"Paul's Poland Page" a Poland Travel Page by Paul2001

My trip to Poland left me with somewhat mixed emotions. This as less to do with Poland and the Poles than it does with just dumb luck. As any Pole will testify, the weather in September and October of 2002 was basically dreadful. During most of my trip the weather was both cold and rainy especially while I was in Gdansk and Krakow. For the most part this made wandering the streets of the Polish cities was rather uncomfortable. Naturally it did not make hiking in Tatras Mountains a pleasant experience either. Still I did get some sun in these wonderful mountains.
The weather aside I still found Poland to a generally engaging country well worth a visit if you are travelling to this part of Europe. Poland is full of great castles to explore, fantastic mountain scenery, and stunning town squares to laze away in(if it not raining). To my surprise Poland has some of the best baroque architecture in Europe which makes several of the town squares (or ryneks) to be very pleasant and colourful eye candy.
Poland is also now full of great places to eat which I understand was not always the case. Only recently have so many restaurants opened up to accommadate the tourists that now flock to the country. Finally in comparison to Western Europe Poland is quite affordable with dinners rarely costing more than $10.00 or hotel rooms over $50.00. It is a great place to travel on a budget.
On the negative side I had other problems in Poland other than the weather. Amongst the 30 years of age plus crowd there is very little English which can be a problems if you lack the patients to deal with people by pointing. The art galleries
are rather uneven affairs. Some like Poznan's National Gallery have a decent collection of European and Polish art. But other galleries are overrated and to put it bluntly, boring. A lot of this may have to do with the quality of Polish art which is not always up to international standards. Perhaps this is why these galleries seem to suffer from a paucity of visitors. Finally I was somewhat disappointed by some of the Gothic houses of worship in Poland. This is surprising because Poland has some wonderful Gothic secular buildings. However Poland has some of the ugliest Gothic churches that I have ever seen.
I do not think that these negatives should dissuade you from visiting Poland if the opportunity arises. It is on a whole a very pleasant country, and if the weather holds up I am certain that you will have a great time.