My trip to Wroclaw

As I have posted in a previous entry, I went to Wroclaw last November. But first, I must explain the reason why I went to this polish city.

During the last semester of my bachelor's degree in Tourism, we had to make a thesis. The same year, the city in which I was studying, San Sebastian, was the European Capital of Culture in 2016. Therefore, the organizers of this event in the city launched a contest in which they would give a prize to the best bachelor thesis presented. Then, I decided to focus my thesis in this event and I carried out an investigation in order to take part in that contest.

Here I attach the abstract of my thesis for you to see what I researched:

"This investigation has been developed during an once-in-a-lifetime event in Donostia/San Sebastian, the status of the Cultural Capital of Europe. This study wants to show if some of the main standards of these events are accomplished from the point of view of a continuous improvement and development. Event’s studies have always been achieved through a quantitative viewpoint, analyzing the impacts from the economic development and the citizen participation has been always observed form the electoral point of view. Nevertheless, this study offers an intangible perspective of analysis of the events. The investigation has been experimental and it is divided in two parts, the cultural impact and citizen participation, which are made up by 10 variables and 23 items. 494 people have been the sample and all of those are citizens from Donostia/ San Sebastian. Materials such as SPSS have been used to be able to match all the results and arrive to some conclusions that have had several disparities in one fraction, and a clear tendency in the other, which shows the need of future changes and rethinking of the project. The probe comes across with a time limitation, as the event lasts until the end of the year and everything can change until that time arrives.

I was very satisfied with my work and I knew I could get the prize. I actually had a 10/10 at University with the honour mention. However, I was not able to know if I was the winner until the 20th of October. And in fact, in that beautiful day in which I was notified to be a winner of another prize, they also told me I was he winner of the Capital Cultural's best thesis contest!

The prize of the contest were 2000€ but there was a condition: to travel to the other Capital of Culture, Wroclaw, Poland. And that's what I did! I spoke with the organization of Wroclaw 2016 and they told me to come from the 25th to the 30th, but as I had spare time in Sweden, I decided to go from the 23rd of november till the 1st of december.

During the trip, I was in Wroclaw for almost an entire week. I flew from Skavsta to Warsaw and the to Wroclaw. There in the city, I was able to visit it, as well as going to the official office of Wroclaw 2016 and attending different conferences covering diverse topics related to the city. I also went shopping. I was staying in an amazing hotel that was five minutes away from the main square the breakfast was included and they even had massage services and I took advantage of it; ).

Moreover, I wanted to travel around and go to the capital and Auschwitz. I know it is a very dark place, but I wanted to go there to really see the horrible conditions and cold in which those people were living. It was extremely sad and cold. I couldn't imagine how all that people could live in those extreme conditions with extreme temperatures and humidity. But there was something that shocked me a lot. There were lot of houses in front of the concentration camps; I really couldn't get how these people can live in front of a place where horrendous things have happened... but well, that is my personal opinion.

On my last two days in Poland, I first flew to Warsaw and I spent a night there. The hotel in which I spent that night was super cool. I was in one of the top floors and I had the view to the Palace of Culture and Science. I just spent an afternoon there but I was able to see the main attractions of the city. I really liked it there in Poland, but I must say that I liked Wroclaw much more than Warsaw. In my previous visit to Poland, I went to Poznán and I also think that the small city was much more beautiful than the capital city.

I recommend Wroclaw and Poland in general to anyone willing to visit Europe. It is cheap, flights are very cheap (from Norway and Sweden, they cost something around 10€ go and back), the culture is very rich and there are many things to see. Don't wait and book your flight!