POLAND

Discovering more places, making new friends, meeting other cultures!!!

There are so many new friends, there are so many new things to learn. Another group of pen friends, comes from Poland and we are happy to have pen friends from two regions of Poland. The first group of friends comes from Gorlickie and only they can tell us if what we write here is right or wrong. Polish is a language we are not familiar with in my country Greece, how it sounds or it is read. Our only source of information at this point is wikipedia and the internet. I hope that gradually, with the exchange of letters, we will learn more about this place, country, culture and their lives. We will learn from our friends themselves. If we make mistakes of course we expect you to correct the information we upload.

So the country is Poland and this is a map of it, with its many districts.

From a first look at the map we undestand that Poland borders Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czeck Republic and Germany. Wow! That is a big country! We shouldn't forget that in the North it opens to the Baltic Sea. Warsaw is its capital. What we know about Poland is mostly connected to the history of the 20th century and the Second World War. But still we know only a very small part of it. 

Those who are familiar with classical music know about its famous classical music composers such as Frederique Chopin (1810-1859) or Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1864-1941).

Polish folk culture is really interesting but also very beautiful. Bright colours characterise their traditional costumes and beautifully embroidered flowers. The costumes slightly differ depending on the area they are from. 

 

 

Of course we should not forget traditional music and dances which people love to listen and dance in every occasion. The following dance the "Krakoviak" national dance.

The distric of Gorlice is in the south eastern part of the distric of Krakow and Poland itself with a number of 29.500 inhabitants. It is situated in two river valleys and surrounded by ranges of the Carpathian mountains.

 

The coat of arms of Gorlice is the symbol of a standing lion, holding two keys. 

What does it symbolise our dear pen friends? 

Here is a photo of the city of Gorlice.

Source of information and photos: wikipedia

Our other friends from Poland come from another district, alittle bit northern, in a place close to Lublin.

 

And this is their coat of arms or otherwise herald. We realise that both coats of arms have got a lion on them!

Only we noticed that this lion has got two tails. How strange! Another symbol, we wonder what does it stand for?

Here is a short video of our beautiful neighbourhood. Can you spot our school? Yes, that's it!  Szkoła Podstawowa.

Do you like it?

Hmmm. Read our blog carefully, there is a quiz coming soon. Let us see how much you have learnt about your pen friends countries and they are sooooo many!!!! Don't worry, it will only be fun! The more you help, the more interesting it will get!

Source of information: Wikipedia
Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange 
Travel Poland