From March 2nd, the citizens of five European countries, including Poland, will no longer need a visa for tourist travel to Turkey, the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s press spokesman announced in a special message, according to news website Polandin.com.
Apart from Poles, the visa requirement is being waived for Austrians, Belgians, the Dutch and Spanish. European tourists will be able to stay in Turkey for up to 90 days in a six-month period. The spokesman added that the decision increases Turkey’s tourist potential and also develops trade, economic and cultural relations. According to the Polish Chamber of Tourism, Turkey is in second place in the ranking of Poles’ favourite holiday destinations. Greece holds the top position.

Source – PolandIn.com

EUROPE’S BIGGEST AQUA PARK OPENS NEAR WARSAW

If you’re dreaming of an exotic location to spend a few days you might not need to go as far to find it as you think! With its 18 pools, 32 slides, 10 saunas and luxury spas, Suntago Water World, which opened near Warsaw this week, is the biggest indoor aqua park in Europe. Covering a staggering 67,000 m2 40km southwest of Warsaw, and costing over 170 million euros, the stunning water park can host up to 10,000 people 365 days of the year. The park consists of a family area with pools and slides covering 3.2km, including a 320-metre slide. There’s also a sauna zone consisting of 10 different themed saunas in palm tree settings and temperatures ranging from a tropical 95 degrees through to igloo-esque -12 degrees Celsius. There’s also a luxury spa and wellness centre, salt grotto, pools with water infused with various minerals, pool-side bars and five restaurants with cuisine ranging from traditional Polish through to Sushi. Built in just three years, the construction team boasted that more concrete (38 thousand cubic metres) was used to build Suntago than Warsaw’s iconic Palace of Science and Culture, and that they used over half the amount of steel used to build Paris’ Eiffel Tower.

Source – The First News

POLISH MOVIES AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s new movie “Charlatan” will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival, which started on Thursday. Holland’s film, about a faith healer living in uncertain times in 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, will be shown in the non-competition Berlinale Special section of the festival. Holland’s award-winning film Mr. Jones, about a 1930s famine in Soviet Ukraine, had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019. Meanwhile, an animated film by Polish director Mariusz Wilczyński will be competing this year in the new “Encounters” section, which aims to highlight daring work from innovative independent filmmakers. Wilczyński’s Kill It and Leave This Town takes viewers back to his childhood world of the 1960s and 1970s. The Berlin Film Festival website describes the film as a “moving, dreamlike journey into a bizarre fantasy world full of past emotions.”

Source – Polskie Radio

ASSISTANCE FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME WEEK BEGINS IN GDAŃSK

Friday saw the start of this year’s Victims of Crime Assistance Week. At the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk and all district prosecutor’s offices in Pomorskie, you will be able to get legal advice from prosecutors. Advice will be available between 9.30 and 13.30 every weekday until next Friday. Detailed information on on-call hours in district prosecutor’s offices will be available on the information boards of individual offices. This information will also be available over the phone (if you speak Polish). Addresses and contact numbers of all prosecutors’ offices of the Gdańsk district are available on the website of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk: www.gdansk.po.gov.pl

Source – portalsamorzadowy.pl/

THE WEATHER