Exploring Poland

The brutalist architecture of the Soviet era towers over the Reagan Roundabout in Wroclaw, which itself sits on an old Nazi era runway. Welcome to Poland, there’s a lot to unpack. 1/160s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Splitting my trip to Berlin in two was a weekend away in Poland visiting friends from university. With me being in eastern Germany and they in Wroclaw in western Poland I was able to easily get a, not entirely unreasonable, Flixbus from one city to another. With vast networks of roads across the continent, coaches like this are much more popular than they are here in the UK. Sadly, if you are expecting German punctuality, you’ll be disappointed. Both legs of my trip saw delays, no good if you expect to actually make another connecting bus (thankfully this wasn’t me), but otherwise I did save a great deal of money over taking the train.

Krakow Old Town is a popular tourist trap for good reason. 1/800s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

You can’t miss the towering St Mary’s Basilica which is Krakow Old Town’s main attraction. 1/500s 50mm F5.6 ISO 500.

The Indoor Market leaves you with no excuse to come home without souvenirs. 1/200s 50mm F1.8 ISO 500.

Only being in Poland for a couple of days meant I had to use my time wisely and thankfully with local guides I had a great time exploring not just Wroclaw but also the ancient and historic city of Krakow. If I am being honest Poland was not a country I knew a great deal about before travelling there. I didn’t even know how to say hello, and despite seeing the country pop up on the news on-and-off for a decade or more I knew very little about its culture and architecture. My only other foray into the former Soviet bloc was the much poorer Bulgaria. To make things more confusing (which goes well with the nation’s history) many different areas have been parts of various different kingdoms and empires over the centuries, giving each corner of the country a different presence. What I would see in the West and South would be quite different to the East and the North.

Walking the streets. 1/1600s 50mm F1.8 ISO 500.

Whilst waiting for the walking tour to begin I decided to document Krakow’s feathered residents. 1/500s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

The free walking tour from Walkative is a great way to learn more about the rich history of the city. 1/1600s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

Greeting me as I crossed the border from Germany were a seemingly endless number of agricultural fields, it’s much lower population density in comparison to the UK becoming immediately evident. Many places you pass by also show signs of a great deal of construction, a process that has been ongoing non-stop since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. Having no point of reference from a previous visit, it’s hard to appreciate just how much has been built and transformed in less than two decades. Being perhaps the biggest economic success story, it was a world away from Bulgaria that still languishes as one of the poorest nations in Europe.

A great example of one of the numerous cobbled streets. It’s not great for cars but it certainly looks pretty and adds to the atmosphere. 1/160s 50mm F4.0 ISO 100.

The famous ‘dragon’ bone that hangs outside Krakow Cathedral and relates to the foundational myth of the city. The original owner was more likely to be a whale. 1/2000s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

Whilst it is easy to get wrapped up in the big stuff, sometimes it’s good to stop and appreciate the small details in the architecture. 1/160s 50mm F2.8 ISO 100.

Both Wroclaw and Krakow exhibited a mixed architectural landscape, but with an emphasis from different eras. Wroclaw had prior to 1945 been the German city of Breslau and had in large parts been devastated in the final months of the war. In fact, if you look carefully as you walk through the streets, you’ll see the occasional display board that shows a photo of what the area you are standing on looked like in 1945. Poignant as the scenes of blasted rubble must represent what some parts of Ukraine look like today, though it demonstrates that what was destroyed can also be rebuilt. Thankfully much of Wroclaw did survive, including some very impressive churches, and these elements mix in with German, Soviet and modern buildings that represent the changes this city has seen over the past century.

Krakow Cathedral which is part of the vast Krakow Castle complex. 1/250s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Krakow Castle stands above the city on the banks of the river Vistula. 1/80s 50mm F4.0 ISO 100.

On the way back from Wroclaw we stopped off to wander around the streets of Gliwice at night, I spotted this lone guitar player who was strumming away in the warm autumn evening. 1/100s 50mm F1.8 ISO 250.

