in 40 degree heat, I thought I’d take some time and update from where I left off at 2am in the morning.

We drove to Hotel Dracula and arrived just after 7pm. We were able to make an internet booking at a restaurant along the way but even though I booked for 2 adults and a child, I accidentally booked for one double room. We quickly sorted it and had to pay the difference for Gene but in cash. I figured the desk guy was pocking the extra cash.  The room was very nice but the air con didn’t go below 20 degrees, so we had to lump it and not use a doona.

I thought the hotel was done very well, with very few tacky decorations and lots of cool spiked clubs, helmets, spears, bows, glaives and flails screwed to the walls.

In the morning, I checked FB and saw that one of our close friend’s daughters had died tragically. It was a terrible shock for Dee and me and left Dee in tears several times during the day.

It’s now Wednesday, and I’m trying to finish the blog for the last few days.

We left Hotel Dracula and looked at Bran Castle. And that’s all we did. After visiting the local museum, we trooped to the castle to find it opens at 12 o’clock (what sort of tourist destination does that?!??!?!). As it was only 11.30, we decided to have an early lunch and then go in. An excellent plan that didn’t take in the fact that a 300m line of other tourists had the same idea and that was 20 minutes after it opened. After a quick evaluation of the situation, we decided, ‘Bugger this’ and went to Rasnov Fortress (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A2%C8%99nov_Citadel) which was very impressive.

We drove to Busharest and found the camping site (shock horror). Unfortunately, the owner was the Romanian equivalent to Basil Faulty. After listening him rant on the phone for a few minutes before serving me, then asking me for 2 forms of ID which was strange but then realizing his error, requested ID for 2 people. After we fulfilled that requirement and completing the normal paperwork, he lets me know that he only accepts cash (bugger and a bit unusual for such a large park). I’m short by 16 Romanian Lei as he draws me a very detailed map on how to get to the main road to find an ATM but not where on the road to find it (I foolishly thought it would be easy to see). I also asked if he knew, being the owner of a caravan park where I can take the van to have the fridge seen to. He demands that I show him what is wrong, even after I say the word, ‘fridge’ 3 -4 times. When he finally sees the fridge, he says he doesn’t know anything about those things. Not a problem, you can’t expect a caravan park owner to know about campervans.

As we drove down the road where the ATMs are, we realised that this was a highway and you had off-ramps and he didn’t mention which ones. We also realised he was an arse. Since we were now deep into the city and as we had some cash, we looked in the GPS for a hotel. Locked on, we adjusted our course and we were going well, even negotiating the Romanian city traffic well.

We hit the backroads that the GPS enjoys taking us but we paused at a 4 way intersection. To the left was the direction we were supposed to take, and the right and forwards was one way roads. A local confirmed the hotel was good but we shouldn’t go that way. Going forward was better but illegal. After the amount of disregard the local drivers have of the road rules, I wasn’t much perturbed at that point.

100m down the road, things went a bit pear-shaped. 3 parked cars (that were all facing the same way as we were going, so we weren’t the first doing this) narrowed the road but that wasn’t too bad. It was the collapsing wooden fence on the left that gave us trouble. We could push the fence back a bit and Gene used one of my self defence sticks to keep it away as I drove springy through.

We made it past the first 2 cars but the 3^rd was a bugger as its nose was right on the bottleneck. As we were carefully sorting this out, a car came down the correct way. Bugger. The passenger got out and helped us negotiate our way out without ripping anything off Springy or the 3^rd car.

We found the hotel and checked in just after 7pm. A long day, so we quickly dropped our gear off in the room and went to dinner. I mentioned to the Bianca, the desk attendant for the night, about our fridge problems and if she could perhaps look up the Romanian version of the Yellow Pages. She was amazing and organized the only campervan fixer upper in the city. I was hoping to visit him the following day but as it was a side job, he said he would come over that night. At 2am in the morning, we finally had the old fridge removed and the new one connected. The gas works well but we are still having problems with the electrical which makes me think it’s more to do with Springy than the fridge.

We fluffed around in the morning and didn’t leave the hotel until 11am, enjoying the last minute luxuries of flushing toilets, wifi and air con. We hit the road, heading for the Romanian/Bulgarian border, trying to divest ourselves of all remaining Romanian currency before crossing.

After paying the Romanian Vingette at the border that we had no knowledge of, we then waited for 1 hour 40 minutes to get past border control. Prior to the actual official bit of showing passports and registration papers (that happened easily), we had to wait in 40 degree heat for road works across the only bridge on the border in the area. The bonus for sitting around for ages was to ask the workers with an angle grinder to do us a favour. 

