Europe Trip 2025 - Poland - Remnants of war and urban decay

In 2025 Poland's economy is set to be the 20th biggest in the world: 

Poverty rate is in the low range for OECD countries:

Unemployment rate is one of the lowest in OECD:

The real minimum wage in PPP is decent:

The motorway network is approaching the status of being complete:

Green - complete.

The first new high speed rail (HSR, max 320 km/h operational speed, max 350 km/h design speed) is being built, with the planned opening of the first section between Warsaw and Łódź in 2032 and the rest of the 480 km Y line connecting Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań and Wrocław by 2035.

Still, there is a lot to do to. The scars of the 1939-1945 war are still visible on some buildings in Warsaw:

9 Dymińska street - bullet holes.

224 Grochowska street - see the shell explosion pattern.

21 Hetmańska street - bullet holes.

There is a lot of dilapidated buildings, uneven pavements, missing footpaths, abandoned lots. Drivers park on grass and footpaths and destroy them. It's too easy to buy alcohol (you can buy it at any time of day or night at regular food shops and even at petrol stations) and it is too cheap (you can buy 0.5 litre beer bottle for about 2.5 PLN - 1 AUD, and a 0.5 litre bottle of vodka for 25 PLN). 

There is too much graffiti and grime. Some buildings need a wash. The iconic Palace of Culture was almost white when it was built in 1955: 

1958 photo by John Shultz

 

Now it's dirty grey:

Abandoned building:

11C? Żółkiewskiego street

Katowice were a beautiful city with tree lined streets and squares on some pre-war postcards. Since the fall of communism they lost 20% of population:

Łódź lost 24% of population since the fall of communism. This city has probably the biggest task of all Polish cities to renovate, but I believe it will pull through. Its advantage is being in the middle of Poland and close to Warsaw. In 2032 it will get a high speed rail connection to Warsaw, with travel time of about 40 minutes. 

Kraków, despite growing population, and a public image of a beautiful city, there are places like these:

Kazimierz district

Wrocław, despite being a beautiful and cared for city in general, also has many ugly places:

The graffiti at the base of the building and the van parking on grass.

So many cars, and even a smokestack.  

An alcohol shop where an apartment building should be.

Cars make grime, grime stays on facades.

How are these chain spikes legal? They are at a small child's eye level.

Most of this street is for cars. No place for trees, bikes, benches.

Someone is fighting ugly graffiti with street art. The message says: Don Quixote is the patron of people fighting the plague of illegal graffiti.

Inside one of the old buildings.

Dirt and lack of maintenance.

Abandoned shop.

Abandoned historical building.

Street art being destroyed by graffiti.

Hopefully this one will get renovated soon.

Lublin, a beautiful old town, but not all of it has been restored yet:

And then when you step outside:

What is the history of this building? Is it missing its second half?

Abandoned, but secured. Hopefully, it will become something useful again soon.

Europe Trip 2025 - Wieliczka and Zakopane

Both can be done as day trips by train from Kraków, although Zakopane is much farther away and also deserves a much longer stay.

Wieliczka is only 23 minutes by train from Kraków. I've been to the Wieliczka salt mine a couple times, but it was still worth going. The mine is evolving: there are two walking tours now, there are new chambers, the guide was entertaining, there is a restaurant underground, there is a large underground mining museum included in the price if you still have strength after walking 135 meters (about 40 floors) down the stairs (not all in one go) and 3.5 kilometers of the tourist route...

Local train from Kraków. I like the ramps that cover the gap between the platform and the train.

Wieliczka Rynek PKP train station.

Choose your adventure.

Both Regis and Daniłowicz shafts are walking distance from the train station.

Daniłowicz shaft.

Underground church. You can actually attend a Sunday mass here, free entry.

Underground lake.

Lord of the Rings vibe (a statue of Kazimierz Wielki).

One of dioramas.

Zakopane is a popular tourist town at the foothills of the Tatra mountains. It is 2 hours from Kraków by the fastest train. There is a national park with many walking trails, skiing in Winter, cable car to Kasprowy Wierch which sits on the border with Slovakia, and more... Btw, the wikipedia page has outdated information - you buy tickets for the cable car in advance, for a specific time, either online or in the ticket machine. There is no need to queue for 3 hours.

On the way to Zakopane.

Zakopane main train station. You can get city operated and private buses from here. Don't be scared of private buses, especially from Kuźnice back to town - they will probably be a bit cheaper, more comfortable and may be faster than city buses - they leave when full.

Kuźnice - the starting point of the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch. I saw one of these drivers casually throw rubbish onto the street - very poor form.

Bike parking and repair station.

A monument to the Tatra couriers (guides, sportsmen) doing illegal cross border runs for the Polish underground state during German occupation and later during communist times. History is complicated - see Goralenvolk.

There is always one cable car coming down and one going up on each of the two sections.

The view from the cable car.

The sign at the top station of the cable car showing color-marked tourist trails with walk times.

The yellow trail, on the Slovak side. There are no border checks between Poland and Slovakia - both are in the Schengen zone.

A view of the cable car station.

There is a palpable feeling of animosity towards Ukrainians from some Poles. I was a witness to one incident at Kasprowy Wierch: a young man, maybe 16-20 years old, cut in line for the car coming down (a storm was coming and lots of people wanted to come down, so a line formed), people ignored it, but later he sat on a small bench inside the car, and for that he was scolded by an older man standing nearby who was a caretaker of someone in a wheelchair, and who was also pointing that the seat should be given to a woman standing nearby with a small child on her hands. I mean, when you are a young person on public transport in Poland, the custom is that you give your seat to elders, disabled, pregnant or people with small children, but because this young man spoke Russian earlier, he heard anti-Ukrainian comments too.

There was also another situation. I spoke with a lollipop man in Grodzisk who told me that once a Ukrainian bus driver got angry that he had to stop. He remembered that altercation long afterwards.

If you are in a major city in Poland, there is a very good chance that the shop assistant, cashier, bus driver, waiter, or cook is Ukrainian. I even heard a very strong eastern accent from a WW2 museum guide in Gdańsk. Ukrainian refugees got the right to work automatically in 2022, and they do work - the participation rate in the labour market in on par with Polish citizens, and is the highest among OECD countries. On the other hand, not everyone speaking Russian, or Polish with an eastern accent is Ukrainian - they could be Belarusian, Russian or even Polish repatriates from the former Soviet Union. 

A lot of the online anti-Ukrainian propaganda is from paid Russian accounts. Hopefully, when Russia loses the war, which I believe it will, the tensions will lessen.