Yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking the time to visit one of Poland’s most interesting cities, Łódź.
Łódź is a city that has had a history of industry, before facing sharp economic downturn and a resurgence in the last five years. It is also famous for its National Film School, which has produced many famous Polish actors and directors.
Piotrkowska Street, as pictured here, is the main street in Łódź and was incredibly pretty to see during the early evening as I did.
Of course, Łódź is also famous for its footballing history, with the two main clubs being ŁKS and Widzew. On every conceivable surface there was graffiti proclaiming the artist’s support of one of these two teams. Widzew famously were semi-finalists of the European Cup in 1982-83 and ŁKS were twice Polish champions. Local regional side UKS SMS Łódź are famous for developing young players, such as Karol Świderski, Przemysław Płacheta and Mateusz Musialowski.
On the train on the way in, I actually passed directly next to Widzew’s stadium, although we sadly didn’t have time to have a proper look at either their’s or ŁKS’ ground. I did venture to the Manufaktura shopping complex in an attempt to buy an ŁKS shirt (them being my first Football Manager save), but in a strange twist of fate the only shirts being sold were Liverpool ones, and given I’d travelled around 1,200 miles from Liverpool to be there, I had to see the funny side.
Łódź was a lovely city to visit, and I’d highly recommend people visiting Poland to spend a day there. It’s less than two hours from Warszawa by train and I would probably liken it to somewhere like Manchester in England, as there are lots of hidden cultural touches that make it a lot more interesting than you would first expect.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments