Friday Art & History Feature - Europe Travel Diary, Part II

The sports camp by the lake in Poland

After we left Paris (Part I of the travel diary), we made our way to Poland. Hubby has been teaching karate seminars there for many years at the school of one of his close friends. Although I hail originally from Ukraine, I have never been to Poland, which neighbors it. It was actually excited by the fact that we were so "close" to Ukraine and my native city of Kiev, but unfortunately we couldn't make it there on this trip. One day...

The first three days, we spent at a beautiful "sports camp" area by a lake. It was peaceful and picturesque there, and our little chalet (see pics below) smelled of wood.

While there, we visited one of the concentration camps. It's called Sobibor. Unlike many other "extermination camps", this one was leveled by the Nazis after a successful uprising by the prisoners. Today, archaeological excavations are in full swing there. Because there are no buildings around and it looks more like a shady beautiful park, the inconsistency between the sense of peace and calm and what really was going on there in the past is extremely shocking. There's an alleyway among pine trees with stone blocks running on either sides with names of some of those who perished. There's also a memorial mound at the site of the mass graves. Someone has made a cross on the border of it with the gravel stones from the mound, and we added a Star of David to it.

Sobibor Concentration Camp - signs in many languages

Star of David we made at the the mass grave mound

When we left the camp, we stopped in Lublin on our way to Warsaw. Lublin is an old Polish city, going back to the Middle Ages. The "old city" part of Lublin is quaint and beautiful. We had a great time walking the ancient streets and squares, and eating the Polish pierogi with meat, cabbage, potatoes or berries.

*Warning: some of the events I describe here may be difficult to read so reader discretion is advised*

Then came our next stop, which was nothing less of horrific. I can honestly say it was the worst place I have ever visited. And it's called Majdanek concentration camp.

This camp still has most of its buildings intact and walking around there, I felt like evil and pain ware forever imprinted into each stone. It was also extremely creepy to see hundreds of crows gathering in the fields there - apparently a common event during the end of the summer and fall but still, the sight was chilling.
 
We stood inside the ditches where 30,000 Jews were executed in two days (over 79,000 people were killed there during its work). The ditches that they themselves dug out on orders from their jailers, while not knowing its purpose. We were inside the crematorium where the bodies of executed where burned and where, on occasion, other prisoners were brought to be executed in rooms where bodies were already piled up waiting for their turn in the ovens.

Re-construction of the crematorium

But probably the most outright horrific building was the "welcome" stop, where prisoners were brought to be processed when they arrived in the camp.  They were stripped naked and herded into a long room with shower heads running all along it. Not knowing what was going to come out of these showers, they were forced to stand there until freezing cold and scolding hot water was alternately poured on them. There was also a tub with a certain kind of acid that some were forced to get into for the "special cleansing".

"Shower" room were prisoners were "cleansed" with alternating freezing and scolding hot water

After the "shower", the prisoners' hair was cut and they were separated. Most women, children and elderly were then put into the "gas chambers", while those who could work were taken through to their barracks.
I was trying to hold it together, but after the "shower" room, which I couldn't get through fast enough, and standing in front of the little rooms that were gas chambers (with doors that had a little window in them so the jailers could look through to make sure everyone has succumbed to the gas), I completely broke down and my husband had to take me out of there and insist that we were done and were leaving. The horror of it all wouldn't leave me for days. (I have to say that my husband, having visited Auschwitz and knowing how impressionable about these things I am, wasn't sure I should go to visit a concentration camp. But I always wanted to and, despite how hard it is to be there, would suggest that every single person visits one at least once in their life. If you don't feel anything there, you're not alive!)

A mausoleum in which all the remains of the cremated bodies that were found around the camp are buried

There were also many accounts of the horrors written by the former prisoners that had my heart breaking and my hair standing up while I was reading them. And all I could think about what "why?", "how could this happen?", "how can humans do this to other humans?". And "this can never happen again!"

I'm not sure if any of our family lost people in concentration camps back in Ukraine, though I do know that some were executed in a place in Kiev called Babiy Yar (I will do a post about it one day). But being in the camp brought home the horror that Jewish people went through during the World War.

The rest of our trip was spent in Warsaw, which was 90% destroyed during the World War II and rebuilt. The old part of the city is also beautiful and we had a wonderful time walking around.

Here are some of the pictures from that part of our European trip this year.

The little house "chalet" we stayed in while at the sports camp in Poland

"Old city" part of Lublin

"Old city" part of Warsaw

In the "old city" part of Warsaw

"Old city" part of Warsaw

"Old city" part of Warsaw with thunderstorm clouds in the background

Friday Art & History Feature - Europe travel diary - Part I

For the next couple of weeks, instead of focusing on a particular artist or historical place/event, I thought I'd do a bit of a diary from my trip to Europe last month.

My husband was scheduled to teach karate seminars in Poland. He's been doing it for many years but haven't gone in the last few. I've never gone with him, so this year we combined our vacation with the karate event. Since I also always dreamed of going to Paris, we did four days there on the way to Poland.

Now, before I continue, you have to understand something about me - when I was growing up in Russia, I grew up on french classic literature. From Charles Perot's fairy tales read to me by my mom when I was little, to swallowing whole adventures by Alexandre Dumas Sr. (Three Musketeers, Queen Margot, Count de Monte Kristo) and poetic works (prose and poetry) of Victor Hugo when I could read on my own. From the short stories of Guy de Maupassant, which fascinated me with their details of life in Paris of the time (and adult romance, of course) to the then shocking Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. And of course, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the timeless classic that was as interesting to me as a child as it is to me as an adult, touching in its simplicity and full of life and adventure.

