http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33160 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33160 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32846 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32846 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32494 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32494 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32484 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32484 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32362 The theatre runs an annual Great Dragon Parade, one of them was made in cooperation with Wales, Ireland, Portugal and Czech Republic as a part of Myths and Legends of Europe Festival in 2007. There are Dragon Family Picnics held on the banks of Vistula River and lots of events for the youngest.
The Groteska Theatre is world famous and it is awarded on many theatre festivals around the world and it can be easily called the modern cultural centre.
It is in the walking distance from Main Square and I would strongly recommend to visit it. Their work is really worth seeing and admiring not only by people who love puppets.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32362 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32339 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32339 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32028 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32028 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30333 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30333 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30334 I stepped off the bus into thick snow as it was a week before Christmas. Even in my four layers I was still freezing. Everything is very bleak in the first camp. Although the buildings are large red brick and very neatly arranged, everything seemed dead.
In Auschwitz, you can feel the silence. Nothing really moves. Even when my aunt would stumble in the snow or mutter something under her breath, I couldn't pay any attention. It was like something was stopping me from seeing this place in the 21st Century.
I'm seventeen with blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm not religious, I have no serious disorders and am pretty normal I suppose. My aunt is gay and very openly so. Standing next to her, realizing that I would never had been considered for a place like this where she would have been without question made me feel hideous.
Going to the Birkenau camp was actually a lot easier than Auschwitz. The landscape is so open and freeing that I couldn't quite get my head around the awful things that happened there.
To anyone going to visit the camps, I highly recommend taking a tour. It is a lot less stressful, you get every single piece of information you could possibly take in and they are very professional.
Also, I think it's best to go in the winter. A summer trip would be no where near as moving than standing beneath the entrance, freezing cold realizing that this was the last thing many people ever felt.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30334 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29862 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29862 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29716 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29716 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29029 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/29029 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/28520 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/28520 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27668 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27668 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27608 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27608 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27607 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27607 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27547 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27547 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27528 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27528 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27320 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/27320 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/26437
"Solvay" has a complex and fascinating history (Pope John Paul II worked there during World War II to avoid deportation) but stands today as a forgotten monument and symbol of the transformations that have occurred in Poland over the last 20 years. Solvay has quietly become the defacto community center of the area - and a dedicated space for creative and artistic production.

Conceived and curated by Halfslant, NOWA SODA: Solvay Transformed is a month long artist in residency which challenges four international artists to create a site-responsive installation while bearing witness to the past and present of the building. Four artists have each developed proposals that address not just the history of the building, but the living community that uses the space every day.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/26437