Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8
Poland
by Mark Baker
P
oland is coming into its own as a vaca-
tion destination. During the first years after
the 1989 democratic revolutions in East-
ern Europe, it seemed Prague and Buda-
pest grabbed all the headlines. Now,
travelers are looking for something farther
afield, and with the advent of budget air
carriers in Europe, travel to countries like
Poland has never been cheaper or easier.
For some, a trip to Poland is an oppor-
tunity to reconnect with their Polish
roots, a chance, perhaps, to sample some
of their grandmother's pierogies in their
natural setting. Others are attracted to
the unique beauty of Kraków, which has
rightfully joined Prague and Budapest as
part of the trinity of must-sees in central
Europe. Still others are drawn by Poland's
dramatic and often tragic history. The
absolute horrors of World War II, fol-
lowed by the decades of Communist rule,
have etched painful and moving monu-
ments in the landscape. No country, with
the possible exception of Russia, suffered
as much as Poland during World War II.
Millions of Poles, and nearly the entire
prewar Jewish population of 1.2 million,
were killed in fighting or in concentration
camps. The deeply affecting and sobering
thoughts on seeing the camps at Auschwitz
and Birkenau, near Kraków, will last a
lifetime. Nearly equally moving are the
stories of the
L
ód
3
and Warsaw Jewish
ghettos, or the story of the Warsaw upris-
ing of 1944, when the city's residents rose
up courageously and futilely against their
Nazi oppressors.
There are many uplifting moments of
history, too. In Warsaw, the entire Old
Town has been rebuilt brick by brick in
an emotional show of a city reclaiming its
history. In Gda
^
sk, you can visit the ship-
yards where Lech Wa
l7
sa and his Solidar-
ity trade union first rose to power to
oppose Poland's Communist government
in 1980. It was the rise of Solidarity that
helped to bring down Communism in
Poland, and arguably sparked the revolu-
tions that swept the region in 1989.
And Poland is not only history. To the
south, below Kraków, rise the majestic
High Tatras, one of Europe's most starkly
beautiful ranges. To the north, the Baltic
seacoast, with its pristine beaches,
stretches for miles. The northeast is cov-
ered with lakes that run to the border-
lands with Lithuania and Belarus. In the
east of the country, you'll find patches of
some Europe's last-remaining primeval
forest, and a small existing herd of indige-
nous bison that once covered large parts
of the Continent.
1 Getting to Know Poland
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Poland is a mostly flat, sprawling country, covering some 312,000 sq. km (around
100,000 sq. miles). Its historical position, between Germany in the west and Russia in
the east, has caused no end of hardship. Following World War II, the country's borders
