The Big Trip

I really don't have the time to elaborate on my trip with William, but i'll try and summarize briefly!
We were gone for about 10 days... we went to 3 different countries that spoke 3 different languages with 3 different currencies on 4 different airlines!

Czech Republic - Prague
Prague is a really pretty city - which is probably why Koreans made a drama that took place here! That said, it seemed very asian-tourist friendly. Although by the end of my trip I got sick of people asking us "are you from china? korea?" NO america!
Honestly, theres just a lot of old stuff - Prague castle being the main attraction.

Sweden - Stockholm
It was about 2 degrees celsius here. But otherwise, the weather was good. Stockholm is cool because it's built on I think 17 different islands of varying sizes. There's a lot of water surrounding everything so it's nice to take a boat tour (which we did).
Although Stockholm (well, scandinavia in general) is REALLY expensive (i'm talking London expensive, maybe more) it's a fun place.
We saw scandinavian animals like reindeer, moose, bears, wolverines...
We saw a VERY large sunken ship recovered from Stockholm harbour
We had really good meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries!

Poland - Krakow
Krakow is probably Poland's biggest tourist destination. It's a pretty small city but it has lot of interesting city. First of all, it was founded (according to legend) by Prince KRAK who defeated the fire breathing dragon that was taunting the city ... hmmmm
We saw Oscar Schindler's factory but it was closed for remodeling so we couldn't go in.
We climbed this random mound where prince krak was apprently buried.
I think the best part though was the side trip we took to Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Auschwitz (which is really the german name ... its liek Ochweicm in polish)
It was SO eerie visting this place. Auschwitz itself is made up of a lot more concentration camps - Birkenau being the largest.
You walk first under this gate that says Arbeit Macht Frei (~ work sets you free) where prisoners had to march under back from work everyday. Its so cruel, knowing that work certainly DIDN'T and could NEVER set them free.
We had a guide who showed us around - we saw rooms full of human hair ( they cut off prisoner's hair to make textiles... disgusting!), eye glasses, plates, shoes... and a lot more
Then she told us a lot about the evil things that went on there - very depressing.
We walked into a small gas chamber (because the other ones had been destroyed by the germans when they knew they were going to lose the war) which was really scary.
It's really a place everyone should experience. It makes you realize that seemingly normal people are capable of the most horrific things.

Anyways, Poland was pretty cheap - we had lunch for like 3 dollars or something at this "milk bar" which were instituted during communist times. Overall though, the country really isn't that well developed and just looking at it makes you think of communist times...
One thing that happened that still kind of disturbs me - we were just walking in the city minding out own business and these random polish men come up from behind us and say "you are in poland, white power!" Its just so sad... in this day and age racism like that still exists.