Greetings from Poland!

My time in Poland has now come and gone sadly, but I have been left with so many memories. I packed so much into five days in port, so I’ll do my best to share as much as I can.

Day 1- We arrived into port around 0700 and the Early Risers Club met outside on the deck around 0600 to hang out, watch the sunrise and our arrival into port. After a few changes back and forth due a full port, we ended up being able to dock in the planned Port of Gdansk. At 0730, we had been approved by their customs and the ship crew began to hand back our passports, since they hang onto them on the ship. My roommates and I were in the first sea to get ours back, so we were off the ship and heading into Old Town by 0830. Once we got to Old Town, we wandered the streets for a while, just admiring the old buildings since nothing was open yet. We found an ATM to get money out since Poland’s currency is the Zloty. The average conversion rate is 3.66 Zloty/ 1 USD. After that, we did a small lap around the center and found a little café to eat at. The menu only had about four options, but the food was great, especially the yogurt.

One difference we noticed that was also apparent in Ireland and the Netherlands is that the servers do not check on their tables as much in Europe as we do in America. We also found ourselves having to ask for the check more often in order to get it. This could be due to the fact that the US seems to have a lot more of the go-go mentality and Europe is a bit more relaxed.

After leaving there, we headed to meet a few other people at the World War II Museum. This was a very interesting experience and the museum was so full of information that focused on Poland, as well as Japan, the Soviet Union, and Germany. All these topics were separated into different areas and provided much in-depth detail. My favorite part of the museum was a section that was designed like a house, but it was only different versions of the same room. As you walked from one to the next, you could see how the interior and outside view changed as the war progressed. For instance, the first room was that of a happy family with toys, nice clothes, and food on the table. The outside view had beautiful nature, a bus, and people. However, by the third room, the windows were boarded up, there were holes in the walls, and barely any inanimate objects. This just shows the toll that war had on people living in those areas and how damaging it can be.

Once we were done at the museum, we walked back into Old Town before deciding to grab gelato. Now let me tell you, this gelato was insanely good, and it was served in a homemade waffle cone. After enjoying our treats, we went to the St. Mary’s Cathedral to climb the tower, and that was no easy task. To get to the top, you have to climb 400 steps with about 200 of them in a very tight winding brick staircase; however, the view was definitely worth it. You could see out over the entire city and we could even see where our port was from there. The climb down was less physically draining, but a little scarier in the winding staircase. After that, we walked around the cathedral for a bit before deciding to head back to the ship. It was about 1730 by the time we got back, so we all just relaxed (my room slept) until about 1900 when we headed out with a group to go grab dinner and have a night out on the town.

Day 2- After only getting one hour of sleep, I was exhausted, but ready for my field program titled Hiking, Biking, and Kayaking Polish Lake Country. Breakfast was at 0630 so we could get on the bus for Ilawa by 0700.  It was about a two-hour drive to get there so I slept about ¾ of the way to make up for my lack of sleep. Once we arrived, we first climbed a small look-out tower to view a very beautiful lake before heading to our hiking, or walking, trail. It was a short walk to Jasne Lake, a clear lake with a high acidity that has only one species of fish living in its waters. After hiking back to the start, we headed to Szymbark Castle and explored the exterior. One shocking thing about this castle was a stone that was built into the wall. I don’t remember the exact name, but the purpose it served was this: if the family living there felt as though one of their servants had lied to them or done something they shouldn’t have, they would make the servant stand outside on this rock about 20-30 feet above the ground. If the servant made it through the night without falling off, they were telling the truth; if not, they were lying and essentially fell to their death. However, the rock was such a shape with a slant that it made it so no one could ever stay on. To me, this is just a crazy indicator to how different things used to be.

