Whats your favourite Polish city and why?

you are lucky. we were just there this past week end for the flea market. Unfortunately, we have to live in Warsaw- because of work.

I have Krakow at heart......I just love it there & i've been to quite a few other major cities in Poland. they just don't compare.

Cities aside, 2 weeks ago i visited family relatives in a small village called Bierna (£odygowice). Beautiful, doesn't do this place any justice. Mountains, lakes, ponds, forests, you name it, this place has it all. I'm a city lad born & bred, but life in villages can be so fulfilling sometimes. People are so calm, polite & humble.

I asked babcia, how come you don't lock doors at night?! well, because there's no need to...she replied! Is this common in Polish small villages?!

I have to advice you to see (at last) smaller cities too. Townlets. Foreigner probably wouldn't survive there (no pub, no university, no job, no E-speakers, no laundry, no car wash...), but they still can be favourite. There are in example: Sandomierz (medieval city at the Vistula rover), Przemyśl (Austrian stronghold, famous of 7 monasteries), Kazimierz at the Vistula river (small town in a picturesque landscape), Krynica Gorska (the best resort in the mountains), Kowary (a kind of post-German Krynica), Biecz (site of famous executioners school) and many others I visited in my life and loved. What is important: their architecture didn't hurt too much during Russian/Soviet domination era.

Cracow itself (where I use to live since my birth) consists in fact of 4 cities (and many villages). Pre-medieval Old Town, medieval Kazimierz and its Jewish district (behind the old riverbed), XIX c. Austrian Podgórze (behind the present riverbed), XX c. Nowa Huta (Communist district biult as a separate town). If you don't like one you can emigrate to another.

Good synopsis

Gdansk. The old town and the architecture. I think Krakow is a nice town but it's overrated.

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Gdansk: Have Old Town, History, Sea, Trojmiasto park - trees, New Stadium for Euro :D, and if you want a change or need other things you are close to Sopot and Gdynia.

Białystok, of course! Great place, and on the up. No polar bears walking up Lipowa, contrary to popular belief, and a state-of-the-art opera house opening soon.

How could you quote something you love about a city that doesn't even exist yet?

It exists. They had a concert there last week. It won't be fully functioning (with the most modern scene-changing equipment in Europe, by the way) until next year, but it's nearly ready.

It's always puzzled me why this city, just two hours from WAW, has been disregarded by the rest of the country. Come and have a look for yourself.

I like Białystok, and even better... its environs. And the people living there have such a sweet accent, reminiscent of Wilno and beyond.

Białystok hahahahha there's nothing except pigs" even I can't find any airport always i need to travel warsaw

Sorry you couldn't find the airport Polly. Did you look for a long time?
Where do you live, by the way?

yeah no wonder, he was probably chasing some free-grazing herd of pigs, yelling "when will you fly?!" all day long... seriously how about getting a taxi to the airport instead

unfortuanately i have to tell you that i'm from Białystok

Warsaw: because I know it better than anywhere else in Poland, and I prefer big cities, having lived in one for most of my life. There's far more to the place than meets the eye, if you can look beyond the ugly concrete, but few bother to find out.

Wrocław: the friendliest, most easy-going city I've visited in Poland. I've only been three times, but even the flooding didn't spoil things too much. Would love to go back.

Places I really want to visit: Poznań, £odź and Białystok. Just to say I've been, really. And Katowice - mainly because I like Silesians.

Places I have no intention of visiting: Bydgoszcz. My ex is from there; and if she and her friends are anything to go by, it must be a dreadful place. Mind you, she wouldn't tell me what ends she was from, so I strongly suspect that "Bydgoszcz" actually meant "backward Kujawsko-Pomorskie village", so I may be wrong ;) Either way, I doubt that it can even come close to somewhere like Wrocław or Gdańsk.

Note that I haven't mentioned Kraków :D

Then it is indeed unfortunate that you write as you do about your home city. Haven't you seen any positive changes in the last five or ten years? The lack of a regional airport is a joke, of course, but apart from that you must agree that the city has really improved in many ways.

Wrocław for me is the best city in poland followed closely by Krakow

It's much better than it looks - put it that way.

I've never been there too but on pictures it looks very good. I'm actually suprised that you want to visit place like Białystok but not Budgoszcz.


Really?

Well I think so. I think virtually everyone can agree that it's far from an attractive city but one man's delapidated and dull can be another man's gritty and edgy sometimes? : )

Parts reminded me of a run down Paris.

I thought there was a youthfulness, a bit of a countercultural vibrancy, a friendliness - despite the negatives.

Maybe partly due to the movie scene influence & being a bit downtrodden generally?

Dunno.

9 votes for Wroclaw so far, it must be a clear winner - im not going to count the others as i cant be bothered.

only until the new place is built in wroclaw, which will be the biggest in Poland btw.

I've been there several times. Nice city, some interesting architecture and lots of green in and around the city. Walking along the Brda is a pretty stroll and there's a rynek.

I just wouldn't want to live there.

;)


My mum went to Uni there, so I kind of feel that I have to go there at some point. And I've got an interest in industrial history, so that's another reason ;)

You're laughing then!

From the UK perspective, I suppose it's a Birmingham in many ways - second city, ugly with industrial past, boring/miserable reputation, cultural armpit etc.

I found it refreshingly "street" - if you know what I mean.

IMO from a PL - UK perspective:

Warsaw = London obviously
Lodz = Birmingham
Manchester = Krakow
Brighton = Gdansk
Wroclaw = Sheffield
Poznan = Bristol
Bialystok = Newcastle
Gydnia = Bournemouth
Sopot = Weymouth

Thats it for now....

According to recent news £ódź is third now.


There are many festivals there. Unfortunately one of the most famous - Camerimage - was moved to... Bydgoszcz! :)

intersting approach, but 'comparing' isnt really the thing. ;)

i liked it best when staying longer periods in pl(and there were quite a lot) in breslau ;), maybe because of the 'germanisation' still visible there. i also like lodz a lot. warzsawa was for me always just a meet and travel place, though i visited almost all of the historical spots, esp. in old town, what the nazis left of it.

Kind of. Manchester's way more important than Birmingham (despite what Brummies think), and £ódź was (for industrial reasons) even known as "the Polish Manchester" ;)


I've always thought of Katowice as being the Polish Sheffield.


Full of pensioners? lol

I wonder where will become the "Polish Bradford" though. :0 lmao.

Exactly it all depends on the perspective, i was basing my opinions based on a share point of view from the business and historical, aesthetic aspects.