Meet volunteers

The first introduction of the volunteers took place in a big circle in which each person said its name and where he or she was from. Names like Pia, Sebastian or Francesco are quite easy to understand, and I guess also to memorize but if it comes to names like “Garcien” it gets way harder! First of all, French people tend to speak less clear I’d say than in other languages, mumbling away endings and conjugations in their language. When Garcien said his name the general reaction was a raising of the eyebrows and an impulsive movement of the upper body into his direction, reaching with your hand to your ear to make you understand better the said name and accompanied by the question if he could please repeat.

But actually, not even that was really helping and after the third try we just stopped asking and kept on with the next names. The ones who instantly stuck into my head, due to the character I connect with them were Martha, a livable and expressive Spanish girl. Guilia from Italy as well as her friends Iliana and Maria from Cyprus and Greece and last but not least Moritz.

Moritz is actually a really nice person if he speaks in German but as soon as he is speaking English it seems like somebody pressed a button into “mean mode”, making him complain all the time, coming with a certain flair of arrogance because one is not doing what the others are doing because that is embarrassing or to childish or whatever. All by itself this kind of behavior is not always bad, but it is not that we were behaving like 12 years old, more like we just wanted to have some fun and a good time. You will reach this goal by changing your mindset into not taking yourself too important and letting yourself go, we had that once in the beginning but anyway.

As we went to dinner, my attention fell onto somebody else. Her name turned out to be Yolanda, and don’t judge me. Just because everybody said their names 30 minutes ago, does not mean that I instantly remember all of them, especially when you have to focus on names from tons of different nations! Anyway, as we stood in line to get our well-deserved food, she was asking me where I was from, followed by my answer that I’m from Germany. The next answer to that was, quite frank as Germans are, that she is also a fellow citizen of my state and yeah, she could hear that I’m from Germany. It is not, that an accent would be something bad, it is in fact enriching and if you start talking with somebody you instantly have a topic to talk about. BUT I would not say, that telling somebody that he has an accent in the first two seconds of conversation is a really helpful and sympathizing thing. Though what did I care she was really nice, and I did not think too much about it. What is amazing is her talent for drawing, like guys that girl is amazing at what she is doing.

The best thing about this training is the evening when you are allowed to do whatever you want, as long as you are more or less fit enough on the next day to participate in the program. Next to Agrikola is a small bar where you can buy cheap beer and food like burgers and other fast food. This place eventually became our second home during this week, playing games, drinking together and having interesting talks about all kind of stuff which might be to intense to discuss right now. One of the most eager participants in those conversations has been Amanda. Beautiful hair and an ever-happy expression on her face made her a much-liked part of the group. I have to admit that we had actually some really neat moments in that place, protected from the rain and the cold fall weather which made it fairly unpleasant to be outside for to long.

Ans guess what happens, when you are a group of more than 20 people, already 2 arrive being sick and the weather around you is more or less supporting your body to stay healthy? Yes you get sick. Usually I’m that kind of person who never gets sick. I am running around in sweater 90 percent of the year, am pretty much resistant to cold and I think it comes from that toughness against cold weather and the fact that my parents probably fed us with dirt when me and my five brothers were children, that I can say that my immune system is pretty well developed and strong. But during and after this training? I think everybody had a cold or even more with on exclusion. My precious Pia. Intolerant against Fructose, Lactose and I guess food in general but a cold?! Not for her….

The next morning Pia and I met in front of Galeria Krakowska. Met in that case means, that I was waiting for her. I don’t know if it is a cultural thing or just me, but if there is an important appointment or meeting, I’m always at least 10 minutes before the agreed meeting time there. It is just to be safe, to get to know the surrounding maybe or to prepare for the next steps. In that way it is already guaranteed that you’re not late and that you won’t have to stress out because the bus is stuck in traffic because you took the Bus 40 min before anyway, in case you will be stuck. Organized through and through, prepared for every situation.

As Pia arrived I saw her the first time wearing glasses and they look amazing but you can tell her that a hundred times (in fact I did), you will always get the answer: “Oh no, I don’t like them”. The next steps were quite easy, I mean everybody should be able to handle the check in for Flixbus. During the trip the sky went from an inviting and calming blue, sometimes interrupted by a flock of cloud which run like sheep over the sky, into a threatening grey. The once so purely white sheep turned now into a grey tsunami which rolled over us, bringing wind and rain within.

