My experiences last week in Poland (a trip report of sorts)

My original plan: I was scheduled to volunteer in an English language immersion program for foreigners who know English grammar and vocabulary but lack experience speaking. My particular program was to take place for one week in a hotel just outside Wroclaw, Poland. This was a volunteer position, without pay, but with free room and board for English speaking volunteers. Because I have friends from my church who live in Wroclaw, I had arranged to stay with them for several days prior to the beginning of my program and for one night at the conclusion before I headed off on my own for time in Germany. During my free time in Wroclaw, I had made reservations for a tour of the city, the description of which I posted earlier this week on Facebook, a visit to a historic peace church in Swedniça, Poland, and a day trip to Kraków. After I left Poland, my plans were to spend three days in Görlitz, Germany, which lies just on the border with Poland. While there, I had scheduled a day trip back into Poland to a nearby town called Boleslawiec, for a tour of a Polish pottery factory, including painting for myself a souvenir Polish pottery mug, sent back to me in the US after it was fired. Also I planed to spend one day to return to Dresden, Germany, a town I had visited in the past and found fascinating. My next stop was Leipzig, Germany, noted for its history with Bach,as well as its more current history related to the fall of the East German government. After that, I had plans to travel to Berlin for a little over a week, visiting a friend who works there, taking a couple of tours and attending the opera Aida with my friend.

What really happened: I arrived in Poland on Tuesday, picked up by my friend Renata at the airport and spend the rest of the day just relaxing and trying to get over jet leg. The following day, Wednesday, I proceeded with my plans and took the citywide tour in the divorce and communism to her that I had scheduled earlier. If you’re interested in that report, look at my previous fact Facebook post. After I return home on Wednesday, there was worried that the Polish government had canceled all schools, universities, libraries and museums. This meant that my plans for the next day we’re not possible. Later that evening I heard that President Trump had spoken, closing American voters to travel from most European countries except for American citizens returning home. I contacted the language school to ask if they were still planning to continue the classes, receiving a word that they were not concerned and they had taking proper precautions in that school will go on. I cancelled my participation. On Thursday I called Delta Airlines to try to reschedule my trip home. I was put on a callback list, told that they were experiencing high call call volume, understandably, and that I would be called back in about six hours. It took more than 10 hours for them to call me back. During the time I waited, I stayed at home because I did not want to be out in a busy noisy place trying to make alternate travel arrangements on the phone with Delta. Because it took so long for them to call me back, I tried exploring other options for flights. I was not able to find any flight from Europe that connected and went through a US city. I found one flight with Air Canada and Lufthansa that would take me back to the US through Vancouver, Canada, which I booked for $2300 one-way for Saturday morning. Friday morning, Renata was gracious enough to drive me to a store where I could purchase some souvenir Polish pottery. We also went to Polish grocery and pharmacy stores, which were experiencing the same type of heavy buying volume and depleted supplies that many of you see here in the United States. By the end of the day on Friday, the Polish government had restricted openings of businesses to essential services such as the post office, grocery stores, pharmacies and the like. By Friday night, The Polish government had decreed that as of Saturday night, all Polish borders would be close to international traffic by rail or plane. This meant that, had I not booked my trip with Lufthansa on Saturday morning, I would have been required to stay in Poland at my own expense on an indefinite basis until they lifted that restriction. Although I’m sure my friends would have extended an offer of me to stay with them, this is not something I would not have wished to burden them with. I canceled all my tours and hotel reservations. I was not able to receive refunds from several of them, including my railway reservations within Germany, my hotel in Leipzig, and a couple of tours. I left Poland on Saturday morning at 7:05.

