Kraków: Travel guide, prices and free housing · 2026

DIDaniyal Issatayevisatayev03 · Dec 17, 2022Read

Question 1. Exchange programs are a wonderful opportunity for young and not only young people who have plenty of energy and desire but little money. Also, exchange programs are most often carried out between universities; by the way, thanks to one of such programs, I flew to Europe last year for one semester. Question 2. Speaking of my experience, I noticed that I had a lot of embarrassments related to European trains and you will read about one of them. It happened last year, I was an exchange student in Poland, in the far west of the country. My acquaintance and I set off for the eastern town of Auschwitz to go on a tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp — yes, our interests were rather specific. The trip there itself, which took 9 long hours on a train with seated places, took a toll on the health of my backside. The tour went fine, if one can properly phrase such a thing about a concentration camp… The problems began on the way back: we arrived at the Auschwitz station 40 minutes before the train's arrival; by the way, their station looked like it was from a horror movie. The needed time had long come, but our train still hadn't arrived; after 15 minutes of waiting, I began looking for station staff. After 10 minutes of searching, we ran into one controller; he explained to us that there was an error in the system and that in fact we had bought tickets for a bus (although the ticket said train). He said that in an hour there would be a second train and we could go for free, if we wanted of course — we had no choice... At that moment I hated Polish trains and their whole transport system, but there was nowhere to go, and I definitely did not want to spend the night in that town. For an hour we, two Kazakhs in a town that looked like Silent Hill at night, sat and tried to entertain ourselves; we also met a very strange Pole who looked like a cartoon character. I still remember that cold platform, where each minute felt like an hour. But nothing is forever and our train finally arrived. Now we hoped that we would not miss the second train from Kraków to Bydgoszcz (our town). As you might have guessed, we were late. We had to buy new tickets for two separate trains to get to our town. And so after two transfers and 14 hours on the road, again in seated places, we finally reached our dormitory. I have never missed my dorm so much. It's a pity I couldn't sleep properly, because the next day I had a flight to Barcelona, but that's another story. Question 3. After I returned to Kazakhstan, or rather, when my foot touched the ground of my native city, Uralsk, the first thought that came to my mind was: "I want to go to the USA." The logic was like this: "I was in Europe, now I need to conquer America." If we speak of the real reasons, I understood that my city is too small for me, and besides, while I'm still young in some ways, I want to see, visit, touch, try and feel. My choice fell on "Work and Travel", because it's one thing to travel for 2–3 weeks as a tourist, but quite another when you, even for 3 months, become a part of that country, absorb its culture, make new acquaintances, go through culture shock and get used to it. I am a person who grew up on American TV shows on “Disney” and “Nickelodeon” (shout-out to fans of "Big Time Rush") and this program will fulfill my dream of living in the USA, seeing those American suburbs (where, in TV shows, murders most often happen), playing rugby wearing those huge "pads", visiting the best city in the world, New York. Question 4. During Work and Travel I primarily hope to see and feel all the beauty of the United States of America, as you read above, this is the dream of the teenager inside me. Also, as an English teacher I want to improve my language, make good friends. And of course, earn a sufficient amount of money and bring my family gifts from America (classically, new model iPhones). Also, I have one small goal: to show the merits of my people by my own example, to be, so