February 15th

German raw material, “E. European/Russian”-like work force and feeling!

Arrival in Łódź

I suspect that every student that arrives in Łódź will have the same reaction as we did. There might be some exceptions if they will also see Manufaktura or Galleria Łódski on their way from the Central Station (Łódź Fabryczna) to their accomodation building.

So, the road from Warsaw Airport to Łódź was done by Polski Express (bus). Quite weird to see that the national road connecting the two cities was very much wavy. Felt awfully like Romania, though there you have bumps, wholes, etc. but not waves!

At that point, it started to seem a bit scarry. The Polish infrastructure is better without any doubt. But that road… pfff… that road!

Also, when we got to Łódź Fabryczna it looked like getting in a distant small Romanian city. All of you who ended up there know what I’m talking about. Like all that large spaces, old buildings, just some parking spots for the busses, and then a weird entrance in the main building. For those of you who didn’t get to small Romanian cities to see this, then maybe you’ve gone to Russia. Similar enough!

Then we met Angelika, presummably a student here, former Erasmus (we haven’t got to talk to her that much ;) that’s why the “Intelligency Services” don’t know much yet) and we took a cab to the dormitory. We cannot recall the price per km, but for less than 10 km, we paid 27 PLN ( =)) xxxx noastră LOL!!! :p )

Anyway, then we got to Okopowa, and I will take some pictures later. They will leave you speachless! :)

But on the other hand, the dormitory will also leave you speachless. I mean – very clean, with all the facilities and stuff. And also great people – Marta took care of our accomodation process. Knows how to speak English and she’s nice! There’s another guy that’s ok, but we hardly spoken to him. The other doormen – lack English! Bad, bad, bad…

We decided back home to take single rooms (I wanted to have my own peace of mind, etc. After sharing the room in Bucharest with 3 other people, my decision was quite obvious). But when we got so down, after the airport situation, then seeing the roads, then seeing Łódź so sad, then seeing the street that leads to our dormitory… when we entered the single rooms, it felt like “This is too much!” :) It was too much of a gloomy atmosphere, rainy, cold, old! :p

Fortunately, as Marta said “Everything is possible!” so in a glimpse of a second we had a triple room to share between us. Lots of space, though our windows look strange. The building’s exterior is not finished, and there are scaffoldings.

I don’t know exactly why but I thought that we will find some sort of a Czech Republic, but with a different language. But it seems like the Poles have kept their old stuff old, and they just got on with their lives. In Brno/Prague you see most of the buildings renovated and looking new, while still keeping their old “taste”, but here they are simply old from the beginning til the end. Maybe we have this feeling due to the fact that Łódź has some of the poorest residences in any Polish cities (we found out on Wikipedia – who knows if it’s really true?)

There’s a funny mixture of old and new, a mixture we didn’t expect at all, but we’ll see!

Warsaw Etiuda Airport

 

It was quite disappointing to reach Etiuda (Terminal 3 of the Warsaw Airport) and…

1. To get thoroughly checked at the customs, though it was simply just an internal EU trip. I’m sure that if the Customs Office knew English, I would have had a nice interrogatory.
2. There’s no exchange office in Etiuda.
3. There’s no connection between the Terminals. You have to go walking outside (and when you carry quite a lot, and outside there are barely 2 degrees, it’s not that nice). I won’t talk about the status of the pavement! Prepare to carry your suitcase if you want it intact with all the wheels rolling after this.
4. The guy at the Information Office in Terminal 2 (no Information Office inside Etiuda, just a Tourism Info Office) spoke English with difficulty and didn’t get the fact that I was talking about Łódź (I said it in English and in “my” Polish as well, but eventually I had to write the name on my cell phone screen), nor that I was talking about a bus to Łódź! (He asked me… “A flight to Łódź?”). And no bells rang when he heard Polski Express (the big company that does trips from the airport to all major cities)
5. The airport as an overall seemed like a very confusing place, at least for new-comers.
6. Interesting enough that a cab driver who offered to drive us to Łódź was speaking English better than any other person inside the airport!

Arad, Romania

Logical Glossary: I was (until 1 hour ago) in Arad, Romania. Cătălin’s hometown (you may often see his name as Cătă). Since I’m from Galaţi, Eastern Romania, we decided that I should get to Arad and then both get on a low-cost flight from Budapest, Hungary.

It was my first time in Arad. Stayed there for 1 day after a 13 hours trip by train from Galaţi.

It’s a weird combination of old and new. But anyway you put it, I brought the sun into that town :p (it rained until I arrived). And the amazing thing was that there were quite many nice girls. We were wondering around the town in search for camera case for my new digital camera, and we cannot resist to gaze at some girls =)

Time definitely passes by in a different manner 1000 km West of my hometown!

All in all, I look forward to get back to Arad in summer, on my return from Łódź! (the girls I’ve seen will take care of my enthusiasm until then :p )

Just so you know – the flight Budapest-Warsaw is only 37euros. I’ll pay 10 euros extra for the second luggage =) But still very cheap!

PS: writings of the trip to Budapest