Lodz FAQs

Hello!

Before reading my post about what is probably your next Erasmus destination, click here for more detailed information for those who feel a little bit lost and want everything to go well with their studies.

Both of these posts are still being written, so any doubts or suggestions, let me know and I'll be more than delighted.

What's it like living in Lodz? Would you recommend it? What do you think of the city?

To answer the question of what it's like living in Lodz, you have to bear in mind that I lived in Lodz as an Erasmus student, so I have no idea what it's like to live there for work or other reasons. Living in Lodz for Erasmus is amazing!

And you'll ask, amazing how? Well, your only concern is making the most out of your Erasmus, and in this city you will, believe me. There's so much to do and many other Erasmus students anxious to meet you and organise an endless number of plans so you can fully enjoy your experience.

Honestly, this city is definitely not the most beautiful in Poland, if anything it's ugly, but as they say, you can tease and pick on your siblings because they're family, but when bullied by others you'll always jump to the defense of your loved ones. Lodz is like this, it's ok if my friends and I call it ugly, but if anyone who comes to visit tries saying so, it's our duty to show off the little beauty that this city has! At the end of the day, it's our Erasmus city.

Therefore, from one Erasmus to another, if you go to Lodz you can expect a city with quite peculiar architecture, to the point where you can't tell if you're living in the city or in the suburbs, where the skies are grey and it snows too, except for when it snows a lot and the city seems completely different and even pretty. My suggestion is that you don't look for any photos of Lodz on Google, to have the surprise upon arrival. Although if you really want to see photos, I've chosen three that you will see throughout this post.

Despite the surroundings not being the most beautiful that you will find, the city is full of things to do to pass the time, and if not, don't worry, there will be something happening. Although, you could travel to another Polish city for a break from the eyesore that is Lodz. Something positive is that it's very central which is useful for travelling!

I guess that, given what you've read up to this point, you already imagine that my answer to if recommend Lodz would be... yes. It's not the most beautiful city Poland has to offer, but without doubt it has the best student life in the country. Besides, what does it matter if the city is a little ugly when half of Europe is a stone's throw away?

Source

How long was your scholarship? How much grant money did you receive?

I went in the academic year of 2015/2016 and the grant was for 5 months - altohugh I went for the whole year - and I received a total of €2000 as a Mobility grant from the Spanish government and I got approx. €640 from the Galician Council (€80/month for 9 months).

Regardless, this doesn't cover all the expenses, so it's a good idea to save some money before you go if you don't want to rely on your parents' money during your stay.

How was student life in Lodz?

It's perfect. Due to not having an intense workload, the students are free to make plans and meet up with each other. Remember when you were at school and you spent every afternoon with your friends for hours on end? Yes, it will be like that!

You probably will have heard many times rumours that Erasmus students in Poland don't do anything (referring to studying in particular), and you could almost say that this is true, especially if you compare it with Spain. The system in Lodz mostly consists of doing projects and presentations (individual or in groups), rather than exams, and normally the subject matter isn't so dense or complicated. All of this, as you may guess, translates to: excellent grades, which will leave you with many envious friends in Spain telling you that they're just giving them away, and maybe they have a point. But you can't suffer doing what you love!

In addition to this, Lodz's main street Piotrkowska is full of bars, pubs, restaurants... The atmosphere in this city changes at night when it becomes full of students ready to party (especially during the Spring).

What's the cost of living in Lodz?

This is a bit of a trick question...It's not so much about how much it costs to live in Lodz, but more how you want to live. The university accommodation is very cheap and include all the bills (water, gas, Internet, electricty etc. ). Prices vary depending on the residence you get but it generally doesn't cost more than €100.

For instance, my rent was €85 a month. There was a month when I was ill and I couldn't go out much or have much of a social life outside of my bedroom, that month I spent about €140 in total but normally, I'd eat out about 4-6 times a week, we'd go out and organise trips, so I'd end up spending between €200-€400 a month, at the end it really depended on where we were travelling to. Brussels isn't the same as Budapest!

Thus, as I will have already told you hundreds of times, Poland is much cheaper than Spain.

How did you find accommodation?

The post I left a link to at the top of the post explains how to apply for the university residences and there I'll put some description of the different kinds of residence. Here I will simply provide little tips which could be useful, or not.

