Essential Information & cultural peculiarities

Officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of sixteen regions known as voivodeships.

Landscapes

Poland has everything: beautiful coastal beaches and dunes, lake districts carved out by glaciers, plains as flat as a board, lush forests, mountains old and new, including the only Table Mountains in Europe, and even a desert region.

Poland is a low-lying country? Yes, if seen from the centre, the flat Mazovia region, which, although its landscapes are monotonous, offers hidden riches within its forests. The forests, woods and groves are penetrated by naturally beautiful, unregulated rivers. These are plentiful in islands and old river beds, like the Vistula near Czerwinsk, or enveloped between steep banks like the Bug at Drohiczyn.

Water can be found in abundance in the plains of eastern Poland. The Narew, Europe's only braid-shaped river, spreads wide near Bialystok and splits into branches like the Amazon. Meanwhile the Biebrza near Goniadz turns the whole terrain into a succession of marshes which continue for many miles.

The north of Poland is dominated by sand – fine, clean and more beautiful than that found in the Mediterranean. The wide Baltic beaches run beneath high cliffs and along spits, and behind them, the sand forms dunes. Some of these are shifting dunes, like those near Leba, which resemble a real desert!

Between the Baltic coast and the rest of the country is a belt of lakes. The Drawskie, Kashubian, Suwalki and Mazurian lake districts, the last containing the largest Polish lakes, Sniardwy and Mamry, are a legacy from the glaciers.

The last ice age ended just 10–12,000 years ago, so the carved shape of the landscape is still distinct. The best proof of the power of the glaciers is the Suwalki Landscape Park, where you can find hills in the shape of pyramids, terraces, cirques and hanging valleys.

Poland is bordered to the south by a belt of mountains. These include relatively new ranges like the Carpathians and the Tatras, but there are also ancient formations which go back to the beginnings of the Earth's history 4.5 billion years ago. These are the Sudeten mountains, which have been eroded, risen again, and even been subjected to the action of volcanoes. They include Europe's only Table Mountains, exceptional for the fact that they were built up not in folds, but in plates made of horizontal layers of sandstone.

Climate

The variable weather and its frequent anomalies, such as a 28-degree fall in temperature over 24 hours or a fall of more than 17 degrees in January, are the fault of the climate. The north and west of Poland enjoy a moderate maritime climate, with mild winters and fairly wet summers, while eastern parts have a continental climate with harsh winters and hot dry summers.

The caprices of the Polish weather are due not so much to the mild climate as to its transitory nature. What does this mean? Above our heads, masses of humid air from over the Atlantic clash with dry air from the interior of the continent. The result? A sky covered with clouds for 60–70% of the year (most often in November, least often in September).

It rains... especially in summer. The rainiest month is June, while the least rainy is February. The country's driest region is Kujawy, while the rainiest is the Tatra mountains.

The Silesian plain is the warmest place on the map of Poland. Here the mild winter stays just two months, while summer lasts for 100 days. Poland's coldest spot is Wizajny in the Suwalki region. Here the average January temperature is minus 4.5 °C, and the winter continues mercilessly for four months. In 1928 the snow lasted until June!

The Polish seasons have little to do with those marked on the calendar. The "early spring" lasts for a month from the end of February in the west or from late March around Suwalki. Spring comes to Poland from the west – the temperature rises and plants begin vegetating. The warm summer appears as early as May. After four months it is chased away by autumn. Around mid-September, an Indian summer begins – it is warm and sunny, although the trees are already shedding their leaves.

Short, grey days herald the "early winter". Six weeks later, winter proper arrives from the north-east. In Mazovia, snow falls for 30–40 days a year, while the Tatra mountains have as many as 145 days of snowfall. But when the east wind changes and blows from the west, it is a sign that spring is again on its way...