Nevertheless, we thought, that the rain won’t get us down and that we just have to keep up a positive attitude. If there is no sun which shines, be the sun and shine. Even though destiny, fate r karma, call it whatever you want, decided to prove if we were worthy of being two suns shining in the midst of rain. To get to Agrikola, the place in which we were about to stay for the next week, we had to go by bus. It is not far away maybe three or four stops, but due to our moral standards and the fear of being caught we decided to get the tickets first before entering the bus. So, we stood in the rain, in front of the automat and waited until the person in front of us finished buying its ticket.

You know those people, who think of the ice cream flavor they want the moment they stand in front of the cashier. In that moment something must go wrong in some people’s heads, maybe an enzyme is released which prevents them from making a quick decision. This leads to a ten minutes showdown of how they don’t know what to take, maybe the same as always or a new flavor, cup or cone, one or two scoops. Yeah, we had a person like that in front of us, but just for the ticket automat. When he finally managed to get his stuff done, we approached the machine, just to be penalized by karma for making jokes about this man and comparing him to that kind of ice-cream-persons. It felt like 15 minutes in which we tried to manage to get our tickets but nope not for us. Standing in the rain, trying to work with this advice gave us the cramps. I mean we laughed a lot, but you are not drying through laughing. In the end we bought the tickets in a small kiosk which sold besides tobacco and small snacks also passes for the buses and trams. Now we started our training. Wet, tired and cold but happy and at least together.

Agrikola is a big sports complex with a soccer field, enclosed by a track cycle for athletes. The building next to it offers besides locker rooms also a whole hostel like part in which we were accommodated. Due to the experiences of the other volunteers which went there before us Pia and I expected to be in shared rooms, with their own shower and toilet.  As we got the keys to our rooms, because we don’t do unisex, we got some instructions how to go there. Being me I only listened to Pia’s description to her room, in case she would forget, leading to the situation that I went to her room and as soon as she entered I tried to figure out where I’d be supposed to go, walking like a lost child in the aisle of Target looking for a grown up to help me. In the end I went downstairs again and asked the receptionist, though I thought I would get a snack like you do when you’re lost at mentioned Target to stop you’re crying, but no apparently with 19 years one is too old for that.

Speaking of snacks. In the On-Arrival training one of the main things you are going to do is to eat. 08:00 am breakfast, 12:00 am lunch, the there are 2 breaks during the afternoon in which you are provided with coffee, fruits and usually some biscuits or cakes and at 06:00 pm there is supper. You might dare to thing that there could be another snack around 08:00pm but well NO. For me as a German it is fine to eat supper at 06:00, though it should be mentioned that we eat supper usually between 07:00 pm and 08:00pm, sometimes 06:30pm. The Spanish and French had more problems with that. Resulting out of their culture they are used to eat supper around way later times, which makes it possible to start sometimes around 10:00pm and finish at 00:00 (an extreme example as I think but yeah go and ask Fabian, he’ll confirm that).

After a quick lunch, in which we already got to know some new people and volunteers from Kielce, Rzeszow and Wroclaw the introduction began. We met in the project room and final got to know our two coordinators which would lead the workshops and accompany the whole training for this Week. Kasia and Wojtek. Wojtek is a tall man with long blond hair, he likes to listen to metal music and sandals are for sure something he enjoys. Saying that without any judgement but just to give you a picture. When he wanted the attention of everybody he always screamed: “Uwaga Uwaga” meaning, attention attention (duh). Kasia was a little bit quiet but definitely not shy. With brown hair which reached until the top of her shoulders.

Welcome in Warsaw.

I don’t know why the thought of somebody peeing next to a car disgusts me that much for it is nothing more different than peeing next to a tree. But anyway, we won’t lose time by talking about who pees how and in which way.

For their return of our three beloved group members we had the idea of baking some muffins and then afterwards going to their flat and hang out together, which worked out perfectly and seeing them again made clear that the whole group was completed again, resulting in joy and the long wanted moments to spite out mentioned tasteless gum.

