30 year old Kasia Mos is this year's Croatian entry, namely mid table, middle of the road, destined for the middern. She probably get to the FInal with "Flashlight" but the diaspora will only go so far. It can be found here
Michal Szpak won through the Polish pre-selection show in '16, beating as he did the most damp-fan popular song of the NF season throughout Europe, and an ESC runner-up. This doesn't guarantee success though for "Color of your Life". It's here
Somewhat at a tangent from last year, 2015 sees wheelchair bound Monika Kuszynska power ballarding her way through "In the Name of Love". Worthy but dull. Am I being harsh? Probably, but you can decide here

Oh yes. We have some Turbo Folk type of thing for the return of Poland. Donatan & Cleo will be performing with "My Slowianie - We Are Slavic ". Loving the video in particular, hope you will too here
They've spent all their money getting the English training camp up to scratch, so the can play their Euro Football championship games in Ukraine. As a result Poland have pulled out of 2012''s ESC and then again in 2013. Shame.
Magdalena Tul a strong willed woman will be disco-ing to a likely higher than mid-table pop track called "Here I am". Here indeed, she is. And good luck to her too.
Marcin Mrozinski is singing "Legenda" which has been described as "traditional" by some, which would be described as "appalling" by me. Find out more here

The Tourist Guide says

"As both a nation rich in history and a former socialist state speedily preparing for EU accession, Poland is a place where modernity and tradition exist side by side. Hypermarkets rub shoulders with cathedrals, world-class hotels overlook medieval squares whilst internet cafes are flanked by centuries old statues"
Poland is a garden of nature and a treasure trove of cultural riches. It is a democracy located in the heart of Europe, inhabited by a friendly, hospitable people in a modern surrounding, yet dearly cherishing their cultural heritage.
A journey across Poland is not only an opportunity to visit historical points of interest, but also to taste local cuisine, take advantage of Poland's strong ties to the European tradition of contemporary culture and art, such as painting, poster art, music and applied art such as artistic glassware, tapestries and ceramics."

Warsaw

"The most striking thing about Warsaw is its regeneration following the devastation of World War II. During the Nazi occupation, about 85 percent of the city's were reduced to rubble, and 700,000 people lost their lives.
Most of Warsaw was rebuilt within a dozen years. A visit to the Historical Museum of the City of Warsaw on the Old Town Market Square shows a film that depicts the city's calculated devastation.
Through the efforts of the entire nation, and the support of Polish communities abroad, the precious castles, monuments, cathedrals and government buildings that were -and are- the heart and soul of Warsaw were meticulously restored".

A Polish man held up a hair dressers at gunpoint demanding a free hair cut for his girlfriend.
And he brought her back to the salon the next day demanding they do a better job.
The man, who has not been caught, stormed into the Tschenstochau Salon in the southern Polish town of Czestochowa and forced the owner at gunpoint to dye and cut his girlfriend's hair for free.
But the gunman was obviously unhappy with the result as he brought his girlfriend back the next day and again at gunpoint demanded the hairdresser redo the job, even insisting on hair extensions to fix the length.

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Three Polish poachers are facing animal cruelty charges for forcing a giant pike to drink champagne.
Two of them were spotted holding the freshly caught fish while the third drunkenly tried to pour the contents of the bottle into its mouth.
Prosecutors claim the men deliberately poured the champagne down the fish's throat to kill it so they could take it home and eat it.
But the men, who were not named, claimed they spotted the giant fish in difficulty at the side of the lake and had hoped the champagne might give it a new lease of life.
Polish media quoted one of the men as saying: "The poor thing was on it's last legs, we wanted to warm it up so it could enjoy the New Year."

Poland, a nation that has felt the jackboot heel of oppression, but can still enjoy carving gnomes in caves.
to come
A Pole claims to have set a new pole-sitting world record after coming down from his perch after 196 days and nights.
Daniel Baraniuk, an unemployed 27-year-old from Gdansk, collected around £14,813 for winning the World Pole-Sitting Championship. They were allowed to leave their 60-by-40-centimetre seats every two hours for 10 minutes.
Mr Baraniuk, whose closest rival fell off his pole in October, said he gave up because of boredom as the number of visitors to the park dropped with falling temperatures.
Some Christians believe St Simeon Stylites, the first and probably the most famous of the long succession of stylitoe, or pillar-hermits, spent 36 years sitting on a pillar, before dying in 459.

Frederic Chopin, Henryk Gorecki, Marie Curie
Nicholas Copernicus
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Izabella Scorupco
Lech Walesa

  
 

Life expectancy

 69.52 men 78.05 women
Airports 122
Radios 523per 1,000 people
Internet Users 542.1 per 10,000 people
Railway Network 15,108 miles
Death Penalty abolished in 1997