Krakow To Zakopane In 80 Minutes
The Ministry of Infrastructure has announced radical plans for the rebuilding of the railway line to Zakopane. Following the projected changes, the journey ...

Business

Polish PM Turns Down China
The Prime Minister of Poland has declined an invitation to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The crisis in Tibet provided the final drop that ...

Current Affairs

Zakopane Airport On The Horizon
Plans have been rubber-stamped for an airport in Poland's Highlands. The 200 million zloty project is focused just twenty kilometres from Zakopane centre at the...

Comment

Is Bear Bound For Hollywood?
A flurry of articles has emerged in the international press over the last week about an unlikely hero. Voytek (Polish Wojtek) was a Syrian bear who fought along...

Comment

Jump To It!
Although warm weather worried organisers last week, the Zakopane leg of the World Ski Jumping Cup is still due to take place this weekend. Polish star Adam...

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It's All Up In The Air
Adam Malysz - Poland's ski-jumping ace - has flown into a farcical land dispute. The star jumper, who was the first fellow to win the World Cup three times in a...

Comment

Cable Car Back In Action
Zakopane's much-loved cable car will be back in business this season. After months and months of fiddling around, the revamped line is poised for action. The ca...

City Focus

The Sound Of Szymanowski
Poland has been celebrating the 'Year Of Szymanowski'. We admit that it's not the easiest name to pronounce (Shiman-off-ski). But that tongue-twisting name is n...

Art and Culture

It's All Mapped Out
Zakopane Life's Winter Maps will hit the streets in early December, and as always, these jam-packed pocket guides are absolutely free of charge. You'll find eve...

Comment

Poles And Russians Clash (In 1612)
A blockbusting epic has opened across Russia about the invasion of Polish forces during the seventeenth century. Called simply 1612, the movie focuses on 'The T...

Art and Culture

A Platform For Change
Expectations of a low turnout were confounded on Sunday when thousands of young voters came out to make their voices heard. The Civic Platform (PO), the lib...

Current Affairs

Predictions Open For Polish Elections
With only a few days left before the Poles go to the polls, pundits appear wary of making bold predictions. What's more, it seems that the younger generation is...

Current Affairs

OO7 Sports Polish Style
We don't know yet whether he'll have to ski down the Zakopane slopes dressed in black tie, but Pierce Brosnan has been confirmed as the new face of Polish fashi...

Comment

Highland Bonds
It's easy enough for Brits to get to the Polish Highlands - just fly to Krakow and hop on a bus to Zakopane. But now it looks like there might be a chance to do...

Comment

Rising Remembered
Sirens wailed across Poland at 5pm on Wednesday, startling visitors and raising painful memories amongst elderly locals. The Warsaw Uprising, an armed revolt...

History

No Vodka Victory for Poland
Poland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark are hopping mad after an EU decision went against them last week. French and British distillers have won the right to cal...

Current Affairs

Holy Cheese
A soft Highland cheese by the name of Bryndza Podhalanska became Poland's first food product to be awarded an official EU trademark yesterday. The mild, sli...

Comment

Teletubbies OK
After enduring ridicule from all corners of Polish society, a far right politician has relinquished her suggestion that a popular children's programme promotes ...

Comment

Learning The Ropes
Great news for fans of adventure heading to Zakopane this summer. High ropes have arrived in the mountains courtesy of the Trollandia Recreation Park, offering ...

City Focus

John Paul II Talks to Artists
A very special talk took place in Zakopane's Hotel Wersal - a talk between a beloved Polish religious figure and the keepers of Polish culture. The only signifi...

Art and Culture

Malysz World Champion!
They'd written him off two years ago, but Polish ski-jumper Adam Malysz has confounded them all this weekend by becoming World Champion once again. Unlike in...

Comment

Malysz: Two More Triumphs
He's done it again. Twice. Poland's ski-jumping legend Adam Malysz has notched up two more World Cup triumphs, skittling his rivals in Finland this week. Ma...

Comment

Malysz Big In Japan!
He's done it again. Adam Malysz, (aka The Flying Moustache) took his fourth World Cup gold this weekend with a sensational performance at Sapporo. Clearly Ma...

Comment

Aquapark Opens in Zakopane
Great news for waterbabies heading to the Tatras on holiday! The largest Aqua Park in Poland has finally opened, just in time for peak tourist season. What with...

City Focus

Cleaning up Zakopane 2006
The Zakopane council last week acknowledged the efforts of school children partaking in the "Cleaning up Zakopane 2006" program which takes place in autumn and ...

City Focus

Opening of 'Zakopane Aquapark' Nears
Late December has been set as the date of the eagerly anticipated opening of the Zakopane 'Aquapark'. The aqua park will add an interesting architectural eleme...

