23.6.2022. Poland, the fifth day of mobility

On the fifth day of the mobility, each participant received a certificate of participation handed to us by Justyna.

Then, accompanied by a guide, we went to the seaside town of Kolobrzeg, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. A colleague who teaches English, Mariusz, provided us with translation support, with a lot of humor, so that the stories in the localities we visited became much more entertaining. For example, behind the red brick building there is a place that in ancient times served as a gallows hill. Executions were carried out by an executioner who was well paid, but he was not allowed to live in the city but outside the walls, and he was only allowed to marry another executioner's daughter. The former mayor was even executed at that place, his skull was built into the wall, and then the belief arose that whoever touches that spot in the wall should make a wish that will come true. After that, we passed by a more recent monument, created in 2000, which represents the desire to connect the German and Polish people. We reached the cathedral where there is a huge candlestick, which survived the bombing in World War II, and whose parts were preserved by being buried in the surrounding villages and in the walls of the cathedral, so after the restoration, some masters found them and wanted to melt them, but they were bought anyway and the candlestick was reassembled. Then we visited the military museum, where we could see exhibits from weapons from the Middle Ages, to machine guns and cannons from the Second World War. There was also The Enigma, a machine for encrypting messages during the war, whose code was solved by three Poles. A part of the museum is dedicated to the ceremony of Wedding with the Sea, which symbolizes the return of the Baltic to Poland, and that ceremony was performed with soldiers in Kolobrzeg on March 18, 1945. After lunch, when we tried Borscht, a beetroot and potato soup, we went to the pier and enjoyed the view of the Baltic Sea, and then we visited the lighthouse, climbed the internal staircase to the top from where the view of the harbor, the city and the sea opens. In the basement of the lighthouse there is a museum of semi-precious stones of all colors, petrified shells and meteorites. A half-hour boat ride was then organized for us, so we enjoyed Kolobrzeg from that side like many German tourists who flood the city every year did. We managed to stop by McDonald's, and then we returned to Lobez, where it was very emotional, as many children were crying at the farewell. Since the DTS project is based on getting to know different cultures, on the way back, on the day scheduled for the trip home, we organized a visit to several sights in Berlin. The children saw the Berlin Wall (East Side Gallery open-air museum), the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building. That was like the cherry on the cake.

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