The ‘PW-Sat’ is one of nine satellites that will be launched on February 9 as part of a European Space Agency project which aims to test how to pull satellites back out of orbit.

Roughly the size of a Rubik’s Cube, it was built by students at Warsaw’s University of Technology in collaboration with the Space Research Centre.

 “If all goes well, this will be the first Polish satellite to ever be in space,” said Maciej Urbanowicz, one of the students involved with the project.

 “All of them are different sizes, the smallest is about the size of a phone and the largest is as big as a bus.”

Students at the Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) began the project in 2005 and delivered the satellite to the Netherlands in October 2011. The European Space Agency chose to launch PW-Sat alongside several other CubeSats aboard the continent’s new small-size rocket, Vega. Although Polish scientists have been longstanding contributors to space technology, a full satellite has never been built in Poland before.

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Kłodzko is one of the oldest towns in Poland’s Silesia region: it’s estimated to be about 1,000 years old. In that long time, it – like most towns and cities in this most south-western part of the country – has seen much. It changed ownership every 100 years or so, getting grabbed by Bohemia, Austria and Prussia; it was largely due to Kłodzko’s strategic geographical position that its neighbours were constantly tustling amongst themselves for control of it. Additionally, its river location made it an ideal town for trade, commerce and the importation of wealth via water. The town’s fortuned waxed and waned and finally, ownership of it came down firmly on the Polish side of the border, after the Second World War.

The majestic Kłodzko Fortress is not beautiful, but it is impressive: it sits at the top of a hill, overlooking the entire town. Squat, solid, and witness to a siege by Napoleon in 1807, it is the dominant feature of this lovely town, and its most recognisable landmark. Well worth a visit, it is open daily in the summer months between 9:00 and 18:00. Set aside an entire morning if you decide to go: the fortress is truly massive. How massive is it? Well, the Austrian rulers started to build it in 1662 – and the Prussians finally completed it 200 years later. It is sprawled over 17 hectares, the lower walls are 11 meters thick, the ‘thin’ upper walls are a mere four meters. In one of its courtyards, you can take abseiling lessons. It is, in fact, the largest fortress of its kind in the entire country – and in a country that had to fortify and protect itself against invaders every few deacdes, this is really saying something.
As impressive as the fortress itself is, what most visitors come for are the defensive tunnels, an extensive network deep below the fortress itself. Dating back to the Prussian era –which started in the early 18th century – the tunnels were excavated by prisoners of war. Today, there are guided 40-minute tours of the labyrinthine depths which take visitors on a 1 kilometer circuit. Claustrophobics take note: there are some places so low that you need to bend double or even crawl; note also that although there are torches and lights, much of the tour is conducted in semi-darkness. Despite the slight discomfort, the tunnel tours are a big hit with kids – and with most everyone else, really.

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While sightseeing the town of Krosno you should visit its beautiful churches. Erected in the 14th century, the Gothic parish church was reconstructed and extended in the 17th century. Its interior features several gems, including a main altar from the 16th century, baroque stalls, tombstones and sculptures. Notable for its fine stucco decorations is an early-baroque chapel, built in the years 1647-1648 by an Italian architect. Last but not least, the 15th Franciscan church is also well worth a visit. Yet another of Krosno’s treasures, one that definitely deserves a mention, is the huge bell known as “Urban”. Weighing 5 tonnes, it is one of Poland’s biggest bells.

Besides historic monuments, the town has two interesting museums – the Museum of Craftsmanship and the District Museum. In the latter visitors will enjoy a rich collection of antique paraffin lamps as well as collections related to archaeology, history and the folk culture of both Krosno and its surroundings.

Once you have seen all there is to see in Krosno, you can proceed to some distinctive places in the region of the Low Beskid and Pogórze, such as the spa towns of Rymanów and Iwonicz, the open-air museum devoted to the oil industry in the village of Bóbrka, Odkrzykon Castle and the “Prządki” stone preservation.

Did I miss something?Let us know if you have other suggestions for the must see in Krosno!

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Wolf's Lair partially destroyed bunker

The ruins of Hitler’s fortress complex deep in the woodlands of northeastern Poland  is famed as the site of an assassination attempt on Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and popularized by a 2008 film starring Tom Cruise.

The Wolf’s Lair served as one of Hitler’s military headquarters during World War Two and was destroyed by the Nazi forces as they retreated in early 1945.

The site, whose name refers to Hitler’s nickname, “Mr. Wolf”,  consisted of 80 buildings at its peak and is owned by the local forestry authority.

Hitler's Bunker at Wolf's Lair

“We are waiting for offers, but so far we have none,” local forestry official Zenon Piotrowicz said.

“The requirements are quite high because we want a new leaseholder to invest a lot, particularly in a museum with an exhibition that could be open all year long.”

The remaining ruins are open to the public, but do not attract many visitors because they are hidden deep in a forest and accessible only by treacherous dirt roads.

