The beginning of a very special relationship…
It’s around seven o’clock of a Saturday morning in late August 2012. I am walking very slowly on the line to board my plane from Stockholm, Sweden to Krakow, Poland. I can see people from different ages and nationalities boarding the plane and it feels like we are going to a very multicultural destination.
After two hours flying we finally land at the Krakow International airport and after collecting my luggage and crossing the customs I go outside the airport and a very friendly man approaches to me offering taxi services and as I considered the offer (76zl) a great deal, I ask him to take me to the FAFIK dormitory, which is the first place where I’ll stay during the first month of my stay. However, I should have known I could have taken the bus 292 from the airport to the center and I would have saved 73zl…
TANDEM language meeting
When I reach the counter at the entrance of FAFIK dormitory, an elder man who speaks only Polish comes to me and starts asking me different questions that I couldn’t answer due to my lack of knowledge of the language… After making myself understood and staying there for a couple of minutes, the man gives me the key to my room and I happen to be the first of three students to enter the room.
A couple of hours later, Damir, a Croatian student who’s going to be my roommate for one month – and became a very good friend of mine for life, together with all my FAFIK family – arrives and we decide to go out for a long walk and to get something to eat.
When we come to the Old Town, better known as Stare Miasto, we decide to drink a beer in one of the many restaurants that offer outdoor service where you can seat and enjoy a beer or a cup of coffee while admiring the magnificent main square and its architecture.
Integration Camp!
After a couple of beers and some ice-braking topics, we decide to go and and get something to eat first and then back home to get ready for tonight’s party!
At around 22:00, we are already inside a cab which is going to drive us to the old town, an enormous area where you can find all kinds bars, pubs, restaurants, clubs and much more… We decide to enter a club called Base and we are very surprised that most of the nightclubs are located at underground facilities which makes you feel in a very particular way.
After drinking a couple of beers and sharing a couple of facts about our countries, we decide to approach to a group of girls that were partying that night as well.
Marta is Polish, just as much as her friends Magda and Paulina and she is already working after finishing her studies at the same university where I’ll take my courses, Cracow University of Economics (UEK).
They are very friendly and willing to talk with us and we decide to stay with them instead of going to some other clubs. After dancing and having fun for several hours, we decide it’s time to go home but before walking all the way to our dormitory, we purchase a Kebab döner just in front of the Bagatela theater.
Hungarian game on International night.
This was the first day of an awesome experience in Poland! After that, all the FAFIK family had parties almost every day and we went on trips to the Salt Mine in Wieliczka, to a traditional hotel in Zakopane, a beautiful town close to the Polish Mountains and to Auschwitz and Birkenau.
I even traveled to Warszawa, Budapest and Prague during my staying in Poland and it is a perfect place to be based if you want to travel around the surrounding countries.
The people are very friendly and helpful, the Polish gastronomy is fantastic and you have lots of really nice restaurants, such as Pod Wawelem which has a fantastic view of the Wawel castle, where you can have delicious meals for 10 euros max. It has very nice places to go out as well as historical areas and monuments to visit and some thing which is worth to mention, is how incredibly beautiful Polish women are!
I have to say that from all countries I’ve been, Poland is a place that comforts your heart and makes you want to stay!
I met great people and made great friends while I was there and they will stay with me forever!
I said good bye this time but I’ll definitely travel to Poland more often because this was just the beginning of a very special relationship!
Kocham Cię Polska!
Ernesto Shulz
Doing some crazy stuff during the Integration Camp – Murzasihle/Zakopane
See you tomorrow at 20:00