Quote: (06-04-2016 03:00 AM)This Is Trouble Wrote:
Krakow as a whole is very walkable, and a very pleasant place to live. It's clean, green, and the people are friendly as hell.
Krakow is the 3rd most air-polluted city in Europe (with surrounding cities occupying most of the top 10, the top 2 are in Bulgaria).
The quality of air is exceeding EU pollution standards many fold, most days of the year.
There were days that children were not allowed to even go to school last year due to the pollution. It doesn't get THAT bad so often, but very often the recommendation is to "stay in as much as possible".
Just being responsible towards people reading this thread. Krakow is very far from being "clean and green", unfortunately.
It is due to a deadly combination of a lot of heavy industry in a valley shaped area that doesn't get too much wind to clean up the air.
For the same reason Krakow has less horrible winters - there's rarely wind to make the cold much more unbearable.
However, due to the pollution, if you care about your health, and especially if you have related problems, you may consider avoiding Krakow for long term stays.