European News and Poland Thread - part 5

In good old Gdańsk.

I will give him all your greetings, lads. *thumbs up*

In this sh'thole? Geez, take him to McDonald's lol!
He hasn't seen a European city, so he will be crazy happy.

Say what? There's no lovelier city in the world!


He has seen a lot of Europe and about half of Poland. :)

Well, you can always drink yourself silly.
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Really? If you think so.

I can't put my finger on why, because there was lots to see and do there, but I didn't really take to Gdańsk.

I'm sure AntV will enjoy it though. I vaguely remember he wanted to go to a football match while he was in Poland.

The German spirit still all too present?

First it was Gdansk, then for several centuries Danzig, then back to the original Gdansk.

The same. That area has its own microclimate, different trees etc and feels different to the rest of PL.

I like Gdynia and parts of Wrzeszcz however Sopot is very disappointing if you're from a place with more coastal resorts and a lot of the younger people partying on the beach in summer there are drunk and rowdy with very loud pop music playing from speakers in bars etc.

There are some nice places to eat in Gdynia though.

I don't know if it was so much that. One could say the same of Wrocław but I really like that city.

Gdańsk, to me, feels like more of a European city than a Polish one, especially with the Dutch based architecture.

I didn't dislike it, but I much prefer the cities in the east/south east. I especially like Lublin and Zamość.


Yep. I didn't rate Sopot either. Too commercial, but I guess that's typical for a lot of seaside resorts.


Guess it's not just me then. It just doesn't feel very 'Polish' if that makes sense.

My first ever visit to Poland featured cold drizzly weather in summer (down to 6 or so at night) and so cloudy....and then we wen to Gdańsk and the sun was shining on długa and the Neptune statue, and not crowded with tourists, and I loved it.

I also liked how people got around using the train lines. Theoretically that can be done in other places but it's not nearly as common or convenient as it is there.

Years later, a friend had a job offer very close to Gdańsk and went on a several day trip to get a feel for the area (and visit a friend) and ended up not taking the job (despite very good salary) because he didn't like the people... said it was a very different mentality compared to what he was used to.

On the other hand, I didn't like Kraków the first time I was there... a kind of... gloominess everwhere... later I came to like it but the first impression was pretty negative.


What's weird about Wrocław, to me, was the extremely German architecture in the old town and the much more.... Eastern vibe of the people. I remember women from Wrocław tended to have a very different fashion/color sense than the rest of the country. The combination of hair dyed very red with bright colors (esp green) was typical ime.

If there's a part of Poland that I've never warmed to, it's probably Silesia... don't know why.... and maybe Szczecin (kind of... soulless).

No, it was not an architecture nor a German spirit; it was, for the longest time, a Commonwealth harbour city. It's people, I guess.

When he volunteers to be a mouse that frees the lion (putin)?

He's basically signalling his willingness to be a new János Kádár, the head of a russian vassal state.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-07/viktor-orban-offered-to-help-vladimir-putin-call-transcript-shows?srnd=homepage-europe

It's a pretty city for sure. I had great weather when I went too and it ticks a lot of boxes for tourism but it still left me feeling like I kind of wanted something more.....hard to put into words.


I have a bit of a love/hate thing with Kraków. I went there the first time I went to Poland, and although I had a great time, I get what you're saying about the gloominess. The people weren't overly friendly which kind of marred the trip a bit for me. I've been back a few times since and now I've grown to like it much more. I'm meant to be going back in the summer if my flights aren't cancelled due to the rising cost of jet fuel, but I will use it more as a base as I'll be travelling round.


Now I do like like those old tenement buildings. No escaping the German influence there.


I can't say I noticed that. How long ago are we talking? I know you've been in PL for decades so don't know if you mean recently or not. For me, Poland has changed a lot in the 18 or so years I've been visiting.


I've yet to experience it but I will be going at some point. I want to visit Stalag VIIIB in Łambinowice, although there's not much left of it. Plus, Chorzów, also for personal reasons.

I quite like the gloominess though don't much like Krakow. Horrible overtourism now, like York except York have had a century to deal with it. and keep it all tidy and safe. The gloominess of Lodz is a nicer gloominess, one shared by 'planned' 19th century towns everywhere (no wonder filmmakers like the late Twin Peaks guy like it so much) however everything's being painted and polished there now and a new characters and atmosphere will emerge.


Have you been to Lublin and Zamosc (especially Zamosc)/ Very well worth it.


