I recently went on a weekend trip to Poland with my roommate and a group of friends from my school. Normally when I go on trips, I need to know exactly what I’m going to be doing at every minute. I usually like to book preplanned trips because I tend to get a little stressed when it comes to planning. I want to ensure that everything goes smoothly so I worry too much. When I was booking my transportation, I couldn’t decide between taking a train or flying. My roommate leaned towards flying but I didn’t have a preference. We decided to do some research and decided that flying was the best option for us. We also planned our housing together but I was getting a little stressed because it was so last minute. I’m a worrier but my roommate would constantly tell me that everything was going to be fine.
I usually like to go to the airport a couple of hours in advance, just in case I get lost or something happens. My roommate didn’t want to go too early. Eventually, we both decided that going two hours in advance was fine; we made it to the airport with time to spare. We didn’t get lost either because we looked over the map and figured it out together.
When we arrived in Poland, we met up with the girls in our accommodation. We all wanted to get dinner but didn’t know where to go. We decided to look online and found an authentic Polish restaurant. Normally I don’t like to try new foods out of fear that I won’t like it but the girls seemed pretty set on going. So, I decided to compromise and try something new. I ended up ordering pierogis and I actually thought they were delicious.
On our second day, we all had an idea of the sights that we wanted to see in the city. But we didn’t have a set itinerary. We all got on our phones to look at the map and decided to start with whatever sight was closer and work our way up. On the way to our destination, if one of us saw something they wanted to see, we would all go together and then we would go on to the next destination. Because of this, we stumbled across a nice restaurant. We all loved the atmosphere so we decided to go there for dinner. We wouldn’t have found it if we didn’t decide to go off the beaten path.
It was a very different way of traveling for me because I’m used to solo-traveling and doing my own thing. I like to follow an itinerary and have everything set in stone for me. But I really enjoyed traveling with my friends. I usually rush when I’m in a new place because I want to see everything; but traveling with them helped me realize that it’s okay to take my time and to appreciate the sights in front of me.
