SundayOur trip to Warsaw… not right away though…
On 19th May, 2019 we met at 9 am at the Central Station in Karlsruhe to catch the train to Frankfurt am Main, where also the airport is. We got there and had enough time to eat something and rest a bit. After some time passed, we checked in and walked to the gate, where the bus picks people up to take them to the plane. After almost two hours of waiting, we got the message that the plane hadn't arrived yet. Some time passed and the plane arrived from the Netherlands, but our crew wasn't there. Everything was ready after four hours of waiting, we got on the bus and suddenly we saw a big rain storm, so the bus just drove around and an announcement told us that the flight was cancelled because of the fact that a storm had begun. The people began to run to the information desk to get a ticket for the next flight. We were too many people to get enough tickets, so we were waiting again for news. With a sad mindset, we were told that we got to sleep at a hotel with four stars. After we arrived at the hotel and got the keys, we looked for our rooms to put down our things and walked to the canteen to eat dinner. The food was good. Everybody went to their rooms to rest after a round of events which hadn’t been expected. However, in the end, I think this day was exciting, even if there were some disappointments. Andrea |
Monday prt. 1High hopes… and another night near Frankfurt
Monday, 20th May, 2019 started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. After having an hour of free time, we met again and rode back to the city of Frankfurt. We walked around the city center and spent a few hours shopping, eating and visiting Frankfurt. Next, we went off to a boat tour on the Main River. The skyline was really impressive, but it was cloudy and it started to rain, so we couldn´t sit outside the whole time. However, the tour was really fun anyways. Thereafter we walked to a restaurant to have dinner before flying to Warsaw. The plan was to eat, then go back to the airport to take the flight around 8:00 pm. Unfortunately, when we had just finished dinner, we received the e-mail, that our flight had been canceled again. We didn´t want to believe it! A few were laughing, a few were crying. So we decided to look for another flight to Warsaw at this evening. Surprisingly, there was one at 7:00 pm. It wasn´t sure if they still had enough places for our group, but we wanted to try to catch this flight anyways. So we ran through the city to the train station, rode back to the airport and ran to the check-in. Halfway there, we looked the board with the departures and surprise: our flight had been canceled… Antonia |
Monday prt. 2Creepy Hotel
Not again… I just want to mention, we didn’t have access to our luggage since the day we had started our journey and everyone just wanted their bags. So, we went upstairs to the information desks but we had to wait for more than two hours. The line was extremely long. The Lufthansa Staff kindly gave us drinks and snacks. That made it a lot better. After a loooooong time of waiting it was finally our turn, but the next surprises were just around the corner: First, it wasn’t possible to rebook flights anymore because the priority was to find hotels for the customers. Second, there weren’t any hotels anymore… All hotels in Frankfurt were fully booked… The only option apparently was sleeping at the airport on cots. However, like a miracle and because of the effort of our teachers, we were able to book flights and get a hotel! It was truly a miracle for us because we all hadn’t expected that we would make it to Poland anymore. We got to the hotel in Darmstadt (22 km away from Frankfurt Airport) by taxi and when we arrived there, I was surprised how beautiful it was from the outside. Still, that completely changed as we entered. The interior design was a bit frightening with its statues with weapons and that didn’t get better; on the walls in the hall there were scary artworks and when I opened the door to my single room, the strong smell of cigarettes was immediately in the air… and why was there a mirror right above the bed? I didn’t even leave any luggage there and as fast as I blinked I was out again and standing in front of Vanessa's door asking her to let me in. As it seemed, I wasn’t the only one who had that idea, so the three of us squished into the not so very big bed. We weren’t the only ones who were afraid. Most of us students were texting in our group and exchanging information about our creepy moments here. We just hoped the hotel experiences would end tomorrow. With the sound of the rain knocking on the window we fell asleep. Camilla |
TuesdayFlying to Warsaw – finally!!! On 21st May, 2019, early in the morning – after a delicious breakfast – we were taken, for the third time, to Frankfurt airport with several taxis. However, we were constantly bearing in our minds that one thought that it is not going to work out with the flight, in light of the fact that we had often been disappointed. Still, just before noon our Warsaw adventure started. After a few small drug tests in security department and a little detour through half of the airport, we finally sat at our gate and we were ready to take off, but not to Warsaw... we first flew to Krakow with a layover of three hours. However, in the evening, we arrived as the last group in our target country – finally, after three exciting days! We were all received with such kindness and typical signs of friendship: nameplates, flowers and many lovely hugs. Here our travel group that had spent so many hours together went separate ways. The teachers were taken to their hotel in the old part of the city and we students went with our host families. I think that the majority of our students had a very nice evening with their second family and from this point on (after getting to know our German travel group very well) we made many nice European friends. Vanessa |
WednesdayOn the traces of Chopin At the beginning of our excursion, we met our Erasmus partners in the morning in front of their school. To save some time, busses picked us up and took us to the famous old town of Warsaw. Once arrived, we got our challenge for that day. Warsaw has a couple of things it’s famous for. A very nice and ancient scenery, amazing food and one of the most melancholic and beautiful composers ever – Fréderic Chopin. He is famous for his piano pieces. To learn more about himself and his life, we got a couple of challenges we had to solve within our city rally. Walking and solving tricky questions can make very hungry as we all might know. We were lucky to spend the rally with our Polish Erasmus partners because they had some secret food spots to share with us. Thus, we enjoyed amazing Polish cuisine during our lunch break. It consisted of some sort of Polish dumplings called “Pierogi”. They contained sweet as well as savory fillings with meat and vegetables. For the sake of variety, we all went trampolining in the afternoon. It was super funny but tiring at the same time. However, it’s very recommendable. Our day ended in the new town of Warsaw – relaxing together in one of its nice Cafés. Elisabeth |
Thursday |