Poland is an eastern European country on the Baltic Sea known for its medieval architecture and Jewish heritage. Warsaw, the capital, has shopping and nightlife, plus the Warsaw Uprising Museum, honoring the city’s WWII-era resistance to German occupation. In the city of Kraków, 14th-century Wawel Castle rises above the medieval old town, home to Cloth Hall, a Renaissance trading post in Rynek Glówny (market square).
Capital: Warsaw
Dialing code: +48
If you are planning to Travel Poland, Whel you need these following tips:
- The cheapest way of feeding yourself is with fruits, vegetables and bread. It’s cheaper than fast food, junk food or frozen ready meals, and small stores selling those are pretty much omnipresent.
- Do NOT get into political discussions. Seriously. The nation is pretty divided and believe me, you don’t want to be in the middle of a heated Polish political argument.
- If you’re dark skinned, expect to attract stares, especially outside major cities. Poland was an ethnically homogeneous nation since the end of the World War 2 until very recently, and even now the majority of immigrants are Ukrainians, who look just as we do, learn Polish fairly quickly and adapt easily. We, as a nation, don’t really have much experience with immigration, so we might be ethnically insensitive sometimes, but I came across numerous testimonies of dark skinned people who visited Poland and loved it, so don’t worry too much.
- Buy the ticket for public transportation before boarding. All major cities have all door boarding policies on the buses during the day and not all of them sell tickets on board. And if you board the bus without the ticket, you might get fined. You can buy tickets at the newsagent’s or in a stationary vending machine, and these are always located near train stations, airports and major tourist attractions.
- Don’t worry to ask the locals for help. Most will get out of our way to help a confused foreigner. Don’t worry too much about the language, if someone looks younger than 40 years old they usually were taught English at school.
And some pretty specific tips for Polish trains.
- Have the right train ticket. Polish railways are served by a variety of companies, state- and provincial-owned. You can easily find connections on rozklad.pkp.pl, but remember to buy a ticket for the right train, as there might be several companies running this route. Either print the schedule out and show it at the ticket office, or buy the ticket online - the online schedule has a button redirecting you to the booking site, if the connection is run by a single company.
- Go to the right platform. You won’t believe how many foreigners get lost on Polish train stations due to confusion about the track numbers and the platform numbers.
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