City Focus

Batman Returns
Adam Malysz scooped his second World Cup event of the year this weekend, marking an emphatic return to form for the ski-jumping legend. The slight Polish star, ...

Comment

Festival of Highland Folklore
Fans of folklore will be in seventh heaven this week in Zakopane, as one of the town's best loved events has just got underway. The 38th International Festival ...

City Focus

Resistance Fighter Honoured
Poland's President Lech Kacznyski was in Zakopane yesterday to honour a controversial WWII resistance fighter - Jozef Kuras, codenamed 'Ogien' (Fire). Kuras ope...

Current Affairs

Avant-garde In Zakopane
Plans are afoot to launch a museum of avant-garde art in Zakopane, with a view to opening in late 2008. A delightful turn of the century villa has been selected...

Art and Culture

Poland to repair ailing football
Poland's ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) wants state support for mass sports and a debate on repairing Poland's ailing football, PiS parliamentary leader Prz...

Comment

Bollywood comes to Zakopane
Shah Rukh Khan may have immortalised Switzerland in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, mandolin in hand amid lush green fields speckled with yellow blossoms, but thi...

Art and Culture

Vodka War
Poland and Hungary are quarrelling over the definition of vodka. For the Poles vodka is “an alcoholic beverage derived from cereals or potatoes.” Historically v...

Comment

Celebrating Szymanowski
Music and mountain lovers have a treat in store this weekend with the 30th anniversary of the Karol Szymanowski Museum in Zakopane. After Chopin, Szymanowsk...

Art and Culture

Silver For Poland
Poland’s Tomasz Sikora has won the silver medal at the Winter Games in Turin. He put up an almost flawless performance in the 15-kilometre mass-start biathlon e...

Comment

Pope's Aide Becomes Cardinal
Archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz has been named cardinal by Pope Benedict. While the appointment is seen as a victory for the Church’s more open wing in P...

Current Affairs

Olympic Adventures
Poland’s Adam Malysz has won 7th place in the K95 ski jumping competition. After the first round, the Polish athlete lay 8th and managed to improve his result b...

Comment

Pope's Car Is No Auctioneer's Paradise
Bidders at Christie's auction house offered up to $71,820 for a 1958 car that once belonged to the late Pope John Paul II, but the seller decided the sum was no...

Comment

Reflections On Poland
In a long article reflecting on the current state of Poland, a leading authority noted that today 'there is a stronger sense than ever of "two Polands": one mor...

Comment

The Italian Job
Forty-six Polish aces are poised to take part in the Winter Olympics, which begin tomorrow in Turin, Northern Italy. Poland will be represented in nine event...

Comment

Bollywood Hits Poland
Bollywood bonanzas are not normally known for getting jiggy with it at -20 centigrade. But the producers of 'Fanaah' - a tale of troubled love set against the b...

Comment

Winter Deals Further Blows
Heavy snowfall caused roofs across Poland to collapse Tuesday, but no deaths were reported just nine days after the country's worst building disaster claimed 65...

Current Affairs

British MP Will Bike To Poland
Former Conservative MP Edwina Currie has had more than her fair share of thrills and spills, but her new venture should win her more friends than foes. Long ...

Comment

Cartoon Furore Continues
Head of the Muslim Religious Union in Poland Tomasz Miskiewicz demanded an apology from the editor-in-chief of the Rzeczpospolita daily which reprinted caricatu...

Comment

Fresh Election On The Cards
Parliament has just missed a crucial deadline to pass the 2006 budget. A snap general election now seems probable. The Polish constitution says that if the ...

Current Affairs

Reform In Wake Of Roof Collapse
Poland's prime minister said new federal regulations would allow authorities to close buildings whose roofs aren't cleared of snow, and investigators picked thr...

Current Affairs

Government Closes Buildings At Risk
The government has ordered the temporary closure of some large buildings fearing their roofs may collapse in a repeat of a weekend disaster that killed 67 peopl...

Current Affairs

Poles Pay Tribute
Poles came from around the country to Katowice today to lay flowers and light candles in memory of the 62 people who died when the roof of an exhibition hall co...

Current Affairs

Zakopane Ski Jump World Cup
The biggest event of the winter calendar, the Ski-Jump World Cup 2006, touches down in Zakopane this weekend, as the town prepares to witness an epic battle of ...

City Focus

Gold For Polish Ski-Surfer
Jagna Marczulaitis of Poland edged Daniela Meuli of Switzerland to win the parallel slalom event at a snowboarding World Cup on Sunday. Sara Fischer of Swed...

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