A disappearing latte and free WiFi at Glonojad

Greetings from Kraków. I’m writing from one of the many vegetarian restaurants that became my unwinding space during two weeks of travel around Poland. The physical journey into Shoah is complete for the time being: four cities (Kraków, Łódź, Warsaw, and Lublin), five camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chełmno, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Bełźec), five long bus rides, four train rides, two rented cars, three AirBNBs, one youth hostel, and one five-mile walk in the rain. The only missing piece along the way was the camp at Sobibór, which is currently closed for renovations.

During my visit, I often stayed afloat in the mornings and afternoons on a diet of cheap carbs (rolls, pastries, donuts, etc.) and drinkable yogurt. For better or worse, bakeries and pastry shops are ubiquitous in Poland. In the evenings, I would make a point of having real food at a vegetarian restaurant. Funny enough, I had the best dinners in provincial cities like Łódź and Lublin, where the “mom and pop” love was palpable in the food. Such meals also provided a much-needed reprieve from my daily agenda.

Favorite meal of the trip at a vegetarian restaurant in Łódź

Obviously, writing posts in the middle of so many intense experiences proved unfeasible. There was just so much to process each day while always being on the lookout for my next meal, accommodation, source of transportation, etc. After two weeks of near constant movement, I need time to let everything marinate. Needless to say, I’ll have a lot to say in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’m flying to Marseille, France this evening for a week of fun and relaxation in Hyères, a charming, off-the-radar town along the Côte d’Azur. Many summers ago, I studied French and lived with a family in Hyères for a few weeks before packing my bags and driving cross-country from New Jersey to California to start grad school. The daily routine was French class in the morning, exploring hidden beaches and coves in the afternoon, a dreamy, multicourse French dinner prepared by my host family, and then hanging out with classmates at open-air cafes in the evening. In other words: heaven. This time, my visit will be less structured but I’m looking forward to revisiting old haunts while making some new discoveries.

À bientôt,

Kurt