All posts by Jolanta

Maastricht (and Maastricht University) in the Netherlands

The city of Maastricht is cute, and if you ever get a chance to see it, you should.

My son and I visited Maastricht for just one day in May 2019, during out whirlwind tour of European colleges, and I wish we had planned better and had more time, because I really liked this old city.

Take a look….

According to visitmaastricht.com “the heart of the city” is Vrijthof Square with the red spires of Sint Jans church in the background, and the oldest in the Netherlands Basilica of St. Servatius to the right of it.

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Experiment Science Centre in Gdynia (Poland)

If you’re traveling with kids or if you’re a grown up who likes to push, pull, touch, and spin things set some time aside to visit the Experiment Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Experyment) when you’re visiting Gdynia, Sopot, or Gdańsk in Poland.

Main entrance to Experiment Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Experyment) in Gdynia, Poland
Main entrance to Experiment Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Experyment) in Gdynia, Poland

Sadly, the Center is closed right now, but let me show you what you can see inside once they reopen.

We visited the Centre in June 2019 when we were vacationing in Gdańsk, and Gdynia is just a short train ride away.

The center covers one very large room and has 5 major exhibition areas:

General view onto the floor of the Experiment Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Experyment) in Gdynia, Poland
General view onto the floor of the Experiment Science Centre (Centrum Nauki Experyment) in Gdynia, Poland
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7 universities in 2 countries in 12 days

Can you visit 7 universities in 2 countries in 12 days? Sure, you can. We did just that in May 2019.

We visited 2 countries:

  • The Netherlands
  • Sweden

5 universities in the Netherlands:

We visited 5 universities in the Netherlands
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TU/e – Eindhoven University of Technology

In May 2019 my son and I visited several universities in the Netherlands to see if he’d like to apply to any of them. The first one we saw was TU/e or the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Why do a Bachelor in the Netherlands?

  • Attractive tuition even if you’re an “international” student (compared to the US)
  • Three years instead of four
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Warsaw from the viewing deck of the Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN)

There are few buildings in Warsaw, Poland that are more controversial than Pałac Kultury i Nauki (Palace of Culture and Science), also known as PKiN (pronounced Peh-keen).

As it’s a symbol of Soviet Union’s communist oppression of the country, some would like to see it demolished and gone from the landscape. Others say that even though it’s part of painful history, it’s history nevertheless and should not be touched.

Until recently, it was the tallest building in Warsaw, but it has been eclipsed by the Varso Tower, which is now not only the tallest building in Warsaw but also in all of Europe. 

“The Controversial Story of Stalin’s Palace in Warsaw” by Wojciech Oleksian published in Culture.pl offers a very thorough history of “Joseph Stalin’s idea of building a skyscraper over 200 metres (650 feet) tall in the middle of Warsaw’s post-war ruins” complete with photos from the early 1950s showing how out of place this gleaming white building looked like in the middle of bombed ruins of post-WWII Warsaw.

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Walking around Gdańsk, Poland

“Where would want to live, if you had to (wanted to) move somewhere else, and why?”

I was recently asked this question in a networking group that was supposed to help the participants get to know one another better.

My answer? “Gdańsk, Poland.”

It’s not where I grew up (that would be Warsaw, Poland), and I’ve only spent two days in Gdańsk proper, once in 2016 and once in 2019, but I know I would love to live close to the Baltic sea and beaches, and also within short distance of this charming, historic town.

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