Someone,get me off this bus!!

23.7.2010

Ok, pretend we are still in Poland, since this is written as though I am. I’ll make sure to let you know when we’ve switched over to Germany. This day began like any other day: 6:30 wake up, 7 am breakfast, 7:45 get on the bus and drive to our destinations of the day.

The first was to the Olkusz Forest outside of Krakow, where we were given lectures on the history of the area, the significance of it, and what they are doing to preserve and to afforest the landscape. This particular area near Krakow, and all of southern Poland in general, was greatly affected by rapid industrialization and pollution as I mentioned earlier. This was very problematic for the forests, especially because of acid rain, which has all but decimated the landscape in the last few decades.

Regeneration and afforestation is one of the main environmental concerns in forests and trying to rebuild what was lost. I found all of this to be very interesting. It’s one thing to read about the decimation, but it’s completely another to actually see it and walk through it. The soils are mostly sandy, very acidic and contain large amounts of heavy metals that have virtually transformed large areas of the forests into deserts. It was neat to see how impacted the forest really was in weird sort of way. It put reading and listening about this catastrophe into perspective I guess you could say.

It was amazing to see how much their efforts have impacted the forest growth. We also visited a “state” nursery of sorts where Norway spruce, European beech and Scots pine are regenerated from seeds before they are planted on the landscape. Scots pine is the dominant species all over Poland and especially in this forest because it is fast growing and can withstand harsher conditions. There was also an experiment with Austrian spruce since that species can also withstand harsh soil conditions, but it proved to be unsuccessful.

Before this next part, I should mention that today was beastly hot and humid! And being on a bus with 43 other hot bodies is no picnic! We kept getting on and off the bus with little stops we made to the nursery and in the forest, so there was no time for the air conditioning to circulate through the bus. Every time we got off the bus it was literally like a breath of fresh air!! There was at least a 20 degree difference between the inside of the bus and being outside. The time spent on the bus in between little stops (only about 15-20 minutes mind you) was enough to have sweat beading and dripping on every exposed surface of our arms, legs, face, neck, back…it was torture or close to it.

The intensity of the heat inside the bus was so much that we couldn’t make it to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp today, much to my great dismay. As morbid as it sound I was really looking forward to going to it. Most of you probably know that I’ve had a very weird obsession with the Holocaust and WWII in general for the longest time. Auschwitz has been the one concentration camp I’ve been looking forward to for the longest time, so I’m a bit bummed that we couldn’t make it. But it was either elevate the risk of heat stroke/exhaustion along the way or go back to Krakow.

Long story short (sort of), we ended up going back to Krakow in a new bus entirely. Our former bus driver dropped us off at a McDonalds (I know) and a Wal-Mart type store in the closest village, where we waited for the next bus to come pick us up. The bus, when it came, was like a knight in shining armor! It was such a relief and almost too cool. I actually got cold on the way back, but that was probably because of the drying sweat!

So, by far, this was not the best day of the journey, but it definitely could have been worse. Tomorrow is the last day in Krakow, which is very saddening because I have felt at home in Poland so far! Mom, I’m seriously putting off graduation in order to do another study abroad!