>>10230683Honest: So I was in Gniezno and Poznan and some school somewhere there with the US Air Force a couple years ago for a military exchange and whatnot deal. This might be two posts, so buckle up.
Poland is a strikingly beautiful country with an old world feel mixed with the new, but not too much. Like slab style Soviet gray housing with a McDonalds next door. (Polish McDonalds is NOTHING like the shithole McDonalds "restaurants" in the US.
In Gniezno and Poznan, they still used coal to heat their homes and the night time has a very distinct smell that was actually very nice. Some people we using garbage to heat, but mostly it was coal. A very pleasant atmosphere.
Restaurants were incredible in both. Pirogis in this little place we found that was weirdly in a basement, but was an incredible restaurant we all called "Pirogi Dungeon" will continue to be one of my favorite places to eat on the planet.
Now for the people: Extraordinarily genuine and decent people. Hardworking. Smoke like fucking chimneys though. I swear the Polish men must own stock in Marlboro because holy fuck everyone chain smokes and drinks like fish. The women tend to be extraordinarily beautiful, like astonishingly so. The men tend to look like they're easily ten to fifteen years older than they are, probably from hard work, drinking and smoking constantly. I was 35 when I went and all the women accused me of being twenty.
The Polish people really got fucked over by the Germans and then by the fucking Russians and it shows. Holy shit does it show. The general hate for Russians in Poland is so prevalent that it is almost a tangiable thing. That's not to say that it is without cause, quite the opposite, but wow. Polish HATE Russians. It might be why Poland is the only country in Europe with a functioning and relevant military.
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