I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in July 2025, Nazi Germany’s largest concentration and extermination camp. It was a profoundly shocking experience that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. Previously, I had only visited the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany, forty years ago, while travelling on an Interrail pass. In the autumn […]
After the collapse of socialism, Poland was described as Europe’s Cheap Manufacturing Floor: a place to assemble German cars, process back-office paperwork, and export muscle rather than brains. Poland still builds things, but also systems: software, platforms, AI tooling, satellites, and an investment machine that is increasingly comfortable buying assets abroad. The European Commission’s late-2025 […]
Poland has quietly become one of Europe’s heavyweight chocolate exporters, shipping vast volumes across the EU and beyond, and doing it while manufacturers grapple with higher cocoa costs, energy bills, and consumers who still want a treat but watch the price tag. A Polish government trade briefing says the country exported 121,000 tonnes of chocolate […]
Nestled on the Baltic’s southern shore between Gdańsk and Gdynia, the seaside town of Sopot has quietly rewritten its narrative from fishing village to spa-town to festival hub to the Polish Riviera. In 1823, the Alsatian physician Jean Georg Haffner (1777-1830), former surgeon in Napoleon’s army, secured a licence from the Prussian authorities to establish […]
Every 11 November, Poland turns its gaze back across the centuries to a pivotal moment in its history – its return to the map of Europe as a sovereign state in 1918. With streets awash in red and white, flags fluttering from tram cars and historic façades, the country honours its arduous journey from partition, […]
Since 1962, Finnish film enthusiasts have been treated to curated selections of Polish contemporary cinema and classics. The modern version of the Polish Film Weeks was first organised in the 1970s. This year, the Polish Film Weeks (Przegląd Filmu Polskiego) brings fresh Polish stories, culture and history to the big screen in Helsinki from 6 […]
Every five years, the piano world converges on Warsaw, Poland, for the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina). This unique contest is devoted exclusively to the works of one composer – Chopin – with repertoire beyond him permitted only in exceptional cases. The 19th edition of the competition will take […]
I unfortunately couldn’t make it myself, but a friend attended Jakub Józef Orliński’s concert at Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo on 21 September 2025 and snapped some photos. I’m truly gutted, because he’s a remarkable artist: a Polish countertenor who fuses baroque music, stage presence and breakdance — and yes, the same star who performed at the Paris […]
A historic moment was witnessed this weekend in Yleisradio’s new Yle Sunnuntai discussion programme. Poland’s Ambassador to Finland, Tomasz Chłoń, gave a long interview of around ten minutes in Finnish. It is likely that no foreign ambassador has ever before appeared on Finnish television speaking fluent Finnish – let alone in a lengthy discussion that […]
On one side, kilometre-long sandy beaches; on the other, shallow surfing waters – Poland’s Hel Peninsula, often called the “Tail of Poland,” offers both lively resorts and quiet campsites, all just a short distance from Gdańsk. The Hel Peninsula is a geographical curiosity: a long, narrow sandspit stretching 35 kilometres into the Baltic Sea, so […]
