We got on a sleeper train in Kiev and rode all night to Lviv (another city in Ukraine). This in itself was quite the experience. It was dirty, there were creepers and it definitely didn't smell pleasant.
But it was still a blast! I was in the same area as Carlie and Kylee so we chatted until late at night. We made friends with some girls that are about our age that spoke English quite well and then they helped us around the city of Lviv the next day.
Lviv is beautiful! It was like being in another country. It was cleaner and smelled nicer. The people in Lviv are very proud of the Ukrainian language so they only speak Ukrainian there and most won't answer if you try talking to them in Russian. Luckily we had Tony and Johnny with us that speak fluent Ukrainian. :)
They showed us all around the city taking us to some great places like a chocolate factory/shop, a bell tower that we climbed to the top of (the stairs just kept going and going...) a very cool restaurant that you had to know a secret password to get in, and some other cool sights. :)
That night we all climbed on a bus that drove all night into Poland. At customs we were awoken (not that any of us were getting great sleep anyways) and the stern customs-people asked us for our passports. Every single one of the stern passport people laughed at my passport photo. It really is terrible.
When we arrived in Poland that next morning some of the girls went into the salt mines (You can lick everything. Greeaaat.) and a few others (including me) just explored the little city we were in. I LOVE POLAND! It was soooo clean, smelled amazing, and the people were so nice! We went to this little cafe and got hot chocolates and the man serving us was so nice and tried to teach us a few words of Polish.
Then we climbed back on the bus and went to Krakow. Beautiful. Beautiful. We explored the city and I loved it! Such a great city. Then that night we went to Schindler's Factory. I have mixed feelings about this experience. I thought that it would be more about him and how he helped so many people, but it was mainly about the lifestyle of the Jews during WWII in the ghettos. It was incredibly sad.
The next day we went to Auschwitz. I had no desire at all to go, but I had to because I couldn't stay by myself for safety reasons. I went through the first part, Auschwitz 1, and I really did not like it at all. I just sat on the bus when the rest of the group went to Auschwitz 2. I wish I would have stayed on the bus the whole time.
We went back to Krakow, more exploring and then went to bed. The next morning it was back on the bus that took us to Lviv again. This bus ride was interesting. We had a cocktail of sleep deprivation, hunger, insanity, and cameras. The result was some funny pictures. haha
Back on the sleeper train, back to the cigarette-urine-pollution-smelling Kiev that I love. :)
