Geography Now! POLAND

all right we've reached poland europe's uh how can i put this poland knows how to take a hit it's like [Music] is that all you got i'm not even breaking the sweaters it's time to learn geography now by the way this is my buddy art he's half polish uh art do you know anything about poland i know nothing about poland but i know my last name means on friday so anyway i have another polish friend named conrad who's actually also going to be in this episode he's polish and he speaks polish hey that guy well uh art you can also play poland in the skits and stuff in this episode is that cool yeah i guess uh all right cool anyway hey everybody i'm your host barbs welcome to the wolverine of europe the polls know how to deal with calamity and if there was ever a mutant apocalypse you would probably want one on your team in any case let's begin how to piss off a polish person 101. oh man i just visited poland i sure loved that eastern european country it's central central european yeah they don't like being called eastern europe even though i mean come on they're kind of more on the eastern side of the continent and it's okay okay central central central european central the country is located in central europe and bordered by seven other countries keep in mind this little guy right here is a detached exclave of russia called kaliningrad speaking of which we already mentioned this in the germany episode but poland shares an island called uzidam or uznam with germany in this lagoon the borders follow some natural boundaries like rivers and mountains however most of them were agreed upon after war times the country is divided into 16 voivoda ships or provinces the capital and largest city of the country warsaw in the center it also holds the busiest airport warsaw international from there the second largest city is krakow known as the medieval capital down south and it holds the second largest airport john paul ii krakow international and rounding out for third place is the city of wuch which means boat nearly in the center of the whole country nonetheless the city of gdansk holds the third largest airport gdansk international and also the busiest shipping port located on the baltic sea where much of the cargo comes into the country otherwise their entire sea access is confined to the coastline they do not own any distant islands in the baltic due to the general flat landscape making much of the north and central parts poland is a bustling transport hub with numerous roadways that traverse every single corner into every neighboring nation since joining the eu nearly 2 billion euros have been invested in poland's rail lines and high speed lines are being constructed today poland doesn't have any autonomous areas but if we had to discuss historical and cultural regions many people may just refer to this general area as masuria sometimes even historical prussia this general area is pomerania that's right same as the dog which is where it comes from and the coastal area is kashubia where the kashubians are mostly found there's greater poland lesser poland which at the very border has ruthenia or red ruthenia parts of the south are considered silesia which are inhabited by peoples that have their own distinct culture apart from the polish it's all kind of confusing and we'll talk more about it later one thing you have to understand is that historically poland had a lot of different types of administrative divisions and much of it was shaped by war sometimes they had more land other times they had less and for 123 years they kind of disappeared all together here's prussia russia austria well actually they almost completely disappeared i mean krakow was technically a free city state for about 30 years and keep in mind we mentioned this in the lithuania episode but if you want to be incredibly technical historically the polish lithuanian commonwealth had some colonies way back yeehaw when they thought one island in the gambia as well as trinidad and tobago would be good overseas investments making them the only sites that the polish had colonized outside of europe then what happened in the end it was too hard for them to manage and they sold them off the end so anyway here are some places of interest you guys the polish geography suggested we mentioned this episode they have quite a few unesco heritage sites a lot of them are like chapels the holy mountain of cabarca the painted village of zalipe chopin's heart this rock city the upside down house kosciuszko mound the carrot house the world's most narrow house tons of cool statues and monuments like these the world's tallest pope statue tons of world war ii sites it's kind of what they're known for but the most famous one probably being the auschwitz concentration camp of course there are way too many churches like these this one was where all the former kings were coronated and of course there's warsaw's st john's cathedral there's a bunch of synagogues that actually survived world war ii and there's even a wooden mosque for the tatar minority in khrushinani there's so many museums and galleries here's a bunch of notable ones and too many castles but they're very proud of having the world's largest medieval castle in melbourne yeah poland does not fall short when it comes to sights to see or things to do or nature to explore and that means we move on to the next segment the it is said that the name poland comes from polani which means