Alfresco dining out on cobble streets seems to be a common pass time in urban Poland. 1/100s 50mm F1.8 ISO 250.

Krakow’s history goes back even longer, some fourteen hundred years, and whilst it was historically sacked by the Mongols back in the 13th century, it mercifully escaped relatively unscathed from the Second World War. It’s a city almost entirely intact with its impressive medieval old town and grand castle complex that towers above the rest of the city on the banks of the river Vistula. Walking around Krakow really opened my eyes to the rich culture and history that Poland contains, as well as its deep Christian heritage. There are churches just about everywhere you look. The city’s Jewish Quarter represents another important part of the city’s history. Though sadly whilst the buildings are still here, most of the people are not. For those who went to delve deeper into this sad part of history, this is where Oskar Schindler’s famous enamel factory lies, though I didn’t have time to visit.

The German-built Centennial Hall is the central element in an attractive park. 1/200s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Running around the water feature in the park is this leafy Pergola. 1/100s 50mm F5.6 ISO 320.

A welcome surprise for me was this stunning Japanese garden which was a perfect place to visit on a sunny autumn day. 1/100s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100 Two Photo Panoramic.

A cow sticker refers to an entertaining local story of a cow escaping from the nearby university. 1/1600s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

Driving back from Krakow we took a detour through the nearby city of Katowice. With its brand-new roads and skyscrapers, it was worlds away from where we had just been and it displayed a level of wealth that people don’t readily associate with former Soviet countries. Another sign of the changing times and both experiences occurred within an hour’s drive.

Though you’d never know where this shot was taken just by looking at it, I love the soft tones in the grasses. 1/100s 50mm F1.8 ISO 100.

Much like the UK the city’s underpasses are decorated with a large amount of graffiti. 1/30s 50mm F5.6 ISO 320.

Like many old cities, Wroclaw sits on a major river. In this case the River Oder. 1/400s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

My second (and final) full day gave me the chance to explore Wroclaw in more detail, including seeing the university where my friend was studying. There was also a big surprise for a Japanophile such as myself, as the city has a large and impressive German era Japanese garden, part of the Centennial Exhibition and unsurprisingly sits near to the German-built Centennial Hall. The German influence is much stronger in Wroclaw due to it being a part of Prussia or the German Empire for two centuries before being transferred back to Poland. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union and as an independent nation, Poland has been steadily trying to reassert its own culture. An obvious sign of that on the streets on Wroclaw are the growing numbers of metal dwarfs that pay tribute to the cities anti-communist activities in the 1980s.

Look out for the many dwarfs that are dotted around Wroclaw. The theme of each one is often related to the building they are next to. In this case an old prison. 1/80s 50mm F5.6 ISO 200.

The gilded interiors of churches almost leave you wondering where to look. 1/20s 50mm F5.6 ISO 1600 Three Photo Panoramic.

The craftmanship (and money) that went into building this organ is simply phenomenal. 1/10s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Even small finds like this courtyard are worth paying attention to. 1/15s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Despite being in Poland for a very short period of time, I do feel I got a good crash course into the nation’s historical and cultural complexity. As I endured another few hours on the bus back to Berlin, I certainly had plenty to think about and I look forward to exploring more in future visits. If you haven’t been before then I highly recommend going. Even if history isn’t your thing, the beer is mercifully cheap.

Like something straight out of Hansel and Gretel - the Museum of Bourgeois Art which also functions as the town hall. 1/50s 50mm F5.6 ISO 100.

Wroclaw Cathedral is another example of how tall they liked to build religious buildings in this part of the world. 1/125s 50mm F4.0 ISO 100.

Get up close and you might spot the WW2 era shell that remains lodged into the wall to this day. 1/60s 50mm F4.0 ISO 100.

If you have enjoyed this blog then please consider leaving a tip below.