Comenius Exchange to Poland

Helen Merz, Kai Hinrichs, Matis Mühlpointner, Leon Layer, Alexander De Biase, Simon Helber and our two teachers Mrs. Sievers and Mr. Bubik took part in our exchange to Poland.

We all met at Stuttgart airport around 03:00 am. We flew to the airport of Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to our target Katowice in Poland. After our arrival in Katowice we all nicely welcomed by our exchange families and spent the rest of the day with them. On the next day we went to school and every country presented pictures and transparencies about the most popular seas and rivers in their countries. So we showed pictures of the rivers Rhine, Danube, Neckar, Lake of Constance, Baltic Sea and North Sea. Afterwards we drove to the highest point in the region by bus. We had a fantastic view over the city. There was a water reservoir which is the most important of Piekary Slaskie. Then we did some sightseeing in the city of Piekary Slaskie, saw the Basilica of St. Mary and St. Bartholomew and the historical sights. In the evening we had an international picnic at school and got a delicious dinner. There was also music, dancing and of course a lot of talking. After that most of us went to the gym and played volleyball or they did other sport activities with all participants. So we had international teams - that was really cool and funny. On Tuesday we went to Black Adit Trout in a protected area. We moved down many stairs and came to a small creek under the surface. There we took small boats. So we floated down the small creek underground. Deep down it was pretty cold. The boats took us to the place where people used to find silver. There were several caves and chambers. In one chamber there was a lake. After the trip through the silver mine we went to a local bread museum. Inside the museum we learnt much about the production of bread and could even bake different kinds of bread ourselves with traditional equipment. On Wednesday we had the opportunity of buying souvenirs. We drove to a real big and new shopping mall in Katowice, the capital of Upper Silesia. We found out that the names of fast food restaurants or shopping centers are very familiar to Germans. There are the same brands and products as in German shopping malls. The rest of the day we spent some time in the stores and bought something to wear or we were just looking around and having a talk to our friends. The next day we drove to Cracow. We started our city tour in the historical center with churches and old buildings. In Cracow we visited a very interesting museum about the time of Hitler’s regime in Poland. That museum was called Schindler´s List. It showed pictures, texts and multimedia presentations on the bad living conditions of the Jewish population from 1933 to 1945. It showed the cruelty of the Nazi regime and the deportation and of thousands of Jews. Mr. Schindler managed to save many Jews from deportation to concentration camps and gave them work in his factory. It was really impressing and shocking at the same time. The city of Cracow was really interesting, special and magnificent. On the last day, we all moved to the airport at 12:00 o´clock. But before at school there was a sports day with a little lunch. If we get the chance to travel again to Poland then I think we all will take that chance because the people were very nice and Poland has a wonderful landscape.