1936 On the Continent

again to see the rest without my telling you to do so.
    There is the Green Silesia, as opposed to the Black Silesia of industry, with such places as Wisla, famous for ski-ing and a favourite retreat of the President of the Republic.
    There are many spas, with practically all the kinds of waters that can possibly be swallowed or bathed in—Ciechocinek, where there is an enormous swimming bath with water so strongly salted that it is impossible to sink in it—like in the salt lakes; Rabka, paradise of children; Truskawiec, in the Carpathians; Inowroclaw, half-way between Warsaw and the sea; Kosów, where the good old Doctor Tarnawski will make a slip of a girl from the most Mae Westish matron by a very peculiar cure, including climbing trees, sun-bathing and physical culture in wonderful surroundings; Druskieniki, with the cottage to which the late Marshal Pilsudski used to retire after his work and where the foreign ambassadors had to seek him, digging in his garden in a very shabby old uniform; Zaleszczyki, in the southernmost corner of Poland, where there are vines, apricot orchards and bathing in the powerful River Dniester; the big gliding centres of Ustjanowa, Bezmiechowa and Lesko that are unlike any other places you have ever seen.
Gliding
    Gliding and soaring are very popular in Poland, and in these centres it is possible to receive a course in gliding and obtain an A or B licence for an expenditure of about 10 zloty for six weeks, with board—this being a proposition for young people. There are hundreds of sailplanes in Poland and the records stand high—duration flight twenty-three hours, altitude 12,000 feet and so on. This is certainly the most modern of sports and one of the most fascinating, without being any more dangerous than many others content with staying on the ground.
    There is Gniezno, the Canterbury of Poland, with a bishopric founded in A.D. 1000. There is Podole, where the fertile plain is cut by deep ravines like the American canyons, with the villages always a couple of hundred feet below the real level of the country’s surface. Trees are felled on steep slopes and taken down fast streams and rapids on rafts made of three logs tied together. Thegorges of the Pieniny, with the Dunajec breaking through them, are the best places for enjoying this fast form of sightseeing.
    There are many more such things that really ought to have been mentioned here, but which would demand a volume to themselves if I were to treat them with the attention which they deserve. More detailed information may be found in the little booklets issued by the Polish Ministry of Communication, in some guides like those of Warsaw and Cracow by Miss Humphrey, and similar publications which are easily obtainable in Poland.
Hospitality
    The salient fact about travelling in Poland is the great hospitality with which foreign visitors are received, especially those from Great Britain (
vide
above, theory of lords). For this reason little has been said here about the social customs, etc. Being courteous and polite in an English way will be more than sufficient to make the Poles your friends. Their own forms of life, at least as far as the higher classes are concerned, differ little from the French social forms, which have been fashionable since the eighteenth century and which are also familiar to Englishmen.
    It is true that there is rather more hand-kissing and bowing, and fairly meaningless though pleasant words, or, for instance, thanking the hostess ceremoniously after a meal—but no one would expect a foreigner to conform strictly to all these little points. In fact, it is more likely that people will try to adapt themselves to the ways of your country, so as to make you feel more at home—their attempts to do so are sometimes very funny, but nevertheless a proof of a friendly thoughtfulness which is not displayed everywhere in the world to-day.

FOR THE LADIES
    W OMEN have always played an exceptionally important part in the life of Poland, and when it was resurrected in 1918 they received the suffrage as a matter of course. They also enjoy a great deal of independence and influence in social life. These remarks may help the foreign woman visitor to realise what she may expect from the Polish women she is likely to meet; that is to say, all the advice and help she may require. It would be only fair to state here what the lady visitor might expect from the men—but I am afraid this would be overstepping the limits