No plans for holiday? Switch your apartment!

Very common way of spending summer is exchange houses. People from totally contrasting countries and culture, are meeting at Internet and decide to live for few weeks in each other flats. Usually, they don’t know destinate city at all, they don’t know the language, but often colleagues of host are helping with adaptation. This way of travel is mainly popular in Esperanto circles, then speaking barrier is not a problem. Two students of this language, Paweł from Szczecin and Salman from Istanbul exchange their apartments. Let’s read what each one has to say about staying for 2 weeks in exactly different culture.

Salman’s story

My name is Salman, I’m thirty-four years old, and I live in Istanbul, Turkey. I was staying at Pawel’s house for two weeks, and it was my first trip to Poland. First, when I came, I was astonished about the weather, it was very calm evening in July, and I was prepare to wear sweater. I land at Gdansk’s airport and then I take a train to Szczecin. I was a little worried about reaction on my skin color, I was hearing few worrisome stories about intolerance of Polish inhabitants, but it was okay. Two friends of Pawel pick me up from main railway stop , and they assured me to take care of me in time of my visit. They also known Esperanto, and very good English, so talks were easy. Second day, at the morning, I ate some polish breakfast, cooked for my by Pawel’s roommate. It was nice but very oily – huge pieceof scrambled eggs with ham and a lot of onion, dressed with white bread and butter. Later, I went to old town to see some of heritages (lot.com/us/en/dreamliner-787). I like European architecture, it so disparate then Arabic one. Szczecin has many of building constructed in 19th century, few Middle-Aged and Gothic churches and lovely parks and squares. The most I loved post office structure, it looks the same as one of Harry Potter movie. Rest of my holiday I spend driving along seacoast, eating local cuisine, meeting new, mostly friendly people. I very like my stay in Poland.

Pawel’s story

Hi, my name is Pawel, I’m from Szczecin, I am 30 years old. I was visiting for two weeks in Istanbul, in house of my colleague, which I met at Esperanto convention. I was really exited about my journey, I heard that Turkey is very fascinating country. I was living in large, cozyapartment in the middle of old town. I was watching morning crowd, while eating breakfast at balcony. I was charmed by Istanbul. It is really adorable city, with fascinating history, and very chummy people (find out more). First week I spend discovering the city, not just old town with heritages, and spectacular Arabic buildings, but also city center with tallest skyscrapers I have ever seen.

I stayed two days at one of local beaches, and it was to much people, but the weather was gorgeous. Second week I was driving with my backpack trough some small towns, knowing about culture, customs and language of citizens. It was very significant experience for me.

Switching apartments during holidays is a great deal, but only for courages ones. Some travelers could be worried about unknown person staying in their house, but if you meet your host on dedicated website, you are saved. So choose your host smart, and have fun during your holidays.