On an early Monday morning in September my entire class, and our parents, stood waiting outside the school. We had all longed for this day for so long and now the time had finally come. Everybody said goodbye to their parents and before we knew it, we were already on our way to Berlin. After a long day’s travelling we reached our destination. The camping was dark and it was time to sleep.

 A personality to remember
On day two in Berlin it was group number two's time to go on a biking tour. That was my group and I was very excited. The sky was grey but once in a while the sun rays spread through the clouds. A slight breeze washed over my face and I got my first look at the person I would later think was the most interesting one on the trip. It was the guide leading the bicycle ride.

He was from United Kingdom and had short brown hair and brown eyes. He also had glasses and was very charming as he showed us all the important sights and attractions in Berlin. He was tall, nice and had a great personality that everybody fell in love with. Not to mention the lovely British accent that you could listen to for hours. He looked cool and wore a hoodie over a grey shirt. He had a short beard and sometimes you could see a wonderful smile come forth from his kind face. Among other things he showed us the square where the book burning had been on May 10, 1933. It was the best guiding tour of the trip because of the cycling and interesting things he said and showed us. After the meeting with the guide in Berlin we did some shopping and then continued our journey.

 

The Japanese attack
On one of the many bus trips we stopped near the highway to make some lunch. It was pretty windy so I sat relaxed in my seat and looked out of the window. A couple of pupils made the Thai wok on today’s menu. Suddenly some Japanese tourists came walking to us, then another and another one again. Soon they were many and ran towards us with hi-tech SLR cameras taking many pictures. Not after very long we started to do the same. Everybody took photos of each other and soon I found myself holding many different cameras, both theirs and ours. They thought it was hilarious to stir in our food and we all got us a good laugh. We said goodbye, ate and jumped on the bus. Next stop: Prague.

 

Exploring the streets of Prague
At ten o'clock the entire class was outside the bus waiting for the guide who was going to show us around in Prague. Today we had a lot of things packed in our schedule. First of all we were going to see a bunker that was placed near our camping site. Later on we would get down the town center. It was still a little bit chilly but still warm enough to wear shorts. When he arrived we started to walk towards the bunker. First we walked through a park with wonderful views over Prague but we saw some concrete blocks everywhere. That was the ventilation and entrance to the bunker so we went down a long staircase and came to some concrete rooms with exhibition objects from the communist time. The guide told us about the things and later some guys and girls took pictures in front of a Soviet flag, dressed in uniforms, hats and weapons. Several minutes later we went down to the tram station, passing some grey, dreary communist houses. The sun had risen and shone brightly in the clear blue sky. We were heading towards one of the main places in Prague. It reminded me of “Avenyn” in Gothenburg as I looked up the long, grand and nobbyboulevard. Approximately a couple of hundred meters later we went through another little park called Františkánská zahrada that was even more beautiful than the last one. People sat on the benches and talked, pink rosebushes climbed some white wooden racks and birds chirped beautiful melodies. “Smile!” said Hanna just before she snapped a picture with her camera at me Emilia and Freja.

When we went on, we saw a monument, communist headquarters and in the end we came to a Jewish cemetery. It was placed near the former ghetto and the guide told different stories about the persecution of Jews.

 

Once again we got a little time to shop. I thought it went surprisingly well to orient in the big city. Later the class gathered at the old town square and we took a lovely walk to a huge church at the top of a mountain. Now the sun began to set but we took a few photos and walked down the mountain, crossed the river Moldau, to finally get to the dining scene.

 

A Czech specialty
After a really educative and joyful day we all felt our stomachs rumble of hunger. The food we would eat was cheese breaded and deep fried, which usually contains Edam or Hermelin. The craving for a good dinner got everybody’s mouths watering when we walked it to the Chez restaurant. The moment we sat down against the brown, wooden décor we noticed a problem. It was a restaurant that allowed smoking. As soon as I realized this it felt like someone poured dust in my throat and it went dry. When I heard another click of a lighter from the man behind me I didn’t exactly feel like eating. When I took the first bite of the fried cheese it was hot and crispy, yet soft and smooth. I forgot about the smell and continued to laugh about things that happened during the day with my classmates. It was a great ending to a great day.

 

A glimpse of agony
It was incredibly hot, probably about 30 degrees Celsius. We had just stepped out of the bus at the parking lot in Auschwitz and I wore black so I immediately regretted my choice of clothing. I think we all had lumps in our stomachs standing outside the concentration camp that took well over a million victims. The teachers encouraged us to get some water and after a while we would start our guiding tour. I had imagined it would be rather empty but it was full of tourists. Everybody got headphones and at the guides command we went into the camp. There was the famous “Arbeit macht frei” sign, (labor makes you free). The light from the sun was blinding and it made me squint. As we walked on the dusty gravel road my thoughts went back in time. Once, the Jews, romans, homosexuals and others walked, worked, stood for “zählappell” (roll call) and got tortured here. Can this really be the place I’ve read about in the books, the same place where I’m standing right now? It was a strange feeling and I didn’t quite realize I had been there until several days later. We got to hear the story about a priest who sacrificed himself for a younger man with a family. The guard that was witnessing this just laughed and thought it was great to get rid of a Jewish priest. After that we went down in the cellar where this man had died. It was awful but there were many flowers in the cell and I felt better when I saw that he became honored like this. We would also walk pass the toilets and bedchambers with photographs of victims on the walls. In another barrack there were belongings from the Jews and others. You could see toys, food packaging, pots, clothes and suitcases. Even though this was heartbreaking and horrible the thing that made me really sick was the enormous piles with braided hair. The sight of that went like a cold stream through my body and made me see how big number of people was actually killed

We also went to Auschwitz Birkenau, a couple of minutes away from the last place. It was huge and the train rails went in the middle. I recognized a lot but soon it was time for departure. Now it was time to head back to Sweden. When we, after two and a half day’s travelling, came up the driveway at school everybody applauded pleased to be home.

The journey with Pink Caravans was incredibly educative, rewarding, funny, interesting, inspiring and has created memories for life. I didn’t believe the class could get any closer after so many years. But I was wrong. At home I already missed my old and newfound wonderful friends.

 

By: Hanna R