Czechia Road Trip, Part 6: Olomouc to Ostrava and Auschwitz

Day 425 (August 27, 2019) – Ostrava, Czechia

After driving around the western and southern portions of Czechia, we were continuing our trip northeastward to Ostrava and into Poland. There was very little mentioned in our guidebook of anything east of Olomouc, so when we left town we were sort of making things up as we went. We had a bunch of maps and knew where the towns were so we spent the day hopping from town to town and making our way to Ostrava.

We only ever saw the outside of Helfštýn Castle.

Our first stop was a bit of a miss. We drove out to visit Helfštýn Castle, but when we got there we learned it was closed. At most castles, even if you don’t make it inside, the grounds are still nice to walk around, but at Helfštýn Castle the entire place is surrounded by a high stone wall and there really wasn’t much to see outside the wall. At least we had an interesting drive there, which took us down all these narrow roads between farmlands.

Hranice might win the award for cutest Czech town square.

We stopped for lunch in Hranice, a tiny little town with perhaps the quaintest town square in all of Czechia. I can’t believe we never heard about it. It was a rectangular, cobblestone square lined with typical multicolored Czech-style buildings and a bright pink church sitting in the center. There was a small water fountain, plenty of wooden benches, and planters with bright pink flowers in them. It was adorable. I half expected people to start dancing and breaking out into song. It looked just like a fairy tale. I suppose it’s not on the map because once you walk outside the square there really isn’t much else to the town. It’s a really small place, but we did manage to grab lunch at one of the restaurants in town. We got the menu of the day: soup and an extremely filling tuna pasta salad, all topped off with a Birrell draft, the popular non-alcoholic beer that everyone drinks at lunch (aside from all the people who, of course, drink real beer at lunch).

Walking around Hranice.

Further along our drive, we stopped in Vlašské Meziříčí for coffee, which wins the award for ugliest town square. Neither of us even thought to take a picture of it. Most squares, and downtown road for that matter, are cobblestone, but this town square was just a giant blacktop surface. It sat there like a huge uneven basketball court and lined with overgrown grasses and shrubs. Other parts of town outside the square were nicer. There was a river nearby that had a good concentration of shops and restaurants. After our coffee we didn’t stick around very long.

Walking around Vlašské Meziříčí.

Our last stop of the day was in Nový Jičín. This was a much larger town than the previous two and, for our future reference, would have been a nice place to spend a night or two, but we only stopped for a short while. It was nice because the traditional architecture wasn’t just limited to the main square. There was an outer road that circled the square with more cobblestone streets and traditional style houses. A bright, canary yellow church was at one of the corners of this outer road and could be seen from most of the town. It was all very picturesque.

In the Nový Jičín town square.

After a long day with many stops we finally made it to Ostrava. Travis has family roots that go back to Ostrava, so despite it not being in any guidebooks we wanted to visit anyway. It only took us driving into town to realize why it’s not on the tourist trail. It’s very industrial with power plants and large manufacturing sites everywhere. A lot of the buildings in the downtown area were abandoned, but it really wasn’t that bad of a city. It just wasn’t spruced up like most touristic cities are. It was utilitarian, but still a place where people lived and worked and shopped. It felt very authentic in a way. Without any tourists, nothing needed to be dressed up. Things like parks and street art were done for the benefit of the people who lived there, not for visitors.

The drive into Ostrava was reminding me of the drive through New Jersey into New York City. Lots of industry.

Ostrava had a few boarded up buildings

But they found ways to make them more appealing.

Other parts of Ostrava were still quite nice.

Our accommodation was a little unusual. We were staying in a dorm room for a university that was out of session for the summer. We each had an identical bed, cabinet, bookshelf, and desk. It brought back a lot of memories of college. It made me glad that things like roommates and textbooks are a thing of the past. We went out for dinner at a burger place in the downtown square. It was raining and dreary out, but otherwise the square looked just like all the others we had seen.

Burgers and beer for dinner in Ostrava.

Our accommodation was in a dorm building called Kampus Palace. Not sure I would call it palatial, but it was certainly functional.

The next day we drove out of Czechia and into Poland to visit Auschwitz. We had booked our tickets weeks ago when we were in Wrocław, before we even had a definitive road trip itinerary, but we learned the hard way that the tickets had to be bought well ahead of time to get a spot. The rules of the road were the same in Poland as they were in Czechia, but the drivers were not. It was such a contrast. The Polish drivers were like American drivers, a bit on the crazy, fast, and impatient side. It made us realize how cautious and courteous the Czech drivers were.

Driving along one of the more peaceful highways we found in Poland.

Walking through Auschwitz on a guided tour.

When we arrived at Auschwitz, we realized why we needed our tickets. It was incredibly busy and there were tons of people there, which made it a little confusing to even know where we were supposed to go because people were coming and going in every direction. We eventually found the starting point for our English language tour. The thought that first struck me was how everything at the Auschwitz site looked so familiar. It looked just like all the documentaries and movies that have ever depicted it. Maybe that's a strange first thought to have, but in my mind everything that happened there seemed like such a long time ago, but it really wasn’t. All the buildings were constructed of brick in the 1940s so they are still around and probably look, more-or-less, just like when they were first built. They’re not that much older than the house Travis and I used to own. For me, there was something about everything feeling so recent that make the whole experience of being there even more unnerving than it already was.

Our tour guide was describing how many people passed through Auschwitz and how many people were murdered, but the numbers are hard to comprehend. When people first entered Auschwitz, their belongings were confiscated and sorted to be reused and redistributed by the Nazi government. They still have portions of these collections today and they are on display. There are enormous rooms filled with people’s suitcases and their shoes and even their hair (which was shaved off on arrival). Seeing these huge piles of personal belongings really put into perspective how many people were involved, especially knowing that this is only a tiny fraction of everything collected.

This was a huge display case filled with suitcases.

And this one was filled with confiscated cups and bowls.

A memorial at the wall where detainees were often taken to be executed.

The other shocking experience was arriving at Birkenau. Just down the street from Auschwitz is a second concentration camp called Birkenau, effectively an extension of Auschwitz. We’re hearing about all these awful experiences at Auschwitz, which is a big place that can hold thousands of people. But then we arrive at Birkenau, which is nearly ten times the size of Auschwitz. It makes Auschwitz look like a tiny facility by comparison. It was just too overwhelming to really comprehend.