POLAND JOINS BIG LEAGUES WITH EURO 2012

Finally, after years of preparations, Euro 2012 in soccer is about to kick off tomorrow at Poland's National Stadium in Warsaw. The new stadium, one of the most impressive venues in the world of soccer, with a retractable roof, has over 58,000 seats and rather does not belong to the biggest arenas. But, its design inside and state of the art amenities make it impressive and imposing venue, indeed. Even more beautiful is a bit smaller PGE Arena in Gdansk, in various shades of amber color, with a light design of the outside walls and of the roof. The City Stadium in Poznan characterizes futuristic design of the roof construction (as seen from inside of the stadium) whereas Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw boasts with great visibility from each of its traditional one-tier level seats. The roads in Poland have been considerably improved, new highways were added, although not all of them are finished. The hotel industry, quite impressive in recent years, has been made even better. Warsaw Airport, already modern, opened additional terminal whereas majority of local airports were either modernized or rebuilt. Polish economy, which as the only one in Europe has not known recession in recent years, is still advancing ahead with 3,5 % growth, made even more impressive by the troubles of Greece, Portugal, Spain or Italy. Krakow, one of the most picturesque cities in the world does not stage any games, but it hosts teams from England, Holland and Italy and is already crowded with tourists from all over the world. Well done, Poland! Enjoy, for your time has finally arrived. Let's hope, that none of the racial incidents, predicted by BBC's sensational Panorama program, will take place for we cannot allow those few yobs to spoil our soccer holidays. Let us rather show the world our traditional Polish hospitality!

Janusz Andrzejewski