Reszel

They will of course protest otherwise, but one thing you’ll notice about the habitants of Warsaw is they don’t hang about when it comes to getting out of the big, bad city. Give them a long weekend and you’ll find the milk cancelled and a convoy of cars pointing in every direction but the city centre. For the most part the destination will be the town of Kazimierz Dolny, the mountains of Zakopane or the beaches of Sopot; wise and noble choices, the three of them, but why not go for more unchartered waters. Reszel, for instance. Never heard of it before? That’s for good reason, this place is Poland’s best kept secret. The town is tiny, population 5,098 promise the chaps at Wikipedia, but it features the kind of mist cloaked alleyways made famous in body snatcher films; uneven cobbles twist among derelict mills, and a Gothic bridge looms over a narrow stream. Dominating it all is the castle, a medieval masterpiece perched on top of a craggy rock. This precious reader’s is Reszel, the finest excuse in Poland to pack the bags and head into the yonder. Bring a camera, bring books, bring an appetite for krupnik and be prepared for some serious chillout; the arse end of nowhere has never been better.