Finding my Nature in Warsaw

My god, what an experience it was to live in this city!

I remember the time when I got the news that I was going on an Erasmus in Warsaw. I trembled; the thought of leaving my dear Lisbon, with all my friends, family, habits... made me fear to lose them all!

«Should I go? Should I stay? », these were my thoughts. I ended up going. Afterall it was the chance of a lifetime, and I knew I could not refuse it.

Second semester would be the semester of a lifetime, so I spent the rest of the first semester finishing all my courses and subjects, and then going out and being drunk with every friend that I loved and was going to miss while I was out of the country - around two weeks drunk!

So those two weeks passed, I got drunk every night, I got sick, I was prescriptioned with antibiotics, and I left for Warsaw.

I arrived with a swollen thorat to an ugly, cold and cloudy city. I could not drink the first few nights, but boy I remember the feeling of that first night... being alone in another country without my friends.

Yet, the light entered through the cracks of my soul, and the best semester of my life began.

I found a home and people to share it with. I made friends at Uni, in the streets, in the clubs, in the gym, everywhere. Everything was new, Warsaw was amazingly beautiful and the weather even turned better than in my home country. The people were warming and kind. Women looked at me in a way I have missed for a long time. I fell in love, with all.

The semester passed, I saw it running through my fingers, I could not grab it, it was always moving. Friends started to leave, classes ended, goodbyes started, and farewell O' my Warsaw, I am also leaving too.

And I left, with something missing inside me. This something was the best time in my life, a time with less prejudices and worries that I had in my whole 21 years of life. A time of freedom.

Now, I try to go back to that place, which I have discovered after many months of reflection, that lies not in Warsaw and not in Lisbon, but in my heart.