Poland!

This past week I had my first ever experience in Poland. My initial impression of Wroclaw was completely overwhelming. After spending so much time in Tartu, I had become pretty accustomed to the small-town feel. I can basically walk out of my dorm, turn right, walk for about 5 minutes or so and be at the central buildings of our university and the town square. I knew that Wroclaw was not huge, but a fairly big city compared to Tartu, but I wasn't quite prepared for the many trams, buses, people, and towering buildings.
We managed to find our way from the airport to our hostel, but only with a lot of help. I immediately fell in love with the Polish people. We met so many who were cheerfully willing to go out of their way to help us find where we were going. I noticed, too, that they were much more open than Estonians. Which is not a surprise given how introverted Estonians are compared to many people groups. But after becoming accustomed to this social norm I had strangely almost forgotten what a more open was like. In the way that the people in Wroclaw interacted with each other, it reminded me a little of America.
When we finally found the university campus and met up with the other UNCG students, they took us exploring through the city. It was a relief to finally be with someone who knew their way around. We visited a couple of the many churches in Wroclaw, which took on a looming ambiance in the night and gave quite daunting effect. I enjoyed walking through the cobblestone streets and grass without worrying about ice or snow. This was definitely a change from our white-blanketed Tartu.
After a while of being tourists, food was definitely next on the list. I really enjoyed Polish food, and the low prices! My favorite food there was, of course, pierogies. I also enjoyed the thousands of coffee shops. Here in Tartu we don't really have coffee shops, just small cafes that. Coffee shops are the go-to location for college students, I feel, and I hadn't realized how much I had missed one.
One of my favorite things about Wroclaw was all of the little gnomes hidden around the city. As cheesy as it may seem, it was fun to hunt for them and take pictures of the comical little scenes they each played out. We also had the chance to climb the tower of one of the churches and look out over the whole city. That was a breath-taking surprise and one of my favorite moments.
One random thing I noticed that was different between Wroclaw and Tartu was that in Tartu, I have not really noticed people smoking. Of course they do, but not in or close to public places like restaurants. I did notice our first night in Wroclaw that while we went from place to place looking for an open table (which is definitely another difference from Tartu), there were people smoking inside almost every place we went to.
I'm sure I'm forgetting so much to talk about, as there are so many new things to take in in a new location and culture. I did enjoy my time in Poland very much over all, although I think I hold a fondness for Tartu and was very happy to return.