Useful information about Poland:

Time zone:

Poland, as well as many other countries (such as Spain, Austria, Germany, Netherlands etc.), uses Central European Time throughout the Winter – between the last Sunday of October and last Sunday of March.
From March to October Central European Summer Time is used but the clock is advanced by one hour.

Difference between Central European Time and time zones in chosen places:

• Sydney  +9h
• Tokyo  +8h
• Beijing  +7h
• Moscow, Tel Aviv, Cairo  +1h
• London, Dublin, Lisbon  -1h
• Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo  -4h
• Buenos Aires  -5h
• New York, Toronto  -6h
• Chicago  -7h
• San Francisco, Los Angeles  -9h

Currency:

National currency in Poland is “złoty” (Polish language “gold”) – its abbreviation is PLN. One zloty consists of 100 grosz.
There are banknotes of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 PLN, coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 grosz and of 1, 2, 5 zloty.
In most of the places in Poland, one cannot pay with foreign currency. Credit cards (such as American Express, MasterCard and Visa) are accepted – especially in places like restaurants, cafes, hotels, petrol station and larger shops. There are also numerous cash dispensers.
Money Exchange offices are called in Polish “kantor”. You can find them at the airports, in some hotels and all over the city (especially in big towns – such as Krakow). One can also exchange money in some of banks.

Bank holidays:

During bank holidays in Poland offices and shops are closed. Apart from this many shops and institutions are closed each Sunday.

• 1st January – New Year’s Day
• Easter Sunday
• Easter Monday
• 1st May – Labour Day
• 3rd May – Constitution Day
• Corpus Christi Day
• 15th August – Assumption of Mary
• 1st November – All Saints’ Day
• 11th November – Independence Day
• 25th and 26th December - Christmas

Language:

The official language of Poland is Polish (used by 38.5 million of inhabitants of the country as well as by Poles outside Poland what makes around 46 million Polish language speakers around the world). It derives from the West Slavic languages and is the second most frequently spoken among Slavic languages after Russian. It shares some vocabulary with languages of the neighbouring Slavic countries – such as Slovak, Czech, Ukrainian and Belarusian.

Some of useful phrases:

Brief information on Krakow:

Telephones:

The country code for Poland is 0048 (or +48) – used when calling from abroad. Apart from this each city has its code (that one needs to dial – even when making calls within this city). For Krakow the code is 012 (when putting the country code first, you drop zero that stands before the city code).
Mobiles have initial zero (0) – also dropped when putting the country code in the beginning – used when calling from stationery phone to mobile. Phone calls from Polish mobile to another Polish mobile do not require putting the initial zero.

Emergency numbers:

• 999 for medical emergency
• 998 for fire emergency
• 997 for Police

Equal to them all is emergency number – 112 – is used (like in the other EU states).

Transportation in Krakow:

Public transport consists of trams, city buses and suburban buses. They are the cheapest way of transport around the city. You can use them usually between 5am till 11pm (in rush hours they are often crowded). There are also night buses going to some parts of Krakow – however, not very frequently.
Using public transport in Krakow requires buying a ticket. A one ride ticket costs 2.4 PLN, 24h ticket costs 10 PLN, 2-day ticket – 18 PLN and 3-day ticket 24 PLN.
You can purchase them in most of the newspaper agencies, ticket machines (located by the stops) and directly from drivers (for some additional fee).
After boarding the vehicle, one is required to validate the ticket (tickets that last longer than one ride are validated only once – when boarding the vehicle for the first time). There are special machines on the buses for validation. Polish bus passengers are usually very helpful to visitors and will show how to validate.   Ticket inspections are quite frequent in Krakow.
Taxis are available 24h. You can get one from hotel reception, special taxi points or calling to taxi agencies’ numbers.

Places to see outside Krakow:

Wieliczka – is situated near Krakow (available by public transport). Especially worth seeing there is the Salt Mine – the only one in the world that remains open since the Middle Ages.
Ojców – the National Park of Ojców is situated nearby Krakow. You can admire there beautiful natural scenery - caves, rocks and ruins of castle.
Pieskowa Skała – the Renaissance castle situated within Ojców National Park (on a beautiful rock). It belongs to so called “Eagle Nests Trail”.
Ogrodzieniec – the astonishing and extensive ruins of a medieval castle, damaged during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655-1660). Part of the “Eagle Nests Trail”.
Oświęcim – the city where nearby are situated one of the best known remnants of the Holocaust – the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps.
Zakopane – the city called the Winter capital of Poland. Situated at the foot of High Tatra Mountains. From there you cam make numerous excursions (to the mountains, valleys, lakes) – even if you are not an experienced tourist or hiker.