Best time of my life! Erasmus in Poland

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The people

The way you feel about a place can be strongly influenced by the people you meet there. Polish people are very friendly to foreigners, always willing to help and eager to find out more about them. I had the chance to meet both international students and locals and it was a truly unique experience. What I miss the most about Poland are the wonderful people that I've met there.

The Silesian University

I studied at the Silesian University of Sosnowiec. First of all, the building looks awesome! It is a glass building equiped with a nice bookshop where you can find books in different languages including English, French, German, Spanish and so on. You can have a snack at the cafeteria and there are many seats and sofas in the building where you can wait for your class to start.

The teachears are really nice and open minded, some of them are young and have a very friendly attitude. I really enjoyed the multidisciplinary approach and class dicussions.

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The Dormitory

I shared a 2 rooms flat in the dormitory. The apartment had 2 single rooms, a bathroom and kitchen(with fridge and stove). The room was nice, modern and clean. The price was only 120 euro/month. You could also live in a double room and the price would be even smaller.

The cost of living

Life in Poland is really cheap compared to other European coutries. I had a 300 euro scholarship and it was enough to cover the living expenses. It's true that if you want to travel and go out often you need some extra money. I used to do the shopping at Biedronka, the "superpermaket of the poor" as the Polish people call it. It was about 10 minutes away from the dormitory, it had everything I needed at a very affordable price.

Party!

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I lived at the same floor with the other international students in Sosnowiec. Almost every night we would gather in one room, drink, smoke Turkish sisha(waterpipe), talk and have a great time. One night, we were playing guitar on the corridor and the reception lady came to tell us to be quiet, and a Hungarian guy sprayed vodka on her by mistake. I heard the life in the dormitory was more crazy in Ligota, a place close to Katowice.

If you want to go out, there are nice bars, cafe's and clubs. The student club Gdziekolwiek is one minute away from the dormitory and the athmosphere is great! In Sosnowiec I also went many times to Inferno club which is in the city centre.

You will find more pubs and clubs in Katowice. There is night trolleybus which goes from Katowice to sosnowiec about every one hour. The Carpe Diem pub was my favourite place. It was more of a rock pub with motorcycles everywhere but they also had a dancefloor with dance music, especially oldies. I don't remember the names, but there are many cozy places where you can just go and have a coffee or a hot beer. Yes, a hot beer! It's delicious if it's prepared the right way!

Travel

Shame on me, I didn't travel much around Poland. There was a erasmus trip at the moutains and to the salt mine WIelicka which was nice. Cracow is really beautiful and not very far from Katowice. Wraclaw is also a nice city, not very far. I heard Zakopane region in the mountain is great but never made it there.

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Even if i didn't travel much in Poland, I did visit other coutries during my stay there. I went to Chech Republic, Hungary, Denmark and Sweden in my 5 months abroad.

It is really cheap to go to Prague, Vienna or Budapesta by car if you split the money for gas so I really reccomend you to do so!