Concentration camps: While we were in Krakow Poland we went to two concentration camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau. They were very interesting but the first thing that I did was throw up all over a big tree in Auschwitz. It was white because I had had bad milk that morning. We saw where the prisoners stayed and where they were gassed. Unfortunately I could not focus very well due to my loss of food in the not very distant past so I cannot tell you any more. SORRY 🙁
Actually I can but it will be hard. There were lots of pictures of men who survived the concentration camps all taken by the Soviets since the Nazis took no photographs. There were just a couple pictures of children and only one of the girls survived Auschwitz. The reason for this was that she had blond hair and blue eyes. The Nazis believed that anyone with these traits was part of a superior race. The symbol of Auschwitz was the arch at the main gate. “Work is liberating” it said although not one prisoner was ever set free until the Soviets arrived. The first prisoners to be confined to concentration camps were German criminals but when the Jews started to be taken the German criminals were made into “enforcers”. They beat the other prisoners to death even for not moving quite fast enough or tripping and falling on a loose stone.
Hank: Sweden
Sweden: Sweden is green and wet and fresh and as most people reading this are aware, Austin Texas is not. All the people are really nice. It is really hard to sleep the first few nights you get here because it never really gets dark in the summer. When it is midnight here it is about as bright as 8:30 pm in Texas. We saw a baby moose which was really cool. It was standing in a ditch and at first we thought it was a donkey. I also caught my first pike. It looked like an alligator gar. In the area of northern Sweden that we were staying in there was the highest brown bear population in all of Sweden. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one. I also caught a brown trout that we ate one night. I learned how to make concrete with cement, sand, and water. It is really tiring and gets you super dirty. You dump a mixture of sand, water, and concrete into big metal barrels that spin and thicken the mixture. After that you pour and flatten it and when it dries you have concrete.
Hank: Copenhagen
Copenhagen: this place is great. There is an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens, a beach, great food, and every one bikes everywhere. It reminds me a lot of Austin. Copenhagen has lots of tall buildings. Another great thing is that they have separated bike lanes with right and left turn lanes and even mini traffic lights for the bikes. At Tivoli we rode rides like the Demon roller coaster and bumper cars. It was really great because none of the lines were more than 5 minutes. We walked to this really cool planetarium and we rode our bikes about 5 miles to the new Copenhagen aquarium, Den Bla Planet. At the planetarium we saw a lot of space exhibits and a movie on the Arctic. At the aquarium we saw sharks and reef fish and sting rays. We also rode our bikes to a park and swimming area in the river that runs through downtown Copenhagen. I went swimming and realized it was salt water and it was bitter cold and made my little toes numb. Our hotel sort of stunk. It was two beds pushed together so you could fall in between the beds while you are asleep. Although I had a lot of fun pushing Nadine through the space in between. It was really funny when she went through head first because it took her a while to get out.