What's your favourite Central European zoo?

I think that division of Poland is a tad arbitrary and wouldn't tally with the views of Polish citizens... and not for the first time in history, either!

 

I think you've got Krakow in 'Eastern Europe', and it's definitely much more like Prague or Budapest than Kyiv or Moscow. I haven't been to Warsaw but suspect it also takes its cultural cues far more from other Central European countries than Russia or (post WWII) Ukraine.

I'm content referring to Poland as either, because you can split Europe into a binary 'east-west' axis, or go for a more nuanced and useful five or even six way split. But if the latter then I think Poland quite firmly and fully belongs in Central Europe, and 'Eastern Europe' really only applies to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and presumably Moldova in that scheme.

 

This is probably the ambiguous nomenclature I referred to at play. Absolutely, Krakow and Wroclaw feel like 'Eastern bloc' countries insofar as they have the lingering after-effects of choosing a 5-Year Plan over a Marshall Plan. But we're probably far enough beyond 1989 now for culture to matter more than political history.

Haven't been to Lithuania but I suspect this comes down to where you fall on the Polish question, as to whether that feel is 'Eastern' or 'Central'.

 

Remember that a good portion of southern Poland used to be part of Czech Republic prior to end WWII. This part certainly feels very much as Central European and not Eastern by personal experience.

 

You're wrong. South-west Poland (Silesia) belonged to Kingdom of Czechia in the late Middle Ages until 1525 when the Czechia lost its independence for the Habsburgs. After Austro-Prussian War of 1740-42 Silesia came under Prussian rule. So in character and style Wrocław is German-Austrian mixture (in spirit more Austrian because after II WW most of the population came from south-eastern Poland (Galicia, earlier part of Austria) taken after the war by Soviets. Poznań and Gdańsk are more Prussian in style, Kraków is Austrian and Warszawa indeed is Eastern Europe city (as a part of former Russia). Histoty of Poland is very complicated
Again, former cities of K.u.K Monarchy are similar in character and spirit, from Triest in Italy to Lviv in Ukraine. They all tried to be a smaller version of Wien, Budapest or Praha. And this is also visible until today.

 

I think @Kifaru Bwana was referring to the incorporation of a large part of Lower Silesia into Czechoslovakia in 1919 by the Treaty of St Germain more recently.

My favourite zoo in this region is either Vienna or Berlin, but then again I've only visited 5 (although they were all excellent places )

 

Yes, you are right ... I did.

 

Wroclaw for me.

But I really hope that your geography and history teachers don't see your posts!

 

But it was very small part of Silesia and it still belongs to Czechia. Among others it is part of Ostrava region and I don't mind connecting this fragment with the rest of Silesia. Poland would gain an excellent zoo.

 

DON'T YOU EVEN DARE!

 

I was afraid that some of my Czech friends would'n like my idea.

 

This thread is interesting both as a history and geography lesson, I always knew things were complicated but didn't appreciate how much!