A few weeks prior, I had fixed a loose bit but I had to screw long screws up into one of storage bins that holds our hose and fold up chairs. They have been sticking out for ages as I didn’t have That Tool to finish the job. With 6 easy cuts, the job was done (and they didn’t even cut the wiring nearby!).

Once into Bulagaria. It felt like a ‘Claytons’ Russia (the Russia you have when you can’t visit Russia). With the Cyrillic written language being used and the different roads, it felt unlike any other country so far. So we drove and drove and drove. The 200km/day drags out when it’s mainly 70km/hour.

We finally hit Pleven at about 7pm, drew some local cash and headed for the address for the night’s camping spot. The address was used 3 times in the local area and after the second time, we knew we would find it or stay at a hotel. At 9.15pm, a hotel it was.  I don’t know if the address was wrong on the website or I used the wrong address……….

We are now just resting at a real camping spot outside of Sofia watching our newly cleaned clothes dry and are deciding where to visit tomorrow as a tourist.

Roamin’ in Romania

25 July, Saturday

Who knew you had a new time zone in Romania? Well, my phone did but Gene’s didn’t. Either which way, the site owner’s Roosters started crowing at 6am.

After a late start, we headed to Cluj-Napoca to hopefully see ‘the most haunted forest in the world’. Unfortunately, there was no sign of it yet, so maybe tomorrow.

So far Romania has taken out ‘The Most Habitual Posted Speed Sign Ignorers’ AND ‘The Most Habitual Overtakers’ regardless of pedestrian crossings, oncoming vehicles, lack of space between vehicles or actual speed of the vehicle being over taken, the challenge was accepted.

With lightning fast reflexes, I was able to turn into a spare parking space when Dee noticed Authentic Romanian Handicrafts. We were able to buy 2 Authentic Romanian Handmade Chinese fans, a wooden Authentic Romanian Handmade Lyre harp napkin holder and an Authentic Romanian Handmade peasant top. We did look at buying an Authentic Romanian Handmade Pamela Anderson towel but we have better taste than that (and Dee and Gene said no).

We stopped at the town of Huedin for lunch. As we entered the town, many of the large buildings were constructed in a fantastic style not seen yet in our travels. It was a mix of Russian and Chinese. At the time of me writing this, I wasn’t able to Google it up to find the back story but I’m sure it’s interesting.

https://www.google.ro/search?q=Huedin&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI7byY8sD6xgIVSG8UCh3XvwG8&biw=800&bih=511

As we lost a towel during our travels (probably blown off the back ladder when 'we' *cough* Gene *cough* forgot to bring it in), we bought a nifty new one with a medusa head pattern. Now we’ll be fighting over who will use it.

So far in Romania we have seen:
 3 people using scythes,

4 horse drawn carts (one we had to circle around to get a decent picture but less we talk about that requirement the better), and

2 people who are potential werewolves. No vampires have yet been seen during the daylight hours.

The hunt for ‘The most likely camping site to film a horror movie’ continues. As Romania seems to have dearth of camping sites, I suggested that we stay at a motel/hotel if we can’t find a camping ground. We found a hotel that didn’t look condemned or used in a siege shooting but a wedding was occurring there and no rooms were available. We we’re directed to travel 4km down the road and there would be other hotels and B&Bs, so we did. On the way I found a camping ground! Another wedding was happening at the site’s restaurant and, by the general look, it looked OK.

After paying our money, the manager led us down the path to the camping grounds. My thoughts as we were led down this garden path were:

The bride looks great! The restaurant looks well set up.

Lots of trees. Lots of shade.

Where the undead like to shamble.

A Communist style bunker with ‘Showers and Toilets’ stenciled on the walls.

The showers are ‘Open air’.

The Playground of Lost Souls.

I can’t tell if the abandoned concrete framework is of a demolished building or one that was stopped mid construction.

He wants us to park in the sun when it’s 30+ degrees.

The shady spot is near the communal area where a vagrant may have made residence.

The other shady bit looks better and has a better escape route.

Dee is going to f*#king hate this.

The silence was deafening when I turn off the engine. I suggested we could not stay here and keep on looking but was told it was a stupid idea. I set up the beds for Dee to have her afternoon kip and I went to look at the shower block and see if the restaurant could feed us tonight.

The block wasn’t too bad (It even had pinky-purple toilet paper) and most of the showers even had shower heads. It’s hot day, so we probably don’t need hot water anyway. The restaurant wasn’t able to cater for us tonight and the manager really didn’t care where we could eat but he did point vaguely to the left. The camping site manager indicated that there were places to eat to the right on 3 ‘somethings’ away. I think he’s talking about streets but he could be about km, minutes, houses, hours or alternate universes as far as I know. So dinner tonight will be fun if I can get past the cars parked for the wedding.