My first tip is don't reject the idea of living in a student flat. Yes, when you arrive at your residence you'll probably think: but what am I going to do here for X months? But relax, you'll survive and the atmosphere in a flat is much better than you'd believe. The majority of Erasmus students will also be living in these old and hideous residences, and they will loudly declare that there are content to do so. Therefore, you simply need to give it some time and try to get used to it, a good idea would be to take a trip to IKEA to make it more comfortable. It's also possible to apply for a change of residence to get a better flat - there are good and bad ones - and usually they allow it. I'm not going to carry on discussing this topic, as I only wanted to summarise my previous post. You are guaranteed to find a pleasant atmosphere in these residences and in the winter I assure you that you will be happy to not be living in a flat that is cut off from your friends.

My second tip (in case my first one doesn't apply to your situation) is that, if you're renting a flat bring a Polish person with you when you sign the contract. As you're in Poland the contract will be in Polish, in English if you're lucky, but it's better to bring a native Polish speaker with you as it's more likely that the landlord speaks "po polsku". You can find a decent flat for €150 a month.

Another option is getting a room in a private residence such as Salsa, but in this case it will cost a lot more in comparisons with the other options.

The language: Nie mówie po polsku

Surely your friends, (and especially your grandparents) have already asked you about a hundred times how will you possibly learn Polish, one of the most difficult languages in the world. Tell them to relax and yourself too, as you already suspect you don't need Polish to survive there. However, if you know a little, the basics, it will make life a lot easier.

But why? Well, because experience tells that even if they know how to speak perfect English, they might not answer you if they don't see you making even a minimal effort trying to communicate in Polish. As always there are exceptions and there are people who will be delighted to help to even if they know nothing. Most of the time, it's enough to ask nicely if they speak English which is: sheprasham, pan múvi po anguielscú? . ("Excuse me, do you speak English? "). With a little luck they'll respond yes. Ah! El "sh" de "sheprasham" is pronounced like the "sh" in "Shakira".

Anyway, the English spoken by the Polish is, in general, quite bad, so I'd suggest taking the free Polish language course offered by the university to gain what I call "Survival Polish".

How to get to Lodz

In the post I've linked at the beginning I explain this in detail. To summarise: the ideal thing is to find the cheapest combination of flights and get yourself to Warsaw (Ryanair is definitely a good airline to use), and once there catch a bus (Modlinbus) or train to Lodz.

Alternatively there are direct flights from London.

What's the food like in Poland? Where do you recommend going to eat?

Honestly, before going there I had no idea of how I'd eat or if I'd be able to cook for myself, but it was a huge surprise when I saw how well they eat and, also, how cheap.

The best place I recommend is Manekin, delicious crepes for incredible prices! But I will talk at great length about food in another post, but click here for one completely dedicated to Manekin, if you want to give it a read.

Other places to eat are Hell's Kitchen and Magic on campus, and the Vietnamese Pomorska, the most impressive prices as agreed by any Erasmus!

Any tips for future Erasmus students going to Lodz?

My suggestion to you, future Erasmus, if you go to Lodz or not, don't be afraid to leave your comfort zone.

I believe this is more than a suggestion or advice you'd give to an Erasmus student, but it's advice for any person. Yes, it's scary to leave your comfort zone and can lead to many, many insecurities, but the step you'll take is very small and with experience you'll learn and you'll see that you are capable of all that I propose to you.

Don't be nervous about the language or scared that you won't meet anybody, this is what Erasmus is for, right? To meet new people and improve your English, or at least that was the lie you told your parents when they were still a bit reluctant to let you go. And I say this as another tip, try to avoid the Spanish ghetto. The year I was there, there was a Malagan ghetto.

Of course many of you will have repeatedly told yourselves "I am doing my Erasmus and I won't hang out with Spanish people", but how many actually do this? Everyone has a different Erasmus experience, it's no better being surrounded by Spanish people or people of different nationalities. However, in my opinion, to get the most out of the experience, the best thing would be to have a multicultural group of friends from which you can learn about different languages, cultures, traditions... And get free accommodation all around the world!

Look! This doesn't mean that you should avoid Spanish people at all costs, simply that you don't close yourself off from people of other nationalities because you think that they won't understand your English or, even worse, because you can't be bothered to speak English so that they understand you.

And there isn't just a Spanish ghetto, but also Italian, French, Turkish... But there will be many people like you who don't want to spend all their time with those of their own nationality, who will be delighted to share with you the curiosities of their country and, with luck, delicious recipes which will fatten you up with a few extra pounds.