Katowice
Like Łódź, Katowice is also not on most tourists' itineraries, except maybe to catch the direct train to Prague (although I believe the overnight train from Krakow is the more popular option). Another friend of mine wanted to show me Katowice, where she spent 2 years in school. It's the main city in Upper Silesia, known for being a center for mining in Poland. Like other parts of Poland, Silesia and Katowice have changed hands multiple times from Polish to German to Austrian, "Silesian" is recognized as its own language, though some say it is a dialect of Polish.
There's a lot of interesting architecture in the city, ranging from art nouveau to Communist concrete blocks. Here is the apartment building I stayed in - the apartment of friends of my friend.
The Communist-era "Spodek," or saucer in Polish, a multi-purpose venue containing an ice rink, among other facilities.
Nearby is the city of Zabrze, where we went on a tour of a decommissioned mine, Guido. Guido is an interesting name for a mine, isn't it? The owner named it after himself, Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck. The tour was conducted entirely in Polish, and lasted about 2.5 hours! It included tours of both the 170m level, and 320m level. Tickets are usually sold separately, and we bought the shorter tour of the 170m level, but I think our tour was combined so we got the bonus of seeing the 320m level. I'm glad we did, because if I had to choose just one, I would choose the 320m level tour. That's where we got to see the actual machines, and learned about the construction of the tunnel supports, while the 170m level tour was more about the history of the mine.
Katowice is also home to Tauron Nowa Muzyka, or the Tauron New Music Festival. It was really fun to take part, even for only one night! Here we are waiting with all the cool kids for a shuttle bus to a venue outside of town.
The performance we attended was by the Canadian musician Chilly Gonzales, who performed with the Aukso Orchestra. It was an interesting blend of classical and rap. While Chilly Gonzales is clearly talented, "musical genius" as he likes to call himself, he is also kind of a jerk with a big ego.
