Poland

My Poland travel summary:

Visited: December 2007 – September 2009 (4 times), July 2024

Duration of visit: 14 days

Capital city: Warsaw

Population: 37 million (2024)

Poland travel blog reading time: 13 minutes

• Several business meetings with Polish distributors of HVAC products in Warsaw.
• Krakow – the official capital of Poland until 1596 and one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.
• Traumatic examination of Auschwitz concentration camp where over 1.1 million people were murdered.
• The Wieliczka Salt Mine – an underground salt cathedral with superb quality creations carved into the salt structure.
• Supporting Slovenian team at European Basketball Championship 2009 in Katowice.
• Exploring the landmarks around Warsaw and Gdansk.

Poland is a member of the European Union and one of Eastern Europe’s main industrial countries, with nearly 40 million people. It stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordering Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine in the east and Germany in the west. Tourist can enjoy old towns, beautiful parks and tasty food, often at lower prices than in other European countries.

I always compare Poland with Colombia in size, tourist potential and importance in the region. Nevertheless, Poland has never been high on my bucket list. It could be the country’s size, weak road systems or historical myths.

Although my Poland travel adventures were only on special occasions, I visited the main tourist attractions in Katowice, Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk.

Business trips to Warsaw brought me into contact with Poland for the first time. Most of the businessmen were highly skilled and professional, but a gap between old and new school was very obvious in language skills and decision-making process.

The older generation primarily communicated in German, whereas the younger businessmen prefer English.

Older men were complicated, avoided decisions, and believed time would fix everything. The younger generation acted confidently and decided fast, sometimes without thinking about long-term results.

When my meetings and social events ended, I explored Warsaw’s main attractions and historic places to visit. The Royal Castle, the Old Town Market Square, and the famous Mermaid statue, with many restaurants and cafés, are the heart of the area.

Krakow was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and cited as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Krakow’s Old Town and Royal Castle became the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1978, together with Quito.

The city has traditionally been one of the leading centers of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. The most famous person from Krakow is Karol Wojtyla, who served as the archbishop of Krakow. In 1978, he became Pope John Paul II, the first Slavic pope and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

I didn’t manage to walk around all prominent landmarks, numerous attractions, read about popular legends and fascinating history of Krakow. Nevertheless, I visited some of the highlights and top things to do that make the city Poland’s most visited destination.

The Wawel Royal Castle is a magnificent 14th-century castle on a limestone bluff, forming the ancient center of Krakow city. Once home to Polish kings and a symbol of the nation, it is now one of Poland’s top art museums.

The Wawel Cathedral, often called Poland’s Westminster Cathedral, is a symbol of Polish faith and statehood. It is the coronation site of kings and queens and a key landmark of Krakow’s Gothic skyline.

The first structure in Kraków designed entirely in the Baroque style, The Church of Saints Peter and Paul, was built at the beginning of 17^th century. Today is used as a concert hall for classical and baroque ensembles.

And if there is not enough of Wawel – meaning dry, elevated ground surrounded by swamps, there is also a Wawel dragon. Locals fed the man-eating monster with cattle, until the king’s sons defeated it using sulfur-filled decoy cows.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine lies 13 kilometers southeast of Krakow’s city center. Excavated since the 13^th century, it produced table salt continuously until 2007, one of the oldest operating salt mines.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It extends more than 300 meters into the salt rock veins below the earth.

Constant year-round temperature of 14°C, pleasant lingering and natural salt taste in the air have positive impact on respiration.

Shafts, passageways, historic mining displays, an underground lake, chapels, and statues carved from salt attract many visitors. If I compare it to some other salt mines that I visited in South America and Romania, Wieliczka is smaller in size, but far more artistically elaborated.

St. Kinga’s Chapel is the main highlight of the salt mine, featuring a salt floor, chandeliers, and carved walls.

From a life size statue of Kraków’s ex-pope John Paul II to a salt sculpted replica of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, all details are flawless and harmonized.

Artists will probably add more contemporary sculptures in the future.

Auschwitz was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration and extermination camps in occupied Poland during World War II. From 1942 to 1944, Nazis deported over 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, by train to the gas chambers.

Approximately 1.1 million were murdered.

The Auschwitz complex was different from other Nazi killing centers because it had a concentration camp, a labor camp, and Birkenau. Birkenau included large gas chambers and crematoria built for the mass murder of European Jews and other ethnic groups.

