Poland's cozy cold
Last December I made my first trip ever to a new country: Poland. This was also my first time taking a flight and my first time taking vacations after I started working as a developer. I decided to go alone on a trip to the city of Poznan, capital of the Greater Poland.
Why Poland?
When I say I want to visit Poland, this is the first question I get from almost every Pole I've talked to: "Whyyy?". Sometimes I feel like Poles imply that their country is neither a beautiful nor an interesting place to visit compared to the rest of the world, or to the rest of Europe, which of course isn't true.
As a nerd, my first interest in Poland sparked when I started playing The Witcher games. I was amazed at how different the first game felt compared to your average fantasy RPG. Sure it's still some kind of European medieval fantasy game, but the monsters, the story, and the whole mood of the game feel like a breath of fresh air. I had to figure out where this game came from!
After getting to know more about the origins of the game, and a bit about the history of Poland, I became so interested in getting to know this place even better. I started planning on visiting this country for my first vacations, which would be around December holidays so I could stay there as long as I could without having to quit my job. I waited for a year, during which I finally got to study the Polish language seriously. Although some of the words in Polish can look intimidating, like "chrząszcz", it's a rather easy language to pronounce for someone from Mexico, since most of the letters have equivalent sounds in spanish, you just have to get used to pronouncing a bunch of consonants together. After almost a year of self study and a couple of months aided by my Polish teacher, I was able to handle simple and slow conversations, nothing too fancy, but something that would help me get out of trouble and connect with a few people.
If I were to repeat this trip with my current level of Polish, I would feel more afraid than I felt before. I seriously overestimated my Polish proficiency, thinking that I would be able to understand every single word that came out of native speakers. I was not expecting to not understand people talking around me!
Getting to know the winter
As someone from a tropical birthplace, I had never really experienced a classic movie-like winter season, those ones where the trees die, the clouds are always covering the sun, and the cold can kill you if you don't wear the appropiate clothes. In my city, winter usually looks like a cool and dry summer which might sound crazy for people who live far from the equator.
After almost 20 hours of traveling, I finally arrived to Poland. The first time I heard Polish I felt happy, as if I was at home. I had been hearing people talking in german for about 18 hours, and I don't know german at all. However, as I started hearing this first Polish conversation, I also started panicking a bit when I noticed I only understood around 20% of what people were saying, maybe even less! I instantly knew I could have some issues using a service, asking for food, or just trying to chat with Poles.
When I arrived to the airport, I saw this grey cold winter weather I've never seen before. It was something exciting, yet also daunting. Everything was so new to me, and I felt like I was a child who got lost. Also, the airport was lonely, and a bit dark since not all the lights were turned on, it was a quiet time for tourism. No familiar faces, no native languages, everyone was so tall and white! Not that there aren't any tall or white people in Mexico, it's just that it was the fist time I didn't really fit among the crowd.
It's true I could have been more comfortable going to almost anywhere else in Mexico, and even more comfortable if I just stayed at home playing games from my bed all day long. I knew I wasn't going to feel comfortable, but I wasn't sure what to expect from traveling abroad either.
So then I stayed at a hostel, expecting to make new friends who would share with me a lot of interesting stories about how they travel around the world and what they like about Poland. Silly me, as I mentioned this was a quiet season for tourism and I could barely talk with Poles, ha! For the most part I stayed alone in a bedroom for six people. The first night was so cold, and I had no idea how warmers worked so I didn't bother to turn them on (Yeah, I can be that stupid). The first day I met an cool Ukrainian guy, and we talked for a while in English and then he went on his way to Ukraine to visit his family for New Year's Eve.
The next day, I started feeling sick, jetlag hit me pretty hard and amplified my anxiety, I just didn't have the energy to get up from bed and start walking around the city. The sunset happened around 3:30pm and it was too cold outside, so I felt like sleeping a lot for the first three days of my vacations, what a waste. Also I started having this weird feeling about being "no one" outside of Mexico, as if my enviroment dictated who I was.
At the hostel, I met a Peruvian guy that just moved from Spain to Poland and enjoyed to spend his free nights at Poznan, and an old Polish guy who tried to flirt with me and complimented my brown skin for the first time, haha I didn't know I was so exotic!
Then I moved out of the hostel and stayed at a hotel for the rest of my stay. On the way to the hotel I felt a bit misserable, I felt like I was wasting my vacations, in the same fashion as I felt about wasting my free time in Mexico. I had been sick with a flu and sleeping almost all day long, going out to get to know the old town just ocassionally. I started missing my family, my friends and being in a place where I would have no stress communicating with people.
Getting used to a new environment
At the hotel I got used to the hour difference and things started to look brighter for me. The breakfast at the hotel was nice, practiced talking Polish with some random people, and I got to know Poznan better. Also I met a guy from Mexico who was on vacations too, he was visiting his sister who already lived in Poland. We went out to eat some pierogi, meet a Polish friend of his, and I got to talk plenty of spanish. In the following days I would meet with my best Polish friend with whom I had been talking for almost a year now. Around this time my anxiety started to drop and something clicked on my head; I'm just the same old me, and maybe even a more interesting and well-rested version of me in Poland and wherever I go.
During my stay I got to know even more of the city, like several plazas, some parks, churches, a lovely neighborhood next to an island surrounded by two rivers. This would eventually lead to me getting used to Poznan and having the best time I've had in more than two years. Poznan is a beautiful city, so much different than cities in Mexico, and I kind of fell in love with it even if it was in such a grey season. Poznan has big old buildings full of history, amazingly wide roadwalks, bycicle roads, a lot of trees, great parks, two beautiful wide rivers, amazing churches, and many other things I didn't have the time to discover.
From a western perspective Poles are often described as cold, which is unfair since they're gentle and hospitable people, and as warm as anyone else in Mexico once you get to know them better. It's true that they seem to be more introvert than Mexicans, however, I'm an introvert! So I felt just like at home.
I really liked this place, and sadly I had to go back to Mexico. I said goodbye and came back to my dear country after almost 15 days of vacations. My neck and back pains went away, I had rested really well and I kind of forgot how stressed and anxious I could feel on a daily basis. After all, even if I had a bit of a hard time at the beginning, I miss Poland so much, and I want to go back and get to know the rest of the cities I couldn't visit like Cracow, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Lublin and Warsaw. Whenver I talk about Poland I have this nostalgic feeling and reminisce about good memories. The next time I visit Poland, I might go back during a sunnier weather to be able to stay longer on the outside and see all the beautiful natural landscapes Poland has to offer.
I recommend visiting Poland a lot, especially if you haven't been to Europe yet, however, I need to advice you to get to know a bit of the language before going and having a well defined vacation plan. Athough most people speak english, some others don't, especially older generations. If it's your first time travelling, be prepared to experience some new feelings, both good and bad. If you're struggling getting used to a new culture, remember that everything will be OK and we can all adapt to social changes, you'll eventually grow from the experience. Do zobaczenia, Polska :)!