Budapest to Auschwitz
There has never really been a schedule, per se...just one deadline: Cross into Russia on 1 June. This would allow six weeks to link up with two other riders and cross Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. In late April, I was definitely within striking distance of the border, so I made a couple decisions that would greatly impact the next few weeks. First, the loop that Matt, Dad, and I had ridden from Budapest was seven days well spent but paused eastward progress. Secondly, I decided to fly home for Memorial Day Weekend--a much needed reprieve from travel before the next big push (funny, I think of 20 hours of travel each way as a "break"). All-in-all, that's about 15 days of riding days off the calendar. I'd never think of this as a delay, setback, or something of that sort. But I'd need to cover a lot distance each day while riding northeastern Europe. I'm not "making up time," as that would infer I didn't consciously want or appreciate these schedule changes. Nah, this just means I'd get to ride more each day. Feed Green more miles each day? Hell yeah, he's hungry. Day 91 - Budapest to Częstochowa, Poland - 7.5 hours, 360 miles. Dad and Matt woke at 4am to catch a flight home. After seeing them off, much desired sleep wasn't a possibility, so I packed up Green and we started north at 6:30am. Earliest departure thus far. We cruised six hours north through the farmland of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and southern Poland. I'd tried to avoid major highways, but Google maps kept reverting us to that, resulting in a diverse, zig-zagging route. At 2pm, we stopped at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Safe to say, this is a highly-recommended, sobering experience. A three-hour guided tour provides ample information as groups meander through the concentration camp but barely enough time to truly comprehend and internalize the gravity of this place. Visitors can walk through gas chambers and peer up through square holes in the ceiling to see sunlight...holes that were covered after canisters of lethal gas were dropped into the chamber while large trucks outside have their engines revved to conceal the sounds of screams. There is over 4,000-lbs of human hair on display, stretching the length of entire building. This hair that had been taken from victims and bundled up for sale in Germany. And the train tracks still run into the center of Birkenau, where 20,000 victims were housed. The tracks end abruptly between four large crematoriums, where Jews were either sent directly to showers of gas or diverted to barracks to be held for starvation.
The museum and grounds are easily accessible from Krakow and are incredibly well preserved. The guides are also very well-organized. Documentaries and novels simply don't compare to visiting in person.
Green and I had a few more hours of daylight, so we pushed another 90 minutes north to Częstochowa. I picked up groceries for dinner in the hotel and the next day on the road. It had been great to have my brother and father here, but the familiarity of meals in solitude had not faded.
