One week in Katowice
When you are planning a trip to Poland, your first choice is Wroclaw, Cracow or Warsaw. But there are many other city worth to be seen. One of them is Katowice, situated in Upper Silesia, known for postindustrial style. It is a big, tourists friendly town, with plenty of attractions.
Standards
City has a lot of hotels and hostels situated in the center, with reasonable prices and high standards. Most of the time you can pay for the room in Euro or by credit card. The same is in restaurants and pubs – even if not, you can always exchange your cash in cantor. Polish is really difficult language, but it is not a problem at all – in public places you can use English, a lot of young people know it very well. Outside town they have a big, international airport, so you can get to Katowice by plane.
Culture
Capitol of Upper Silesia is known, even outside Poland, for music and sport events. Most of festivals and games are taking place in Spodek, big hall in the center of the city. During summer time, you can go to Off festival, to listen some polish and international artists, from alternative scene. If you are hard rock fan, you cannot miss Metalmania, huge gig with many metal bands from all around the world. If you want to know better polish culture, then visit Silesia Theater, Philharmonic and Museum. 
Architecture
In Katowice there is no classic square, you won’t find here Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture either. Most of buildings were construct in XIX century, in eclectic and Art Nouveau style. There is also some modernism architecture, inspired by Bauhaus and The Stijl movements. 60 meters tall building, named Drapacz Chmur, was the first skyscraper in Poland. Nikiszowiec, modern – style settlement, is very good example of polish functional architecture. If you like sacred art, you should visit one of many churches in town.
Cuisine
When you are visiting Katowice, you have to try some local food, because those in Silesia is very delicious. It is mix of Polish and German cuisine, with some local influences from neighborhood. The most famous meal is beef rouladen, stuffed with ham and pickles, served with red cabbage (fried with bacon and onion), and Silesian dumplings. Maybe it is stodgy, but you must taste it. For starter try Szałot – a salad with eggs, ham, sausage, onion, fish and pickles, served with white bread. For dessert, poppy seed cake is the best.
When you are traveling through Poland, you cannot miss Katowice. Doesn’t matter if you are young or old, boy or girl, wealthy or poor, everyone will find something for themselves.