But this deceiving happiness kept only on for 1 day, due to the fact that Emelyn and Maria were the ones which would go next to their On-Arrival training, leaving me this time alone in my flat, without anyone else. Most of the former volunteers might say, that this is one of the best things to happen but let me tell you that I am totally disapproving in that one under the condition that you like your flatmate. I enjoy every minute of being with Emelyn in our flat and knowing that she is not going to be with me for the whole next week made me nauseous. It was week celebrating kind of the return of your old gum, this time it sticks on your shoe and every step you take feels weird so you somehow have to change your pair of shoes or get rid of the old gum for good.

While Emelyn and Guapa, her new name in my contacts, were in Warsaw we had one last shooting with Ania, making us forget about the disgusting gum on our shoes and making clear, that the first volunteer was about to leave. The whole shooting was a blast and I guess Fabian went again out of his comfort zone. It was during this session that we realized that in one of Krakow’s parks, next to the Wawel-castle in fact, stands a statue of a dog, honoring its loyalty to his owner in Hachiko styled manner. It was the fairly sad story, nevertheless beautiful, of a dog waiting for its never returning owner, ending in the death of the dog (Yeah, I know we all wish our pets would live forever but we gotta face the truth here).

Surprisingly Ania is not only an expert if it comes to photography but also if it comes to making people laugh, meaning she is a laugh yoga trainer. Before everybody freaks out and asks now what laugh yoga is supposed to be, let me teach you something: Use google we are not here to explain you everything like come on.

But we are nice people, so I’ll explain it briefly. It is yoga for laughing, meaning you do exercise which are supposed to make you laugh #fun. In that hour of yoga, we celebrated the farewell of Ania.

Now it might sound way more like we were laughing and happy that she had to leave but no, totally wrong way of looking at it. We celebrated the time we had together which was filled of laughter and joy instead of this one moment of goodbye and sadness which was about to happen. Therefore, laugh yoga was the first part, going for a beer the second one.

Before I came to Poland I liked UNO, not the organization (it’s nice too though)  but the simple card game with the colors and numbers, malicious “take-so-and-so-much-cards” and direction changers, turning the whole game inside out showing who was attentive during the game and who not. But let me tell you that you can differentiate countries only buy the way they play UNO, their way of frying eggs or their diner time, making  it nearly impossible to find a all-satisfying way to play the game together, acquiring amazingly well developed skills in diplomacy and patience just to be crushed by the beer Ania spilled accidently over all of the cards when we were 2 rounds into it. I mean that was not bad and we did not care much but it was the first moment when I realized that this game is too exhausting and that people can be really weird if it comes to playing after new rules.

The rest of the night was really fun, topped but the waffles we got from the restaurant as a gift of the house. It is not difficult to make one happy by giving him just food, especially if he’s an always-hungry volunteer, living from its poor cooking skills, consisting out of noodles, eggs, bread and bought tomato sauce. Only one person would argue with that and that is Guapa, the pickiest eater in whole freaking Spain, Poland and maybe even Europe. But you know what? She was in Warsaw, so it is not important.  At that day we also met a new volunteer from another organization here in Krakow. Martha. Martha from Germany, first appearance made in Theos, Fabians and Dylans On-Arrival.

While Fabian, Theo and Dylan took off for their on Arrival training we tried to fill the grid they left, making it one of the longest weeks of our project, t least for me and Pia. I finally understand now how a dog must feel seeing the person he appreciates the most leaving for something to buy. You know it might’ve been only 10 minutes but for it, it feels like one week. So, this week without our three boys felt like at least a month.

During this time two new volunteers arrived. Rocio from Spain, best compared to snow-white with her deep black hair and snowish bright skin and Anthi from Greece, easily to be detected by her hair which always is put up into a bun and with her perfect nails, which she knows how to do by herself by the way. The special thing is, that Anthi already knew how to speak polish, due to studies she completed here.

If you have been attentive you may have realized that we got three new volunteers in one week, two of them from Spain, one from Greece, making Spanish now the most spoken language in the group, though they always try to speak English if we are around. If you are together with so many different people from different countries each speaking another language you have to set up some rules for the social interaction. First of all, you have to find a lingua franca, helping you to make information and personal exchange possible, in that case English. Furthermore one should try to speak as less his own language as possible when others are around, nobody has problem, when you speak in your language if it is a conversation between you and the significant other, but if somebody would like to join, don’t exclude him from doing so.

