WROCŁAW - In Your Pocket

10 ARRIVAL & TRANSPORT
By Bus
International and domestic buses arrive and depart from
Dworzec Centralny - the somewhat grimy bus terminal
located immediately behind the railway station on ul. Sucha
(B-6). In addition to being a stop on the Eurolines international
coach network, Polski Bus (polskibus.com) operates budget
routes to Prague, Łódź and Warsaw from Wrocław. Absent
from that list is Kraków. Despite the A4 highway going straight
to Kraków, getting there by bus from Wrocław is harder than
it should be with LinkBus (link-bus.com) and Lajkonik
(lajkonikbus.pl) bus companies both offering limited service.
Wrocław Bus Station (Dworzec Centralny PKS)
B-6, ul. Sucha 1/11, tel. (+48) 71 333 05 30. Grim and
uncouth, Wrocław’s bus station isn’t exactly the city’s greatest
ambassador. With the train station having undergone a thorough
sprucing up, Dworzec Centralny is now the city’s unofficial day
care centre for drunks and lunatics, no doubt driven to madness
by the overriding unhelpfulness of the people working at the
ticket windows. The purchase of tickets can be attempted at any
number of windows, each of which has its own overly-complex
opening hours, though we know at least one is always available
between 06:00 and 21:30; for international (międzynarodowe)
tickets, try platform number 4. In Wrocław’s bus station you’ll
also find toilets (open 06:00 - 23:30, 2zł - after that use the
automatic ones near the platforms, the cost is 1zł), an ATM
just outside the main entrance and a currency exchange (open
07:00 - 22:00) inside the main station building. Compared to the
bus station, the train station is upstanding and highly navigable,
with more services on hand. Those heading into town will likely
need to go this direction anyway. Most of the city’s hotels and
hostels are within 15 minutes walk of the bus station and taking
public transport doesn’t make a ton of sense unless you
know exactly why you’re doing so. If at a loss, jump in a MPT
Radio Taxi (71 191 91).
By Car
Poland is one of Europe’s leading nations in road fatalities, a
statistic that will surprise few who have had the pleasure of
using the roads here. A lethal combination of poor road surfaces,
networks unsuited to the volume of traffic and, most
of all, frustrated and aggressive driver behaviour result in the
common sight of mangled wrecks around the country. While
the road quality issue is being addressed with EU directives
and funding, the size of the country’s road network means that
it will still be years before results are seen in many places.
Almost all roads outside of urban areas are a single lane in
each direction, meaning traffic is inevitably bogged down by the
fleet of lorries that traverse Poland as well as the odd farmer in
a horse-cart. This results in impatient drivers overtaking each
other at high speed and then braking sharply to avoid oncoming
traffic. Be cautious and keep a safe distance between you
and the vehicle in front.
The speed limit in Poland is generally 50km/hr in cities
(60km/hr between 23:00 and 05:00), 90km/hr outside urban
areas, 120km/hr on dual carriageways and 140km/hr
on motorways. All cars must have their headlights switched
on at all times and carry a red warning triangle, first aid kit,
replacement bulbs, a national identity sticker and proper
registration and insurance documents. Poland also has
strict drunk-driving laws: 0.2‰ is the maximum blood/
alcohol limit, so forget about having even a single beer. EU
citizens may use their home driving licenses as long as they
are valid, however citizens of countries that didn’t ratify the
Vienna Convention (tsk, tsk Australia and America) will find
their licenses invalid (though that hasn’t stopped anyone we
know from driving their girlfriend’s car). Carry your license and
passport at all times when driving.
One of the only major highways in the country, the A4 connects
Wrocław with Berlin (via Legnica) and Kraków (via Opole
and Katowice). Much of Wrocław’s centre is pedestrianised,
meanwhile one-way and seemingly accessible streets that
are actually only available to permit holders make driving in
the centre an absolute nightmare. Poor planning and limited
traffic patterns mean congestion is a major, major problem as
well; call a cab and it might take as much as twenty minutes
to get to you, though it’s only a few blocks away. As such, we
suggest you ditch your vehicle at the first opportunity, which
raises the question of where to put it.
Free parking is available at Arkady Wrocławskie (A-5, next to the
railway station, and note only the first hour is free, and although
you can leave your car here overnight, the place is closed from
23:00-06:00, Sat, Sun 23:00-08:00). The multi-storey car park
on ul. Rzeźnicza, next to the Sofitel (A-3) charges 8zł per hour or
120zł day. Some hotels have limited parking spaces, so check
when booking your room. Street parking is of course available
by seeking out the large blue signs with the letter ‘P’ on them.
Tickets are available from parking meters and those wishing
to park in the city centre will be charged 3zł for the first hour,
3.60zł for the second hour and 4.30zł for the third. Thereafter
you’ll be forking out 3 zeds an hour.
Guarded Parking G-3, ul. Sienkiewicza 32.
Guarded Parking A-5, ul. Powstańców Śląskich 5/7.
By Plane
Wrocław can boast one of Poland’s most efficient and modern
airports, thanks to the shiny new terminal built a few
hundred metres from the old one and opened in March 2012.