Flying home: As mentioned above, I left on a Lufthansa flight from Wroclaw to Frankfurt on Saturday morning, continuing from Frankfurt to Vancouver, BC. From Vancouver, I was scheduled to fly directly back to Portland. I was a little curious about this because there was not much information online about the process for Americans returning from Europe. Earlier restrictions on Americans returning from China had required them to pass through one of 11 designated airports for enhanced screening. (Portland is not one of those airports.) President Trump mentioned 13 sites in his speech, but only 11 cities were on the list for Chinese returnees. There was mention that within 48 hours, a complete listing of these airports would be made, although that never happened. (This lack of information causes significant problems for American citizens returning from Europe.) For those of you who may not know, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, Dublin Ireland, and I’m sure a few other foreign airports have US immigration services at those airports so that people passing through there and continuing on to the US do not pass through customs and immigration after they leave that airport. I was not certain whether the American immigration services in Vancouver could conduct enhanced screening for me, and I was also not certain exactly what that enhanced screening would involve, although I would have anticipated questions about how long I had stayed in Poland, whom I had contact with, and at minimum a screening of my temperature to check if I had a fever. When I arrived in Vancouver, I was advised by the airlines that my itinerary had been changed, routing me through Seattle and then onto Portland. I assumed this meant that I would receive enhanced screening in Seattle, whatever that meant, as it had never been written down in guidelines for returning citizens. That was not at all my experience. I was told to retrieve my luggage at baggage claim (something not normally required for transiting Americans), exit the airport, return into the airport through the ticketing area and go to the Delta desk, where they would give me tickets for the rest of my journey, and where I would turn my luggage back in. In order to retrieve my luggage, I had to go through a customs and immigration kiosk. I followed those instructions, checked in at the Delta desk, received my tickets, turned my luggage back in, and was escorted to a room for my enhanced screening. The person taking me there kept my passport and my boarding passes, and there was no way to enter or exit that room unless accompanied by security personnel. Inside that room, they were benches with people waiting for their enhanced screening. Of note is the fact that there was no effort made to separate the people who were waiting. We were sitting directly next to each other, so if one of us was infected s/he would put at risk the people sitting next to him or her. The screeners were not wearing masks or gloves. It was interesting to notice that people who had spent time in Europe were required to be screened, as well as people who merely transited through a European airport on their way home and did not spend any more time in Europe than was required to get from one plane to the other. All of us required this extra screening. We were left to wait for 15 or 20 minutes before anyone was screened. An immigration agent came to talk to the lady sitting next to me, a woman with a French accent who was wearing a mask and had a tissue in her hand. The screener did not pull her aside for privacy reasons, but conducted her interview in a loud voice in front of everybody else, asking her name and personal details, where she was coming from, why was she wearing a mask (duh),was she ill, and what ever reason in the world did she have a Kleenex in her hand. As soon as the screener saw that the lady had a mask and had removed it to answer the questions the screener went and got a mask for herself, which she wore (cont)

(Cont) for the remainder of the time I was in the area. The screener pointed out that the lady’s eyes were bloodshot (as are most travelers after a long international trip) and accused her of being sick. The lady told her that she was not sick but wearing the mask for precautions and using the Kleenex for the same reason. The screener did not check her temperature at any time, nor did she ask anything about the lady’s contacts while overseas. The lady told her she had been in Bulgaria, and the screener repeated,”You were in Bolivia?” It took a few minutes for the screener to understand that Bulgaria and Bolivia were not the same country and that presumably a person returning from Bolivia would not need to go through Seattle in order to reach the southernmost United States, which is where the lady was headed. Then the screener turned to me, asking me in front of everyone else questions that deserve to be asked in privacy. She remarked that my face was red, accusing me of being ill. I told her to look at my passport picture and notice that my face was red there as well, as I have rosacea. She did not check my temperature either, or ask me any questions about my contacts during my time in Poland. She was still wearing the same mask, and it was difficult to understand what she was saying, and also apparently difficult for her to hear clearly what I was saying, as she had to make several corrections after I spelled out for her my postal address and email address. After I had corrected her a few times she got belligerent with me and told me that I should not tell her what to do, and that she was only there to help me get through immigration. Then she turned all my papers into someone at a desk who, after several more minutes, called me up to the desk, did not ask anything else, gave me my papers and told me to go get my plane. At no time was anyone who was in there for advanced screening tool to self quarantine when they returned home. I located my gate, boarding my plane to Seattle, and got off in Seattle just as if I had returned from any internal United States airline flight. I went to my Portland plane, got on, returned to Portland, and was picked up by my pastor and taken home.

