Nearly exactly one month earlier, in March, I had already visited and thoroughly photographed both Warsaw and Poznan. But I wasn't quite ready to be done with Poland - the country's biggest tourism draw, the city of Krakow, was on my itinerary in late April. I had planned a visit with two American friends, and it would be my 2nd-to-last trip away from Germany before my program came to end with a huge two-week blitz through six European countries!
But back to Poland. I hopped on a bus in April and cruised from Berlin to the Polish city of Wrocław, where I spent a short couple of hours before continuing on to Krakow. Wrocław, Poland's fourth largest city, feels like more of a humble student town than anything, but it hosts one of Europe's biggest market squares, which is where I spent all of my time. The city belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany before finally becoming Polish in 1945. Its name is also incredibly difficult to pronounce - phonetically, it looks something like "VROH-ts-wahv." Good luck.
Wrocław has recovered well from World War II, as it was nearly 70% destroyed after the Germans unsuccessfully tried to fight off Soviet attacks for five months in 1945. Let's take a look at how pretty the city center looks these days.
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But back to Poland. I hopped on a bus in April and cruised from Berlin to the Polish city of Wrocław, where I spent a short couple of hours before continuing on to Krakow. Wrocław, Poland's fourth largest city, feels like more of a humble student town than anything, but it hosts one of Europe's biggest market squares, which is where I spent all of my time. The city belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany before finally becoming Polish in 1945. Its name is also incredibly difficult to pronounce - phonetically, it looks something like "VROH-ts-wahv." Good luck.
Wrocław has recovered well from World War II, as it was nearly 70% destroyed after the Germans unsuccessfully tried to fight off Soviet attacks for five months in 1945. Let's take a look at how pretty the city center looks these days.
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| The market square was first built up in 1241 |