The week drifted by, tough as an old piece of gum in your mouth. You chew and chew, but it is kind of tasteless and you want to spit it out, because something is missing. Though there is a little something which makes everything a little bit happier and we discovered that on Friday night for us. She calls herself “Partying” and always comes with her best friend “booze” aka “Alcohol”. On that evening we went out for the first time, entering a certain establishment which favors especially the equality of gay and lesbian people. Guess what we had a lot of fun in there. Gay clubs are something totally different, somehow everyone is totally accepted in there and none cares about you or who you’re kissing. All of the just want to have a good time and maybe meet somebody and that is what really fascinates me about those places. The LGBTQ+ community had to fight for a long time against homophobia and discrimination, even worse it still has to fight against it, making these places a safe piece of heaven for each person. In comparison to normal clubs which treated the community quite bad back in the days, Pride takes everyone as he is, celebrating life and diversity together and focusing on a with-each-other policy, instead of an exclusion of straight people for the things they’ve done or still are doing. At least that should be the intention.

The girls and me had an amazing time there until the moment a certain smell started to develop. Out of respect for maybe minor readers let me say that it smelled like a mixture of sweat and the male private parts, perfectly synonymized by Pia as the smell of Ketchup.

Leaving the club one of the most normal urges emerged in the girls, the need to pee, letting them wonder where to go in the center of Krakow, leading to the idea to just pee next to a car, resulting in a small cultural shock for me, the German.

Starting over. Closing a chapter of your life and beginning a new one.

When I applied for the ESC in Poland, I didn’t think I would get accepted. I applied mindlessly. Just because. I applied because the idea of the future was weighing on me and I wanted to show to myself that I was doing something about it. Also, because volunteering has been on my bucket list for a while. So, when I got the mail that I was accepted as a volunteer, I couldn’t believe it! I was beyond excited.

I have been living in Krakow for two months now and I already feel that this experience is going to be completely different from everything I’ve experienced before. At the end of the day, this is exactly what I was looking for: an adventure.

I landed in Krakow on the 1^st of October. Sunny, warm weather and no clouds in the sky (only for the first hour, then it changed, as it is normal here). I was picked up from the airport by Anja, one of the coordinators. In the bus, from the airport to the main station, I could see multiple billboards, written in Polish (of course) and I quickly realized that I didn’t know the language, so it was like reading gibberish. It is pretty weird to move to a city where, when you go to a bar you don’t know what to order, because you simply have no idea what it’s written on the menu – though be sure that this is not going to be a problem anymore once you start learning Polish. Anja brought me to the apartment I am staying at and I met my flatmates. I remember feeling pretty overwhelmed by all the information I had acquired until that moment. My roommate told me she had cooked something for me and that made me feel welcomed. What a nice gesture for someone she doesn’t even know, I thought. She then told me the other volunteers were waiting for us in a bar and were curious to meet me. Though I was pretty tired, I decided to go because I was curious to meet them too. The meeting was pleasant, and I felt welcomed in the group. That evening, before going back home, I went grocery shopping and two volunteers were kind enough to come with me. In the grocery store not only, everything was written in polish but the prices were different because in Poland you pay with zlotys instead of euros. That was so confusing (and after two months it still kinda is) but I managed to buy the stuff I needed and took the bus home. When at the end of my first day in Krakow, I finally laid my head on the pillow, I was exhausted.

Starting over is hard. That’s why a lot of people like to stay in their bubble of comfort and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Though if you choose to get out of your comfort zone, you should be proud of yourself. In my opinion only like this, you are able to grow and get to know yourself better (besides other wonderful things such as: meeting people from all over the world, learn a new language, experience a new culture, become more independent etc.).

My first two months in Krakow were amazing, scary, exciting and confusing all at the same time and I couldn’t be happier with the way this experience is going. Surely, I am thrilled for the next months to come.

