Is ŁÓDŹ Poland's UGLIEST city!? (I was shocked..) 

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I live in Łódź and as a person who grew up here I can say, that it's really not that bad. It may not be the most beautiful city to visit but it has some amazing places and i really enjoy living here

Я очень люблю Лодзь. Здесь живут мои сыновья. Приезжая к ним в гости, люблю бродить улицами города, любоваться архитектурой. Обожаю парки Лодзя. Какие они все красивые, благоустроенные и в то же время, входишь в них, ощущение, что попадаешь в лес. Пение птиц, воздух, пруды, утки... Люблю, люблю-). Нравится, что столько театров в Лодзе, очень люблю театр, но не знаю языка и не хожу в драматические театры. К великому сожалению. Но люблю филармонию, бываю на концертах, в Арт-центре "Монополис", в театре Вельки. Очень нравится комплекс Мануфактура. Достойные магазины, площадь красивая, фонтаны, все очень оригинально. Побывала во Вроцлаве (город-сказка), в Гданьске (невероятный город), Сопоте, Гдыне, Кракове. Польша - чудесная страна, благодарна полякам за гостеприимство. Привет из Украины, из города Днепр.

I moved about 3 years ago from Germany to Łódź. And I love it ❤

I'm so happy you came to my city and you see the unconventional beauty in it! ♥️

Although I do not live in Poland anymore I’m originally from Warsaw (I have an apartment there) and I had the opportunity to visit Łódź many times over the past six or seven years. The context with which you have to look at the city involves extremely fast growth in the 1800s. In fact the city was the second fastest growing city on earth after Chicago at that time. The other thing to remember is that the city was also heavily industrialized and even under the post WW1 Poland. At that time it was the center of textile industry. I would say in the past 6 to 7 years would has made Gigantic strides forward. I also think the issue of title an old ownership of communal buildings that sometimes were owned by Polish Jews has finally been settled which means a lot of the older buildings can now be renovated without the risk of investment Capital by current owners. One interesting fact about the city is that David Lynch absolutely loves the city and I believe he has an apartment there. He was part of the renovation of the EC one which is located right next door tomorrow the most futuristic railway stations called Fabryczna. In any case greetings from distant Wisconsin in US. I recommend visiting this city

I am from Amsterdam living in Krakow for 10 years and last weekend visited Lodz for the first time.. indeed it has some rough ends but in overall i had a very interesting weekend and a fantastic night out in Piotrowska street and OFF.. will be coming back for sure in summer. Lodz is super cool.!!

Cała "szarosc" Łodzi jest tak pelna klimatu retro modernizmu, za to kocham ją najbardziej. Plus multum opuszczonych obiektow i przerobione obiekty pofabryczne, kocham!

I visited Wroclaw, Krakow, Katowice and Lodz in 2020, and I honestly think that Lodz and Katowice were my favourites. The postcardy old town bullshit can get a bit boring. I liked the non touristic aspect of these other cities. I felt like Lodz was like the Polish Manchester and Katowice was the Polish Sheffield.

I'm glad you visited Łódź. It's completely different than other cities in Poland which makes it an interesting change if you don't mind grittiness. I also recommend Poznan, and a day trip to Lublin if you live in Warsaw.

Poland is awesome, must visit again!!

Good and nice memories. I lived in Lodz back in 2006 and I really enjoyed it. People are great, and very quickly felt in home over there. I am back in Mexico now, but i will never forget such a nice experience. Dzienkuje

Another wonderful video! Thanks for the trip.

Looks like a nice place to wonder around. Nice murals on the buildings. I like a good place to eat and have drinks in the evenings and wake up to fresh coffee. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting fact ist, that Łódź before WWII was one of the richest citites of Poland and many people went there for work. But after the collapse of communism, also economy of this city has collapsed, resulting in over 150 000 people moving out from Łódź. Right now, Łódź is modern and interesting city, althought has still quite big problems like crime and poverty in some districts.

Tak było, ktoś zdecydował, że Łódź nie będzie remontowana i odnawiana. Od czasów powojennych była na marginesie, najpierw rozbierane łódzkie kamienice, żeby odbudować Warszawę, później miała beznadziejnych włodarzy, którzy nic nie robili. Dopiero od 10-15 lat coś się dzieje, ale to wciąż za mało zmian na takie wieloletnie zaniedbania.

I LOVE Łódź! Your video captures my feelings exactly. It is gritty and earthy but creative and exciting and definitely feels like a city on the move. I was just there three weeks ago and I was pretty staggered by all the construction/development/renovation underway. I love the way that so many of its citizens are passionate and enthusiastic about it. Great video! Thanks so much for it.

