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Tallinn, 19 October 2003
European summer: the Balkans, Albanian roads, kitten from Ohrid and Auschwitz
Odv2004-09-15 11:38:46
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a couple of days in Pirot and Belgrade again, visiting amongst other things the Nis skull tower. This tower was built when Serbia was part of the Turkish empire in the beginning of the 19th century. After a failed rebellion by Serbs, the skulls of those killed in battle were used to "decorate" the outside of the tower in order to scare the Serbs from ever rising up again.
On a lighter note, we also met Darko Kolar, a painter from Pirot who specializes in portraying women in their natural state.
But eventually we had to continue on our way to Estonia. Because of the day time heat we decided to leave from Belgrade late in the afternoon and drive through the night, hoping to reach southern Poland early the next morning.
In southern Poland, we first visited the Wieliczka salt mines near Krakow. This is a centuries old complex of underground tunnels to mine, guess what, salt. The striking thing is the amount of space there is in some of the underground "rooms". There is an entire church with wall carvings, salt lakes and carvings made by mine workers as well as a post office where you can post a letter at 140m underground.
Our next stop was the place where the worst crime in the history of mankind took place: Auschwitz.
There were actually three concentration camps, two of which we visited: Auschwitz I, the first concentration camp and Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau and the largest of the three. Auschwitz II and III were built by the Nazis because the Auschwitz I did not have enough "capacity".
In the beginning every person interned in Auschwitz was documented and had their picture taken, some of these pictures are now on display in the Auschwitz Museum, but from 1942 onwards the Nazis figured this was too much work, so those people that came off the trains and were sent directly to the gas chambers where never even registered. Because of this the real number of victims in Auschwitz will never
...
See photographs from:
Serbia Montenegro Gallery
,
Poland Gallery
,
Netherlands Gallery
,
Greece Gallery
,
Bulgaria Gallery
,
Albania Gallery
