I attended a professional tour guiding course. It was not obligatory and, what is more, it should be paid 300 $ in 4 instalments. But it was related to the subject of my studies: art history. Every tourist trip in Torun ought to be accompanied by a professional tour guide, specialized in the City of Torun.

The course consisted of a wide range of lectures. The topics were: history of architecture, methodology, first aid, geography, history of Torun and Poland, local nature etc.

The course was both absorbing and exact. Participants were required to be present at nearly all of 255 hours of lectures, trainings and guided tours. Qualified teachers, mostly professionals were provided. We were obliged to make notes and read a great amount of books and xeroxed papers. The classes took place in a garret of a renaissance tenement house. The meetings were held 3 times a week in the evening.

After completing the course we were allowed to take an exam. The exam was of extreme difficulty and without passing it the course was of no importance. The examination consisted of 3 parts. The first was a test – more than 70% points should be achieved. The questions were detailed and included topics like history, region, art and law. After passing it there was a spoken exam in which every answer should be sufficiently good in the opinion of every of the 3 examiners. They were experienced professionals and art historians. We were allowed to prepare for about ten minutes after we had been given 3 random questions. Our speech was often interrupted by petrifying questions. After passing this part there was practical. We were given tasks to guide a tour in a medieval city. E.g. Tell about the bells of the Saint John Cathedral, depict altars in one of its aisles, say sth detailed about Nicolas Copernicus.

The course prepared us well enough and was congruent with the examination but it required a lot of self-study hours.

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