Speaking of our time here in Krakow requires the mentioning of Ania, a polish girl from Warsaw which accompanied us in the first 3 weeks, by taking pictures of Krakow and us volunteers. We had a lot of fun posing and once in our life felt like super models. Of course I don’t want to implify that we won’t feel like that in the future, because maybe one of us will be walking for Victoria’s secret, you never know, but let’s put it that way, that in this year the chances are quite low to be discovered by a scout, while you are laying on the main market square, taking the perfect volunteer pictures. It really was a fight to get everybody down to the floor, especially Fabian, who was freaking out about some bird leftovers, that had dryed ages ago and probably already became part of the stone they were laying on.
You know the whole shooting was fairly funny and joyful, taking those cliché pictures of people jumping, holding hands and so on. If you ever tried to jump with all the people in the same time, while holding hands, you will maybe realize, that it is not the best idea to put somebody of Pias size next to me or Theo, because if you do it might happen that, due to the height difference, you rip the arm of the smaller person off. It’s just a tip, take it or leave it I won’t tell anyone how to take their pictures but in favor of the smaller person you maybe should consider that.
One of my favorite sentences out of that time is “I want to get out of my comfort zone” said by senior Bajen, which’s name was changed in my phone to Principito, next to the Catalan Sunshine. When one is saying things like that one has to live with the consequences, meaning that you have to get out of it and if you refuse to you will be reminded, that you came here for that. Of course, it is always a joke and never to be taken to seriously, though we took care, that he left it. Making a pyramid out of people on the most touristic place in whole Krakow is just the beginning and quite boring in comparison to our future adventures, but it is the first step of getting there.
Welcome to the lesson, Professor Karl is speaking:
“If you are somewhere else where no one knows you, your comfort zone expands already drastically but if you are with the right people everything seems to be in that zone making you do stuff you usually would never do and furthermore you start to enjoy what you’re doing, even though you never would’ve done that before, thus you’ll do it more often, resulting in a permanent expansion of mentioned zone, leading to its widening in general, even when the causing factors are gone. This is described as the effect of being abroad and kind of as the effect of majoring, meaning to care less about what people who don’t know you think of you”
Hope that helped you understanding more your friends when they go abroad and suddenly return totally different than before.
As the week flew by, we prepared to get to know a new volunteer. From Spain, Zaragoza. In fact, the same city Fabian is from. We all met in the flat of Fabian and Theo to have our traditional food evening, this time for real, making crepes and caramel sauce a la Emelyn. I love our food evenings because you always talk about anything and everything, falling back into the philosopher state we like so much. This time the question if boys and girls can really be friends or not and I will say in the beginning that we won’t get into this discussion here.
Maria arrived together with Dylan and soon we realized that she is definitely not from Zaragoza, loves wine more than anything else, that she is a teacher and loves LA ROSALIA. Maria is a girl with a strong character, knowing who she is and what she wants, ready to fight everyone if she has to. She does not take your shit and if you mess with her, she can get really serious, but luckily there haven’t been serious fights yet. Already on the first evening we laughed a lot together, while she sat wrapped up in her thick jacket with brown hair flowing down her shoulders and a tired but relieved facial expression you always have after a long trip, showing the weight which was taken away from you as soon as you reached your destination.
As the evening went on, we spoke about the next big adventure breaking like dawn over us. The On-Arrival training. Fabian, Dylan and Theo were the first ones who should experience this phenomenon and they couldn’t wait to start, while we others stayed in Krakow, waiting for news and missing our 3 boys immeasurably.

