Gregory's Server3/ Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 is famed for its sandy beaches, 1000s of lakes, and deep forests.
So you may be surprised to know it also has a desert.
The small B艂臋d贸w Desert is not far from Krakow, and is jokingly refered to as the "Polish Sahara"
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 5/ Central Europe has of course been a region of great change over the centuries even into the modern era: not a single country that Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 bordered in 1990 still exists! 6/ The modern borders were (with a few minor tweaks) set after WWII, with Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 transferring a large chunk of territory in the east to the Soviet Union (now Lithuania 馃嚤馃嚬, Belarus 馃嚙馃嚲, and Ukraine 馃嚭馃嚘) and gaining German territories in the west. The border with Germany 馃嚛馃嚜 was not fully finalized until 1992 following German reunification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Polish_Border_Treaty 7/ The different historical backgrounds of the various regions of modern Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 continues to have cultural and political implications today. Some commentators refer to "Poland A" and Poland B" roughly corresponding to the formerly German parts of Poland (A) and the formerly Russian and Austrian parts (B). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_A_and_B here is a map of 2020 election results which roughly mirrors the divisions from a hundred years previously 8/ The border shifts leads to some odd situations like a Polish 馃嚨馃嚤 train line that crosses back across a strip of Germany 馃嚛馃嚜 between two Polish stations. 9/ While Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 has no territorial exclaves, there is a massive Polish diaspora, especially since Poland joined the EU 馃嚜馃嚭 in 2004. As an example Polish is the second most spoken language in 馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland, with Poles making up >2% of the population. 10/ Final bit of #geoweirdness: Polish 馃嚨馃嚤 postal codes consist of five digits, but there is a dash between the 2nd and 3rd digits (example: "12-345"), which is good fun for software that assumes postcodes contain only alphanumeric characters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Poland See our guide to common misconceptions about postal codes: https://opencagedata.com/guides/how-to-think-about-postcodes-and-geocoding |
4/ The borders of Poland 馃嚨馃嚤 have changed many, many times over the years.
Wikipedia has a great guide full of maps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Poland
#geoweirdness