[Aquinasfan]

Amazing to see how Warsaw was rebuilt -- and now there are a lot of chic shops and great restaurants.

That's good to here. I was there in the early '90s and Warsaw was drab, Soviet, concreteblockland.

[dfwgator]

Ahh yes, the wonders of "Socialist" architecture.

[speedy]

Yes, I think it has changed considerably since your visit, although you can certainly still find the dreary Soviet-era buildings all around. But now there are designer clothing stores and jewelry stores and some high-end restaurants. It is still relatively poor by Western European standards, but they have clearly made some breakthroughs and there is an emerging business class that is making serious money. In fact, in Gdansk they have an exhibit which consists of a replica of a shortage-riddled Communist-era shop, just so the younger ones will know what it was like in the not very distant past. It was indeed a bleak setting.