We figured the ‘vagarant is an old gentlemen with a gammy knee who has some motor bike issues and is a bit down on his luck. We did invite him in for dinner we decided to cook but he declined. Although we did give him a hot meal of what we were going to eat for dinner.

The Case of the Hungarian Highwayman.

24 July

The day started like any other day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and I was contemplating having a shower, shave and even brushing my teeth. I ambled to the shower block and had only just figured out the water pressure and temperature and hadn’t even lathered up when Dee called out that I should come out as we were bogged. I actually heard that incorrectly as we seemed to have been robbed during the night.

The security guards found my day pack and vest of a thousand pockets at the front of the locked camping site. I quickly checked and accounted for all of my gear, including my coin purse full of euro coins. I guess it goes to show that having many pockets in a vest foils a thief. I was relieved and a bit miffed that they didn’t think any of my stuff was cool enough to steal.

The guard also said they found a red bag and we realised it was Dee’s handbag. Dee’s purse and mobile were gone but everything else was there. The mobile isn’t of a huge concern as there wasn’t much credit on it and it’s a bugger to use for those people who can actually read English.

The purse is another concern but not critical. The 2 credit cards have to be cancelled and we’ve lost $70 Australian, 100 Euro and 50 Pounds and Dee’s driver’s licence. It’s a bugger but it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. The police officer has been here for the last 7 years and has never seen this happen before. Lucky us!

Dee and I had a look around the nearby streets to see if the purse had been ditched to avail.

Because of the heat last night, we had the driver and passenger side windows wound down about 7-10cm and I still had my little triangular window open. They seemed to have reached in through those narrow openings to grab the 3 items. We had the large side windows opened but they had the mossie screens down which stopped entry.

We found out another car at the site the previous day had been attempted to be opened and another visitor had his salary stolen last night. When the police arrived, we had the fun of translating what had happen. Luckily, the other family spoke a bit of English and we were able to communicate through them.

Dee has been doing wonderfully for the whole event. She is currently giving her statement at the Polgar police station as the school teacher arrived to be the official translator.

Anyway, it’s time to pack up and get ready for Dee to come back and onwards to Romania where you really have to take care of your stuff….

With Dee back with a Hungarian Police document, we tried to find some sort of internet connection in the town. After giving up on asking local as they didn’t speak English or any language we knew the word ‘library’ in, we gave up and asked the GPS who sent us to the local school.

I was able to find a teacher who could speak English and he gave me the password for the school’s internet. I was finally able to report one of Dee’s credit cards as stolen, let another bank know her linked card to my account was stolen, and leave a vague FB message.

As we left the town of Polgar, one of the ladies we were attempting to communicate with to find a library came out to us and gave us a book about the town of Polgar. In Hungarian. Obviously, our miming of ‘We are looking for the library to use the internet’ needs some working on.

Having enough of Hungarian hospitality, we made our way to Romania. The crossing was a bit longer than normal as we weren’t locals. The police officer had a great sense of humour and made the official bit fun.

We found the only camping site in Oradea and enjoyed their pool as today was about 35 degrees. Now with a traditional meal of salty food, it’s time to relax.

Summer is Coming

22 July

After Auschwitz, we headed for the Slovak Republic. Summer has taken a grip of us with a 31 degree day forecast. The fridge has been having a hard go at it trying to keep things cold, so any frozen food and perishables are being eaten ASAP. We have our fingers crossed that it’s just the heat and not another visit to a fridge specialist.

The next few days will require an extra 20km travel per day to keep on track to be in Transylvania. That wouldn’t be a problem if it was clear highways but so much of it is through towns and roadworks you’re generally travelling 50-90km/hour. It’s great to see the countryside and the towns but the male part of me just wants to get to our end place for the day. The first 70km of the day took over 2 hours………..

We finally entered the mountain range that separates Poland from the Slovak Republic in the afternoon and enjoyed the view of the massive mountains.

Once we crossed the border we noticed the change in home immediately. In Poland, most of the country homes were basic  and sturdy but not what you would call attractive. The Slovak houses were similar but were brightly painted and the place felt much happier. Who knew how much colour could effect a house so ( unless you watch those home makeover shows).

With the heat, all we can do for the passenger at the back is wind down the windows, turn the air vents fully on and drive fast where possible to get airflow to the back.

We finally stayed at a Thermal Springs park in Bvrol (SP?). As we drove up, we had great expectations it would be as good as the one we passed 16km before. Unfortunately, the actually camping site was run down with one other family camping there with us. The shower and toilet block looked like something out of a B grade horror movie and up the rise were accommodation blocks that seemed to be recycled shipping containers.

We sent Gene off to have a shower and I sorted out the accommodation paperwork. Once a freaked out Gene returned, Dee went for her shower only to return shortly after in her towel as there was no water in the showers. As Gene is a teenager, she was closely questioned on whether she actually had a shower in the first place as we all know how much they hate having showers and then loathing to  leave them.