My observations and learnings: 1) I have seen a great many posts on Facebook from people complaining about restrictions to everyday living, school closures, etc. I know that this is causing a great deal of inconvenience as well as financial cost to many people. I understand that. However, to those people who complain, I would say that they have no idea how sneaky and pervasive this coronavirus is. Many people in the United States have contacted this virus with no demonstrable contact with anyone from an infected area, and that should give you cause for concern. I believe that the disease is not yet so prevalent in the United States is that we have greater distances between people here and we do not have so much contact with other countries as places more densely populated, such as China or Europe. I also believe that the spread of this disease will increase in the United States as people disregard simple security precautions. What we are being asked to do is not difficult – – cover your cough’s and sneezes with a tissue or with your elbow, not your hand. Wash your hands, in a manner that is proper to clean them, not a simple dash of water under the faucet. Practice social distancing. On my trip over to Europe, I saw the Delta flight attendants cleaning the restrooms, four or five times during our 10 hour flight. I saw them wearing gloves and maintaining correct precautions. I did not see that with the Lufthansa attendants on my trip back from Europe. I personally saw a flight attendant cough into her hand more than once and not wash her hands afterwards. I never saw anyone clean the restroom. Each person needs to be careful about themselves, as you cannot control the actions of others. Maintain a social distance of about three feet when interacting with others. Wash your hands. Cover your costs. Stay home if you’re sick. These are basic precautions.
2) Don’t count on your government to keep you safe. Messages from the government have been conflicting, incomplete and on a couple of occasions incorrect. I would have expected at a bare minimum to have my temperature taken, to be questioned about my contacts in Europe, and to be cautioned to self Quarantine when I return home. None of these things happened. If they didn’t happen to me, they are probably not happening to others returning from places potentially infected. This is poor practice and potentially very unsafe. By the way, because I want you to know that you can be safe around me in the future, I will be self quarantine in for two weeks, staying in my house, and only taking solo walks outside without any direct contact with people at all, for the next two weeks. 3) I am encouraged by the prompt action of European governments to try to limit this epidemic. The actions limiting travel between countries are not necessarily based on huge numbers of sick people, but rather an attempt by foreign countries to limit the spread of this virus. You may expect that these things will also happen in the United States in the future, if our leaders are wise. I am also immensely impressed by the acts of courage by European citizens to help care for their neighbors, bringing groceries to shut ins and elderly people, singing on their balconies in a flash mob, as a measure of solidarity and to remind people that they may be isolated physically but they are not alone, and in many other ways of dealing with this crisis. If you feel that you must isolate yourselves here, do not isolate yourself from family and friends. Use electronic methods and other means to stay in contact.

With this, I am now finished with my epic post. I am home and I am healthy and I am thankful.

Thank you for that series of posts; what an ordeal. The C-19 protocols in the USA have been a tragicomedy of course; but I am intrigued by your reference to "English language immersion program for foreigners" wherein Americans can volunteer in return for perks.

Can you please provide contact information for this program?

Thank you, jw

Thank you so much for writing all this, this is a very informative and detailed report. You confirmed that everything is totally in flux now and likely to change/ evolve (and hopefully get more predictable and sane). That is where my family lives, by the way. I hope you have a chance to do your volunteer assignment at another time, it seems like a great opportunity.

Patricia, I am so sorry that you got caught just as your were starting your volunteer and vacation trip, which I know you've been planning for such a long time. I'm sure you are still drained, so thank you for taking the time to write up your experiences, which may be helpful for others who are also still trying to get back from their trips.

CW Social — Thanks for your reply. I did, indeed, spend quite a bit of time planning this trip and was disappointed that it ended in the way that it did. As for writing the report, it’s actually a cut and paste from a Facebook report that I did this morning for my friends. I figured it was easier to write down my experiences and refer them to my Facebook post rather than telling them over and over again, especially since I am in current self-imposed quarantine. It was suggested by one of my Rick Steves friends that I post this online in the hope that it might be instructive to other Rick Steves forum participants.

Agnes — As far as things go right now, I have no plans to try this again. This was a very expensive, practically useless trip for me, except for the time I spent with my friends. Maybe I’ll change my view about teaching English immersion classes in the future, but right now I am just tired.

Wow. Just Wow.