Walking through the museum complex, seeing the old railways, gas chambers, and prisoner buildings, was truly heartbreaking for me.

It becomes even more moving when I listened to a guide and joined Jewish descendants, trying to understand what happened in the camp. They knew a lot about camp life, daily activities, trauma, and the inhuman conditions where their ancestors died. Although the site today looks different, hearing stories and imagining people crammed in cages, abused and killed, is deeply traumatic.

It is impossible for me to understand how a human being can be so cruel to another human beings. There is absolutely no justification or reasonable interpretation of Nazis activities.

People can be manipulated, but I cannot understand how anyone could live normally after deliberately harming so many others.

As a big sports fan and former basketball player, I attended the 2009 EuroBasket finals in Katowice with friends. At that time Slovenia had a bunch of good players and everybody was expecting to win a medal for the first time in our short history.

Thousands of Slovene fans drove to southern Poland, turning Spodek Arena into an atmosphere like Slovenia’s Stožice Arena.

Spodek Dome arena resembles a flying saucer or a UFO spaceship, with a capacity for hosting over 10.000 spectators. Unfortunately, the Slovenian national team lost the two most important games and at the end of the tournament finished on the fourth place. The atmosphere was still great. Fans in traditional colors, with flags and cheer gear, sang loudly and celebrated together late at night.

Katowice, the capital of the Silesian province of Poland, is famous for its industrial past with heavy mining industry. Visiting Katowice’s main sights was not high on my priority list. Still, the Wyspiański Silesian Theatre, Silesian Museum, and historic Nikiszowiec district were well worth seeing.

I visited the capital Warsaw and the port city of Gdansk on the Baltic coast, with my partner, in July 2024. It was a short but intense trip, which for me later continued to Belarus, crossing overland from Terespol to Brest.

In early summer 2024, Poland’s capital experienced a heat wave, with temperatures reaching 36°C. Long days and sunny weather enabled me to explore the city until late in the evening. I was never very keen on Warsaw before, but this time I found it pleasant, clean, and well organized. It felt quiet and offered a high quality of life for both residents and visitors.

Beyond the growth, new development, and historic sites, I noticed spotless streets and a very quiet atmosphere. Drivers were cautious and patiently waited for pedestrians to cross at zebra crossings. I haven’t seen any garbage, plastic or pieces of paper in any of the areas that I visited.

In restaurants, bars, on public transport, and on streets, I noticed people speaking very calmly and quietly. There was no loud music or unnecessary noise anywhere. In this respectful environment, everything seemed to work smoothly.

I settled down in a newly refurbished apartment close to the central area, nearby central train station. It couldn’t be better equipped and arranged, but the old apartment building was not ready for the extreme heat. If it was 35°C outside, the temperature indoors didn’t mark much of a difference. Without A/C the heat was unbearable, but fortunately, I spent most of my time exploring the streets of Warsaw.

Even though a variety of modern skyscrapers have been raised since the change of the system in the early 1990s, the Palace of Culture and Science is still the most remarkable structure in the capital, visible from a far distance. At 237 meters tall, it is Poland’s second tallest building after the new Varso Tower.

Designed by Soviet-Russian architect Lev Rudnev, it was erected with great propagandist fanfare and named after Joseph Stalin upon its completion in 1955. At that time, the Palace was the eighth tallest building in the world, reminding on the main building of Moscow State University. It hosted many cultural events, including a 1967 Rolling Stones concert, the first by a major Western rock band there.

Not very far from the Palace of Culture and Science, the 53-storey Varso Tower, neomodern office complex, designed by the famous British architect Norman Foster, has recently conquered the title of the tallest building in Poland, raising up to 310 meters high. Originally planned to be 130 meters, it was later substantially extended and topped by a spire surmounting the building.

When I asked about the observation deck, I was told it would not open before 2025. The future 360° observation deck will likely make Varso Tower a major tourist attraction. Its views should surpass those from the Palace of Culture and Science and the Old Town deck I visited instead.

Vistula Boulevards along the waterside walkway on the banks of the Vistula River is popular for cycling and jogging, but also provides a relaxed atmosphere with bars on boats, terrace cafes and summer beaches. Pleasant and relaxing atmosphere somehow compensates for lack of proper seaside in the vast country.

It was the time of football. Although the Polish team had already been eliminated from the Euro 2024 competition, football is always very popular among locals and visitors, who can follow the matches on a big screen.