Built ahead of the Euro2012 Football Championships the new
terminal has been built to handle over 3 million passengers
annually and is Ryanair’s first hub in Poland.
Wrocław Nicolaus Copernicus Airport (Port Lotniczy
im. Mikołaja Kopernika we Wrocławiu) ul.
Graniczna 190, tel. (+48) 71 358 13 81, www.airport.wroclaw.pl.
Named Wrocław Nicolaus Copernicus Airport, the
airport does a fine job in ushering people in and out of the city.
Just 13 km west of the city centre you will be through passport
control and baggage claim in minutes, at which stage you will
probably start thinking about local cash. We recommend using
one of the ATMs (Bankomats) as the currency exchange desk
offers what we might politely term to be ‘not the best exchange
rates in Poland.’ You will also find press stores, tourist and
airport information desks, a restaurant, bars and a coffee shop.
The easiest way into town is to jump into one of the taxis
sitting outside. The new terminal restricts pick-ups to three
vetted firms. That means ZTP Radio Taxi (tel. 71 19622),
Taxi Plus (tel. 607 19 18 44) and Partner Taxi (tel. 71 196
27). They all have the same tariffs and you can expect to pay
40-50zł during the day with this rising by around 20zł at night
and at weekends. If you do not see one of these firms, which
have their numbers on the vehicle, we suggest you call one.
Quite frankly though, given the relatively short distance into
town you might just as well hop on the bus. Tickets cost
3.00zl and can be bought from the press store inside the
terminal building or from the machine next to the bus stop.
Buses run roughly every 20 minutes from 05:13 - 23:14
(05:19 - 23:14 on Saturdays and Sundays) with a night bus
(route 249) departing at 00:23, 03:02 and 04:02. Particularly
bulky pieces of luggage warrant an extra charge of 1.50zl
but we have never seen this rule enforced.
For live arrival and departure information call the
number given or visit the airport’s excellent website.
Wrocław In Your Pocket wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
By Train
Wrocław is well-designed for train travel, boasting a gloriously
renovated main train station that was at one time the
largest in Europe. Fully modernised in 2012 before the Euro
Cup, today Wrocław’s Dworzec Główny is arguably the nicest
train station in Poland, making a wonderful impression on
all those who arrive via the rails. Located just south of the
market square, from here it is possible to catch domestic
connections to Kraków (5hrs), Warsaw (7-8hrs) and Poznań
(3hrs), and international lines to Berlin (6-7hrs), Dresden
(3.5hrs) and Prague (5-6hrs). Miłej podróży!
Wrocław Main Train Station
(Dworzec Główny) B-6,
ul. Piłsudskiego 105, tel. (+48)
197 57, www.rozklad.pkp.pl.
Recently the beneficiary of a massive
293 million złoty investment,
Wrocław’s main train station has
never looked better. Completed in
1857, this grandiose Neo-Gothic
building, with its decadent exterior
of turrets and crenulations, has
been given a fresh blaze of bright
orange-yellow paint - and while
not necessarily the colour we would have chosen, it certainly
makes an impression. Looking like a grandiose palace from
its early days, the station finally has the surrounding grounds
to match, with a green public square replete with dozens of
benches and two playful fountains to replace the car park
and gas station that formerly stood in front of the entrance.
There’s even a plethora of covered bicycle parking and a
new underground parking complex nearby (follow the signs).
wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
ARRIVAL & TRANSPORT
Inside, all the elegant architectural details of the original design
have been brought back to life, while new digital display screens
give you all the arrival and departure info you need. Modernised
to be completely handicap accessible, during our most recent
visit some of the escalators and lifts had yet to come to life,
but there are every handy conveyors to put your luggage on if
you chose the stairs. Other amenities include 24-hour ticket
windows, information desks, lockers and a left luggage service,
ATMs (bankomat), currency exchange offices (kantor), comfortable
waiting rooms, and even a VIP waiting room for those with
first-class tickets. Several shops, restaurants, cafes are already
in place and with space to spare, more will no doubt soon be
moving in. Overall it adds up to the most convenient, comfortable,
and easy to navigate train station in Poland.
Be aware, however, that despite there being over a dozen
ticket windows, you may still be greeted by long queues, so
give yourself plenty of time. If in a rush, remember that you
can buy tickets on board the train from the conductor, though
you’ll pay a hefty surcharge. Station departures (odjazdy) are
listed on the yellow timetables and arrivals (przyjazdy) on the
white ones. Check the large digital display board for the number
of the platform (peron). Visit the Polish railways website
at rozklad.pkp.pl - which has limited but effective English
language functionality - to check the times ahead of travelling.
As for getting into town, you are basically in it. Most of the
city’s hotels and hostels are within 15 minutes walking distance,
and given that penetrating the inner Old Town on public
transport requires you take at least two trams, it probably
isn’t worth the hassle. If you really don’t fancy the walk, there
are taxis waiting of front of both station entrances. Q Open
24hrs. Note that due to system maintenance seat reservations
cannot be made from 00:00 to 01:00.
September - December 2012
11