11:00 pm

Yay! I met some people today. It had been a while since I'd had a conversation. When I got back to the hostel at 9:30 pm, a Swede in my room started a conversation. He told me of his year-long travel in SE Asia. How he found Tibet enchanting, the Chinese rude, Thailand beautiful. He was so cute, so excited about his adventures. He's traveling 2 weeks in Poland. Then a British couple, biking around the world for 3 years, came in. We talked about Auschweitz mostly. They're biking and raising money for charity. Incredible people! The other guy in the room, an American, said he was taken in by a Polish family for 3 days. What adventures! Went to Aushweitz. Very intense. Very different from Dachau. Everything's intact. And they have human hair, shoes, glasses, hairbrushes -- all there on display. Very arresting. It was really overwhelming. I felt weak quite a few times. Like upon seeing the standing cells, where four people stood for days, crushed against each other. I saw two Wasinskis on the list of those killed. Wow. Talk about having it hit home. I met a couple from New York (he's Australian) and we talked quite a bit on the train back and at dinner. They're traveling around the world for a year. All these people doing it! Their tickets cast $2800 for 20 flights! That's great. They said they didn't like the uncleanliness of Asia, or the thievery. They saw India and Nepal -- had a great personal tour of the Taj Mahal. I want to do it all! Had a good pierogi dinner tonight. Wish I had more time to write this!