The oldest area of the city, Warsaw’s Old Town (Stare Miasto), dates back to the 13^th century and serves as the city’s historical hub. The charismatic Market square with its wide selection of eateries, is embellished with the bronze sculpture of the Warsaw Mermaid and surrounded by picturesque buildings, which used to be inhabited by rich merchant families.

Throughout World War II, much of the Old Town was devastated; the existing structures were rebuilt between 1948 and 1953 to resemble their original appearance from the 17^th century.

These days, it is difficult to determine whether the colorful edifices were rebuilt or survived the war due to the accuracy of the restoration. The Warsaw Old Town was recognized by UNESCO in 1980, when it was included on the World Heritage List.

I wandered around to explore churches, squares, the castle, souvenir shops and tasted Polish cuisine. Polish food features an abundance of meat, particularly pig, poultry, and game, as well as a variety of vegetables, spices, herbs and wild mushrooms.

Since I don’t eat meat, the most popular choices were borscht soup, made with red beetroots as one of the main ingredients, and pierogi, filled dumplings, made by wrapping unleavened dough around a filling, which could be sweet or salty. Cooked in boiling water or fried, pierogi can be filled with potato, cheese, quark, sauerkraut, ground meat, mushrooms, fruits or berries and flavored with sour cream.

My Poland travel adventure continued with a visit to Gdansk.

I visited Gdansk after friends recommended its colorful canal houses that looked worth visiting.

I took an early morning train from Warsaw to Gdansk and arrived at around 8:00am. My first impression, walking to Góra Gradowa’s viewpoint with its 19^th century fort and large cross, was not very impressive.

Gdansk bounced back and forth from being German and Polish territory, until it was finally liberated by the Soviets at the end of World War II. As it was rebuilt soon after the war in the 1950s and 1960s, the main idea was to avoid the original Germanic architecture. Today The Pearl of the Baltic reminds more on Dutch or French guidelines.

As I walked down to Dlugi Targ, the main thoroughfare through Gdansk, I started to note some of the landmarks: Golden Gate, Town Hall tower, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops.

I have never seen so many different souvenir magnets as I did in Warsaw and Gdansk.

When passing the Main Town Hall and Neptune Fountain, the crowd of visitors increased substantially, as this point is the most popular selfie spot in the whole city.

Dlugie Pobrzeze (Long Riverside) is a waterside promenade which runs along western Motlawa River embankment. The most picturesque part of the city lies on both riverbanks, connected by bridges and historic water gates. One bank has modern apartments and trendy bars, while the other shows colorful houses leading to the famous Zuraw crane.

Built in 1442–1444, Gdansk’s Zuraw is Europe’s oldest and largest medieval port crane. It raised masts, moved cargo, and served as a city gate. Workers powered it by walking inside treadwheels. Today, its massive structure recalls Gdansk’s golden age as a major trading hub.

My last stop in Gdansk was the European Solidarity Centre, located in the former Gdansk Shipyard.

This historic site was central to the Solidarity movement and the Round Table Talks that helped bring down Soviet communism in Poland and beyond.

The museum presents a background marked by Solidarity and opposition movements, which achieved significant changes in Poland and furthermore in other Eastern European nations.

Its striking building resembles a steel ship emerging from the shipyard landscape. In addition to the comprehensive presentation of the opposition movement, the protests in the shipyards and their influence on the collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe.

I was deeply impressed by the efficient audio guide explanation and guidance, which took me through the museum and vividly introduced me to the most important events of that time.

In recent years, Poland’s economy has grown quickly, encouraging many citizens to return home after working abroad for decades.

The country gained popularity after hosting a few important sport events and it seems to be a cool place to visit or live.

Mayor cities offer rich historical landmarks, solid tourist infrastructure, efficient and inexpensive transport options. Security has never been a question.

Even though the competition to attract foreign visitors in the Eastern European region is harsh, Poland has been taking all the right steps to transform from the image of a grey and rundown post-communist country to a popular destination. It offers hundreds of castles, colorful and diverse architecture, pure nature, vibrant cultural scene and inspiring cuisine.

If you add accessible prices, good intercity connection and plenty of party options, you can get a clear picture, why Poland popularity is growing so fast.

During my Poland travel adventure, I visited three of the most important cities, Warsaw, Gdansk and Krakow, salt mine of Wieliczka and concentration camp at Auschwitz. Nevertheless, I still know very little about countryside or nature in this vast Eastern European country.

So, there are reasons to come back and dedicate more time to Poland in the near future.