people living in open fields poland is not all flat and not all planes there's much more to it than you think poland is generally divided into five physical regions the coast the lake lands the polish plain the polish uplands and the mountain regions much of poland's coast along the baltic sea is straight until you hit the east and you get these interesting natural formations called spits we've already talked about them in the lithuanian episode but basically spits are thin narrow sandbanks that divide the sea from another body of water creating saltwater lagoons the largest one being the bay of puck the schiching and the vestula lagoon shared with russia's kaliningrad exclave much of the country inland lies on the flat polish plain part of the greater north european plain a huge open flat segment of central europe that extends across multiple countries many people say that this is both the blessing and curse of poland because although a third of the country is forested this one being the largest national park and about a third is arable making them a powerhouse contributor to europe's agriculture sector it did kind of make it easy for outside forces to enter and invade with little or no natural obstacles barricading the interior of the country anyway within this plane many rivers like the nortec the vota and the longest river the vistula meander through the fertile valleys passing through many important cities like warsaw in the north side you have two massive lake districts the pomeranian and the larger massourine which also holds the largest lake of the country like schneiderville the further south you go the higher the elevation gets until you hit the poland uplands a little further south on the border with the czech republic in slovakia you find the two main and largest mountain chains the sudets and the best kids which form the north part of the larger famous carpathian mountain chain here you can also find the tallest peak mount rese right on the border of slovakia all right and that just about does it now i need my triple shot of espresso break and this time art is going to come in to finish off the physical geography section what do you want me to say barbie the next thing on the teleprompter now as you can see by this point poland has a lot more than just flat plains and lakes they even have moving sand dunes in the north and a small desert in boindoof which literally translates to mistakes yeah poland deserts you never think those two would go together right oh and there's also a crooked forest made up of trees that bend at a 90 degree angle many people have theories as to how it got that way some say it's natural some say it was a dude trying to make chairs in any case poland is a major producer of apple six in the world as well as being the world's largest treacle tree called what the heck is treacle and amber amber exporter i don't even know amber is either what is that petrified tree it actually is it is whoa today though poland's economy is now mainly driven by the service sector and industry with main products like machinery and cars buses and video games being their largest export anyway poland also has quite a few endemic animal species like storks eurasian lynx roe deer and they have one of the largest populations of the rare european bison which have you guys ever had a bison burger i mean that's like really good all right don't eat those those are endangered and bears in fact a bear once served in the polish army and there's a statue dedicated to him look it up gold old voy tech anyway time to finish up with food some of the top polish dishes you guys the polish geogra peeps geograph that's what i call them art suggested we mention include things like bigosh cabbage rolls galanka pork knuckle roasted duck served with honey or that ball so many soups like these but the national dish being sour rye soup and of course the most popular dishes many people have heard of pierogi kielbasa cavanos and craco style sausage and bagels yes bagels originated from poland from the polish jews not new york but they did move to new york oh and of course you cannot talk about poland without mentioning vodka some say it was invented in poland some say the polish just make really good vodka but either way vodka usually takes up a huge section in most polish grocery stores i've seen this guy on vodka no you haven't that was not cute whiskey and we don't talk about that here polish people know what they like they're distinct people speaking of which we now move on to thank you art thanks can i do like one of those special effect outros like you know wolverine theme can i have the claws or something like that sure yeah go for it here okay is it true if i kill you i become you let's find out oh it does work now some of you guys have told me in poland there's kind of like a word that sums up the polish mindset zawatvic it means something along the lines of accomplishing tasks and taking care of business half of everybody in europe has probably at one point at least encountered a poll they're everywhere working polish doctors in germany polish contract workers in london polish bus drivers in iceland work is in their blood and it's a huge part of who they are the population is about 40 million however keep in mind diaspora wise there are about 20 million polls living abroad and they are the second largest slavic group after russians the country is incredibly homogeneous with about 96 of the population