Visiting poland?

Travel Info
I've been debating on visiting poland. I definately want to go, but im not sure about the details. Has anyone ever backpacked around poland ? any great places or events i should plan to see? anything and everything you can tell me will help, thanks everyone

Travel Tips

Poland is awesome and so are the people, I never would have known had we not gone this year. Warsaw and Katowice were the two main cities we visited. We were shown one wall in Warsaw where each day poles were lined up and shot by the nazis. The wall is concrete and pocmarked with the bullets hitting it; there were a lot of flowers in front of it.

We found out that all of the Polish jokes were started by Hitler to demoralize the Poles and cast them in a negative light to the rest of the world. You will see a lot of the Russian influence via many newer buildings, relative to the age of Poland itself.

Some of the friends we met there went to Krakow, they said it was very good to go to as well, we want to go again and see it.

We found a GREAT Vodka that I cannot find for sale over here or online "Soplika Staropolska" you have got to try it, awesome flavor.

The coutryside around Katowice is beautiful, you could ride a bike or hike a lot there, we met a group who were going to go out on bikes and camping for a several days there, so it sounds nice also. Next time we will not make prearranged tours/plans, we want to see all of the stuff you probably will get to see.

Others
Poland is great....its not like Europe because They really Love americans there....
West has been developing poland so bargains are harder toi come by now ....but you can still do pretty good....I liked poland...and the food was great there.....go further out East better times to be had further east ....Romania is much better you can live like a king
Stop by in Slovakia, I will get you started. write on my yahoo 360.
Poland is my fav place in the world. I have travelled almost everywhere. The lakes up in the North nr the Russian Border are to die for. Take mosquito repellent and enjoy. It is a country of warm and wonderful people. Just go and know you will have a ball, in the company of a generous population.
Well, you've had lots of positive feddback and I second it. Poland is fantastic. I would especially go to Krakow. It's really pretty and there's lots to do. If you travel on trains in or out of Gdansk in the north, be a bit careful as there has been a spate of theft and the like in recent years.
I visited Poland in May, 2005. I must confess I didn't expect to find such a beautiful country with such beautiful people. I went to a small town (near Katowice) to attend a conference. After the conference though I had some time to visit Warsaw. It's a great city. I remember there was a big park where they played Chopin's music live. There was a palace in water, etc. Apart from that, listen to the taxi drivers who tell you about Chopin and how his heart is in Poland and body is in France :) You can learn a lot from them, and unfortunately you can be overcharged too, so be careful.

Lots and lots to see in this beautiful country. I didn't have chance to visit Krakow but they say it's even more beautiful than Warsaw.

But what made me like Poland so much was its people. Polish people are very nice and sweet. I'd love to visit it again sometime.