The Krakow stare mistro is probably one of the best town squares I have ever been to in Europe! The square is bustling with people, beautiful monuments adorn the town square and it is humongous! :) there is also a Christmas market and it was really lively. ;) I love pâté (if I interpret it correctly)! It is a pastry, hot and filled with cheese with cranberry sauce on it! Singaporeans will use the word SHIOK when they taste it during winter! So I spent the night at the Krakow old town square after returning from Auschwitz and the Salt mine.
I guess the salt mine is really a major highlight of my visit to Poland! I learnt a lot of general knowledge when I was there. Owing to Singapore being a tropical country and consequently we do not experience snow. As such, our understanding of the use of salt is limited to only cooking. So when the guide told us that salt is an extremely important commodity in Poland, especially during winter, my mind was filled with question marks! Apparently, salt is used to break the snow or build snow (either one, I did not really understand her explanation). So I told myself that when I get back to Singapore, I should google and find out about this. Another interesting fact: salt is used as a form of money i.e. wages and the word salary is derived from the word salt.
The visit is the first time I enter a mine and there were a lot of things that I did not understand. I ended up like a student on a field trip and kept posing the guide questions. She did the job duly and explained to me the complicated processes to her best knowledge. One of the issues was how salt is being derived. Being a mountain tortoise who lives in a country with no natural resources, I had always thought that salt comes from the sea. We heat up the seawater and through some chemical processes like evaporation, crystallisation and filtration, we end up with pure WHITE salt. But actually, salt is not always dissolved in seawater! Salt can come in solid blocks and can be grey in colour. That is because they are mixed with impurities therefore they do not appear to be white. However, if they come into contact with water, water vapour in the air inclusive, they will then dissolve in it and form white salt. The Polish guide call it cauliflower! :) while in the mine, the guide allowed us to touch the walls or even lick them to convince ourself that we are actually surrounded by salt! Even the floors are made of salt!! I had no reservations when it comes to pursuing the truth. So I rubbed my fingers against the wall then smell and taste it! OMG, it's really salty! I have indeed learnt a lot in the salt mine!
Showing posts with label Krakow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Krakow. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
The one who does not remember history is bound to repeat it again
What a tag line I've as the title of the post. Simply put it, Auschwitz and birkenau really impressed me.
I think history has a lot of lessons for us but as humans, when we live in peace and harmony for too long, we take it for granted and forget what it takes for us to perpetuate this stability. Look at how Iran is on their way to develop nuclear weapons, the death of Kim Jong Il and hopefully not another bloody succession, unrest in the Syria, and hopefully not another war by Israel man! :(
I've always wanted to visit Poland for the history is too enticing for anyone else to miss it. When I stepped foot onto the camps and listened to the stories shared by the guide, I was overwhelmed with lessons to share with my students in school!
Yeah the Nazis were really the kings of propaganda! They painted such a rosy picture of a life in Auschwitz and convinced more European Jews to voluntarily pay for a one-way ticket to the death camp. Imagine trucks filled with people who were full of hopes of a place where they can lead better lives. When they finally arrive at their supposed 'paradise,' they are separated from their families and still, they think that this moment of anguish is worth the paradise that awaits them. Life or death laid in the hands of one man, one crazy experimenter, and if he points you in the right direction, you get a second life. For all that they did not know, these Jews were walked to the end of the platform and only till their very last gasp of air will they finally find out that getting to paradise is indeed true, only that paradise is in another dimension and no longer on our beautiful Mother Earth!
A lesson that I brought home with me today from Auschwitz is, no one should be seen as being superior to another, for that creates divide, anger, hatred, extremism and eventually extermination.
We should all be really glad that the Polish government is doing their very best to maintain these historical sites as they serve as warnings to our future generation about the atrocities of war crimes. I am full of praises for Germany's efficiency and this impression has not changed after the visit to the camp. Instead, I have new found admiration for their courage to step out and up to face their past. The Germans could be subjected to mockery and reprimanding by the rest of the world. However, we all have our own judgment about war crimes. A series of atrocious acts by a group of self-proclaimed actors of justice i.e. Nazis is not representative of how German civilians in general are. And for that, we will not judge the future generations of Germans that we face today. If only the Japanese could understand this argument, I am sure we will be exposed to more life's lessons from history.
And after the visit, I think about the true purpose of education yet again. Sometimes, we hear kids complaining about the various theorists or academia for e.g. Why did pythagoras invent the stupid Pythagoras theorem? or why did Adam Smith read so much into human's behaviour? If they had not existed, we would not have to study so hard!
Now, I think I will have an ideal explanation for that - Education is the avenue to remember the legacies of great people from the past and also have your own legacies being written down in history.
Are you game to create your own legacy?
Indeed, the world is the biggest classroom one can ever afford. There is Chinese saying: 读万卷书不如行万里路. I understand the world so much better with all the travels that I've embarked on.
I think history has a lot of lessons for us but as humans, when we live in peace and harmony for too long, we take it for granted and forget what it takes for us to perpetuate this stability. Look at how Iran is on their way to develop nuclear weapons, the death of Kim Jong Il and hopefully not another bloody succession, unrest in the Syria, and hopefully not another war by Israel man! :(
I've always wanted to visit Poland for the history is too enticing for anyone else to miss it. When I stepped foot onto the camps and listened to the stories shared by the guide, I was overwhelmed with lessons to share with my students in school!
Yeah the Nazis were really the kings of propaganda! They painted such a rosy picture of a life in Auschwitz and convinced more European Jews to voluntarily pay for a one-way ticket to the death camp. Imagine trucks filled with people who were full of hopes of a place where they can lead better lives. When they finally arrive at their supposed 'paradise,' they are separated from their families and still, they think that this moment of anguish is worth the paradise that awaits them. Life or death laid in the hands of one man, one crazy experimenter, and if he points you in the right direction, you get a second life. For all that they did not know, these Jews were walked to the end of the platform and only till their very last gasp of air will they finally find out that getting to paradise is indeed true, only that paradise is in another dimension and no longer on our beautiful Mother Earth!
A lesson that I brought home with me today from Auschwitz is, no one should be seen as being superior to another, for that creates divide, anger, hatred, extremism and eventually extermination.
We should all be really glad that the Polish government is doing their very best to maintain these historical sites as they serve as warnings to our future generation about the atrocities of war crimes. I am full of praises for Germany's efficiency and this impression has not changed after the visit to the camp. Instead, I have new found admiration for their courage to step out and up to face their past. The Germans could be subjected to mockery and reprimanding by the rest of the world. However, we all have our own judgment about war crimes. A series of atrocious acts by a group of self-proclaimed actors of justice i.e. Nazis is not representative of how German civilians in general are. And for that, we will not judge the future generations of Germans that we face today. If only the Japanese could understand this argument, I am sure we will be exposed to more life's lessons from history.
And after the visit, I think about the true purpose of education yet again. Sometimes, we hear kids complaining about the various theorists or academia for e.g. Why did pythagoras invent the stupid Pythagoras theorem? or why did Adam Smith read so much into human's behaviour? If they had not existed, we would not have to study so hard!
Now, I think I will have an ideal explanation for that - Education is the avenue to remember the legacies of great people from the past and also have your own legacies being written down in history.
Are you game to create your own legacy?
Indeed, the world is the biggest classroom one can ever afford. There is Chinese saying: 读万卷书不如行万里路. I understand the world so much better with all the travels that I've embarked on.