NotNapoleon's Tourism Bureau - Poland

Information about Poland

Poland is a Central European country bordering Germany to the West, Russia and Lithuania to the North, Belarus and Ukraine to the East, Slovakia to the South, and the Czech Republic to the South West. You probably know Poland from its history or from its meme status, but what is the country actually like?

Do note that Poland is a very large country, so my experience is largely based in and around Krakow located in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (the image you see above is from the town of Zakopane). I also visited the Czech Republic while I was out there, but this article is about Poland.

Must knows for travelling

• Poland is a member of the EU and the Schengen Area.
• Despite being in the EU, Poland does not use the Euro. It uses Polish Zloty (PLN).
• While most places take card, it's handy to have change since a lot of public toilets are not free.

Getting to Poland

You can get to Poland by air, road, or rail. Ryanair, Easyjet, and Wizz Air offer cheap flights, Flixbus run buses from/to/within Poland, and there are trains from Poland to other foreign cities like Prague (CZ) and Budapest (HU).

If you're travelling from a Schengen country, there's no immigration process for entering Poland, though it might be wise to bring your passport anyway as some companies may advise you to carry it.

As for getting around Poland, most cities have good public transport. Warsaw has a full metro system, PKP (Polish State Railways) operate trains between major cities, and even relatively small cities like Poznan and Katowice have a tram network.

Language

Unsurprisingly, the official language of Poland is Polish. A lot of locals speak English, especially in big cities and amongst younger people, but it's good to know a few phrases like "dzien dobry" (hello), "dzieki" (thank you), "prosze" (please), "tak" (yes), and nie (no). Mostly out of courtesy and because it may be helpful.

Polish spelling can be a little confusing if you're unfamiliar with it. For example, the letter W in Polish makes a V sound like it does in German (Warszawa is pronounced Varshava). To me, Polish sounds different to other Slavic languages (likely due to its nasalised vowels), but that's what makes it interesting!

Interesting things about Poland

Some of these are specific to the places I visited rather than the country as a whole.

• Poland is home to Auschwitz-Birkenau (located in the town of Oswiecim near Krakow) - the largest nazi concentration camp established during the German Occupation of Poland in World War II. If you visit, you have to go as part of a tour.
• After WW2, Poland became part of the Soviet Bloc along with a bunch of other countries (East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary etc).
• At times, Poland wasn't even on the world map.
• If you're in Krakow, visit the resort town of Zakopane. It's a 2 hour bus ride from Krakow, but it's a very nice town.
• Polish food is pretty good. I quite like pierogi z miesem (meat dumplings).

Verdict

You should visit Poland. Thanks for reading!