I checked the men’s showers and they didn’t have any water, so I harangued the staff there and they finally fixed the problem. They didn’t tell us of course when it was fixed and I only found out when I went to the reception with a Google translation of the questions, ‘Has the water been fixed?’ and ‘when?’ as a follow up question.

With the water flowing again, I had my shower and hand washed my dirty clothes. The night was then spent trying to keep an internet connection long enough to finish my Auschwitz blog and plan out the next few days of travel.

Thursday, 23 July

To try and keep our travelling in the cooler part of the day, we left at 8am instead of the normal 9-9.30am. We stopped at a local shop a little later to by some basic food stuffs and realised that whilst I brought my clothes in from the line I strung up, Dee didn’t take in her towel, bra and knickers that were hanging of the back ladder of Springy. Luckily, they were still there when we parked to get the groceries.

The drive was hotter than Wednesday but we all survived somehow. Springy did wonderfully in the heat but the fridge hasn’t shown any signs of improvement.

We crossed into Hungary and enjoyed watching the wheat being taken in. We have been noticing the wheat changing from the green at Waterloo and getting paler and dryer. As a city lad, I don’t normally get to see that occur.

We found the campsite, set up and had a siesta. The heat was hard on all of us, with very little options to get away from it all. Of course, it finally started to rain just after Dee put out her laundry.

Gene has now started reading the first book of the ‘Game of Thrones’

Tomorrow we hope to visit a few towns on our way to Romania, if the heat doesn’t put us off. It should be cooler though, only in the mid-20s.

Auschwitz

I can only assume my knowledge on the concentration camps during WWII is average. I knew the tally was in the millions and the Jewish population was targeted. I knew that IBM devised machines to help track the work and I've seen 'Schindler's List'.

To start we had a 3 hour drive to the site. We stopped halfway for morning tea in a converted aircraft that served awful food but luckily in minuscule portions. I'm sure the garden surrounding the plane was done by someone under the influence of a narcotic.

After lining up for tickets and sorting ourselves out, we started and English speaking tour. The guide had a microphone and we had headphones which stopped any disruption from the other guides' talks. It was a hot day so we brought bottles of water but the clouds were rolling in, so I packed my umbrella as well.

What I didn't know was there were several concentration camps in Auschwitz. The first one used an abandoned Polish Army barracks but they soon realised it didn't have the capacity to hold all the prisoners or to kill enough of them with the gas chambers. Auschwitz II -Birkenau was then made nearby, 20 times larger than the original and could hold at least 60,000 people and kill 7,000 a day. The accommodation blocks were first made by the rubble of the village they cleared to make the camp. They then changed to wooden buildings as it was much quicker to build. The third camp was near the factories to improve efficiency as the prisoners who worked there had a 4 hour return journey back to the original camp.

It seems so clinically efficient. The prisoners leave their belongings at the station that will be collected later and are sent to the showers to be cleaned. After they undress, they are moved into the shower where they are killed by gas. The ovens are right next door and are burnt after the ladies' hair is cut off and the gold teeth are removed.

There are massive warehouses full of belongings. Part of the tour showed us the items they found when the allies finally arrived. Piles of glasses, brushes, pots and pans. One display was the 1,950 kg of the 7 ton found of human hair that was taken from women to make textiles, padding and stiffening for clothes. Out of respect, it was requested that no photos be taken

Babies clothes were on display. Babies. They killed babies. That was probably the hardest part for Dee as a child care worker.

As a person who makes footwear, the 40,000 pairs of shoes that filled 2 display cases probably hit me the hardest. From kids shoes, to work boots to fancy ladies' footwear.

How the chosen 20% lived for the expected 3 months they were there until they died of starvation, their punishments and their daily routine was almost numbing.

Visiting the gas chamber and ovens was almost surreal.

After a 15 minute break, we completed the 2nd part of the tour to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. The temperature was rising, we had hats, drinking water and even using the umbrella but it was hot. So much of the camp was destroyed by the Nazis but the chimney stacks of the wooden huts still stand.

We saw reconstructed wooden huts for living and sanitation. We stood on the ground between the two train tracks where the sorting occurred. We walked down the path to the gas chambers where so many people walked down once.

Before that day, I've seen the results of when people stop thinking of others are people. After the tour, my personal thoughts on humanity and the lack of it were reinforced. When people say, 'They aren't like us' I can see what those words may eventually lead to.

They estimate that 1.3 million men women and children died over the 4 years of Auschwitz. That's like killing the population of Canberra every year for 4 years. I can't imagine it but it happened. I'll do my hardest to not let it happen again and stopping it where it does today.