After leaving there, we went into the actual town for a small tour with a climb up the city hall building that had a tower you could see the city from. Next, we walked a short distance to lunch and place where we would be biking and kayaking. Lunch was an amazing three course meal and I would later come to learn that all the field program meals would be that way in Poland. We split into two separate groups and I was in the group that went kayaking first, which ended up being to our advantage because we could dry while biking. I partnered with a really cool girl from Colorado who goes to school in Washington. She had taken a sea kayaking class before through her school, so we were able to function fairly well. We kayaked down a channel of Jezioro Jeziorak, a Polish Lake, and the view was absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ducks at once. After about 45 minutes of kayaking, we were back and getting on bikes so we could zoom around the town. A really cool thing we saw was an outdoor public workout space that had a track and different high bars and that type of stuff. We also noticed that it isn’t as common for strangers to smile at each other in public. Back home when I’m walking down the street or an aisle of a grocery store and I make eye contact with someone, I smile and at least half the time they smile back. Here, that was not the case, which probably just makes it a cultural difference. Once our 45 minutes were up, we hopped back on the bus and started back to Gdansk. Again, I was exhausted, so I slept most of the way.

I got back and ate dinner on the ship and packed my bag for the overnight trip I had the next few days. Then I met up with a group and played some cards and dice before my roomies and I decided to head back to our room for the night.

Day 3- Since I had another field program with an early morning, I was up at 0530 to eat breakfast by 0600 and be on the bus at 0630. This field program was called Poland North to South. We got on the bus and drove about four and a half hours to Poznan where we had a short city tour and lunch. They had a cute little show at 1200 on top of the city hall with a guy playing the trumpet and two goat figures butting heads. Next, we left for Wroclaw, which was another two-and-a-half-hour drive. We ended up getting stuck in traffic, so we were late to our tour and ended up only getting a short bus tour and briefly walking around before dinner at our hotel. Some people then decided to go out, but my group decided to just hang out at the hotel, which ended up making for a late night.

Day 4- We started our morning with an early breakfast before loading up the bus to head to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. This was a very somber experience. All the different displays made the terrible things that happened there seem even more real. It is a very eye-opening experience and it’s very hard to put any sort of description into words.

After Auschwitz, we grabbed lunch and headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. While waiting to go inside, we snagged some really delicious ice cream from a stand outside. Once inside, the mine was insane. Our tour guide was so cool, and he told us that he would only be showing us 1% of the mine over the two-hour tour. I believe he said that there was over 200 miles of tunnels (I don’t have WIFI so I can’t fact check). Almost the entire mine consists of salt and there are statues and a whole cathedral all made entirely out of salt. One cool aspect is that you can lick the walls and everything and you don’t have to worry about germs because the salt kills all the bacteria. The elevator we took down was also really cool and it went so fast and you could feel the breeze as we moved, kind of nerve-wracking though. The Chapel of St. Kinga, also known as the Underground Cathedral of Poland, was mind blowing. The sculptures and intricacy of the design were crazy to see. Our tour guide told us that four people carved the whole thing over 70 years. It was so elegant, and he said that services are still held there, and people can get married or even just rent out the mine there.

After the mine, we headed to our hotel for dinner and then decided what to do that night. My roommates weren’t on my field program, but they happened to be in Krakow and there was a different field program staying at the same hotel as us, so we all ended up chilling at the hotel together until about 0200. It was fun to just get to know each other better. I also had a chance to Facetime my roommates from back home briefly.

Day 5- The next morning we didn’t have to be on the bus until 0730 so that gave us a little more time to sleep in. We ate breakfast and then took a tour of Krakow. First, we went to Wawel Hill and saw the Royal Castle and the Cathedral. Then we went to the Old Town Market Square and St. Mary Church. At 1200, we headed to lunch at a local restaurant.

One aspect of the trip that everyone started getting tired of was the food. It was all really good, but the meals were already pre-planned, so we didn’t get to select them (even though we did get all three course meals) and we think our tour guides must’ve said that we wanted traditional Polish dishes. I say this because we ate the same meal everyday: meat, potatoes, and beets. Don’t get me wrong, the food was great, but we had the exact same dishes two nights in a row with a little variation for the other meals. However, they do meat and potatoes very well and sugar beets are one of their main crops so overall the food was great. One thing I wish I could’ve tried but didn’t get the chance to were pierogis.