So, as you can see, French literature played a huge role in my childhood development. Of course, from reading these books, I got fascinated with the French history itself and I have never stopped being fascinated by it. I also remember reading biographies of Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo and being swept away by how amazing and eternally fascinating they were, and how much I wanted to be like them - a writer. After immersing myself into Hugo's poetry and re-writing it into my notebook, I even tried my own hand in writing poems. Alas, I'm definitely better at writing prose.

I also wanted to study French so I could read some of these works in the original language. Unfortunately, all I could manage, for various reason, was two semester in college plus some self-study. The dream still remains though.

And finally, I got to see Paris this summer! The places that were on my list of "must see!" were the Louvre, Versailles Palace and Gardens, Notre Dame de Paris, Champs-Elysee, Musee Rodin (one of my favorite artists/sculptors), and Basilica Saint Denis, where many of the French royalty is buried, going back to the 400s BC and all the way to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. I saw all of the above, and more. The Pantheon held an amazing surprise for me. I knew that some of the great minds of France were buried there, including Victor Hugo, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. What I didn't know was that, right next to Victor Hugo, was the Alexandre Dumas!

In all, it was a wonderful trip and I hope to return there and see even more. I also hope that the next time I go, I can speak better French.
I came back inspired to write more and better - how can you not be inspired by this city of lights and history?

Here are a few pictures from the Paris part of our trip.

At Versailles

In front of Versailles palace with hubby

In front of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette tomb statues at Basilica Saint Denis

In front of Antoine De Saint Exupery memorial at the Pantheon

Mauseleums of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas at the Pantheon

In front of Psyche and Cupid at the Louvre

Louvre at night

Notre Dame de Paris

Next week, in part II of the diary, our trip to Poland, including visits to two concentration camps.

Trip to Rome and Mediterranean Cruise

Since I was a little girl, I couldn’t read enough about history – mostly ancient and Renaissance. In college, I was very close to majoring in archaeology (oh, why does the practical side of life often has to win over passion?). I blame this obsession in part on my grandfather (love you, granddaddy) whose own love of history was contagious when I was a little girl (and also whose best friend was a famous archaeologist back in Russia). The other part was my natural curiosity.

In any case, reading about ancient Greece and Rome, about the artists and nobles of the Renaissance and everything in between, fiction and non-fiction, has dominated much of my life.
But reading about it and seen the places are two different things. Having come from Ukraine originally, I have seen some spectacular art and architecture of old. Yet since coming to America over 20 years ago, I haven’t seen Europe. So it was the most amazing surprise imaginable to me that my husband planned our vacation to…Rome and the Mediterranean Cruise to Sicily, Athens in Greece, Ephesus in Turkey and Crete! And I found out about all that literally half an hour before leaving for the airport!

Needless to say, this was the best vacation of my life. I finally got to see the places I’ve been reading about all these years and dreamt about visiting.



First, there was the glory that is Rome…And it is glorious indeed. Anywhere I turned, there was something interesting to see. One of our tour guides told us that Rome is like a sandwich. There are so many layers of the city that no matter where you start digging you’re bound to find something ancient. When there was an earthquake or another calamity, the Romans would just build on top of the buried ruins. And we got to see a perfect example of this. Not far from the Coliseum, there’s the Basilica of Saint Clement. The top church was built around the year 1100 A.D. One level down, under this church, there’s an older basilica from the 4^th Century A.D. Yet one more level down, archaeologists uncovered the home of a Roman nobleman who built his home around 64 A. D. on the foundation of a home from the republican era!! We were able to visit all three levels and this is currently still an active archaeological excavation. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said that I wanted to dance like a little girl from happiness that I got to see this.  It's the closest I've ever been to a live archaeological dig!





This, of course, was just the cherry on top of the sundae. Coliseum, the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel, many of the other beautiful churches we saw, the Trevi Fountain – nothing disappointed. Everything was as amazing as I imagined it. I even got to touch the work of Michaelangelo in one of the churches. Unfortunately, one of his most famous works, La Pieta, is now behind glass at St. Peter's. I also saw the tomb of Rafael, another one of my favorite artists of Renaissance. I was so surprised to see the tomb at the Pantheon (shame on me for not knowing that!) that I have to admit my eyes got moist at that special moment.



Then, of course, came the cruise on one of the ships of Royal Carribean.  Sicily was gorgeous with its mountains and sea landscapes (which reminded me a lot of the landscapes in Crimea), and quaint little towns. We went to one such town called Taormina, located not too far from the Etna Mountain, which is an active volcano. There were many souvenirs and jewelry made of lava rock in every store. People living in towns like this still take siesta in the middle of the day, closing the doors to their shops no matter who is around and going home for their meal and nap.



Athens, Greece was the next stop and I could hardly believe I was finally there as I stood in the middle of the Acropolis. The ruins of the ancient temples were as impressive as I always imagined them.

In Ephesus, Turkey we visited two very special sites. The first was the house of Mary, the place where Jesus’ mother Mary lived out the last years of her life. The second site was the ruins of an ancient church built around the tomb of St. John the Evangelist, who wrote the Revelations. The place was very peaceful and picturesque. We also visited the ruins of Ephesus, the 2nd biggest city of the Roman Empire and, supposedly, the best preserved ruins today.

On the way back to Rome, our ship went by an island called Stromboli, which has the most active volcano in Europe. This was definitely another first for us.

I have so many beautiful memories of this trip and lots and lots of material for writing, which I have to organize (in my head and on paper). I would like to say a big thank you to my wonderful hubby for this surprise vacation of a lifetime. And here’s to many more trips all over the world.