The third meeting: Wroclaw

Friday I stepped outside at seven in the morning, ready for my ten-hour journey to Wroclaw! The one thing I did forget on this trip was my phone, I was wrapped up in getting out the door to see my friends that I forgot it in my room. That made for an extra long train ride, but Olivia and I passed the time talking and snoozing until we arrived in Wroclaw.

Friday/Piątek:

I arrived at the Wroclaw train station at 5:00 and we walked to our hostel, from there we were taken into the old town to meet the rest of our group. The Christmas market was this weekend so the whole square was lit up, I wasn't able to look around a lot because I was late getting there. I was nice to see everyone and have felt so Christmasy at the same time :)  All 70 of us squeezed into a Pizza Hut for dinner before we headed to a university athletic center for some team games. 

Saturday/Sobota:

We had a quick breakfast and hopped on a coach bus, we had an hour plus drive through the flat farmlands to get to Książa castle.  It was very cold, all 65 of us were tightly bundled as we were split into groups for a tour of yet another castle. I was (strangely) getting a little tired of seeing the same castle in every town we went to. I know that that is a crazy thought! I'm very lucky to be seeing all these cool places, they seem to look the same and they often have similar histories. Our tour guide was great though! As we got further into the castle and into the warmth I was more interested. This castle had belonged to a very rich Duke and there was some juicy gossip about the family! All the rooms were decorated in extravagant ways, everything was symmetrical too. It was really cool. The castle was not in its' original state because it was taken over by Nazis and then later by Russia. 

After the castle visit, we had about half an hour to walk through a botanical garden! We had fun chatting and wandering around the greenhouse :) Finally, the bus delivered us to a warm restaurant, as soon as we were served we wolfed down the chicken, vegetables, and RICE (!!!!!) We were rushed out shortly after for a snowy walk! Little flakes of sparkly snow were falling, everyone was full and happy! 

To end a busy day, we had a Christmas Eve service with the rotary club. We were ushered into a big room for the meeting, there were some announcements and then some of the kids sang Christmas carols! The bigger cities that had more kids had prepared songs in Polish and Spanish and English, it was great to see everyone in the Christmas spirit :) 

At some point later in the night, once most of the Rotarians had left, someone put on some dancing music. Because the group is mainly from Mexico and Brazil, we played Latin music, which in my opinion is the best to dance to! There was so much energy and everyone was just so happy to be together after not seeing each other for months. 

Sunday/Niedziela:

Sunday was my favorite day, once again we got up early and headed out for the day! First, we were going to see the panorama, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, we walked up through a dark hallway (everyone was instructed to be quiet), at the end of the hallway we appeared in a circular room. There was a canvas wrapped around the entire room portraying a detailed picture of the Battle of Racławice. We listened to some of the history of it and looked around at the different parts of the artwork. Our next stop was the zoo!! We made a quick stop at Starbucks on the way, the 65 of us lined up to order something warm, the baristas were all smiles while we chattered away :) After our coffee break we continued our walk to the zoo and check out the aquarium there. After lunch/dinner at the zoo, we were set loose to explore it on our own. 

After our free time, we came back to where we ate and we had a test. I had been preparing for the test in the previous weeks and was not too stressed until I found out that they were only giving us about 15 minutes to complete the four-page test. I still have not received my score but after talking to the other students I think I did OK. 

To wrap up the weekend we went to a hydro museum, it was great, very interactive and we learned some interesting things about different ships in Poland, snow and how it works, the different creatures in the deep waters of the ocean. There was a wide range of information!! 

Going back to the hostel we were all a little reluctant, the next morning we all had to get on our trains and go back to our cities. It was especially sad because we won't all be together again until March. There is also a student from Australia that is going home next month because of the different school year there. As sad as I was to go home, I was exhausted and looking forward to being back in my bed! 

A quick side note! As some of you have already heard, I have cut my hair!! I was very excited to do something new and a little crazy!! I figured I could show it off here :)