2023

It’s always nice to film destinations in the sunshine. But when you are carrying around 15 kg of cameras and kit, and walking up to ten kilometres a day, 34 degrees can be a little excessive. Yet that was the case for much of the time we spent during several weeks travelling around Poland last year.

Poland was a destination we didn’t know much about. Like many people, we were aware of the popular tourist cities of Krakow, and the capital, Warsaw, but when we saw we were visiting Malopolska and Ksiaz, it had us scrambling for our maps.

Unusually, we were travelling around Poland in between the different regions by train. Leaving Warsaw on a highspeed train in First Class, to travel south to Krakow, we thought we had it made. Comfy reclining seats, plenty of room for our luggage, meals served in our seat… yes, we could get use to this. Sadly, that was the best of the journeys, and the next one was slow, cramped and with us taking turns to keep an eye on our expensive equipment so that it didn’t get knocked in the narrow corridors.

The delightful tourist city of Krakow – the old capital of Poland, welcomed us with a balloon flight above the river. We weren’t expecting this until the last day, but, thankfully, we are good at adapting to situations quickly. A hasty discussion saw cameraman Matt left on the ground to film from below, with myself (Trevor) and Tom joining presenter Alex, and guide Kasha on the balloon.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about filming such an experience when you’ve seen similar things on television, but you need some nice close-up shots of the presenter and guide chatting about the city below, but also some beautiful shots from the ground of them looking out from the balloon. For the latter, please consider that Tom and I were having to ‘hide’, squatting down out of sight in this tiny space, 100 metres in the air, so that we are not seen by the camera on the ground. The glamour of television!

Krakow is a bright, lively, happy city, and a great place to introduce newcomers to Poland. Its vast market square is the largest in Europe, and is alive to the sound of street musicians, horses pulling carriages, and numerous restaurants each evening. Unlike some other European cities, however, it always felt very safe when we were walking around with cameras and other kit, and had a feeling that everyone was there just to have a good time.

Gdansk was probably the most surprising place we visited. Many British people of a certain generation will know the name as the port city that was constantly in the news, with the towering cranes of the dockyards playing backdrop to the mass protests at the end of the Soviet era. Nowadays those same dockyards are home to leisure craft and yachts, with some of the huge warehouses converted into bustling night spots. The cranes are still there, celebrated now with coloured lights that illuminate them against the night sky.

By day, Gdank is a thriving tourist hub, with pastel coloured lines of historic buildings, and captivating shops and street traders showcasing a wealth of local products – most notably the famous local amber stone.

The capital, Warsaw, is an interesting mix of modern skyscrapers, and the atmospheric old town. Much of it, including the beautiful palace complex, has been totally rebuilt after it was completely destroyed in WW2, but you’d never know it. It looks exactly as before, and is a delight to just wander around the narrow streets and bustling squares. There is a pleasant calmness about the city, with the exception of the many electric scooters that zip in and out of the casually ambling tourists.

This actually became a feeling we were to get used to as we travelled around other Polish cities. In Wroclaw, people were very curious about why an English film crew was in their city, but as soon as we told them, they were full of enthusiasm – offering enough suggestions of other places we should film to last us another three weeks. In Gdansk, a real party city at night around the river and docks, we had locals telling us the best places to get our shots from, and moving other locals out of the way as though we were some kind of VIP’s!

Wroclaw has a very Germanic feel, unsurprisingly as it was once part of that nation. It has a very open, welcoming feel, enhanced by the various waterways and tree-lined promenades around the islands. It has a great foodie scene too, with some mouthwatering dishes presented to us. Filming in restaurants is always fun when there are other diners around. You can sense them all watching while you make the presenter wait until you have all your shots before she is allowed to take a mouthful of her meal… and then ask her to take another mouthful while you take a close up of her tasting it. Ten minutes later, she is allowed to actually eat her lunch! Poland’s cuisine tends to be quite meat and carbs heavy, although the ‘pink soup’ certainly divided opinion amongst our team.

If you are coming to Poland, spare some time to get out of the cities, as there are so many beautiful places to see in the countryside, mountains and along the Baltic coast.

We had the chance to film on board a yacht, sailing from Gdansk to the popular resort of Sopot – apparently famed for having the longest wooden pier in Europe. It really surprised us just what a spectacular coastline this was, with long stretches of sandy beaches, people out on the water, windsurfing, paddleboarding and swimming. We all enjoyed the experience, except poor Tom, who succumbed to a spot of seasickness when it became a little choppy.

Thankfully it was a lot calmer in the extreme south, as we drifted down a spectacular stretch of the Poprad River, which marks the border between Poland and Slovenia. It’s always fun to get the presenters dressed up on camera, and as the boatmen all wear a traditional embroidered waistcoat and trousers, Alex was also adorned with the same as she was taught how to punt the flat bottom raft through the fast moving water of the river gorges. Filming on water always presents a challenge, but usually looks amazing when you see it on screen. Luckily, you can’t see the strange positions we need to get into with the cameras to get those shots!

Filming on these trips is always a constant challenge, be it crawling on hands and knees to capture the famous statues of dwarves that inhabit the city of Wroclaw, or balancing on a wire high above the ground, filming Alex nervously traversing a tree-top trail. Tasting the thermal water in a spa town was a highlight – for all the wrong reasons (it tasted awful, and smells like rotten eggs!), and filming some open- air food preparation in the middle of a forest, whilst trying not to get stung by the wasps who also thought it looked tasty, was also memorable. But that’s all part of the fun.

Keep an eye on the Globetrotter Television website and social media channels for details of where you can see the new series.