claiming to be polish which is part of the slavic family group this makeup is mostly due to the nazi intervention of world war ii and soviet relocation policies of the 20th century that drastically changed the previously diverse population the country has few minority groups however of the minorities the largest groups would be the silesian at about 1.3 percent and the kashubians at just under one percent the rest is mostly made up of other europeans like ukrainians belarusians czechs and non-europeans they use the polish zwati as their currency they use the type c e and f plug outlets and they drive on the right side of the road now of course the main language of poland is of course polish lots of people say polish is like really hard to learn for one they have seven cases of speech and too many continents that are smashed all together at once geography pavel says the polish language is basically just spoken wi-fi passwords here's conrad with a polish tongue twister sometimes even the polish people say they have to polish up on their polish otherwise poland is kind of a sociological anomaly even though they are slavic it's kind of like the easternmost extent of latin influence which explains why the majority at around 86 identify as either catholic or in the very least nominally catholic varying degrees of devotion catholicism plays a huge role in polish culture they even have a channel dedicated to the pope on tv politically poland is usually a more conservative nation that holds to its roots and even though they're part of the eu they usually do not let anyone tell them how they should run things in their own country it's their home their rules it's like alright so it's settled uh what do you think of this proposal for the union guys i hate it now poland you're a key player we need you to like this i still hate it come on poland and don't be stubborn oh really germany you want to come back to poland again and tell us how to do things around here do you remember what happened last time oh my are you really gonna play this card again i always will a little exaggerated but yeah don't push the polish they've gone through tons of that i mean literally like a fifth of their population died during world war ii the majority of whom were polish jews often in tight-knit yiddish-speaking communities poland had one of the highest populations of jews prior to world war ii and at one point up to 10 they played a huge historical role in what poland was and would be polls are proud that they were the only european occupied country to never collaborate with the nazis they never officially surrendered and all those years the nazis were there the underground army kept fighting polls have an incredibly complex history i mean they had a weird electoral monarchy thing conrad explain so the royal elections of the polisher demanding commonwealth became the thing after the death of the last segalonian on the polish throne and at his death it was decided that there would not be a royal dynasty that would just continue from generation to generation that is to say that they would elect a king from a royal dynasty in europe but after his death they would once again elect another monarch instead of letting his children take over the polish throne thank you conrad taking all that heavy stuff in polish people have told me there's always kind of like this sense of somber stoic suspicious cynical yet productive and prudent mentality that encapsulates the polish it's a weird paradox when you see them because it's like ugh being a polish is the worst seriously i know right i hate poor sausages they're so gross they are and the government is just totally wack yeah poland is terrible what did you say you can't say that you're not from here yeah well that took a little longer than expected so uh here's hannah with culture stuff good to be back polish people have gone through a lot they were pretty much fought for and invaded over 40 times for about 400 years nonetheless the polish people held through those centuries and retain their sense of identity for one in poland it is actually just as popular if not maybe even more to celebrate one's name day as well as your birthday poland has quite a high level of tertiary educated individuals with about 80 percent of the young adult population having enrolled in university also side note the 35 of polish people living abroad are referred to as polonia there's a contest where we figure out who is the strongest man in the world and poland has won the most of those contests then we have the silesian and kashubian minorities let's let conrad explain this one because you know it's a little complex the salesians who live for the most part today in upper silesia are an ethnographic group with a distinctive dialect of polish internationally though it's considered not as a nation or people though some within the region consider themselves as a nation which the kashubians are and they are considered as a west slavic people separate from the polish people they are loyal towards poland but they have their own recognized minority status they have their own traditions they have their own cuisine and they have their own language there are even bilingual signs which paul will definitely put in now thank you conrad they've also racked up quite a few nobel peace prizes at 17. they are front-runners of innovations and inventions like kerosene and the kerosene lamp the oil well the bulletproof vest and