Monte Gordo

I've had some trouble with the WiFi here at our hotel so I haven't been able to update the blog.
Anyways we arrived at Faro airport at monday evening from where we took a taxi to our hotel here in Monte Gordo. I had my first outdoors throwing training yesterday and it felt really good. My technique wasn't really good yet, but I guess it takes some time to get used to throwing outside again.
Today I only have one practice on the schedule so I've had the chance to lay by the pool and the beach for about an hour.

Here's a panorama picture from the beach we live next to:

You'll might need to click on the image to enlarge it.

Vanda once again.

So now we've arrived at Vanda Airport, again. Our plane is leaving 13.20 for Düsseldorf and then we go from there to Faro. I'm so excited and nervous since this is both my first training camp abroad and it's also the farthest I've ever been from home.

On the road again.

Bags are packed, passport is in my pocket and I'm all ready to go. I'm really excited, stressed and happy that I get the opportunity to travel and see the world, but it's a bit stressful to come home from Poland thursday night and now to Portugal.
Anyways. Me and my brother is currently on our way to Vasa where we'll sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning we'll go to Vanda Airport from where we take a plane to Portugal.

I have a 2-week long training camp in Monte Gordo, Portugal and I'm really excited to get to throw the discus outside for the first time this season. I've been working on my technique all winter and now I'll finally get to see if all my hard work has paid off.

I'll probably update the blog now and then during the training camp with pictures and progress on my training.

Kazimierz - updated with more pictures

Here's some more pictures from our guided tour around the jewish district of Krakow, Kazimierz

 The old jewish cemetery in Kazimierz

 Old gravestones that had been destroyed during the holocaust had been incorporated in to the wall surrounding the cemetery. 

A monument built by headstones destroyed by the Nazis during the holocaust.

A monument and memorial for the Holocaust.

The inside of an old synagouge that nowadays is a museum.

The Corpus Christi Church in Krakow was also part of our tour around Kazimierz and it's one of the many beautiful churches in Krakow.

Wieliczka

On monday afternoon we took a bus to a little town called Wieliczka, about half an hour from Krakow. Under the city of Wieliczka lays a salt mine that has been active continuously from the 13th century until 2007 and is both one of the largest and oldest salt mines in the world. Nowadays the salt mine is a large museum where you get to know a lot of the history of the mine and how the mine worked before we had the technology we have today.
Beyond the exhibitions found in the mines there were a lot of statues and religious sites built by the workers during the whole history of the cave. The most famous part and impressive part of the mine were the large chapel carved in stone about 100 meters below ground.

The Chapel of St. Kinga. The chapel is regularly used for weddings, masses and concerts.

A statue of Casimir III the great (Kazimierz III Wielki in Polish) who was a polish king that lived and ruled during the 14th century.

A model of how the elevators lifting both the stone, workers and tools up and down from the surface. The horses lived, worked and died in the mines once they had been brought down there.

The Last supper was one of the beautiful artworks found in the chapel and it's naturally carved in to the stone wall of the chapel.

Last day

Yeah so yesterday was the last day in Poland and we came home this night at around 2am. I must say that I already miss Poland and Krakow a bit and I really want to go back some day.
The trip was really amazing and, well, different. For me, this was the definition of a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I would really like to thank everybody who made it so special.

I'll update day by day with more pictures and a bit more details from the whole trip.

Happy tourists at our guided tour around Krakows Old Town.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Today we woke up at 6 am, ate some breakfast and went by bus to the main attraction of our trip, the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

I must say that I, and the others in the group, were less emotionally affected by the your around the camps since there were simply too much information to take in. It just feels so sick and unrealistic to think that something like the holocaust has actually happened and in this scale. I don't really understand how humanity could do such cruel and evil things that happened in these camps.

I'll just post two photos right now, one from the entry of Auschwitz and one from the platform where the prisoners arrived to Birkenau by train.

The famous sign over the entry at Auschwitz. The text ARBEIT MACHT FREI roughly translates to "work makes you free" which is everything but the truth in Auschwitz.

This picture is from the platforms where prisoners got off the trains at Birkenau and it's also where they chose who went directly to the gas chambers and who got to enter the camp. This means that about 60% of the prisoners who got off here were dead within a hours. 


I decided that I'll post more pictures and tell a bit more details about the camps and other places when I get home since I'm only able to use my phone right now.

Kazimierz

As I mentioned earlier we had a guided tour around the Jewish district Kazimierz. I must say it was really interesting to hear about it's history. It really hit me how much "more" history there is in these areas than I myself know about where I live.

We visited a Jewish cemetery where there were graves from the 19th century and forward.

The boys had to either cover their head or wear a Kipa on the cemetery according to Jewish tradition.

Tim is proudly showing off his Kipa.

I'm currently having difficulties with the WiFi here at our hostel so I'll update with more pictures from both Kazimierz and Wieliczka later.

Krakow

We arrived in Krakow last night at around 9 pm local time, so there weren't really much to do other than a quick walk to the nearest grocery store. Today we'll have a guided tour around the Jewish district Kazimierz here in Krakow. After that we'll go see the salt mines in Wieliczka. I'll update with pictures whenever I have the time and WiFi in range.

Vanda

After a 6-hour long bus trip we've finally arrived at Vanda airport.
Our plane is leaving in about an hour and I'm really excited since it's almost a year ago since my last flight.

Apparently some people aren't that

excited about being in a photo.

Poland 2015

I thought I'd start this blog now just in time for my school's trip to Poland.
Right now we're sitting in a bus on our way to Vanda Airport from where we will take a plane to Krakow, Poland.
All I know for now is that we will visit a couple of tourist attractions, if you can call them that, and that our main goals are the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Here's some of the people that I'm travelling with