I would say to anyone considering visiting Lublin; don't bother. After a couple of hours walking round I'm ready to get the train back to Torun. It's not a bad place, but there is really nothing to do here, and very little of interest to see. It looks like an okay place to live or be for a specific purpose, but not really great for tourism.
Ah well, home again home again.
Oh. I don't agree! Lublin is one of my favorite cities. But I have seen it only at nighttime.. There is Fantasy Convention organized there every novembber and since 2006 I haven't missed it once. The downside is that we really don't go to the city center before, like, 8 p.m.... on the other hand, it's really beautiful then. The old town and the castle are all lit up... very nice indeed. But I am biased - thios Fantasy Con is really great :>
ReplyDeleteThe old town is nice but very small and the castle is nice too but it looks so modern, it could've been built yesterday! lol, I admit I wasn't in the best mood today, the weather and having soaking wet feet didn't help, but I didn't find anything that excited me in Lublin. But yeah I'm sure if you're there for a particular reason it would be a fine place to be :) - what's a fantasy convention?
ReplyDeleteOh, it's a meeting of freaks, mostly :P It's 3 to 4 days long conference held usually at some school during the weekend. People who love fantasy (usually fantasy books and movies and RPGs, but also people from reenactment groups and manga&anime lovers, lately) come together, give speeches and panels on the various topics, play together RPGs and other games and do some more crazy stuff ;) It's an opportunity to meet fantasy books' authors, some publishers, buy books, figures and other stuff and, first and foremost, just be together, talk about what we like and enjoy ourselves :) And since - at least officialy - drinking alcohol is forbidden on the area of the convention, we go out at night to bars and pubs to enjoy a beer or two with friends :)
ReplyDeleteLast year there was a "Tricon" organized in Cieszyn, a mix of Polish National Convention "Polcon", Czech "Parcon" and European "Eurocon". You can see pictures and read about it here: http://tricon.info/ (just click the English icon at the top, there should be some material in this language ;D)
In Lublin there is annual "Falkon" convention, which I love very much, mostly because I have a lot of friends there, but also because it's a very good Con ;)
I'm live in Lublin, so I'm biased. But I think you didn't really see Lublin at it's best - for example Old city in Lublin is one of largest in Poland (after Toruń and Kraków), but many parts of it aren't properly restored, and tourists won't go there (a few years ago even the parts near castle were considered dangerous district - in these old "kamiennice" there are social flats for poor people, many alcoholics etc. live here and city can't relocate them, and they won't care for their flats - this changes slowly).
ReplyDeleteArchitecturaly Lublin is quite interesting, if that's your thing - but it is rather quiet city (except students district:) so I can understand, why it could seem boring. Best to see Lublin when there are some cultural events - Kozienalia, festival Znaki, Jarmark Jagielloński, etc.
PS - I've used to be on a few first Falkons - great convention that is.
Definitely, it really seemed like a nice place just with nothing for me to do when I went there. It seemed that there was quite a bit to see/do in the surrounding area but getting around wasn't possible for me when I visited. I will look into the festivals, thanks for the tip!
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