Of course, one can’t only live of only physical nourishment, one must quench the thirst of his intellect too, only to be achieved by visiting a museum. Well I’m not going to lie, we just went in there because it was free and we didn’t know what to do on that Sunday, so we decided, as the intellectuals we are, to visit the Matejko house in Krakow. I have to admit, that I don’t know anything about him and still don’t know much (but we are here in Poland so we will learn more about him). It was quite amusing being in this old house, looking at the rebuild rooms and learning more about how he lived. Though the most fascinating thing in this house, at least it appeared to me like that, were the plants, which immediately had to be checked out by Pia and me to convince us if they are real or not. I don’t know if those plants were the most exclusive thing in this museum, but the security woman seemed to think so, whistling through the whole room, warning us, that we are not allowed to touch them. It was really weird, because I still would like to know if those plants are real or not, but she was so quick in getting us off the plants, I can’t remember any more if they were fake or real. We left the house quite fast though. I don’t understand why, usually I find it somewhat interesting to be in someone else’s house. You can learn a lot about people the way they place their furniture, what kind of blankets they use or how the flat is decorated. One gains a quick glance into the mind of the person one is visiting, which makes it so special and thrilling to visit those other’s houses, thus it helps you to maybe get a detailed picture of somebody who died long ago, like Matejko.
We decided to leave Matejko alone and to see more of the city center and went up to the Wawel castle, enjoying the warm sun brushing over our skin, well knowing that it is already September and that we soon have to introduce ourselves to the scarfs and sweaters, which were just waiting for us. On our way around this humongous complex we saw him. A human sized, dark green colored dragon, walking through the crowds of visitors, until he stopped in front of us, just to be examined, touched and in the end photographed. Sometimes you have to enjoy the moment to capture it’s real beauty in the head and heart instead of your apple iCloud, but this time we had to show the world afterwards, that we befriended with a real dragon and also the codex of the tourists had to be followed. First article, paragraph two is saying: “Take a picture of absolutely everything, embarrass yourself in front of everybody and buy a souvenir”, though we are not such strict followers of this codex, sometimes it feels good to do the right thing as tourist. May it be to jump through the soap bubbles, which suddenly started to float around us, only to dissolve within heartbeats, as soon as we touched them or by filling your belly with tons of pierogi. It is not bad to do touristic things when you are a tourist, that is why you are one in fact, to do them, but soon we realized, we are not tourists, we are volunteers who will stay here for the next ten months, sharing flats, food and experiences, watching sunsets and telling stories. Laughing and crying together, discuss and exchange opinions. So much is happening and that only within a few days.
You start to ask yourself how this could happen, and you realize that it is easier to be the one who you truly are with people who don’t know you. They don’t know the you before, they don’t know the old you and they can’t be disappointed about your “changes”, they won’t say, that they can’t recognize you or that they don’t like your new friends, because they don’t know you at all and somehow this feeling gives you the bravery to break free of those restrictions which keep you locked in your old self helping to create something longer lasting than those soap bubbles floating in the air. Welcome abroad, welcome somewhere else, welcome into a whole new world, with the real you, not the new you, but the real one. Welcome to Poland.

One is maybe asking himself now: “Well whatever, she’s 17 if her parents agreed then where is the problem with that?”, well let me tell you something. Before ESC became ESC, it was called EVS, which stands for European Voluntary Service. In that service it was fine if you were 17 as long as you turn 18 during the year but that is not how ESC works anymore, thus opening a discussion between the national agency and our office so that Pia could stay here, because the ESC concept is brand new and somebody did not notice that Pia was actually too young. It is maybe comparable with the fight of your parents against the parents of your best friend who got you into trouble, but you both are just watching the scene, because neither of you understands what happened or why it is bad. You just want to hang out more with your friend because it was actually fun and you want to repeat it sometime, while your caretakers are busy with talking. That is how we just kept on doing our ESC during this time, hoping that our organization would win and that we could keep Pia in our circle because she already became precious to us in that short time.
One day later we met in the bank for opening our polish bank accounts and that was the day when we got to know Fabian. Emelyn and me entered the building and as soon as we stood in the entrance, we saw Pia sitting there together with another boy, short black hair, brown eyes and slightly beard shadow running over his jaw like a colony of ants. We instantly introduced each other, and he turned out to be Fabian, Fabian Bajen from Spain. In fact, he is from a city in which a friend of mine did her EVS, what I instantly told him and to which he reacted in a warm way, saying that it is great and asking where she lived, what I could only answer with shrugging shoulders. But then he began to get his engine started, meaning asking questions over questions, doesn’t matter how silly they were just questions. Don’ get me wrong I had a lot of fun with our conversation and it is something different, I got to admit, to talk about the underwear you wear because you too stole it from your brother because it looked cool or just because your parents won’t buy every time new clothes for you so you have to take the leftovers from your siblings which they have grown out of( this is just a slight example of one of the things we spoke about, so you can imagine) By now we were, what I like to call “the core”, the first people who arrived during the 01 until the 05 of September. It is amazing, that we instantly had a certain connection between each other, we started to hang out together, like, every day, met, talked and ate. One experience, I guess it was the most intense for Pia and me, was our introduction to the pierogi. Pierogi are little dough pockets of pure enjoyment, boiled in hot water, filled with any kind of delicious treats, from potatoes to spinach, strawberries to apples and cinnamon, decorated in either bacon and onions or some creamy, white condense milk. Simply pieces of heaven.
If you are coming to Poland and you are going without eating pierogi, sorry but you did not pass the class, go back and get your freaking pierogi, then you can leave. To all the people who are saying, that they are not having enough time for eating pierogi, or its always to late or too soon, which in fact it never is, thus it is already a weak excuse, let me now completely destroy your invalid statement by saying that in Krakow exists a store which offers them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so don’t give us that sentence. If you have tried them and did not like them, I am sorry for you but also want to say, that Poland’s cuisine has way more offer than just these dumplings. If you remember the day, we went to the all you can eat breakfast with Fernando, you might remember the name “Plac Nowy”. Plac Nowy, which is literally translated into “New Place” is a small kind of market square with a round building in the center which looks kind of like the houses people build for the water birds on public lakes. A roundel with several small fast food shops, which all seem to have just one thing, the glorious Zapikanka. This endless loop of the Zapikanka circle is only interrupted by a Belgium fries’ shop and Good Lood, which serves a decent ice cream and by the way is iconic for Krakow. Fabian nearly immediately discovered this crispy kind of pizza, served on a baguette with sheer endless toppings and flavors, for himself.
As the week went on, we thought about what to do at the weekend, giving birth to the idea of food evening. Food evening is a thing which we planned to do on usually Saturdays, were we meet in one flat and cook together something specific out one’s country. Though I got to admit, that the first food evening was neither specific for Spain, nor Germany, nor France, nor Catalonia because we did Pizza.

