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Poland certainly deserves to be visited.
1500 km within Poland, 2800 km in total. Our Poland trip has come to an end. I’ve been wanting to visit this country for a long time and I’m really glad that I finally had the chance.
In this post, I will share our general impressions of Poland because our two-week trip would be too much for a single article. The separate blog posts for the cities will of course follow.
Poland certainly deserves to be visited. This country, which has lost 20% of its population in World War II, is fascinating today.
Of course, we couldn’t see everywhere in our limited time, but the route we followed was more than enough to get a general idea.
Here is the route of our 14-day Poland trip:
I planned this route myself, after long researches on internet. To my opinion; it was the most efficient route for a two-week trip. But of course, there are still some other places on my mind. 🙂
Let me come to my general impressions:
March is still winter in Poland. In this season you should have boots, a winter coat, scarf, gloves, and plenty of handkerchiefs with you 🙂 The weather was generally around 6-7 degrees and cloudy, but we saw heavy rain and storm and even snow. Of course, the sun goes out sometimes, we spent two days in total sunshine. Also, the air is quite dry. I don’t know if the reason was its air or water, but my skin and hair became so dry that I’m in a complete moisture mask when I’m writing this article right now. 🙂
Poland is a country that has been almost totally destroyed in the war. Except for Krakow, all the cities we visited had to be rebuilt. I respect the polish people, who rebuilt their cities just after the war in such financial difficulties.
All of the city centers were rebuilt in accordance with their pre-war situations. To do this, the remaining plans, pictures, photos, and drawings were used. All the old city centers were almost like in the middle ages and most of them were rebuilt with materials rescued from the wreckage.
The buildings outside the old town centre is highly under the influence of communism.
In accordance with the original, there are cobblestone roads all over. Even in the summer, I would suggest good trekking shoes 🙂
91% of the population is Catholic and quite devout. I saw many people early in the morning on the way to work, stopping by the church and praying first and then continuing their way.
Guided City Tours in Poland
There is a great tour guide constitution called Walkative. It is free to participate in the walking tours they organize in every big city, and at the end of the tour, you pay the guide as much as you wish. All of the guides are licensed; telling interesting facts about the city and its history; also giving information about restaurants, bars, the other interesting places that are not covered in the tour. All of them have a portable cash register device and gives you the receipt for your payment, which is actually their tip, and pay tax for that. We joined these tours in Wroclaw, Krakow, Warsaw, and Gdansk. All of them were absolutely incredible fun.
Strat-up Companies in Poland
The country is almost totally flat. This makes it easy to drive on the roads and also has walking tours within the cities. The cities are quite convenient for a walk, but the San Francisco-based electric scooter sharing company named Lime is also present in many of the major cities and makes the trip very enjoyable from time to time.
We encountered the offices of many other technology companies like Lime.
Payment Systems in Poland
The use of credit cards, contactless payment by credit card and to top it all, Apple Pay and Google Pay are widely used. It was possible to make contactless payments even in small neighborhood bakeries in the small cities we have been to. This makes life easier for tourists, of course. After the troubles we had with this subject in Germany, it was a great relief for us.
Accommodation in Poland
Poland is quite affordable compared to other European countries, especially if you visit in low season like us. For 35-40 Euro per night, very comfortable and central apartments can be found.
Polish Cuisine
The Polish cuisine is quite wide but it is mainly meat and pastry. They love soups too, but just with a lot of bread 🙂 I tried to try a new Polish dish at every opportunity I found and finished the trip with +1,5 kilos 🙂
You can find all my posts about polish cuisine here!
The waiters we encountered were quite surly. We met just a few people who like their job and smile. I think this gives a little bit of an idea about the quality of life.
Even though the roads are quite straight, the drivers make the traffic dangerous. They perform really dangerous manoeuvres that are difficult to predict. Both city and urban traffic are distressed in this respect.
Polish Roads and Alcohol Controls
I’ve heard that alcohol control is very often, but we have never come across one until the last day since we stayed in central locations. On the way back, we passed two separate alcohol controls early in the morning, at 9:30 a.m. when we enter the highway and around 11 when we leave it.
The road quality of the new highways is really good but generally, they are paid. It was quite difficult for us to pay a fee to the motorway after a couple of years with free German highways.
The urban roads are quite damaged and ideal for those with kidney stones 🙂
Traffic in Poland
The concept of respect and priority for the pedestrians in the public traffic that you see in Western Europe is still developing in Poland. You may experience a crush on a zebra crossing.
There is a penalty for crossing the red light as a pedestrian, and interestingly almost everyone obeys this rule.
The drivers are quite impatient while at the traffic lights. They hoot in the very first second of the green light.
It is forbidden to drink alcohol on the street. I am very surprised to encounter such a ban in a country that produces and drinks alcohol that much.
Poland Posts will continue…
These are my general impressions. If you want to share your thoughts and experiences about Poland or wonder about something that I didn’t mention here, you can write in the comments 🙂 I would be glad to have feedbacks!
