Free Write #2 -- Aushwitz is not a Day Trip

      So, seeing as my last free write went over pretty well with you guys, I'd thought I'd start sharing them. (Daring, I know.) But on a practical note, my free writes are usually about my travels, and since I don't have any time to write actual quality travel posts, these might just suffice. (I know that in a few years I'm going to be kicking myself for putting this unedited shit on the internet, but, at the moment, I find these pieces kind of darling so...)
       For the next one, the only prompt was that it had to begin with the line: "Sometimes what you get is not what you thought you wanted."

       Sometimes what you get is not what you thought you wanted. I thought I wanted to explore my family's heritage, and what I got was a ten hour train ride that I didn't know how it was going to end. I've said it once and I'll say it again-- Auschwitz is not a day trip. Warsaw to Krakow, no problem. Krakow to Oświęcim, fair enough. Oświęcim back to Krakow, fuck you guys. That was what I imagined the ticket machine had said to my best friend and I as we were trying to select our return journey. The machine said that there weren't any available trains back. Still, having faith in things working out, we got on the train to Oświęcim, hoping to find a way back once we arrived. 
      If I could sum the day up into one Yittish phrase, it would be "oy vey." That was how my feet and ass were feeling by the end of the night, when we were finally back in our Warsaw hostel. Considering the idea of sleeping on a park bench had been a very real possibility only hours before, I was more than thankful falling into my hostel bed.
      Still, we got to go to Auschwitz, and even though we didn't have enough time to do a proper tour, it left its mark. I'm still haunted by the giant pile of hair that looked exactly like mine. I could have been realted to anyone to whom that hair belonged, and I probably was. There's this joke among Jews about how every Jewish woman hates her hair, and I'm no exception. But on that day, I loved my kinky, frizzy, brown hair because it was mine and so many others, and because no one could take it away.