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I start with a a few general pargraphs, if you are only after my list of must-sees, skip to WHY THE HELL GO THERE OR SHORT INTRODUCTION TO POLISH ATTRACTIONS section.

Geography

Poland is situated between the southern shores of the Baltic and the Carpathians in the south It borders Germany, Czech and Slovak republics, Russia, Lithuania, Bielarus and Ukraine (plus Sweden accross the sea).

It has varied landscape with 500 km of sandy beach on the Baltic; a belt of post-glacial lakes doted amongst rolling countryside; pretty boring flat middle; and hills and mountains (Carpathians and Sudenten Mountains) in the south.

People

The population of Poland consists of almost 40 million people; absolute majority of them Poles, 95% of them declaring Roman Catholicism as their religion. Polish religion is less of a spiritualy felt deep conviction and more a ritual and a social cohesive. Poles go to church, respect the Pope but then do what they want anyway. The picturesque value of Polish religiosity is quite high, especially in the countryside and during traditional feast days.

As opposed to the UK; you would find that the most civilised places are cities and the most primitive, old-fashioned and still grey and grimy are many small towns/villages. However, you are not terribly likely to come accross those places as the touristy ones have tarted up considerably and the old-fashionedness you might encounter would be of the nice and cosy rather than grey and grimy type.

Language

The language spoken in Poland is Polish, which is a Slavonic language, closely related to Czech and Slovak; and less so to Russian. They use latin alphabet with addition of few new letters and some double-letter combinations assigned to specific sounds.Your efforst to say anything in Polish will be greatly encouraged and appreciated as Poles are inordiantely proud of how difficult their language is.

Climate and when to go

The climate is a sea climate in the north/north-west to continental climate in the south. By British standars Poland has VERY cold winters - although January averages are hardly below zero; the actual temperatures often drop below -5; and -10 or less is not uncommon. So, go in the winter if you want to ski, otherwise don't. The summers are similar to the English and definitely warmer than Scottish. Springs and Autumns are bit like in England, with Spring things (flowers, leaves on trees etc) happening perhaps a month later and November/December being the most miserable months.

Most Poles take

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