Krakow going down the toilet!

Its getting much better.

Boy what 4 years does! That area is now real nice with the Galeria coming in.

the only thing I could get to eat round there was a sausage cooked over a burning oil drum.

Travel Awards 2008 winners

The full list of winners announced at this year's Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk Travel Awards


Favourite overseas city
Last year's winner, Hong Kong, tumbles down the rankings – letting Sydney move to number one. The real surprise is Krakow which jumps from ten to number two.

· Top five:

1. Sydney
2. Krakow
3. San Francisco
4. Singapore
5. Vancouver

The world's top destinations

US travel magazine Travel + Leisure released the results of its World's Best Awards today, with Bangkok taking out the top spot on the World's Best City list.

TOP 10 EUROPE:
1 Florence, Italy 86.24
2 Rome, Italy 85.12
3 Istanbul, Turkey 84.61
4 Paris, France 82.59
5 Krakow, Poland 82.14
6 Prague, Czech Republic 81.81
7 Venice, Italy 81.74
8 Barcelona, Spain 81.32
9 Vienna, Austria 80.99
10 Salzburg, Austria 80.63

Streets ahead

Krakow leapt from 10th to second place in the Best Overseas City category this year. In our regular column, we focus on the emerging district of Podgorze

Before 2008, the last people of note to venture over the Vistula from central Krakow to Podgorze were Steven Spielberg's film crew. Auschwitz, 75km away, attracted all the tourists. The district of Podgorze, built by the ruling Habsburgs in the 19th century to rival the city centre across the water, was crumbling, grey and empty.

Spielberg set much of his 1993 film Schindler's List amid Podgorze's forgotten remnants: fragments of the ghetto wall, Tadeusz Pankiewicz's pharmacy, and the Schindler factory itself. The film brought Krakow to global attention. The old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz came back to life; then the bar hub around Plac Nowy became as busy as any in Prague or Budapest. Now, five minutes over the Pilsudski bridge by tram, Podgorze itself is where the scene is heading.

The new Qubus spa hotel - rooftop panoramic pool and all - stands beside the former Plac Zgody, where Nazis rounded up or massacred many from the adjoining Jewish ghetto. A young Roman Polanski was one of the few survivors. Today's Square of the Ghetto Victims features a permanent open-air installation dedicated to the victims. Nearby stand more new arrivals: an arty cafe, a chic Med-style restaurant, and probably the best bar in all Krakow - no idle boast these days. It is this bar, the Drukarnia, wantonly tatty and bohemian, whose recent relocation from the nightlife nexus of Kazimierz seals Podgorze's status as the new place to be. Filmmakers, musicians, students - everyone gravitates here.

By 2009, work will begin on the abandoned Forum Hotel down the river, developing a leisure stretch along the underused waterfront complete with a summer beach