Germany and Poland

This is going to be a very condensed blog post because the past few weeks have been very busy, but I wanted to make sure to get some pictures up! A few weeks ago, I spent a week in Germany for the Fulbright Berlin Seminar. The week was packed with seminars, research presentations, and networking events, but I was able to see a little bit of the city on a free walking tour that Fulbright provided.

After the conference was over, my friends and I decided to fly to Poland for two days because a goal of mine for this year was to see Auschwitz. We spent the first day in Krakow, walking around and seeing the city, and the second day split between a tour of Auschwitz and the salt mines (weird combination, but that was the best tour we could find). I didn't take any pictures at Auschwitz, but I did take some at the salt mines - my favorite part about the salt mines was the full-size chapel built entirely out of salt. While we were down in the mine, the tour guide told us that we were allowed to lick the walls if we wanted to - everyone else in the group decided they didn't need to do that, but I decided that there was no way I would leave the salt mine without licking the wall. I found a place that looked a little bit off the beaten path (the tour guide said thousands of people lick the walls each year), and it was salty like I expected. I probably could have just taken the tour guide's word for it, but not everyone can say they have tasted salt while being inside the earth, and I'm glad I did it. The coolest fact that I learned was that in Poland working as a salt miner wasn't a bad job like it is in many other places - salt was as valuable as silver, and at the end of every day each miner was able to take a handful of salt home with him.

The week itself was exhausting, but I'm grateful that I was able to see a little bit of both countries and get to know other Fulbright grantees from all over Europe!