Excellent, helpful report from the battlefield. Thanks so much for posting this. I also share interest in learning about the program in which you had planned to volunteer.

Wow, what a huge hassle for such a short trip! I'm glad you got home safely at least.

Wroclaw is a beautiful city. Did you at least get to see a little of it e.g. the main square? I hope to get back there someday, someday when things are back to normal I mean...

I am flying home to Portland tomorrow from the US east coast. I'm guessing the planes will be empty, so at least I can keep my distance from other passengers most likely. I flew last week on Southwest and flying again Southwest tomorrow. I didn't see them clean the bathrooms during the flights and I doubt they will tomorrow either.

Seeing a flight attendant cough into his/her hand and then not wash is unnerving. Some people are ignorant of basic hygiene I guess...

So glad you made it home safely- what a stressful and exhausting experience!

For those of you who expressed interest in finding out about the English language immersion volunteer programs, here are the ones of which I am aware.

I was scheduled through Angloville, which primarily operates in Eastern Europe. They also offer programs in Malta and Ireland, but those are restricted to people with Angloville experience who are under 35 years of age, as they target adolescent language learners. You can find information about Angloville by googling. However, one caveat – – The program requires a €60 deposit, which is said to be refunded upon completion of the program, as it is intended to cement your intention to follow through with your commitment. However, as Poland was requiring closure of all schools, universities, libraries, places of public business, etc., they were still telling me they intended to follow through with the program,. This would have been against governmental requirements. I believe they told me this so that I would be required to do the cancelling, therefore obviating their requirement to refund me my €60 deposit if they had canceled.

Other programs which operate in different countries doing the same type of language immersion are Vaughntown, which operates in Spain and Englishhausen, which operates in Germany. Both of those are also easy to locate with Google. All of these programs offer free room and board in exchange for giving English language immersion opportunities to the participants. All they require is that you are a native speaker of English.

Also... I’m appalled by your “enhanced screening.” Pretty much every aspect of it. Lack of privacy. Lack of pertinent questions asked. Lack of advice on what to do when you get home. Terrible.

Finally, I’m very sorry your trip ended up following the path it followed. I can hear the pain in your writing. Glad you made it home safely.

Andrew, In answer to your question about Wroclaw, yes, I did get to see the city. The very first day I got there, things were relatively normal. I did a city walking tour, as well as a tour concentrating on explaining why there were so many tiny dwarf statues around town and how life was in Poland during communist rule, both tours very interesting. I have friends who live in the city and would enjoy visiting with them again sometime. Other than that one day, I did not spend any time in town or, indeed, anywhere else in Poland , as people were restricted from moving about and public places closed.

Good luck for your return to Portland. None of my United States flights, Seattle to Portland or, for that matter Vancouver to Seattle, or even close to half full. The airports are fairly deserted. People seem to be smart about not flying these days. That will work to your advantage in keeping your social distance.

Patricia,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I applaud you for going to a far away land to volunteer your time.

Sorry your plans didn’t work out as planned.

Your “enhanced screening” sounds more like an interrogation by a very inadequate and unprofessional agent.

Get some rest and stay well.

Patricia,
Sorry about your well-planned trip. One day you will go again. Hopefully later this year! I really applaud the way you handled the situation and your efforts to inform the rest of us. Brava!

We are staying in our cult-of-two which luckily does not bother us. We can take walks — thank goodness the weather is fine for now — and we, like you, slip into the grocery store in the wee hours along with other retirees here. Many people are yet to heed to caution. May this all pass quickly.

Laurel

I am glad that you got home safely. What a nightmare! I am sorry that you were not able to complete your long-planned trip. I appreciate hearing your account of what happened.

Patricia, I’m so sorry that the volunteer experience you were looking forward to and your trip to Poland and Germany fell through due to the Coronavirus. What a fiasco for you to go through. I’m glad you’re home safe and healthy. Hope your next trip is less ‘eventful’.
Kathy

Thank you for sharing and I wish you safe- and healthy- travels in the future.

Patricia, thank you for such a detailed report. I'm glad you are home safely!

Thanks for details. Very helpful.

Thank you so much for sharing with us. I'm sorry what began as a noble effort to help educate others turned to such a harrowing experience. Be well.