Polska Turka: Gliwice for Beginners

Short Information About City

Gliwice is 3rd biggest city in Upper Silesia Voivodeship After Katowice and Sosnowiec. City is very close to Czech Republic, just 85 km to Ostrava. Population is around 190.000 which is unfortunately decreasing last 20 years. Before Soviet times, city was in German borders named Gleiwitz. Gliwice is the west city in Silesia Metropolitan Area. City is pretty industrial and has many factories for automotive, chemical and mining. The closest international airport is in Katowice. There is Railway Station in center and there are connections to many cities in Poland, espacially Silesian cities by local compay Koleje Slaskie. Koleje Slaskie has brand new trains but their maximum speed is around 60 km/h because of railway and ground conditions. It's possible to travel with bike. You can buy ticket from biletomat easyly with English language support. Gliwice is really good for biking eventhough lack of bike roads in most of roads. 2 main highway are crossing over Gliwice A4 and A1. Parking is free in city center.

Tram is not operating since 2009 in the city. KZK GOP transportation company of Silesia is giving public transport service with busses. Busses are mostly brand new and has air condition but electronic ticket system is not working yet. You can travel in Silesia cities with these buses. For example bus nr 870 is going to Katowice around 50 mins. Almost same like trains. Single normal ticket price is 3,20 złotych.
Most important education institution is Politecknika Slaska Gliwice. During academic year, city is more alive because of students and exchange students. It started at 1945. Czerwona Chemia most beatiful architecture in Gliwice which belongs to this university.

Shopping in Gliwice

Forum Gliwice

There are many shopping center in Gliwice. Forum Gliwice, CH Arena and Europa Centralna modern shopping malls in the city. GCH - Gliwickie Centrum Handlowe old type indoor shopping center. You can find mostly local and not-cooperated brands and products. Tesco Extra, Carrefour, Auchan, Selgros, Lidl are big supermarket options in the city. ul.Zwycięstwa also has so many shops. There is also big Decathlon store next to Arena shopping mall. As yu know Tesco is open 24 hours. Also e-shopping from Tesco is possible They have english website.

Places to see
Rynek: Beside restaurants and bars theres also language course, empik shop, ING bank branch. with

colorful buildings and nice pubs it deserves more visitors.
Forum Gliwice: Shopping mall next to train station. It has many major brand's shop, Carrefour supermarket, Cine city Cinemas, RTV techno retailshop.
Muzeum: Established at 1905 by Germans. They have different exhibition in several time periods.
Main Post Office: Great architecture. Red brick building.

Radio Station: Established 1935. Wooden Radio station. There is also garden on summertime. Incident in Gliwice Radio Station is very important for Poland and Gliwice history.
Palmiarnia: Indoor botanic park with mostly tropical trees and plants and after renovation it has aquarium. website
ul.Zwycięstwa: Street from train station to Rynek. Full of buildngs with great architecture and shops.
Noteble parks are Chopin Park, Chrobrego, Park Kultury i Wypoczynku and Park Grunwaldzki.

Gliwice Places to eat
Złoty Osioł: Great vegetarian bar next to river. Delicious food with reasonable prices. Self Service ul.Kłodnicka 2 facebook page
Dobra Kasza Nasza: Dishes with kasza. Great indoor decoration, yummy food, friendly staff. at Rynek. They have English menu. facebook page
Zdrowa Krowa: Hamburger restaurant. they have their own speacial warm bread. Hamburgers are pretty giant.They also have falafel hamburger and Fritz kola as drink.self service. ul.Raciborska 2 facebook page
Pizza Saluto: Very delicious pizza Restaurant at Rynek. You always get smell of pizza at Rynek because of this restaurant. They have delivery to home. website

Kapadokya Kebab: One of best Turkish Kebab place. Its kind of take out restaurant. they have 2 facebook page
branches in Gliwice. ul Wrocławska 4a.
Szynk na Winklu: Mostly traditional Polish cuisine with very good prices. At the same time, it is a bar. They have nice decoration inside. ul.Średnia
Ali Baba Kebab: Another good kebab restaurant with seats. Very close to rynek and it opens until 4 a.m. on friday and saturday. ul.Zwycięstwa 15

Gliwice Places to drink
Gramofon: Very nice decorated bar and night club with good menu. Sometimes they have special events for drum'n bass dubstep music at weekend. ul.Średnia 12 website
Kafo Kawiarna: Delicious cakes, good capuccino and coffee. Friendly staff. They have good read corner with books and magazines. A must in the city. ul.Jozefa Wiecorka 14 website
Pewex Gliwice: Bar at Rynek. They have good prices and always full open air seats on summertime.
Czekoladzarnia: Cafe with different tastes and special decoration.Close to Rynek. ul.Krupnicza 12
Dom Alchemika: They have different type of beers from Czech, Austria, Ukraina and of course Poland. Special beer glasses. special cocktails. Chemistry based decoration inside. ul.Raciborska 4 facebook page
Stary Kufel: Many kind of Draft and Bottled beer. Średnia 1 website
sw.Patryk: Highly recommended bar restaurant close to Stadium. Irish style decoration, friendly staff and special snacks and drinks. ul.Poniatowskiego 29 website
4art Klub Muzyczny: They have really artsy menu on dishes. Very good atmosphere inside and nice garden on summertime. Definitely deserves more visitors than usual. ul.Jozef Wiecorka 22 website
Club Hemingway: One of most wellknown club at Rynek. website

Sport in Gliwice

Most important sport club is definitly Piast Gliwice KS. Their most successful year on history was last year.They finished in 3rd place on Ekstraklasa and qualified to Europa League. They got their brand new stadium 2 years ago. Ticket prices are around 20 zl. Most notable players are Jurado, Horvath and captain Podgorski. Podgurski simply reminds me Błaszczkowski with his speed, body and style. Rivals are Ruch Chorzów and Górnik Zabrze.
Gliwice Lions is american football team. Founded at 2008.and they are on second league.
Politechnika Ślaską is very active on every kind of sport. Especially far east martial arts.
Gliwickie Towarzystwo Koszykówki, shortly GTK is basketball team in Gliwice. They are on second league. They are playing matches on Hala Sportowa Gliwickiego on ul.Zygmunta. They have Rynek Town hall buildng on their logo.
P.A.Nowa Gliwice is 4 times Poland champion men's futsal team.

Something Interesting

Germaniaplatz

Current Plac Piastów area named Germaniaplatz before soviet times. There was also big statue monument for the fallen of Prussia.
Palmiarnia established in 1880 by Germans.
Some sources say the first electrical tramway was in Gliwice.
Opel factory in Gliwice is one of biggest foreign invesment in Poland.
Gliwice Radio Tower is second tallest wooden structure in the world.
Between 1939-1945 Kanał Gliwicki named Adolf Hitler Kanal.
%12 of Gliwice is green areas for recreational. It's most green city on Upper Silesia.
German national football player Lukas Podolski was born in Gliwice.
German citizen Christian Ganczarski supposed terror organization Al-Qaide leader. He arrested in France. He was also born in Gliwice.
At 1921 there was a referandum to determine which country Gleiwitz should belong to. Germany or Poland. Germany got %78 and Poland got %21. After 2nd World war Germans has been sent out of city. Mostly polish people from far east Poland and other part of Poland settled in Gliwice.
Gliwice was one of sub- concentration camp of Auschwitz. There were 4 camps in this complex and theyy were working for mining, industrial companies and railways. This camp was existed between 1944-1945