Webber's World

The new King of cool, superlatives don’t do Katowice justice

Katowice’s main rynek is as far you get from the characteristic Polish square, a point underscored by the presence of a so-called beach – in actuality, a water feature fringed by sun loungers and some great, big palm trees plonked all around them. Alex Webber/TFN

Once unwanted and unloved, Katowice has gone through a renaissance and good things are happening, as TFN’s Alex Webber found out. 

Arriving in Białystok, I suddenly remembered what living was all about. I wanted to kiss the ground

Having spent two months hermetically sealed inside my Warsaw apartment, it was to Białystok that I headed to celebrate the easing of the lockdown. And I left with no regrets.

Zamość: Shortlisted as one of the seven wonders of Poland

The renaissance pearl that is the Old Town remains as striking and fresh as the day it was finished: a place of colonnaded passageways and shaded, leafy courtyards, it all leads to a mesmerizing square that stops you in your tracks.

With an authenticity that’s lacking elsewhere, Lublin has remained true to its soul

Generously filled with dramatic archways, lavish churches, semi-secret corners and revamped tenements, it’s enough to just wander without aim and let the hours slip away.

Caught red-handed between the past and the future, Praga is a sensory explosion of noise and colour

This was where angels feared to tread. But changes have been meteoric. If Praga was once a byword for abandonment and decay, today it has become a calling card for the very concept of urban regeneration.

Kraków, where my love affair with Poland truly began

Inside a bar thick with smoke, babble, and antique booby traps, I lost myself in the cacophonous atmosphere, gazing helplessly at a barmaid in a tight tiger print top. I’d fallen in love: with her, with Kazimierz, with Kraków and with Poland.

Welcome to Osowa Sień. Welcome to The Meaning of Life!

Attracting a specific clientele defined not by their wealth or success, but rather their attitude to life, it is a place of openness, creativity and boundless good times.

Under-the-radar? No way. Just call Wrocław wonderful instead

Finding Wrocław listed on TripAdvisor as an Emerging Destinations, Webber says the inclusion of one of his favourite city’s in Poland is ludicrous. “Under-the-radar? Only if you’ve spent the last two decades in a Kentucky jail,” he scoffs.

Frozen (literally) in time, Sioło Budy is a magic little snapshot of off-grid existence

True, the Kardashians would struggle to adapt, but says TFN’s Alex Webber, this “village within a village” is exactly the place to go to enjoy the wilds of Poland in their rawest form.

Is Gdynia cool? Yes it is. But it’s also so much more

The energy that initially seduced me is still there, and if anything has grown all the stronger. Manifesting itself in a raft of top eateries and alternative hangouts, these have been ably complimented by a slew of modern attractions that range from the compelling Emigration Museum to a funicular cable car with vertiginous views of all that’s around.

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