OUR TRIP TO POLAND (13th-19th October, 2011)

First day: Thursday, 13th. October

We took our flight at 6:30 am and we arrived in Wien at 8:30. We stayed at the airport having a coffee for two hours and then we took the second flight to Warsaw at 12:30 pm. When we arrived at Warsaw airport, we waited for the Turkish students.

Finally we took a small bus and we went to the hotel in Pulawy where we would stay for the whole week.

Second day: Friday, 14th. October

We went to the Polish school and met all students from Comenius Project. They showed us their school and then we were divided into international groups to work on some information about the city. This day was Teacher’s day in Poland and students gave presents to their teachers and everybody was wearing elegant clothes. Besides, they hold a ceremony where they sang, danced and their headmistress gave a speech. In the afternoon, we finished working on some tasks about Pulawy and then we presented them.

Later that day, we went to a pizzeria to have dinner with the Polish and Turkish people. The Polish students had to translate the menu because it wasn’t written in English! We had a lot of fun!

Third day: Saturday, 15th. October

In the morning, we went to the Polish school and we worked on recycling in international groups. Then, we showed our presentations about sardanes and panellets. Later, we went to the gym and we taught the other students how to dance sardanes. The Turkish and the Polish people practiced our dance and they also showed their traditional dances to us. Then we ate a typical Polish lunch at the school canteen and after that we made and cooked panellets. They were delicious!

In the evening, we went to Kazimierz Dolny by public bus. Kazimierz Dolny is a village with a nice market and beautiful buildings. We bought souvenirs, food and gloves because the weather was very cold. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel and had dinner. The Polish girls came to the hotel to pick us up and we went to the karaoke. We sang a lot of songs in English and in Polish!

Fourth day: Sunday, 16th. October

We got up at 6:00 am and took a bus to go to Warsaw at 7:00 am. The journey took about 3 hours and we arrived at 10:00 am. A tourist guide was waiting for us. She showed us the ancient town centre and explained some curiosities about some important places. Then, at 1:30 p.m., we took the bus again to go to Lazienki Park. There we saw the monument to Chopin and some animals such as squirrels and peacocks.

Afterwards, we went to a shopping mall which was next to a famous cultural centre and high buildings and we had lunch at Mc Donalds. At around 4 p.m. we went back to the bus and we returned to Pulawy. We had dinner at the hotel and then Xènia and Jessica decided to stay at the hotel while Sonia, Marina, Paola and the Spanish teachers went for a walk. It

was pretty cold so they went inside a supermarket and bought some typical Polish food.

Sixth day: Monday, 17th. October

At 7:45 in the morning the students from all countries met at the hotel to go to Lublin, the main city of the region. We visited the university where some researchers showed us how to reduce soil pollution. Later we went for a walk to the city centre and we had lunch all together.

In the evening we visited a recycling plant which was located near Pulawy. One of the workers explained how they separate all the trash depending on the material and whether it can be recycled or not. They also showed us what they do with organic rubbish to make the most out of it. The visit was very interesting, but the place smelled very bad so we didn’t stay there for too long. Later on that day, the Polish school invited all to have dinner in a pizzeria. After having dinner, we returned to the hotel where we practiced the presentations we would show at school the following day.

Seventh day: Tuesday, 18 th. October

On Tuesday morning we went to visit the Institute of Soil Science and Cultivation State Research Institute in Pulawy. In this Institute a researcher (Jaroslaw Stalenga) gave a lecture about plant cultivation (vegetables) and the characteristic soil

in Pulawy and also about the main objectives of the project he is working on.

After the conference, we went to the Polish school and we visited their organic garden. Then, all the students made presentations about the endangered species and the beauties in nature that can be found in each country. After that, all students started to work on our trip diaries

while the teachers were also working on their report. When we finished our diaries, we showed them to the rest of the international groups and to our teachers.

Later, we had lunch at the hotel and we had some free time. Some of us went to buy some presents and others decided to go to a discotheque at the Polish school. We danced a lot and we spent a good time with all the students. Later on our teachers joined us at the disco and they danced too. It was very funny!

Finally we went to the hotel and we said goodbye to our friends. Saying goodbye was a bit hard; we were sad but also happy somehow because during these days in Poland we had made some friends, some really good friends!!

Last day: Wednesday, 19th. October

We woke up at 7:00 and had breakfast very fast! Later, the Turkish people and us took a bus to Warsaw. When we arrived at the airport we said goodbye to the Turkish people because their plane was leaving Warsaw sooner than ours. After that, we took our first plane from Warsaw to Zurich. When we arrived in Zurich we immediately took the second plane to Barcelona and we met our parents, who were extremely happy to see us, and us to see them too. We didn’t stay there for a long time because it was already late and the next day we had to go to school where we would see our classmates and would share this great adventure.