the modern drug test a lot of festivals can be found year round throughout the country and in different regions popular ones include all saints day mayday the la cognac festival in krakow and during christmas you might see the creepy turon everywhere to expound a bit more on polish music and arts here you know is keith or whatever [Music] music in poland goes way back to its ancient slavic roots instruments typically used include things like the wood horn the hurdy gertie the horse hair drum the petal accordion and the suka what'd you call me even though he had spent most of his time in france chopin was born in poland his homeland was always one of the central themes to his often somber and melancholy masterpieces cherished worldwide during the polish national revival this dude this way this dude collected varieties of folk music for broadcast including the most famous ones these which are still performed to this day i know that uh there's this guitar player named uh jakob zachetsky and he is amazing thank you keith and now the most complicated part history and the quickest way i can condense it slavic tribes and states in the vestula basin pyas dynasty greater poland christianity and tribal unification pomerania is annexed this dude becomes the first king feudal disintegration mongols invade czechs invade teutonic knights invade polish lithuanian commonwealth swedes invade prussians invade end of the commonwealth constitution written napoleonic wars kingdom of poland and free state of krakow russian partitions in russian poland world war one polish soviet war independence from russia germany invades world war ii begins communism years independence weird west germany stuff some other interesting things like they got a pope and a nobel peace prize first fully free elections they joined nato in the eu and here we are today some people you guys the polish geography suggested we mentioned in this episode include all those dukes and kings pretty much any hero that fought with the winged hussars copernicus although he was technically german marie curie was actually polish mikowirai pope john paul ii all these athletes these directors all these artists and musicians the dude from the movie the pianist was a real guy these american revolutionaries and speaking of americans john krasinski kristen bell steve carell and roman polanski are also part polish apple co-founder steve wozniak and finally of course dragosh brenchetti and there's a lot more i could have mentioned but that would take way too long there's a lot of famous polls all over the world they've left their global mark and speaking of global marks that brings us to as a central player in europe for a long complicated history it's no surprise poland has picked up quite an entourage over many many years of polish existence for one as part of the vistagrad group the czechs and slovaks are generally considered the close west slavic brothers they've had very few wars and conflicts with them they understand their languages kind of however they both kind of think the other sounds funny when they talk for russians it's more of like a people versus government thing as people polls and russians get along quite well on a human level it's just the governments that often disagree and clash poland for a while was under the iron curtain and warsaw pact which complicated things even more but as crazy as things get there is always kind of like this universal slavic understanding which is why ukraine comes in as a pretty close friend ukrainians love to come to poland for work there is also a fast-growing ukrainian community and they kind of share a similar post-communist struggle alliance although they still kind of don't like how ukrainians honor the upa which is a whole other story poland is kind of like germany's biggest regret that they have to constantly be reminded of literally every day as they are neighbors but they are the largest economic partner for them as well germany does have many bilateral relations with poland it's the 21st century people have grown up and moved on and the future looks bright mostly between the two quick note lithuania is like the divorced wife that they remember having some of the best years of their history with today when a pole meets a lithuanian they just kind of nod and smile understanding everything the other is thinking without a single word their best friend however every pole has told me the same thing hungary historically they've shared some of the same monarchs heroes they've always helped each other in times of need there are many parks and monuments commemorating the friendship between the two there's even a saying in polish two brothers both to the saber and the bottle in conclusion let's get this to conrad conrad what do you have to say poland is a country that has a lot to offer both geographically and has been through pretty much everything historically it's been an empire it's been completely erased from the map and today poland is a growing and thriving country i'm sure that the role of poland on the european scene will only grow thank you conrad and thank you art for being in this episode stay tuned portugal is coming up next guys [Music] me [Music]

Channel: Geography Now

Views: 3,637,152

Keywords: Geography, facts, info, cool, education, learning, countries, history, class, lesson, funny, Poland, Europe, Warsaw, Travel

Id: Hn8XXPl1vjU

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 30 2019