In the next morning we met up in the city center with one of our coordinators, Asia, which is Joanna. Emelyn and me went into the tram, hoping to reach the planned destination. Going by tram is actually nothing special, but it suddenly becomes more exciting when you are in a new city, not knowing any of the stops and the very least if you are not able to read them without breaking your tongue. I mean Czerwone Maki (which is “Red Poppy) is an easy one but try to read out Rzmeslnicza it was impossible.

Reaching the station, we could already see a tall guy, breaking through the crowds of pedestrians like a lighthouse, accompanied by a woman which introduced herself as Asia later on. Our lighthouse turned out to be Theo, 1,90m and from Germany, more in particular out of a city which is maybe 2 hours away from my city. To understand the German culture a little bit more let me explain you something. Usually, when abroad, people tend to stick together when they meet somebody out of their country, but this does not count for Germans. We try to avoid each other as much as possible, because if there is another German than this place must be quite touristic. Though that natural habit, which seems to be in the in the genes of the Germans, we got along well. Theo is not a man of many words thus, he was hardly speaking which made it quite difficult to establish a conversation at first, but we got slowly into it, cracking open that shell.

Last but not least Dylan arrived. He had some trouble finding the stop, so we had to look for him, but we made it.  By now we were two French and two Germans on the way to discover the city and getting our monthly ticket. Ironically only me and Theo got the monthly ticket because we had all the documents which were required for it (perfectly German I know).

If one does an ESC (European Solidarity Corps), one always gets a mentor, which is usually a person, who already did an ESC and now wants to accompany new volunteers leading them to treasures the former volunteers achieved, thus making the stay here more pleasant. Also, they help you to get to know the culture better and how everything works. My mentor is Tiago from Portugal, living and working here in Krakow since several years, but this is a topic for a different time. We want to focus now more on Emelyns mentor, Fernando, also from Portugal, who invited us the next day to an all you can eat breakfast. We gladly took that opportunity and met the next day at Plac Nowy to enter that restaurant.

Fernando is a livable, joyful partygoer who loves showing the new volunteers around, presenting places in which one can enjoy a cold one together with one’s friends for a good price as well as which clubs are worth it to be checked out. As we entered that place Dylan arrived with somebody nobody knew. Her coppern hair made me ask myself at first if this is a natural color or not. While I was thinking about that her hazelnut colored eyes were running over every face on the table and she introduced herself as Pia. Pia from Spai… I’m sorry it is not Spain it is Catalonia!

