Zielona Góra is situated in the west of Poland, about 2 hrs drive from Berlin, 5 hours drive from Warsaw and 2 hours drive from Poznań. There’s a local airport at Babimost, great train connection with Poznań and Wrocław.
It has around 140 000 inhabitants so there’s one student on each 14 inhabitants, making the city a true student’s centre. The city has quite an attractive location, surrounded as it is by gently rolling hills and forests. The name of the city in both Polish, Czech, and German, means ‘green mountain’.
Zielona Góra used to be a German town until WWII so the town retains a western feel. The region is prosperous, with a high employment in service sector. Inhabitants are well accustomed with elderly German tourists not speaking English and so they have adopted to quasi sign shopping language. They are also very likely to speak a little bit of German if they do not speak English. While Polish is very hard to master and speak fluently, it seems easy to acquire some basic communication level. Polish has only three tenses and pronunciation fairy regular, not like in French:)
Zielona Góra is located in the Lubush province, which is well known for lakes. There are over 600 lakes in the province, the nearest one is 8km apart from Zielona Góra. If you are not sure what to do during spring and summer days, grab a swimsuit and go visit one of the lakes.
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The town has an attractive pedestrian area in the centre with a good range of shops and services. Its size means that you are never more than 15 minutes by bus from anywhere, frequently much less. It is easy to get to know your way about, but it is also big enough to find yourself lost from time to time.
The area has been famous of it’s wines centuries ago. Zielona Góra keeps the tradition alive, there are lots of local wineyards as well as people celebrate during wine making festival which is held each year in September. Local winemakers and artists, schools, as well as the residents of Zielona Góra take part in it, strolling down the main streets of the city in colourful disguises, in the rhythm of music and in the company of artwork. One thing is sure – the Winobranie Wine Festival is the most exciting week of a year in Zielona Góra, full of entertainment of all types, joy and celebration of the restoring winemaking traditions. There’s also a Lubusz Wine Centre, which serves as a research and education hub for students of viticulture at the University of Zielona Góra, as well as an advisory centre for local winemakers.