The fortress near the Russian border was built in 1940 and 1941 to protect Hitler and other top Nazi officials from air bombardment during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. It had its own power plant and a railway station.

The complex was heavily camouflaged deep inside a forest and surrounded by a minefield, which took 10 years to clear after the war.

Here is a great article written by Norbert, who visited Wolf’s Lair:

http://www.globotreks.com/destinations/wolfs-lair-hitlers-bunker-poland/

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There’s a site that offers virtual trips across Poland and there’s plenty to look at.

Wirtualny Kraj allows you to browse various locations across Poland and go for a (virtual) walk across many cities – both major and those less known.

You can visit museums, various tourist attractions, churches, universities and even go inside Sejm, the Polish parliament.

The site is a great way of exploring new destinations and potentially planning your next trip. So, if you find some time over the festive period, why not give it a try? The site has an English version as well.

Site has tons of pictures, movies, galleries. You can visit schools, shopping malls, town halls, restaurants.

You can take a walk through the town and see beautiful buildings, streets, gardens.

It is actually pretty cool and you can really get to know the region you are planning to visit in the future.

Take a look and let us know what are your thoughts.

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Traditionally a country of emigration, Poland has become an increasingly attractive magnet for immigrants, especially from neighboring former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Belarus, as it notches up high rates of economic growth.

Under the amnesty, economic migrants and unsuccessful asylum seekers will be able from January 1 to receive a resident card for two years that will allow them to work legally in Poland. Legalizing the immigrants will benefit the Polish economy by turning them into taxpayers.

The amnesty will apply to undocumented immigrants who arrived in Poland before December 20, 2007, and to asylum seekers who were denied refugee status before January 1, 2010, provided that they have continuously resided in Poland. The idea is to reach the largest number of foreigners in order to regularize this situation in the widest possible manner.

Most economic migrants entered Poland legally but overstayed their visas, officials say.

More than two thirds of the illegal immigrants in Poland are believed to live in Warsaw and the surrounding Mazowsze region. Some 7,000 of these people probably fulfill the criteria of the amnesty.

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Former Polish president and anti-communist leader Lech Wałęsa unveiled a statue of Ronald Reagan on an elegant Warsaw street on Monday, honoring the late U.S. president for inspiring Poland’s toppling of communism (obalenie komunizmu).

Though Reagan’s legacy is mixed in the U.S., across much of central and eastern Europe he is considered the greatest American leader in recent history for challenging the Soviet Union.

“I wonder whether today’s Poland, Europe and world could look the same without president Reagan,” Wałęsa said. “As a participant in those events, I must say that it’s inconceivable.”

The 11.5-foot bronze statue depicts a smiling Reagan in a historic moment — as he stood at a podium at Berlin’s Brandenburg gate in 1987 and said the famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

It sits across from the U.S. Embassy on Aleje Ujazdowskie, a street lined with embassies and manicured parks in the heart of the capital.

“Reagan gave us hope,” said Janusz Dorosiewicz, the president of the board of the Ronald Reagan Foundation in Poland. He conceived of the monument and struggled for six years with bureaucracy to secure the prized location for the statue.

Several statues of Reagan have gone up this year, the centennial of Reagan’s birth. Most notably, monuments to him have been erected in London and in Budapest, Hungary, and yet another is to be unveiled later this week in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

“We’ve been joking that there are so many statues that we should do a coffee table book,” said Linda Bond, a representative of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, who was in Warsaw for the ceremony.

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The Dunajec River runs through a very picturesque gorge (Przełom Dunajca), whose peaks rise over hundreds of metres above the water. The rafting is organised by local flisaks (“flisak”is an old Polish word used to refer to those who transport people or goods on rivers). They have special boats, or canoes, which take up to 20 people and travel downstream to the town of Szczawnica. On the way you pass through the Pieniny National Park with its mind-blowing views and lush nature. The scenery of jade green waters through the limestone mountains is stunning and a rafter’s dream. The Flisacy raftsmen skilfully steer their simple boats through breathtaking scenery using a single wooden pole. During the journey they regale their passengers with folkloric tales in very interesting English/Slovak, occasionally cracking the odd ethnic joke.

Cliffs, castles, forests and farmlands glide past until a lunch stop is found and a simple but superb meal of trout and sheep-milk cheese with cranberry sauce completes the surreal experience.

Sounds like a unique way to see a very unusual and relatively unknown part of ‘old Europe’ which is still very beautiful, relatively untouched and still quite traditional.

The gorge runs through the Pieniny Mountains which are in the south of Poland, near the Slovak border. In fact, part the river itself forms the border between the two countries. Views of the gorge are breath-taking and it’s definitely at its best in the summer or in early autumn, when the colours of the trees begin to change.

Have you done this rafting before? Please let us know what you thought about it?

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