Sitting together while having breakfast, getting to know more about each other. Or let’s put it that way getting to know about me and Fernando because we were the only ones who talked. Pia joined us sometimes but due to the fact that she just arrived late in the evening the day before, she was not really in the state of talking much. Theo did not say a word, always listening but not commenting on anything.

Finishing the breakfast and starting to walk around in Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter of Krakow we discovered several restaurants and bars which waited to be checked out, places we wanted to go and clubs we planned to discover but anything at its time. Fernando brought us to one of the many Kopiec of Krakow, hills which function as viewing points, but you got to walk a little bit to get up there and let me tell you that the shoes Emelyn wore elevated her nearly to the Hight of Theos forehead, making them rather suboptimal  for walking up this kind of mountain. In the end we made it and had a nice view over the city, though I have to admit, that Krakow is a city which one has to walk through to discover its beauty, from above its rather boring. While being up there we talked and randomly spoke about our age. That was the moment Pia said that she is 17 years old….

Polish adventure

The day before the 01.09.2019 was filled with saying goodbye to friends, family and my beloved cat. It’s an almost frightening feeling before one takes a trip far away and this time not for one or two weeks, but for ten whole months. Not knowing who you are going to meet, if you will like what you are going to do or if you will get along with your flatmates. The only certain feeling is the feeling of farewell and a tension in the air which seems to swallow every thought you think, while it is laying its heavy hands around your throat making it hard to speak. When I saw the flashing green color of the bus coming into the station I knew, now something whole new is going to start. Something I never experienced, something I never felt. Though frightened I was ready for it.

Every step I had to take to get into the bus, not looking back because that would just make the goodbye harder, brought me nearer to my destination. September the first, 2019 was the day when I arrived. As I got out of the bus the warm morning air filled my lungs. I felt like a truck hit me due to sleep deprivation and the lack of possibilities to take a shower or brush your teeth. Not my proudest moment, I got to admit, but I was relieved to have managed to get to Krakow in time and at the right place. After a short time of waiting Ania arrived to pick me up. Ania is actually Anna but not Asia and the other Ania is someone whole different. Good that at least Dagmara stayed Dagmara, but we will get later into that.

The flat has two rooms, somewhat like a corridor and a separated toilette, which is absolutely handy when you live together with some more people. Ania directly directed me into the single bedroom because we have the smallest flat which means, that instead of the usual four people only three going to live in here. By offering, that I don’t need a single room and gladly take the shared bedroom, she replied that my chivalry is appreciated but there are coming two girls into my flat, which are going to share rooms together, thus it is not possible for me to go into that shared bedroom. What I must admit is, that I do not have a problem with that either, because I never had a king-sized bed and I conquered it immediately.

My French flatmate, Emelyn, arrived maybe ten minutes after I entered the flat and after getting to know each other we decided to take a trip into the city center. I did not know much about Poland and its cities, besides that Krakow is supposed to be one of the most beautiful ones and holy cow they were right. The marketplace is out of that world with its museum which lays underneath the place and its humongous church in one side and uncountable restaurants. Everywhere are horse carts and people who wear traditional clothing, while dozens of pidgeon’s take flight, when being chased by a dog. Going on you cannot miss the Wawel-castle which is in that city. It is a stunning complex of a church, several towers and meadows. At its feet stands the statue of the wawel dragon which spites real fire every five minutes. It might seem really special right now, but the fact that you are waiting for five minutes to see a flame which lasts not even one minute dulls the whole attraction to the amount that you would rather watch a documentation about the fantastic world of nightcrawlers and their way of mating than waiting for that flame. Though it is iconic, thus a must see.

After so much sightseeing, the call of our beds overwhelmed us, falling into this soft piece of heaven with the intention to never leave it again.

After this nap the last but most important challenge of the day was supposed to be faced. Grocery and cooking. Sure, grocery sounds easy but heck you ever had to do some shopping in a language you don’t understand with a currency you usually not use? To figure out that makaron have nothing to do with the delightful French biscuits but are the polish word for noodles took us a while. The search for tomato sauce therefore was faster. In the end the first meal in our flat was noodles with tomato sauce, a classic. Luckily the volunteers before us left some seasonings so we had a filling meal, though we have to work on the taste.