Anyway, after lunch we started our over five-hour drive to Warsaw. A lot of us napped and luckily, I have no problem falling asleep in vehicles. We went to dinner and there were two gentlemen playing traditional music and singing and we all ended up getting involved and singing the chorus with them. Honestly, I think that was one of my favorite parts of the trip. After that, everyone had a lot of energy and the whole back of the bus (rather than just the last two rows) started playing and jamming to music. It was great bonding time, and everyone was singing along to our little speaker; American Pie seemed to be the crowd favorite. We were still singing as we walked into out hotel. We got our room keys and then got ready to go out. There was a karaoke bar nearby that my group was planning on going to and another group was planning on going too, so there were about 19 of us walking trying to find this place. When we got there, it looked a little creepy, turns out it was under renovations, so we just headed back to the hotel and hung out again. It was almost better though because now we had a much larger group, so we were talking with people we hadn’t been around as much. I was one of the last one’s up with seven other people and we ended up walking to McDonald’s at like 0100 and we had to walk through the drive-through which was a fun memory.

Side note, the McDonalds’ food over here is so much better. It tastes better and it doesn’t have quite the same ingredients as the American food because Europe has banned some of the preservatives and other ingredients from food. Back to the story though, we got back and ate our food in the lobby and hung out until about 0215 before heading to bed.

Day 6- We had another early morning hotel breakfast before heading to our last tour. The Warsaw sightseeing consisted of “Gift of the Soviet People to the Polish Nation”, Old Town, and the Palace of Culture and Science. We hadn’t gotten much free time over the course of the trip, so by the time we got to Old Town everyone was kind of wandering from the tour guide and trying to get last minute souvenirs. Amber is a big deal in Poland and there were little shops all over. I ended up getting a ring with an amber stone. We picked up our lunches before wandering through a church and back to our bus. The Palace of Culture and Science was our last stop of the trip, and the views, from the 30th floor platform, were crazy. It was breathtaking how far you could see. After that, we got back on the bus and started our bus ride back to the Port of Gdansk. Again, towards the last 30 minutes of the trip, everyone started jamming together again.

Once we got back, we had to go through security and get our stuff searched to make sure we weren’t bringing anything on board that was prohibited.  We then turned in our passports because that is how they keep track of who is on the ship. If you don’t turn in your passport by On-ship time, in this case 1700, then you get Dock time, unless you are with a field class or program.

Keeping a tight schedule with our time at sea is important and we needed to make our spot in the Kiel Canal line, which we ended up not going through anyway, so getting on the ship on time is important. To explain Dock time, it is a system put in place to ensure people get back to the ship on time. For every 15 minutes you are late for On-ship time, you get one-hour Dock time. Essentially, this means that if you are 15 minutes late, then you have to wait an extra hour to get off the ship at the next port and this increases every 15 minutes. Even if you are in the line outside to go through security at On-ship time, that doesn’t matter, you can still get Dock time because you have to be back on the ship with your passport turned in by On-ship time.

I got back to my room and both my roommates were chilling there. We went to grab dinner, but I didn’t eat because I had eaten at the last break stop on the bus. Then I went to play cards with a group for a few hours before snack time and heading to bed.

There were some noticeable cultural differences. For example, they dress a lot better and seem to have a more formal way of presenting themselves, which seems to be the case with a lot of Europe. They also seem to have a strong hierarchy system and respect is a very big deal for anyone older or in higher positions. We were told by the Polish students that if anyone were to put their parents in a nursing home, your parents could sue you. They also have a very strong sense of nationality which makes sense given the struggle Poland had to become a sovereign state maintaining their independence. They appear to be less progressive than America when it comes to social issues, but they have a strong sense of identity among each other and seem very trusting towards other Poles, which could be seen by the number of children talking public transportation alone.

So that is a brief synopsis of my time in Poland. It was gorgeous here and although I don’t know if I come back to Europe only to go to Poland, I definitely wouldn’t mind coming back when visiting other surrounding countries. I think I would like to see more of the countryside and the mountains though so I could see more beautiful nature and I could get more immersed in the culture with the locals.

Anyway, next stop is Portugal and I’ll be at sea until September 26th, so I’ll see ya’ll there!

With Bated Breath, Abby Lynn