Polish students' memories after the visit in Austria

‘When we arrived on Sunday evening in front of the school in Ybbs (from then we were picked up by our host families) I was a little nervous but when I met them I found out that they were very nice, open-minded people and I had a really good relationship. I got to know not only the parents and sister of the boy with whom I was living but also his grandparents and uncle who were also very pleasant and his friends with whom I spent a lot of time.

Austria was amazing for me but the best place which I could see was the view point at the peak of the mountain near the city in the foot of the Alps. When I was there it was dark and I faced west. To my right were the Alps, to my left Ybbs, in front of me in the horizon the lights of St. Pölten and behind me many stars and milky way (there wasn’t any light there so it was a very good view). Another beautiful place for me was Vienna especially Stephansdom church because I think it was really impressive and the view from the church tower - the panorama of Vienna, was really wonderful.                      

In Austria there is some food which we haven’t got in Poland, for example they eat broth with pancakes like chopped noodles or serviettenknödel (it’ s something liken bread dumpling). The food was really good. I think the school in Ybbs has advanced level of using new technologies and it’s a nice place to study .In Austria they have good public transport, the new trains travel at 230 km/h, only the underground was crowded but I think public transport was very efficient, well organized and useful.

I think cooperation with other students was really good. Firstly, everybody was afraid about to meet some new people from different countries but when we better knew each other we started having good relationship with them. When we had workshops, we worked with people from the project and I think cooperation was really good. We switched to English and it wasn’t a problem.’

Daniel Karpinski

‘The visit in Austria was very interesting. My hosts were hospitable and nice. I felt like at home. We saw a lot of cool places like Vienna, Linz, Ybbs. I think that the best of all was Vienna. It's a very old but beautiful city with very interesting history. The Stephan’s Dome is amazing. It's a gothic church – he symbol of Vienna. The food in Austria is different from what we have in Poland, so we tasted many new flavors. Due to the fact that we were there before Christmas, we had a chance to try different kinds of cookies. In Austria they are very fond of the traditional Christmas cookies. We tasted typical dishes such as Fritattensuppe (chicken soup with noodles cut from pancake) and Wienerschnitzel (Wiener Schnitzel)

The school in Ybbs is great! He people are cheerful and nice. We met two students who were born in Poland but later they moved to Austria. Now, they are learning in Ybbs school.                           

We were getting to know each other all the time. We spoke a lot with each other and we met a lot of new people from various countries. I think that our workshops were very successful. Thanks to this meeting, we had a chance to improve our English skills. Many thanks to the organizers for this chance! Thank you to Elnara, with whom I lived for a week. She is a cheerful and very interesting person. I learned from her many interesting things about the culture and traditions of Austria. I hope we will stay in touch.

We will remember this meeting for a long time.’

Aneta Ernest

‘My host family was friendly and nice to me. Michael was helping me with everything, like giving food and helping with organization (he woke me up on the first day). I felt great atmosphere there,   I thought that I'd be nervous all the time, but this wasn't the case here. For example, Michael’s mother asked me to show her where I am from (she gave me a map of Poland to do this). That was really fun.                  

The places I liked the most were Time Travel exhibition in Vienna and also the whole palace there. I like to see the past times, see things that present centuries of history, so you can feel it. And Vienna is the city which fulfils this requirement of mine.

The food was good. I can be really annoying when it comes to eating, because there are a lot of things I wouldn't eat. But the food there was delicious! (Most of it. There was just one soup that I didn't enjoy). Dumplings were the best, then pizza, then cornflakes (that I had at the host's house).

The integration in my group was fine but it could have been better for me. I mean, I got to know a few people, but the tasks that were given to us could have required more teamwork. We were really integrating when we were talking about culture differences.’

Mateusz Zugaj