Katowice

Recently, I decided to visit another postcrossing friend of mine - Laura. Laura lives in Katowice and she runs a very interesting blog about her posctard collection.

Katowice is an industrial town in the South of Poland, in the region called Silesia. It is best known as a large coal and steel center. But it has also many cultural places of interest. Like the Silesian museum. It exhibits mainly ethnological and archaeological artefacts but you can see there also paintings of famous Polish painters like Stanisław Wyspiański or Olga Boznańska.

If you prefer moving arts, you may visit the cinetheater Rialto, the oldest in Silesia. You may have a virtual walk inside by using this link.

 Another option could be the Silesian Theater on the market square.

 Have you noticed construction works? They are everywhere! This was very unusual, as if the whole city was undergoing a kind of refurbishment. I went to see Spodek, the famous show and sports arena. And guess what I saw? Construction works again!

Katowice is also the center of education for the entire region. It has there very good high schools, e.g. the the famous High School of Adam Mickiewicz, located in a nice 19th century building.

And of course the Silesian University. Here you can see the Faculty of Philology. It is a building with a very interesting history. Before the war it was the seat of some governmental office, during World War II it was the seat of the nazi police (gestapo) and after the war - the house of the Polish communist party.



Inside it looks probably like any other biulding of any university. Here you can see where the future librarians study.

In front of the Faculty of Filology, you will notice the monument of Wojciech Korfanty, a 20 century journalist and politician who faught for Silesia to become Polish after the First World War. He is very respected in the region.

Korfanty was a member of the Silesian Parliament, a governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship between the First and Second World War. The building houses now the regional government of Silesian region.

They did not let me in saying that the odd-toed ungulates are not admitted! Well, after all pigs are even-toed ungulates. And you know what the say of polititcians ...

Finally, I was lucky to meet some more postcrossers who came for Touristic Fairs.

I guess you will not be surprised that they were not really interested in travelling. Here you can see what Laura brought home from the fairs (believe it or not but Agata had even more).

For me the most important memory for the Fairs was the dinosaur ride!

Yeah! Rick the Dinosaur Whisperer!

Thanks a lot Laura. This was a great trip!