After a tough day yesterday - staying in a nice hotel and visiting the Eiffel Tower - we had an early wakeup to head to the airport. We all had low expectations, but were filled with curiosity and ambiguity.
It hasn’t taken us long to discover that nothing in Europe works. From inefficient airports to broken planes - once again with low expectations we began our long wait to eventually board our flight to Warsaw.
I’m writing this now, from 38,000ft. in the air, surrounded by a full plane of angry Europeans - mostly like us - running 24 hours late. What we had missed in Poland was made up for in Paris, and now we are all excited to embark on what will arguably be one of the most emotionally and physically moving experiences of our lives.
Upon arrival, at what was supposedly an airport, we discovered how difficult it was to cram 80 kids into a bus that transported us from the tarmac to customs. After making it through customs, we made our way to the buses where we ate our lunch and where we anxiously waited to begin our journey through Poland.
After half an hour on the bus, we disembarked and began our tour through the Jewish cemetery of Warsaw. It was both educational and meaningful to experience and discover the lives lost throughout the war and made us all realise how lucky we are to travel on this journey of a lifetime.
After boarding the bus again, we made the 10 minute journey to the Warsaw Ghetto. Here we were surrounded by our Jewish heritage; a place where we all felt reconnected and rekindled to our history.
I am now writing this from our hotel in Lublin, where we are all jet-lagged and ready for what the next day brings us.