Lodz comes over like a grey, battered post-communist backwater living in the shadow of its resplendent past.

The second largest city in Poland, in the 19th century, Lodz was a prosperous industrial centre and cosmopolitan metropolis.

The city fell under Nazi occupation during World War II and the city's Jews (35% of the population) were herded into a ghetto and all but annihilated in nearby death camps, primarily Auschwitz-Birkenau. With them died Lodz's spirit and thriving textile industry.

Empty and numb is how most people feel after a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

Although just 70km west of the party-hard city of Krakow, Auschwitz might as well be on another planet. Set on the outskirts of the unassuming town of Oswiecim, everything about it is intrinsically disturbing.

This Nazi extermination camp where two million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents and prisoners of war met horrific deaths during World War II has since become a byword for genocide and torture.

Set on the banks of the Wisla river, Poland's third largest city is also its most visited.

Krakow came through World War II with its stunning medieval buildings intact, and as well as being one of the prettiest and most culturally significant cities in Europe, it's also one of the continent's party capitals.

Although reduced to rubble during World War II, Poland's capital has since undergone a pheonix-like resurrection.

The historic centre of this riverside city has been lovingly restored to its pre-war glory (it's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and sits juxtaposed against modern skyscrapers and grey, box-like Eastern European apartment blocks. 

Since the fall of Communism, Warsaw has again reinvented itself as a modern, cosmopolitan business centre that can hold its own beside other European capitals.