two backpacks and a diaper bag

Tuesday, March 27th. Krakow. Today is Sean’s birthday. When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said he would like to stay home and sleep. So, we stayed home. But we didn’t really sleep, even when Arthur would take his short naps. It was hard to go back to sleep for only a short while. We ended up watching Netflix instead and we ordered in through Uber Eats.

Staying home turned out to be a good idea. We had been out and about, always going somewhere, for the past few weeks, it was nice to just not go out at all. We needed the rest.

Yesterday, though, we went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. We learned that it was very difficult to be in a tour group with a 3-month-old.

There were two ways to do this visit. The first is to buy your own tickets through the museum’s website, and make your way to the museum by public transportation. You could choose to go through the museum by yourself or with an educator. The second is to go through a tour company. There were different types of tour companies to choose from. When we planned for this visit, we decided that we would go with a tour company because going with public transportation was going to be difficult with Arthur, especially if we had to wait for the bus each way. And what would happen if we need to feed or change his diaper during the 1.5 to 2 hour journey from Krakow to Auschwitz? We also decided that we would do a private pick-up instead of a big tour bus. This would include having a tour guide, not just a driver.

So, yesterday, we got picked up at 11am in front of the apartment. Our driver introduced himself. We had put Arthur to sleep when we left the apartment, but when we moved him from the stroller to the car, he woke up. The journey to Auschwitz was only going to take an hour and fifteen minutes. Arthur was fine sitting in the car seat fully awake for the first thirty minutes, but afterwards, he wanted to get out. I tried to distract him for a bit but it only worked for a while. Then he started crying more. We decided to pull over at a gas station and Sean tried to put him back to sleep using the car seat, but Arthur wasn’t buying it. We took him out of the car seat for a moment, got him out of his bearsuit, and then placed him back in the car seat. And all I could do was try to distract him all the way to the museum.

When we reached the museum, I fed him and put him back in the bearsuit. We checked his diaper but he was fine. Then we placed him in the carrier (with Sean) facing outwards. We got out of the car around 12:40 but we had to wait for the guide. Arthur was doing great throughout. We finally entered the museum at 1pm. We walked with the tour group and learned about the gate and the history.

Then we went inside the buildings to learn more about the camp.

Arthur started to squirm. We could tell he was getting sleepy. We took him out of the carrier and I tried to rock him to sleep while we continued to listen to the explanation.

Arthur fell asleep in my arms and we continued walking.

He woke up at some point. Crying. He wouldn’t settle even though I rocked and sang to him. Good thing we were still inside the building. As the tour group headed upstairs, there was a stair leading down to the basement. But it was closed. I sat at the stairs anyway and fed Arthur. No one walked through that way, so we had some privacy.

When Arthur was finished, we joined the tour group again. Arthur was awake and talkative throughout. Not really an ideal thing since we were supposed to be quiet. Anyway, we then went inside Block 11. There were so many people. There were lots of tour groups going through and the lighting inside the block was quite dark. Arthur complained. I, too, felt a bit claustrophobic with the environment and the number of people inside. I decided to step out while Sean followed the tour group. I didn’t mind since I’ve been here a couple of years ago when I did my own backpacking trip.

Arthur and I waited outside as the tour group completed the Block 11 journey. From there, we followed the tour group to the gas chamber. Arthur was awake but cooperative.

When we were finished with Auschwitz I, we went back to the car. I fed Arthur and changed his diaper. Afterwards, we drove to Birkenau.

The museum guide said we would be able to bring the stroller, so we got Arthur ready with the stroller and the car seat. Sean tried to put him to sleep but he wasn’t buying it.

So we met up with the tour group and headed towards one of the barracks.

Stroller wasn’t allowed inside the barracks so I carried Arthur while we left the stroller just outside.

I then carried Arthur to the next barrack. And afterwards, we walked towards the middle of the camp. On the way, Arthur fell asleep in my arms.

As we stopped to hear more about the railway line and the train carriage, we placed Arthur inside the car seat. And we rolled him down to the end of the track to hear more about the gas chambers.

It was incredibly depressing to see the barracks, what was once two large gas chambers, and just how large the complex is.

Arthur woke up only about 15 minutes after he fell asleep. And it was difficult to calm him down. Nevertheless, we continued following the group. They walked quite fast, though. We had trouble keeping up, especially with pushing the stroller on uneven grounds.

When we finally got back to the main entrance, we called the driver and he picked us up. I nursed Arthur once more and we drove back to Krakow.

When we got back home, we cooked dinner and Sean looked for documentaries about Auschwitz on YouTube. BBC has a good 6-episodes documentary. Perhaps we should have watched them before we went to the museum. It was good anyway to learn from the documentary and to remember what we had seen.