If you are in the Center of Europe you most likely would want to visit the lovely land of Poland that lies there and in between Germany and Ukraine. Close at hand and to the south of its borders lays Czechoslovakia, while Russia and the Baltic Sea lie to its north. It joined the European Union in the year 2004 and most of the businesses in Poland are now under the Central Authority of the EU. The currency is also the Euro which has replaced its old currency and the country has also seen a number of reforms taking place regarding its trade as well as commerce.

The history of Poland is both interesting as well as turbulent and the native term for Poland is Polska, which country actually came into existence about a thousand years ago with the formation of Poland by its Piast dynasty. The Poland of that time went through a golden period thanks in no small measure to the Jagiellonian dynasty around about the end of the sixteenth century. At that time, Poland enjoyed its best period and was considered the richest as well as most powerful regions of Europe.

The Second World War saw the decimation of Poland that left it as a penniless country that, until 1989, adopted the communist way of life that saw communist parties from Russia ruling Poland. Today, a democratic country, Poland is far better than what it was after the Germans left it at the end of the Second World War. At present, it enjoys free trade as well as a thriving economy that is flourishing in the European Union and Poland today is certainly a much reformed country as compared to its communist past. It is now a new country strongly marching ahead in economic as well as political terms.

Warsaw is the capital and it is also the biggest city as far as population is concerned having more than 1.7 million inhabitants. Other cities of significance in Poland include Lodz, Krakow as well as Gdansk. You will find the terrain in this country as being mainly flat though there are also some mountainous regions near its southern borders. The majority of the inhabitants of Poland are native Poles, which are quite different to the other European countries that have multi cultured societies, and only two percent of the Polish population is non-Poles of which there are many Germans, Ukrainians, Byelorussians as well as Lithuanians.

Though it lies in the center of Europe, it does not get quite the same type of tourist arrivals as its neighbors Czechoslovakia and Hungary, though it is still an attractive tourist destination especially if you want to get away from the fast-food joints that are so predominant in the west. This quaint country certainly will appeal to those who want something that is not the usual western oriented tourist fare.