I always wanted to visit Poland and to go there with Erasmus+, last week was my chance to visit Wroclaw with an european project about migration and human rights.
I was accepted at this project on Friday (20th February) and in 3 days I had to be ready to leave. The moment I got the call about the project I had 2 hours to go to the bank and pay the participation fee, then I had to find Zloty (Polish money), but guess what, this type of currency is hard to find in Romania and when the banks are about to close is kind of impossible. I gave up looking for Zloty and I took Euros with me to exchange once I get in Poland.
I did not had a direct flight to Wroclaw. I had to go there via Frankfurt, where I had to stay 5 hours. I walked around the airport for some time and when I got tired, I bought a hot chocolate. When I had one hour left till my flight, I had to find the gate. There I found this amazing place with free coffee and hot chocolate from Lufthansa, I drank two in 30 minutes and then my phone battery died so I had to start a conversation with a Polish girl and she told me some things about Wroclaw.
When I arrived in Wroclaw I went to exchange money and after that I took the bus to the hostel. When I saw that the bus had no number on it and the driver couldn't speak English I panicked. I knew some swear words in Polish but they weren't going to help me so I spoke some kind of Russian "ia ne panimaiu Polska” with English, and heard a "tak" (Polish for yes) when I said the name of the station that I had to go to.
When I arrived at Renoma station I had to walk to the hostel. It was already 23:30 so I couldn't really see the name of the buildings and the direction I got. Because of that, first I asked a Polish girl for direction and she walked with me for 5 minutes, then from Arkady (a mall in Wroclaw) I asked two guys I saw on street where the hostel is, they explained to me and then walked with me for like 2 minutes.
I was walking on the bicycle road because it was night and I couldn't see it. A Polish guy stopped his bike in order to try and beat me or something. I told him to watch his way and he said something in Polish and started riding his bike again, at that time I already saw two parts of Poland, the nice and the not so nice people, the third part is about party people, but they weren`t just from Poland.
I did not had a direct flight to Wroclaw. I had to go there via Frankfurt, where I had to stay 5 hours. I walked around the airport for some time and when I got tired, I bought a hot chocolate. When I had one hour left till my flight, I had to find the gate. There I found this amazing place with free coffee and hot chocolate from Lufthansa, I drank two in 30 minutes and then my phone battery died so I had to start a conversation with a Polish girl and she told me some things about Wroclaw.
When I arrived in Wroclaw I went to exchange money and after that I took the bus to the hostel. When I saw that the bus had no number on it and the driver couldn't speak English I panicked. I knew some swear words in Polish but they weren't going to help me so I spoke some kind of Russian "ia ne panimaiu Polska” with English, and heard a "tak" (Polish for yes) when I said the name of the station that I had to go to.
When I arrived at Renoma station I had to walk to the hostel. It was already 23:30 so I couldn't really see the name of the buildings and the direction I got. Because of that, first I asked a Polish girl for direction and she walked with me for 5 minutes, then from Arkady (a mall in Wroclaw) I asked two guys I saw on street where the hostel is, they explained to me and then walked with me for like 2 minutes.
I was walking on the bicycle road because it was night and I couldn't see it. A Polish guy stopped his bike in order to try and beat me or something. I told him to watch his way and he said something in Polish and started riding his bike again, at that time I already saw two parts of Poland, the nice and the not so nice people, the third part is about party people, but they weren`t just from Poland.
Once I got there I met the other Romanians because all the others were asleep. In the morning I met everyone and the next days we learned about human rights and migration in a non-formal way. The nights were for fun, we slept about 4 hours/night and the rest we were out in town to party or in the hostel to play games and laugh.
It was great, far away from home, I didn’t even felt like charging my phone before going out that week, sometimes I had 20% battery and I couldn`t care less about it.
About the program of this seminar, I can say that at first I thought it will be so hard, having seminars from 10 till 22, but the time passed so fast and at the end of every day we still could go out and party. At the seminars I’ve learned a lot of new things. I was also reminded of the things I knew and forgot and I can say that after that week I got a new perspective about human rights, migration and the will to learn as much as I can about different cultures and to make friends all around the world.
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| If you go in the ”Old Town”, you may find this funny aligator. Don`t worry, he is friendly and won`t bite you... so hard... |
Seven days of drinking 3-4 coffee cups/day, seven days of party every night and getting to know all those things about different cultures than mine, made me realize that no matter where you come from, you find a common ground and realize you share same thoughts, same dreams and that in the end we are not that different.
In the last day of the project we had a guided tour in Wroclaw and I heard the story of the city of Wroclaw. I saw the old buildings there and the University and we also visited Skytower and we had a great view on the city of Wroclaw from the 49th floor.
The time was passing so fast and I could not do anything to stop it, it was like in one of Dali`s paintings, it was melting as I was looking at the watch and all I could do was to enjoy the moment and to hope that one day I will be back in the city of Wroclaw.
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I want to thank Young Partners for Civil Society Development Association and TDM2000 Polska for the opportunity to visit Wroclaw and to learn a lot of new things in the seminars hosted there.  |
| This is the city of Wroclaw from the Skytower |
