Warsaw, the city I am glad I didn't skip !

Days passed fast, and soon enough came the last weekend of my stay, I successfully managed to spare time to visit Warsaw, and it was with wonderful memories that I left my dear tutor at the lab of the technical university, my Lodz couchsurfing friends, and the great group of IAESTE members. Packing wasn't easy, a mountain of stuff, I had to drag and carry with me one suitcase and two backpacks, would be nice if real-world objects could be 7zipped !

I was confident as I became quite experienced in taking public transportation, that's why a new problem occured; my phone ran out of battery in the train to Warsaw and I didn't yet confirm my arrival to my first CS contact there, Kasia. So I had to spot the right person and ask to switch sim cards for a brief phone call, and being used to the poles' kindness, not much to my surprise I fell on a very friendly guy who gave me his phone to use his own line for as much as I wanted.

Kasia was keen on instantly finding me in the crowded train station, I left my baggage there and we went up (station was underground). Space, is the word that comes to my mind whenever I think of Warsaw, compared to all the other cities it has much wider streets and more open areas, so it did not feel crowded and I liked that. The palace of culture and science was impressive, from the top was a nice view on the extents of the city. I had the chance to visit a part of the university of Warsaw, and I still can't believe it, it wasn't a university but a palace ! Apart from the beautiful old town, some parks and a few other landmarks, my visit can not be considered as deep, but I definitely had a very good impression about Warsaw, much to the events that I'm about to relate.

After spending the day with my cheerful and adorable guide Kasia, I met Marta my CS host, and we went to encounter her friends at their place before leaving to a very special event, a Drum & Bass concert on a boat accosted in the Vistula river. It was unusual music, unusual dancing and unusual video projection, so I appreciated all of that. On our way back home Marta's friends were completely drunk, but still surprisingly kind and interested in my comfort. They are fanatics of Drum & Bass ! If not listening they were all the time enthusiastically composing tracks on a small electronic gadget. The following night Marta organized a small party at her place and I met more of her friends. I feel very happy when I recall these events, and I smile to how much Marta was concerned by me, she treated me like a baby, a very dedicated, caring and lovely host.

        

I love Poland.

Tatry, the adventures in the south Polish mountains

I wasn't the only one to notice that Poland is a particularly flat land, but the exception to that was the south, which made it essential to go there (surely apart from the fact that I am a big mountain lover). During our trainings IAESTE Lodz was organizing weekend trips to many cities, but those were first relatively expensive, and second, group trips ! So it was seriously more attractive for me to do my visits on my own. Came then the weekend of the moutains, in which for many reasons I decided to stick to the group.
As usual the train was by night, we were a large group, and there were not enough places so it was uncomfortable, although enjoyable at times with some nice guessing games. The sad event was that one of us had a bag stolen while sleeping, it still reminds me to be careful when in trains. We arrived at about 5am, it was cold ! Zakopane is a highly touristic town -a good thing that people are still interested by nature-, the streets were remarkably clean, wonderful wild greenery all around, and very nice wooden buildings. We headed to our hostel to put our bags and then left for the first part of our mountain trekking.

We went to some caves, which happened to be real labyrynths, that was very exciting. The entrance is wide, clear, warm, welcoming. And then you get deeper, it becomes completely dark, wet, cold, unpredictable. You started walking, then you have to lean, then you crouch, and you end up crawling, with icy puddles of water on the gound. At a certain point you realize that you've been heading to the center of the earth for quite a long while and wonder if it wouldn't be more appropriate to go back. You only miss some rats for the scene to ressemble that in Rambo. What a pleasure. And then you perceive daylight, oh... you're finally out !

What I learned is that a phone flashlight is not enough inside a grotto, and that I would love to participate to a speleological expedition.

Later back to the hostel, I lived a memorable misadventure with a certain washing machine which happened to like my clothes so much that it didn't want to give them away in peaceful terms. By night everybody went to a fancy restaurant for dinner, and I preferred visiting the city on my own, I had a good time getting lost, finding a nice small open-air concert of folk music, and reopening a closing store to buy mountain shoes for the next day, what's more, with a personal favour discount!

Next day proper mountains, to my great surprise we were very far from being the only people to be hiking there, hundreds of others from all ages were all along the road, but happily the farther we went and the fewer they got. I was quite familiar with mountain hiking in Tunisia but there were a set of different things here, my heavy backpack to begin with (which I liked as it increased the physical effort needed to walk), and then the trees which were essentially spruces (instead of pines and eucalyptus in Tunisia), not to forget the abundance of water: lakes, streams and waterfalls. But what annoyed me was the traced paths, no place for adventures, no figuring out your way or getting lost, just nicely following the group and the track. That became a lot to bear when we arrived to the highest point of the path but not of the mountain, so with a few courageous members of the group (those who arrived first and didn't want to just wait for the others) we decided to climb to the very top. Later the organizers got angry with us when they somehow heard of that. The night fell down and we were to sleep in a shelter, but it was so much crowded that to my great pleasure many decided to take their sleeping bags and spend the night under the stars.

The next day was less enjoyable, with the walking down being more painful and the returning path endlessly long. Later in the train back to Lodz many manifested serious stomach trouble, said to be caused by drinking from the moutain water streams.

All in all it was a recourceful trip, but I would have appreciated to meet some bear or wolf.