POLAND

Location Poland lies in Central Europe. The area is km². It is inhabited by 38 million people. Government: Parliamentary republic UE accession: 1st May 2004 The longest river is the Vistula

Climate The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 17 °C (63 °F) and 20 °C (68.0 °F). Winters are cold, with average temperatures around 3 °C (37.4 °F) in the northwest and −6 °C (21.2 °F) in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east; winter is drier than summer.

Poland borders with seven countries. Germany Czech Republic Slovakia Ukraine Belarus Lithuania Russia

Famous people Marie Skłodowska Curie Polish-born physicist and chemist famous for her work on radioactivity. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes - in physics and chemistry. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris. Frédéric François Chopin Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher, of French–Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music. He is also known as "The poet of the Piano". Most of Chopin's works involve the piano. They are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth.

Polish cuisine has some mixture of Eastern European (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, etc.) It is rich in meat, especially beef, chicken and pork, and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish bigos), and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the kluski.

Christmas in Poland Christmas is the best time of year. In Poland, Christmas is celebrated in a very special way. People begin to think about Christmas and prepare carefully for it since early November. Even in Advent we can observe the signs of Christmas coming - the cities, the shops, the streets are decorated elaborately.

In the southern part of the Poland mountains are Bieszczady, Tatra Mountains, Sudetes and the Carpathians.

In the north of the Poland there is Baltic Sea. In the Bieszczady Mountains lies Lake Solina, where we often go on trips.

Warsaw The capital

Zakopane - the capital of Polish mountains

Wawel

Rzeszów – our hometown GdaNsk – a harbour city

First day of spring First day of spring it’s a holiday, which is celebrated on 21st March. On this day, students from our school dressed up as a punk, stars, emo, Teletubbies, athletes or ‘pyjamas party’.

Valentine’s day In our school we also celebrated Valentine's Day. We decorated corridors and classrooms with red hearts. We also had the Valentine's Day post. The boys and the girls could send Valentine’s cards.