My Erasmus experiences
En este post trataremos el tema de la búsqueda de piso en Polonia. Tanto si vas a Polonia de Erasmus por unos meses, a la aventura por tu cuenta o si la empresa te manda a trabajar (en este caso la búsqueda de piso será más sencilla) hay varias opciones a considerar desde alojarse en una residencia universitaria hasta alquilar tu propia habitación en un piso compartido.
Seguir leyendo “Cómo buscar (y encontrar) piso en Polonia”
I came back home three months ago and now that the new course started, in fact my last course, I’ve started to remember how was it when I arrived to Warsaw for the first time and I had to manage myself there…
I remember how shocking was for me to wear like that (the left) the first week of October. While my family was just starting to bring a thin sweater in the mornings I was wearing coat, hat, scarf and gloves the whole day.
Also, while i was going out from the university at 20:00h we had 5º and here in Spain it was around 17º.
Warsaw is a beautiful city. It has something charming. Obviously it’s not Krakow but if I had to chose, I would probably live in the capital. Despite the fact that it is a big city for what they are used to, coming from Madrid, Warsaw has the perfect size. It is big enough for you to need more than a couple of days discovering every corner of it but also, It is relatively small so using the public transportation you can go weherever in only 30 minutes. And if We talk about public transportation in Warsaw, the best option is the tranvie, but also the metro (now they have two lines) and the bus (a little bit dangerous still) are cheap and fast options.
The day i decided to do this post about the city was in October and It was already cold. The temperature was around 7º and a maximum of 12º in a sunny day. But if you are going to live in Poland, you have to get used to the cold weather and better to invest in a good coat and a good pair of boots.
The first thing to do when visiting the city is going to the Old Town, Stare Miasto. There is a good combitation of buses and tranvie that will get you there in 20 minutes. It is one of my favourite parts of the city. After walking during hours and seeing every single street there, the small street markets and the monumental buildings, It is time to have lunch.
The best you can do is choosing a typical Polish restaurant. Most of the people in the area speak English and the menu will also be translated. The prizes for food are quite cheap compared with Spain, Italy or Uk and the quality of the food is usually good, home made. The most typical dishes in Poland are the “pierogis” (something similar to pasta) and the “Kaczka” (duck) cooked in the oven with a bed of baked apple and potatos, cabagge and red fruits jam. Simply delicious but quite big, better to share!
In the last two days i realized we have better weather. 2º and raining all the night. The sun is shinning…amazing! isn’t it? I hope it will be like this since now, i really don’t want to come back to -20º
The 2nd of Febrary was my birthday. Despite the hard winter, was a nice time not only for my birthday, but also because it was the end of the examination season and because my boyfriend was comming to visit me. He was with me for 13 days and it was great. 
We made a nice birthday party with my friends of the university and with vegan food (i told in the previous post i met vegan people and it was interesting for me, so i decided to invite them to make the dinner for my party). Everyone brought so many things and many different kinds of polish vodka. There was one of them really good, “Lubelska cytrinnowa” but it was also very dangerous because it’s very sweet and you cannot notice the effects… Also, other girl brought one sweet vodka with nuts and honey, this was stronger in the taste, it was dryer and but also delicious. I had never tasted this kind of drinks before. And as i am Spanish, some friends wanted to give me something really special, just for Spanish, and they brought really nice red wines, one of them was from Spain, the other from France, anyway, both were very welcome. I also invited one of my Spanish student (I was teaching Spanish during my instance in Warsaw) and he brought as a present Baileys, becuase he knows it’s one of my favourites drinks.
But not only drinks were given at my party, some friends gave me a really big and beautiful bouquet! As most of girls I like flowers so it was the perfect gift. I have to say thanks to my German friends.By the way, German people are not how we should imagine them. They are not cold or close or whatever we used to think. They are quite open, friendly and open minded, but yes, it’s true they are a bit reserved, nothing else.
And for the moment, that’s all about my missed time in Warsaw.
Since i stopped to post here I’ve been in different places, i’ve met different people. I’ve met some people from Kazakhstan, they are really exotic for me. I’ve been in some international parties where i really had fun. Let me tell to you:
This was a birthday party of one of my Kazakhstan friends, they cooked tipycal food, really tasty and surprinsigly similar to spanish food. In this party i found out what is to be vegan (extremely vegetarian people) and is quite interesting. And also i knew one more cople that is in the same situation than me, they have a distance relationship and is nice to meet people who is in your shoes and who understand what are you facing and feelling. Also they are an intercultural couple, he is polish and she is turkish, so differences are quite big.
This is a funny story because i was in that party accidentally, i didn’t know anything about it but one of my closest friends here in Warsaw was the hoster so i decided to go, anyway. It was a “dirty santa’s party”, it’s a tipycal US party where “dirty” means to steal the presents to the others… but the european concept of “dirty” was a bit more “sexy”. Thus, you can imagine ten people comming to exchange presents and most of them where “hot” presents.
Has passed so much time without postting anything here, but the marvellous golden fall in Poland became a really hard, cold and extreme winter in Poland, so I’ve been having some difficulties trying to not be frozen. -15º was the daily temperature, two pairs of gloves, hat and another hat, three jackets, leggins and also three pairs of socks…anyway nothing is enought you will get frozen. It has been a difficult time, staying at home, going out just when it was strictly neccesary and running back your place. But now, temperatures have risen up and we have 0º, time for wearing skirts… amazing, isn’t it? I promise I will write something soon.
Now is 15th of december and you can fell Christmas time in the air, most of the main strees have christmas ligths and trees and there are so many Christmas street markets all over the city, and it’s so nice.
Last friday I wanted to be involved in this magical season and I went to my favourite
street (Nowy Swiat) with one of my friends here in Poland, she is polish so she picked me to a really tradicional places here in Warsaw and I found out how magic can be one place when the spirit of Christmas comes. In our walk we found a really nice street market with so many kinds of kiębasa and cheese. I tried cheese tipical in the montains, it was hot and it was delicious.
After that, we went on in our walk in the way of Stare Miasto and in one of the main squares there was this really huge Christmas tree, it was so beautifull.
But, if you think this was all…you are wrong. When we arrived to the center of the old town in that small main square, we found out another world. There were really nice decorations in all the old town, everywhere you turned your head something was amazing. 
Last saturday I was in my friend’s place, Leia, she is canadian and she and her housemate decided to make a canadian party where there were canadian typical food, 
canadian music and alcohol from all over the world. It was a really nice time, having dinner with people from many different countries and drinking desperados! I just want to thank my friends for this amazing time on saturday nigth. And about the food, i hope my friends will correct me if i am wrong but there were 3 dishes: chips with cheese and one special sauce, delicious! 
And, also, beef with onions and corn into the pan and then into the oven with grated cheese, mmmm…. and for dessert there were two different dishes, one of them was cremy candies, simply lovely and my favourite one was the other, I can not rememeber the name but I know was something rode but anyway It was also delocious and was made with honey and sugar!
In the end we can not forget about the company. People was lovely, friendly and from many different countries, of course canadians, spanish (just me) belgic, german, french, polish, brasilian, turkish, finland, and so on….