If you haven't been to that uphill area behind Katowice Station with the lovely 1920s modernist buildings built when Katowice had special international status I strongly recommend going before redevelopment changes the character of the area. It's a lovely bit of town. Sosnowiec has a lot of (gloomy but nice) character too.

I guess that started with the cheap stag weekends. I visited before the advent of all that and it wasn't anywhere near as busy as it is now.


Everyone told me not to bother with Łódź but I actually liked it. In a David Lynch type of way ;)


See post #129. They're my favourite cities :)


I'll bear that in mind when I go as that's where I'll probably be flying into. I don't know too much about Katowice but it's probably going to be where I stay and use as a base.

It started there, then the German boomer market came and now 30-somethings from round Europe. It's sad when you're walking through Kraków with a group of friends (who are mostly Poles over 70) and people on the street are trying (in English) to entice you all into really tacky tourist trap restaurants or even clip joints.

It was certainly better back in the day however even 20 years ago I remember r*SSian buskers playing right through the Hejnal without stopping.


Reminds me of Barrow-in-Furness and Middlesborough. Same period, same grids of streets, same feeling.

I've only been twice, both in summer and found it anything but gloomy.

Like many people my mental image was based on Ziemia Obiecana so imagine my surprise at how green and generally pleasant it was. It might be gloomy in winter but in good weather it's pretty great.

Also, weirdly, one of the best restaurants I've found in Poland serving traditional food. Dzielna 43 is called a pizza place but its strength is institutional Polish food but really, really good. The barszcz ukraiński was one of the best soups I've ever had, just amazing.

Aaaah, if only more people could read this forum and decide against coming to Gdańsk. It would really be nice, especially in the summer when the entire Europe seems to invade the general Tricity area!

I am a bit surprised by your opinion of the locals though. I can compare, having lived in different parts of Poland in the past, and Gdańszczanie are by far the best.

Anyways, I met the big boss AntV yesterday - what a guy! Funny, intelligent, and looks like he's in his late 30s; I noticed that it's typical with people who did a lot of sports in their youth (even if it's cyborgball aka American football ;)) that they very often look much younger. Europe needs more tourists like him! :)

Gdansk doesn't have the feel of a Polish or German city, but that's because it's neither: it's a Hanseatic League city.


That's to be expected, given that pretty much the entire population of the city in 1950 had recently arrived from what in 1939 had been Poland but by then had become Ukraine (or Belarus). Also, more recently, the percentage of Ukrainians is supposed to be higher in Wroclaw than in most cities in Poland.


I was up in the north-east last month and loved it. Suwalki was pretty interesting but Sejny is absolutely fascinating. Definitely heading back up there this time next year!

Ełk is rather nice too.

Lipsk, however, is rubbish.

... and not even in Poland. ;)

Crow would probably have something to say about that....

I would only, modestly, claim everything east of Elbe as Slavic ancestral lands but with Crow you never know - he would probably go as far as Rhein. :)

Not that Lipsk (that one's worth a visit), the one near Augustow.

Population 2052? There are more people than that on the number 12 tram to Oliwa in the morning. :)

Europe is retarded Part 1:

See America is f*cked Part 1 here...

https://polishforums.com/off-topic/poland-usa-news-part-89132/22/#msg2061961

... for a fuller context.

Why on Earth is Europe still depending on the US for defence? Why do we treat a country that begs for cease-fire after just one month of war with Iran and achieving no tangible aims in it like the mainstay of European defense?

After observing the 4 years of Russian RMO in Ukraine we can safely say that modern warfare heavily favours the defender and that subduing and occupying even a middle-sized, corrupt, post-Soviet country is an exceedingly difficult task. Why, therefore, does Europe - with half-a-billion population, decent armed forces, patriotic citizens, and impressive and modern industry - fear Russian invasion and occupation? Why do we shiver when Trump threatens to leave NATO instead of telling him to f*ck off and be careful that the door doesn't hit him on his way out?

Try to calculate, very roughly, the number of troops that would be required to defeat, subdue and occupy Europe. See the post linked above for troops to population ratio needed.

All we have to do is get more nukes. And who will stop us? The US? Look how successful they are at stopping Iran. Actually, it is now practically a given that Iranians will have their own nukes rather sooner than later.

Europe with more nuclear weapons will automatically turn into the greatest world superpower - impenetrable. So, let's stop being retarded and do what we have to do, because we have more than enough to laugh at any external threat.

You can't underestimate the US. It's the only country in the world capable of conducting military operations anywhere on the globe, at any time.

The question is: what sort of military operations? SMOs or RMOs?

what is it and what is the difference between them?