The favorite season of the year for the majority of people that live in Poland is coming… the warm Polish winter.
Temperatures below 0 degrees certainly provoke happiness and joy to all the population and it also encourage to make a lot of open air activities.
If this is going to be your first winter in this country, I wrote for you a ‘Guide to survive a winter in Poland'(since the point of view of a Mexican).
1) Keep calm
If you never saw snow in your life (like me before coming to Europe) and suddenly you see white things falling down from the sky… do not freak out! It is just snow and it is harmless.
2) Prepare your mind
You need to understand that the winter that you will spend in Poland might be the coldest you’ve ever lived in your entire life!
3) Time at home
It is really possible that you will spend at home more time than ever, you need to download thousands of movies or TV series ( I can recommend you Dexter, House of Cards or Narcos), because at 4:15 pm the light of the sun will be gone… and also because of the intense cold you might not want to go out to the streets.
4) Getting fatter and fatter
During this time of the year you will eat, eat and eat all the time, it is really possible that when the winter is over you might need to go shopping… but remember more fat in your body will make you feel warmer :P
5) Struggle with the public transportation
During winter it is really common that you will be walking with temperatures below zero degrees and when you enter to the metro, bus or tram the heater will be turned on to the maximum and you will feel extremely hot! This also increases the possibilities to get sick due to the extreme changes in temperatures.
6) Get dressed like an ‘onion’
In Spanish is common to say to get dressed like an ‘onion’, but why? … a lot of people in Poland, especially foreigners get dressed with a lot of jackets or sweaters when they go to their universities or jobs. Literally we look like onions because we are ‘peeling’ ourselves to get used the temperature… colder or warmer places. In my case, it does not matter how many clothes I put on… I will always feel cold :P
7) Resignation
This might be the best advice on this guide… the feeling of resignation… the faster you realize that you will not see the light of the sun in the case you are working in an office, that it will be extremely cold, that walking in the snow is not that funny like in the American movies, and that the Polish winter only last like 4 or 5 months… in that moment you will be ready to survive a winter in Poland
And it does not matter that a lot of people says: Poland is not that cold…. Well for a Mexican it is!! :P
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