[zwoti]

General Information about Poland

The Republic of Poland (until December 1989 the Polish People's Republic) is situated in Eastern Europe, bounded to the north by the Baltic Sea and an enclave of Russia, to the north-east by Lithuania, to the east by Belarus, to the south-east by Ukraine, to the west by Germany and to the south by Slovakia and Czech Republic.

Poland is one of the larger countries in Europe (the land area 312, 638 sq. km making it the 9th largest country in Europe and the 66th in the world). The climate is temperate in the west but continental in the east. Poland has short summers and cold snowy winters. Most of the inhabitants profess Christianity: about 95% are adherents of the Roman Catholic Church. The official language is Polish, spoken by almost all of the population. The national flag has two equal horizontal stripes, of white and red. The capital is Warsaw. The former capital is Kraków. You are going to Kraków.

Currency

The Polish currency is zloty (zl, PLN) pronounced "zwoti". It divides into 100 groszy (pronounced "groshi"). Denominations in notes are 10 zl, 20 zl, 50 zl, 100 zl and 200 zl. Coin denominations are 1 gr., 2 gr., 5 gr., 10 gr., 20 gr., 50 gr., 1 zl, 2 zl and 5 zl.

Zloty is internally exchangeable at most important currencies like USD, DEM, GBP, etc. You can change money in places indicated Kantor and in banks. Kantors usually provide slightly better exchange rates. Changing money with people in the street is not advised. Please, note that only new zloty is in use now. As some people still give prices of goods in old zlotys, one should know that 10,000 old zlotys equals to 1 new zloty.