Overrun countless times by marauding aggressors, subjugated to overbearing foreign rule for centuries, and now told their beloved vodka can be made from anything, the Polish nation has endured more than most. Yet Poland, a country crushed flat so many times it has become indestructible, is shaking off the last vestiges of forced slumber and rushing with great abandon into a modern 21st century.

Despite the country’s rush to embrace the future, its past cannot be ignored, particularly when it confronts you at every turn. Warsaw may be embracing New World cuisine, café culture and clubs that never close, but you’ll still encounter peasant women selling bunches of flowers in its beautifully reconstructed Old Town. Drive across the country’s northern expanse and you’ll stumble upon a string of 14th-century Gothic castles, like the magnificent example at Malbork, the last remnants of the once powerful Teutonic Knights. Catch a no-frills flight to Kraków or Wroclaw and you’ll arrive in magnificent medieval centres. Or choose almost any major city, from Lublin to Poznan – and too many small towns – and you’ll bear witness to extermination camps, derelict Jewish cemeteries, and dark political prisons, terrible reminders from the last 70 years.

There is always something going on in Poland. Really, all year round. This is just a beginning of the long list of cultural and traditional events which take place annually. Some of them, like Christmas and Easter are family gatherings whith religious motivation, some are very unique, like Christmas Crib Competition, some are widely known like Camerimage or Wratislavia Cantans.