Hello all, I just booked a flight with 2 friends to Katowice for the first weekend of November. We really don't know anything about that city and we booked that flight because.. Ideally we would like to find a good mix in between doing touristy stuff museum, sight seeing, etc and partying good coffee place, restaurant, pub, live music, places the locals go, etc.
We don't speak a word of polish even if I'll try to learn some basics sentences, and I'll be pretty much the only one with a good grasp of english. Will that be an issue? Is it considered impolite? What should I do to avoid any cultural faux-pas? All of us have done quite a few travels in our life and we always try to avoid being the douchey tourists and we'd love to mix and interact with people from the area. Anyway please share your experiences and good tips, places we should avoid as well, really anything you think should relevant to our short journey.
OP mtth 1 1 17 Sep 3. Oh Matt, that's the single worst, most miserable weekend to be in Poland ;. Monitor 14 1, 28 Aug 5. Here is nice 8min promotional video of Katowice. It highlights places of interest in the city: in Polish, but has nice shots. JimFoster 3 3 28 Aug 6. I was in Katowice on Monday with my ex girlfriend. The hotel EuroResidence was fine. We had spent the previous 2 weeks in Wroclaw, Krakow and Kalwaria.
Katowice is like Blade Runner. We went in the centre so Maja 3, Rynek, Plac Wolnosci. We were looking for some bars mentioned in Rough Guide like Bellmer, Archibar. There were closed for good or relocated. Couldn't find Hipnoza or La Grotta for food. In the Rynek there were broken sewer pipes because of rebuilding.
You have massive incredible buildings like Teatr Slaski. So we couldn't find any bars or restaurants open only McDonalds and Subway in the rebuilt train station. There were homeless alcoholics, hooligans with german shepherds. And then we saw this 70 year old man with this beautiful 20 year old blonde Ukrainian prostitute in hot pants and a vest top. He was taking her to Krakow on the PKP train. And there were other girls in there selling themselves. On top of that I've got the cold from hell.
