Destination: Poland

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK INFORMATION

Travel Literature

You will get far more out of your visit if you read up on the country before you go. There’s no shortage of English-language books about Poland, though most deal with language, culture and customs rather than actual travel experiences.

In The Bronski House, accomplished travel writer Philip Marsden accompanies exiled poet Zofia Hinska on a return to the village, now in Belarus, where she spent her childhood. It is a magical evocation of life among the landed gentry of eastern Poland between the wars.

Holocaust Journey: Travelling In Search of the Past, by Martin Gilbert, is the thought-provoking diary of the famous 20th-century historian’s travels to Holocaust sites such as the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz and Treblinka, interwoven with the stories of survivors and their experiences.

The account of a 2400km walk through Germany, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine and Romania, The Gypsy In Me, by Ted Simon, begins as a tale of travelling through the aftermath of communism in Eastern Europe, and ends as a fascinating and moving personal quest for family origins.

For further background literature, look out for bookshops specialising in Eastern Europe; they exist in major cities around the world that have significant Polish communities. You can also contact Hippocrene Books (%718-454 2366; 171 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA) for its catalogue. It has a variety of books on Poland ranging from guidebooks and dictionaries to various translations of Polish literature.

Travelling to Poland?
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