Get to know amazing love stories with Erasmus+ Programme in the background!
“A spontaneous trip to Italy just for a dinner- when longing becomes unbearable”
Karolina D. (Polish) + Matteo (Italian)
Time and place of the meeting: 2011, Spain. It wasn’t till 4 years later, though, when the love flourished.
Karolina was 17 when she met Matteo in 2011, in Cartagena. She was just visiting her brother who was in the spanish city on Erasmus at the time, and neither she nor he can actually remember the moment they saw each other for the first time, but somehow they ended up adding each other as friends on Facebook. “ As a teenager who went abroad for the first time ” says Karolina, “ I was adding all the foreigners I met at the time as friends on Facebook, but, it wasn’t the moment the relationship started. Actually, we weren’t keeping in touch for almost 4 years, till the time I went on my Erasmus to Venice. What is interesting is the fact that I had some close friends at the time whom I met when my brother was on his Erasmus, and all of them insisted on me going to see Matteo in Triest. All of them were telling me all about him! ” And so she did. One day, she messaged him whether she could come to visit. “ That was the first time I went to Triest, and when I had a chance to get to know him properly. We trace it all back to that. To be honest, we were visiting each other for the whole time of my stay in Italy ”. They couldn’t make their minds, however, if they really wanted to be in a long-distance relationship.” We decided to give it a go just a day preceding my flight back to Poland ”. After the Erasmus time has come to an end, the couple spent a year visiting each other every few weeks, but sometimes, when they were missing each other really bad, some crazy spontaneous decisions simply happened. “ There was a time ” Karolina recollects, “ when I went there just to have dinner with him. My flight from Kraków was on Wednesday after the classes, and the flight back was on Thursday morning, I went from the airport straight to the lectures ”. Even if it wasn’t easy, Karolina has managed to go on Erasmus once again. This time, she has been living with Matteo in Triest since September.
“Love. Starring: the Erasmus+ programme”
Magda (Polish) + Manuel Angel (Spanish)
Time and place of the meeting: January 2017, Sevilla in Spain
It was January 2017 when Magda, a Jagiellonian University in Kraków’s student, decided to visit her best friend who was on Erasmus in Spain at the time. “ I’m an ESN-er, so it was only natural for me to want to take part in an event organised by the local section and to get to know the members ”, says Magda.
That is exactly how she ended up taking part in a language exchange event, where she met Manu, a member of ESN Sevilla and her future boyfriend. “ We’ve met again at the next event, and then we went on a date. That’s how the spark’s ignited” adds Magda with a large grin on her face.
When she came back to Poland, Magda was just looking for an excuse to go back to Spain, and she’s found it when a friend informed her about a possibility to go on ERASMUSINTERN programme. So it happened that 4 months later, Magda found herself in Sevilla once again. To make the story even better, she says: “It was just yesterday when I got the message that I was admitted to the Erasmus+ programme next year, so I am going back to Spain again ”. She admits that had it not been for love, she wouldn’t have applied for the Erasmus exchange in the first place!
„Long distance relationship with a Greek-Syrian”
Monika (Polish) + Claude (Greek-Syrian, living for the last 7 years in Germany)
Time and place of the meeting: spring semester of 2017, Germany
Monika, a Warsaw University of Life Sciences’ student, decided to spend a spring semester on Erasmus in Germany. Claude was one of the tutors in Kassel’s Welcome Centre. “ To be completely honest, I saw him for the first time on the very first day of the Orientation Week. As a tutor, he was responsible for taking pictures ”, says Monika. Both of them knew better how the typical Erasmus love-stories usually ended, but they also had felt the spark from the very beginning. Moreover, they were having the time of their lives together. “ For the first two months, we were just smitten with each other, spending time together, but not as a couple. We’re officially together since may 29th ”. When her Erasmus exchange came to an end, she stayed in Germany for the extra 2 months, so that she could spend some more time with her boyfriend. Monika admits that the long-distance relationship is not the easiest thing to do. The couple sees each other just once in 2-3 months, and for now, each of them is about to finish their own studies in their respective Alma Maters. The future, however, belongs to the both of them. Together.
“Studies, Instagram and wanderlust”
Karolina B. (Polish) + Alejandro (from the Canary Islands)
Time and place of the meeting: February 2015, Cracow
Karolina and Alejandro met during the Orientation Week at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. That’s what she says about their story: “ It was pure luck! We met at a party that I hadn’t even been planning to go to. Alejandro, as a University of Technology student, seems to have found himself at the party a bit by accident as well. We went there with the people he met a moment before in the city ”.
Even though the dancefloor was not too crowded at the time, Karolina decided to make the first move. They started dancing and then talking. Next day, they decided to go for a walk, but the weather was awful, so they got a table in one of Karolina’s favourite cafés and started talking about life and studies, joking and having fun. Karolina sees Alejandro not only as a boyfriend, but also as a wonderful friend, with whom she shares a deep bond. Their passion is growing even stronger due to their passion for travelling. They even have a shared Instagram account for that!
“Rough beginning, ring on the roof and a joint trip to Malaga”
Karolina + Marko (Serb, living in Italy since the age of 5)
Time and place of the meeting: Wrocław, spring semester 2017
According to Karolina the beginning of their acquaintance didn’t bode well. Their first contact was when Karolina wrote to Marko on Facebook asking if he needs help because her buddy asked her to do it. She didn’t get an answer. One can say I was turned down by him. I wanted to help and he completely ignored me which made me pretty angry - she explains. Later they shyly exchanged looks at various events during Orientation Days. - That was when we both started showing interest in another, yet neither of us took the first step - says Karolina. After one month they both went on an ESN trip where another obstacle for Marko appeared - his friend Adrian - who fell in love with Karolina. However, Karolina didn’t return the feelings and told Adrian very quickly about it which was a green light for Marko. - That’s when it all began. We started talking more, we saw each other everyday and became inseparable during his whole stay in Wrocław. After spring semester the holidays began. - I didn’t know how things are going to turn out. But we decided to spend the holidays together in Barcelona. One evening we went to the rooftop of a hotel where Marko told me to close my eyes and when I opened them I saw nothing but a ring… I thought “Oh my god, is he proposing?”. When Marko saw my face, he said “Don’t worry I’m not proposing, but I wanted to show you how important you are to me”.
What happened after the holidays? Karolina wanted to go to Malaga for Erasmus and Marko planned to do a gap year on the Canary Islands after graduation. Eventually, Marko changed the location to Poland where he got a 3 month internship in a corporation (in the same city where Karolina studies) and next semester they are both going to Malaga - she for her Erasmus and he to continue his gap year.
“You can’t sightsee with an empty stomach”
Ola + Branislav (Serbia)
Time and place of the meeting: trip to Malbork, April 2017
Ola, as the Travel Coordinator of ESN SGGW (Warsaw University of Life Sciences), organised a trip to Gdańsk and Malbork. - Everybody went to see the castle in Malbork and Branislav went to McDonald’s because he said that you can’t sightsee with an empty stomach - says Ola. - I decided to wait for him. It turned out that we have a lot common topics and the conversation went really smoothly. Since that meeting everything went pretty fast. After meeting Ola, Branislav decided to prolong his Erasmus in Poland. Now, they are both in their countries but they see each other a lot. - When I travelled to Serbia for the first time a lot of my friends, even my family reacted negatively. Why am I doing this, what for if there is still war in there… Meanwhile Serbia turned out to be a wonderful country. People there are warm and helpful. Branislav’s family gave me a hearty welcome - Ola reminisces. Even though, they don’t know where they are going to live, they are both learning their languages, which despite appearances are very similar.
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