On our way from Prague to Dresden, we stopped at Terezín, which was a Jewish ghetto and ultimately a concentration camp during the Second World War. Many Jews, primarily from Czechoslovakia were sent here before being transported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Terezín was an existing military fortress prior to World War II, with a small town adjacent to the fort. During the war the former residents were told to leave and many of the Jews from Czechoslovakia were forced to relocate here, where not only was there not enough room for them, but there also wasn't enough food and supplies for them, resulting in many people dying here. The military fortress was ultimately converted into a concentration camp, and even though it wasn't an extermination camp, many people either died from illness, or were killed here by the Gestapo.

"Labor makes you free."

This is original furniture that was used during the Second World War in the camp.

The man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which ultimately started the First World War, was sentenced to twenty years of prison here. The cell was completely dark and he was not allowed outside or proper medical attention when necessary. Apparently if he had he been 20 years old (he was only 27 days short of his twentieth birthday), he would have received the death penalty for his actions, which given the circumstances of his imprisonment, would have been much more merciful. And people think the American prison system is cruel....

After Terezín we made our way to Dresden, and had dinner at Schnitzelgarten. I. Love. Schnitzel.

And we walked around the town a bit. I love Dresden, by the way. It's so quiet and there's so many cool buildings. The city has a really interesting history too, and you can see it in every building. I think a lot of people know about the fire bombing that happened in Dresden at nearly the end of World War II. When you're looking at a lot of the buildings here, you can see how the bombing affected this old city, and the massive spaces between old buildings were now super modern complexes replace their destroyed predecessors.

The Opera House

We also, of course, jaunted into Poland for a trip to the pottery factories in Boleslawiec to pick up our own sets of Polish Pottery. My mom has been using hers since she got them when we lived in Germany thirteen years ago, as has my sister since she's gotten married, and they both love them. So McKenna and I got to go and get our own sets for our future houses. I seriously can't wait till I have my own house to use all these cool things I've gotten over the years. As I told my mom earlier, I don't have baby-envy like a lot of my friends out at school. I have house-envy. And its seriously bad. It's basically at the point where it pains me every time I see a piece of furniture for sale because I want so badly to buy it and bring it home to my non-existent house and craft the heck out of it. Such is my sad, sad life. Haha.

And here is where they are painting some Polish Pottery before firing it.

Boleslawiec was only an hour and a half from Dresden, so we spent the day in Poland and then drove back to Dresden to stay the night. Here are some photos of the Frauenkirche, which I have posted about before on here, but I'll give you all a little refresher on how cool this church is. During the fire bombing, this church was able to stand for about a day, and then finally collapsed because of the intense heat it endured during the bombing. The church was reduced to rubble and stayed that way for many years until an international effort was made to painstakingly reconstruct the church, using as many of the original stones as possible. The dark stones you see are the original stones and the lighter are the new ones.

And this is a picture of the inside that I wasn't supposed to take, but my mom was like "Maddie, just take a picture!" So I took a picture. With an old couple in it. But I like it, so that's cool.

She is so fab.