View Guestbook
|
|
Sign Guestbook View Guestbook |
||
Welcome to Poland!
Home of my Polish relatives!
| Poland is approx 120, 728 square miles, and is bordered by the Baltic Sea and Russia in the north, the Carpathian mountains and the Czech and Slovak Republics in the south, Germany in the west, and Belorus, Lithuania and the Ukraine in the east. The Vistula river runs through the middle of the Polish capital city of Warsaw. Warsaw was made the capital city by King Zygmund III Wasa, in 1586. The main attractions of the city are the Royal Castle, Wilanow Palace, the Cathedral of St. John, where some of the worst fighting in the Warsaw Uprising took place. Prior to 1586, Krakow was the capital of Poland. The city houses the country's oldes university, Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364. Krakow was abandoned during the second world war, so the city would not be bombed, so it was the only Polish city to remain undamaged. After all, why would someone bomb a city where there are no people? The Bialowieza Forest, located in Poland's far east, is the only natural, undamaged forest left in Europe, and is home to bison, wildcats, lynxes, wolves, beavers, deer and eagles. The eagle is the national symbol of Poland, and the Committee for the Protection of Eagles in Poland, study the approx 350 pairs of eagles in the Bialowieza Forest very carefully, and look after the babies. Almost all Poles have Slavic origines, almost all speak the national language, Polish, with some regional differences; almost all are Catholic (by the way, the current Pope is Polish.) Of course there are some minority groups: The Ukranians, Bellorussians, Lithuanians, Germans, all from the neighbouring countries; the Jews, and the Gorale, who are an inderpendant Polish highlanders who live in the southwest mountain regions. The unit of currency used in Poland is the "zloty." This is really supposed to be pronounced as "zwoty" because the "l" is supposed to have a little line through it. How confusing? Poland was one of the only nations in history to have a female king (the other was ancient Egypt). In some books, Jadwiga who was the ruler of Poland from 1384-1399 is usually referred to as 'queen,' but she was officially "King Jadwiga!" 3 times in history, Poland was divided between her neighbours, at one point in history, Poland was removed from the map altogether, and it stayed that way for 123 years. Poland wasn't restored to the map of Europe, until the end of the first world war. There is a street in Warsaw called "Kubus Puhatek" or Winnie the Pooh" Street because the children wanted the street to be named as such! How funny! (info from "Poland, Land of Freedom Fighters" the "Cultures of the World series" and off the top of my head) |
| This is Maciej, Bozena, Asia, and Ania's house, (and Zosia's too sort of.) Actually it is a mansion and is one of the poshest houses in the poshest part of Warsaw. Basically, if you won Tattslotto, you'd move there. He has fabric walls his house. Isn't that cool? His house is soooo cool, that it is on a real postcard. I think that is something to show off about, so I do. |  |  |
Back row from left to right: Zosia, Hendryk, Maciej, Hanka. Zosia is my 3rd cousin, and Maciej is her husband. Hanka is my great aunt, and Hendryk is her husband. Front row from left to right: Maciej with Ania, and Bozena with Asia. Maciej is my second cousin, and Bozena is his wife. Asia and Ania are their 2 kids. My other second cousin, Mikah (don't ask me the spelling, it varies) lives in France. |
| To use a currency converter, use Yahoo! To see pictures of this country's paper money, go to Ron Wise's Paper Money Homepage For info and a million links about Poland, look at Edward Pawlicki's Poland Page To see the language makeup of Poland, visit the Ethnologue. For a page showing the holidays of Poland, look at the Global Calender You'll have to surf about for the Poland page, as I couldn't put a direct link. |
Want to get in touch with me?
Like my page?
Email me at rosie_0801@yahoo.com
Goodbye to Hanka, Hendryk, Bozena,
Maciej, Zosia, Maciej, Asia (pronounced Usher)
and Ania (pronounced Unia.)
