Written by: Cedric Reese
Picture credit: Wix
Well it’s taken me over two months, but I’ve finally worked up the courage to write this final blog. I have to say I went from a wonderful dream to a complete nightmare. I was having such a wonderful time in Poland, I still can’t believe it just ended. For the past two months I’ve just been bored and depressed. Sad about all the places I did not get to visit, all the food I wasn’t able to eat, and all the people I won’t see again. I’ve been in denial about all this, thinking its just a bad dream, but I’ve finally come to accept that it’s all over.
Right before everything ended I had visited the Czech city of Brno, I had gone there because one of my friends had recommended it. It was a wonderful city with lots to see. The first day I was there it was rainy and cold but the second day it was bright and sunny. I spent a lot of my time there wandering the city and visiting the landmarks. I saw several beautiful churches, I spent a whole afternoon in their awesome castle, I went to a Soviet era fallout shelter that was awesome to see, and I went to see the city catacombs. Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend one of my last weekends abroad.
The week everything ended was surreal. First, classes at our university were suspended until mid-April. At this point we were all in denial. We began to make plans to travel a lot since we’d all have a lot of free times on our hands. It’s funny thinking back now how we thought we were lucky to have classes cancelled but everything was still fine enough to go visit. Around the day that classes were announced to be canceled, one of our group members was called back to the states by his university. We were all going to throw him a big going away party and then it happened to me. I got an email saying I had to go home. Suffice to say that I started yelling and screaming as I couldn’t believe this was all happening. Other people were starting to be called back, while others kept thinking that they would be fine and be able to stay. Then things got worse.
The Polish government announced that they were shutting down the country and canceling flights that Sunday. For the first few hours we were all confused as to what was going on as the translation was oddly worried. None of us were sure that we were going to be able to leave. That weekend I was supposed to spend with the sweetheart I met in Poland. We both decided that we would be fine and we went to the other side of Krakow to spend a quiet weekend that we had planned before all this happened. Well it finally became clear that most flights would indeed be cancelled and almost everyone rushed to get back home that night. My sweetheart and I stayed, hoping we could still find a way out. It was a very quiet weekend. Walking around the main square with hardly anyone there and with everything closed was surreal. I just couldn’t really grasp that this was all happening.
About Sunday afternoon, I suddenly lose my cool and freak out about leaving while looking at Krakow airport website; almost all flights were being canceled. The couple of us that remained tried to formulate a plan to leave. We thought of taking a bus to Berlin, but that would take over thirty hours! I called several airlines and re-booked over and over trying to find a way out. Three of the other people who remained took a super expensive flight to leave, leaving only me and my sweetheart as the only Americans left. We were both concerned about money, so we choose to still wait another day, finally getting a flight for that Wednesday. We were originally going to leave Thursday, but I panicked and had it moved up a day. It’s a good thing I did because I would later learn that Thursday’s flight was cancelled!
Our flight was at 10:00, however we arrived at the airport super early to make sure that everything would go right. At the airport they wouldn’t even let people in without boarding passes. I had trouble checking in online, so I didn’t have a boarding pass yet! Luckily, when I showed them my receipt, they let me in! There were no checkout desks open so for two hours we sat and waited, hoping everything would go well. When the check-in desk finally opened, I was the first one in line! Everything after that was smooth sailing. When we arrived at Amsterdam’s airport, I could not believe how empty it felt. Everything was closed, including most restaurants! We hadn’t had lunch on the plane, and we were both starving! We had to resort to eating a bag of chips for lunch as there wasn’t much else. When we got to New York, I was surprised how lax security was. They only took our temperatures and had us go through immigration. We did not actually go through security even though we had come on an international flight! I had to stay overnight in New York, but I was able to make it home safely the next day.
I’d rather not burden you with the details, but my sweetheart and I had a falling out a month afterwards that really hurt me. The stress of the virus combined with us living in different parts of the country was just too much. This has made it hard to think about my time abroad as a big part of my later experience involved her. But its not just that, I’ve been sad in general that we weren’t able to all say goodbye to each other as a group. This whole situation is terrible, and I can’t believe it happened now of all times. I feel like if it hadn’t happened while I was abroad, it wouldn’t have impacted me in such a profound way.
I feel like I’ve learned and grown a lot over these past few months. When I was in Poland, I was finally able to come out of my shell. It was truly the experience of a lifetime and I’m devastated that it ended early. I feel worse about all the people around the world negatively affected by this virus. At least me and my family are in good health with a stable income. Many are not as fortunate as I. I really don’t know what to think. I’m thankful for the time I was able to have, but I also feel cheated. Like a whole part of my life was stolen from me.
In the end its not the destination but the journey, and this has been quite the journey. From total joy to complete depression. This trip has most definitely changed me, and for the time being, it still hurts thinking about it. I hope that one day I will be able to look back on this trip and only have happy thoughts. Until then, I wish you all luck for your future. Thank you for reading, it feels good to put my thoughts onto paper.
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