Olenka Hamilton has narrated this article for you to listen to.
In 1988, when I was six months old, my British father and Polish mother took me to meet my family in Krakow. My parents brought an extra suitcase filled with disposable nappies because such luxuries weren’t sold on the other side of the Iron Curtain. At the time, there was only one shop in Krakow that sold foreign goods, but my father was pleased to discover that a gallon of whisky could be bought for only $8.
He was a member of the House of Lords and, I’m told, we were trailed for our entire stay. Everywhere we went, a large Polski Fiat 125 driven by a suited man followed us. My parents always said that apart from drinking in people’s homes, there wasn’t a lot to do in Krakow back then. There were a couple of run-down cafés in the main market square but that was it.
Today Krakow is unrecognisable from the grey, drab and depressing place it was in the 1980s. That same medieval square –the largest of its kind in Europe – now has 400 cafés and restaurants on and around its streets. Many of these serve extremely good quality food and drink – more Bordeaux than Bulgarian Sofia – and they are all full of tourists. The hotels are excellent, the streets are clean and public transport is pristine and mostly punctual, unlike in Britain.
International headlines are full of stories about Poland’s economic revival and growing political importance. ‘Warsaw’s stock exchange benchmark index tops 100,000 points for first time,’ said one newspaper last week, while another reported: ‘Poland unveils plans to become major military power.’
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