West-East life in Poland?

The answer is simple - the area with the mentioned cities is located in Highlands. They don`t get best climate due to mountains nearby. And it wasn`t so easy to get there in the past when air travel was non-existent.

But Sofia is in highlands and it's the biggest city and capital here.

Yes, indeed, but don`t forget that your capital`s origins go back to BC, it even belonged to Alexander the Great or Romans at certain points. At those times, the location of a town in the Highlands was a huge advantage do to its harder accessibility (at least in theory) to potential invaders.

Or it is just an exception, like a pure accident, the first settlers` whim. I am looking at the map of Bulgaria now and other major cities are located in Lowlands.

That's what I say. It became big only after becoming a capital. So it's totally possible to turn Sanok or Nowy Sąncz into big cities. And why not - they're much closer to the core Central Europe (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest).

It's Lodz, Poznan, Bialystock and Lublin that seem to not deserve to be that big, they're fairly isolated, away from important foreign cities. I'd put Warsaw there as well but alas it's the capital and a hero city. I don't count Gdansk as at least it's a port.

What for? If it hasn`t happened so far, it means there was no need for that.


With today`s opportunities in transport and travel, several dozen kilometres more or less mean nothing. Krakow is about 70 km from Nowy Sącz straighline. What difference does it make to reach the core of Central Europe from the area?


Poznań isolated? I thought 3 hours from Poznan to Berlin by car on a highway is quite short.

Apparently it's the most expensive highway in Europe.

Yes - the full stretch from Konin to Slubice is now about 130 zloty. They put the price up every 3 months

Needs a monopoly investigation but Uokik spend all their time arguing with Biedronka and Lidl

Cheaper and nicer by train.

For a toll road, that price in the Polish 'market' is so high it would put many people off using those roads.

The train has been very dodgy for a few years since about 2019 - often late, sometimes stopping far from central Berlin. Seems to be getting better now though.

It's to do with maintainance on the line. Right now, it's going from Frankfurt though it's no great burden to get a regional train there and change.

Even Berlin Lichtenberg is more or less as easy to get to from most of Berlin as Hauptbahnhof and pretty well any station in Europe is nicer to use than Hauptbahnhof anyway.

I'd always use the train by preference. It's faster than the road, doesn't cost much and is more relaxing.

You mean they hassle foreign firms over grosze while letting a Polish firm overcharge Poles by hundreds of times more? How unexpected!

Can't agree with you - arriving at Lichtenberg late at night with baggage is tiresome on public transport and expensive in a cab. A guaranteed bad start to the trip.

If the train got me to the town Centre, on time then I would use it. But it's got a case of long covid.

Easier to go on the S-Bahn.

I don't think any of the Warsaw trains leave after public transport ends, plus of course if it leaves from Hauptbahnhof you have to get there too, plus drag your luggae through a very big station right up to the top level.

In many ways, it's a shame they built the place; it was better to use either Ostbahn or Zoo.

From what I know, the late Kulczyk signed an agreement with the Polish state that guaranteed him a certain income. If the income was too low, the state would have to pay from its own pocket. That is why the Polish state accepts constant toll increases.

I used to love Zoo! It had a bad rep after that book but when I was there it wasn't bad and it was right in the middle of town and close to the Europa center (the water clock was one of my favorite Berlin landmarks).

Ostbahn is.... ost..... but Hauptbahnhof is just a weird Escher nightmare seemingly designed to be as uncomfortable and hard to navigate as possible....