Information about Poland

Poland

Poland has an area of 312,700 sqkm and about 38 million inhabitants. The official language is Polish. Poland is a parliamentary democracy with a president as a head of state. The parliament consists of two chambers (sejm and senate). The country is subdivided into 16 districts ("voyvodinas"). The capital is Warszawa/Warsaw (1.7 million inhabitants). Poland has been a member of the EU since May 1st 2004. There are more than 15 million tourists annually travelling to Poland. Every third of them is German. Especially the younger generation of the Polish is mostly able to speak English while German is the second most important foreign language. The personel in most hotels and restaurants is bilingual.

Currency

100 Zloty = ca. 17.30 Brit. Pounds 1 Pound = ca. 5.80 Zloty
100 Zloty = ca. 25.50 Euro 1 Euro = ca. 3.92 Zloty

The Polish currency is called Zloty. One Zloty are 100 Groszy. There are coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 Groszy as well as 1, 2, an 5 Zloty, and bank notes of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 Zloty. Travellers can exchange money at banks, exchange booths ("kantor"), and in larger hotels and travel agencies. Opening hours of banks are on weekdays from 7:30 to 17:00 and on saturdays from 7:30 to 14:00. There you also may exchange money with the help of a credit card. There are cash dispensers all over the country that accept EC cards and that can be operated upon in English as well as in German. Depending on the bank these machines allow withdrawals of up to 2,000 Zloty. The equivalent of the Zloty amount is then charged at your account in your home currency while your bank will take an extra chatge of ca. 3 Euro (2 Pounds). The most common credit cards are accepted in most hotels, many restaurants and shops. The Zloty is freely convertable so the currency rate may change over time.

Speed limits

	HGV	motorcars/ motorcycles	motorcars with trailer
Secondary road, one lane	70 km/h	90 km/h	70 km/h
Secondary road, two lanes	80 km/h	100 km/h	80 km/h
Expressway, one lane	80 km/h	100 km/h	80 km/h
Expressway, two lanes	80 km/h	110 km/h	80 km/h
Motorways	80 km/h	130 km/h	80 km/h
Built-up areas*	50 km/h	50 km/h	50 km/h
*(between 23:00 and 5:00 60 km/h are allowed)