Travel /
What attracts tourist to Poland? [54]
lef you wrote somewhere in this threat that Oz people tend to visit Bali year in year out because it is cheap, has good beaches and lovely people. But what's so special about that? A lot of places are cheap have good beaches and lovely people. Come to think of it, why go to the Alps? Himalayas are bigger and clearly better. Why visit the Statue of Liberty? It's not that there are no better looking statues in the world. Why eat sushi in Tokyo while you can do the same in Melbourne? Why visit Melbourne if one can drink a warm Foster and watch kangaroos at the local zoo during a hot and dry day? :) Fortunately not everybody follow this odd logic, as there would be only few places on earth visited by tourists.
What has Poland interesting to offer?
Well, lets start with the cities, each with their own unique atmosphere and character. Krakow – the cultural capital city of Poland, Gdańsk – a place where the influences of Polish, German, Flemish, Italian, Scandinavian and Jewish culture cross each other forming a very intriguing blend, Wrocław – the city of hundred bridges, that seems to float on the water, Warsaw – polish phoenix, that emerged from it’s ashes after the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising during the WWII, never actually regained it’s beauty before the WWII, but stil worth visiting for a sheer fact of watching the socialist architecture, yuck vide The palace of Culture and Science, a gift from our friend uncle Joseph as a sign of the eternal friendship between Russia and Poland :) £ódź – with it’s industrial charm that seems to affect even the likes of David Lynch, and the rest Poznań, Szczecin, Lublin, etc ..and more cameral cities like Toruń, Kazimierz Dolny, Zamość, Przemyśl…
Actually there is so much to see and do in Poland that maybe it will be better if I post some links concerning this issue. Check this out:
poland.gov.pl/With,Backpack,and,Oar,405.html
poland.gov.pl/Treasures,on,the,Trail,406.html
poland.gov.pl/The,Sites,on,the,UNESCO,List,407.html
poland.gov.pl/Food,and,Acommodation,408.html
poland.gov.pl/City,Entertainment,409.html
Still it’s only the peak of the mountain of interesting places here. Poland has an enormous potential that is sadly being unused. For example nobodies doing anything about the Soviet ex-nuclear base placed in Sulęcin (the III WW could have started in this place), or nobody is promoting The Międzyrzecz Fortification Region (one of the largest and the most interesting fortification systems in the world, build by the Nazis between 1934-1938), or the Wilczy Szaniec (“Wolfsschanze”; the ruins of a major Eastern Front military headquarters of Adolf Hitler during World War II where he made many decisions about the future of many nationalities, building of new death camps, etc), vampire graves in Poland (the image of a undead creature that feeds itself with human blood, and all those weapons that were suppose to defend us from them come from the Slavic demonology), culture of Polish nobles, and promotion of one of the best cavalry in the world: “Husaria” (“Hussars" )
PS: Oh, and one more thing, polish cuisine isn’t only about “bigos” and “pierogi”. If you are more of a adventurous and open minded traveler I advise you to try the “Czernina soup”( “Duck blood soup”:), “Flaczki” (“Tripes”:), “Tatar” (main ingredient is raw meat, and this dish came to Poland along with the Tatars; we just slightly improved it :)) and “Świński mózg z jajkiem i cebulką” ( “Pigs brain with an egg and onion” - I never tried that one though :P). Enjoy!