My first visit to Poland

Hi guys, just wanted to share a little bit about my recent experience visiting Poland. My itinerary was hastily planned in a single morning with very little research, so unfortunately I missed some of the standout destinations of northern Poland, like Malbork and Gdansk. Still, the towns I visited left me impressed with the urban planning here. In America, we have thousands of little private lawns, but only a handful of public green spaces. Most people get in their car and drive to the park to take a walk, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of walking. Here, everything is public space, and anywhere you want to go, there is a pedestrian or bicycle path to take you there. And you guys sure walk fast! I even got passed up by grandmas on more than one occasion.

The mild climate makes Poland perfect as a midsummer getaway, in my opinion. Being able to sleep without the drone of an air-conditioning unit is very pleasant. Some of the wetter forests are plagued with mosquitoes, but usually you can enjoy a walk in the woods here without sweating or being bothered by insect pests.

The unexpected challenge on this visit was the language. Coming from Southeast Asia, I thought the language barrier here would be no big deal, given that Poland is rated high for English proficiency…but it was a big deal. Most people over 30 that I met here were unwilling to speak English, and became easily exasperated when I did not understand what they were saying in Polish. Some older people approached me in a friendly manner, but when I said "sorry I'm American, I don't speak Polish", they turned away without another word. Communicating with property managers on the phone was also difficult on multiple occasions. One night I had to sleep on a park bench despite having a prepaid reservation, after an inebriated property manager in Plock refused to engage with me and eventually quit picking up his phone for anyone.

Another challenge I faced as a visitor is laundry. For all the coins in circulation, you'd think coin-op laundromats would be in every town, but I did not encounter a single laundromat in all my travels. Evidently everyone washes their laundry at home here, and packs their entire trip's worth of clothes along for the journey. Multiple times I asked to use a property's washing machine and was refused access. Handwashing works to freshen up small items, but by this point I've been carrying the same pair of dirty jeans around for nearly three weeks!

Where Poland shines for the traveler – public transport. The comprehensiveness of transport service is very impressive. The sheer variety of train routes and schedules available is almost incomprehensible to an American, where a major city like Houston is served by one solitary train per day. Before arriving I wasn't aware of services like PolRegio, which offer numerous local trains covering specific regions of the country. It takes a while to figure out which four or five apps you need to download to get your tickets, but once you do, the whole country is at your fingertips.

Altogether, fifteen days of travel, covering over 1000 km and stopping by 16 different towns, cost me 2568 PLN, or 171 PLN per day. Of that, lodging was 59% (109 PLN per night), food was 27% (46 PLN per day), and transport was 11% of total spending (18 PLN average for each leg of the journey). While seeing a cross-section of the country was my goal on this trip, one can live better by picking a place to stay and sticking around for a few days. I would definitely consider a return visit in the future, after putting some effort into learning the language basics.