I really want to visit Łodż! It’s one of the few cities I’ve no visited in Poland 🇵🇱

i spent 4 years of my life in lodz and i love this city from the very bottom of my heart! it was so nice seeing a lot of my fav spots in your video 🥰

Cool videos, Kaja. Travelling to Warsaw tomorrow so trying to watch as many as I can! Keep up the good work.

Great vlog Kaja, and your English is perfect. Love your wit.👍😊🇨🇮

Hi, your language is great! Thank you for this video. I like your style of filming and editing. I was studying in Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. After three years of living in Warsaw me and my wife decided to come back to Łódź. We love this city and it's so accurate that what you said about being creative in the place not traditionally beatifull. I can feel positive energy of creativity here :) Cheers!

Been living in Lodz for years and i keep saying that it is like a wife after 20 years of marriage . Might be ugly for someone, but for you will always be most beautiful and unique. And it truly is, it is different than any other city in Poland, its got special energy in itself, hard to explain. When it comes to Your English - it s nice and fluent, without hesitation in speech showing Your self-awareness. The only thing i would suggest is work to learn more vocabulary to make it richer. When i was in UK i found "Metro" newspaper very helpful- every morning reading it whole on the bus always picked up new expression or word. Quite easy English in that Metro, not like some posh newspapers when i dont understand literally 90% words they using. Some people read books to memorise a lot of vocabulary, but I m not a big fan personally. Music- that s my second method to master my skills. Quite a lot new words I have heard on the radio. so... Fuck the haters, do Your job, chisel Your skills See ya :)

THIS is the vlog I’ve been craving to see! Thank you so much! I used to live in Lodz years ago, and it was always hard to describe to others what it’s like. I think you nailed it.

Thanks for the video and impressions of Łódź :) Found it pretty interesting how you pointed out some reasons why street art might be flourishing so much there!

Awesome vlog!!!😍

Nice video. I made a few vlogs in Lodz but yet to upload them (i'm still uploading my gdansk vlogs). Did you visit the ghetto?

You have the best content and ideas Kaja. I love that you find places that aren't well known, & to show how incredible they are. Such a great way to start the week; watching these hidden gems that so many people don't bring attention to! Thank you for exploring Earth's amazing cities and towns! x Ah, don't fret reading comments about your English, you speak 3 maybe more ? languages; how many do those who criticise speak? People need to stop picking others apart and 'Let Live' Rant over... :) Happy Week Kaja ~

This is so cool video. Well done👍😀

It's my born city. Lodz has got spirit. Always loved my city

It's true that there is a lot of beautiful architecture in Łódź, problem is that most of the buildings were neglected due to lack of owner rights, all these buildings there were maintained by City Hall of Łódź. Since City Hall of Łódź, received owner right for most of these buildings, they've started program called "Mia100 Kamienic", thanks to which there are many buildings under renovation in downtown. Before people used to say, come on one street quite well maintained is not enough (piotrkowska str), but If they would cut this 2 km long pedestal part of Piotrkowska into similar parts, and these parts would be places a site of each other, it might be that the total areal of this area would be comparable to any other large city in PL. And think, what it will be when the renovation of whole downtown will be. Thanks for this movie and too bad that you've skipped MONOPOLIS

There is world famous Film School.All the major directors were studying there.

Łódź wcale nie jest taka "ugliest", byłem tam niedawno i jestem bardzo pozytywnie zaskoczony.

Cool that you've picked up this town for your Vlog. I often travel to Łódź with my wife because it is enhancing as we speak! Each time there is something new to see there. I highly recommend other parts of this town like "Księży Młyn" or rather area within Kilińskiego, Fabryczna, Przędzalniana and Wincentego Tymienieckiego - coll places to see there. If you like beer there is also nice brewery on Tymienieckiego 22 but for me too fancy. Apart from Manufaktura there are several places like this worth seeing: Monopolis (not a shopping mall, rather art gallery with several fancy restaurants, cosy place), Piotrkowska 217, EC1 near train station "Łódź Fabryczna" or Fuzja (under construction). All in all highly recommended city to visit for longer stay. However, watch your back at night, it is too rough out there...sometimes ;) P.s. Szczecin is also underestimated but cool place to stay! Cheers and have a great trips :)

Thanks!! It is my city ⛵.Łódź means boat.

You should also check Łódź in like May, its sooo green

Nice you went to Łódź which perhaps is coolest city now in Poland, but feel you missed so much. So many great things happening there now. But perhaps for me most important point is that aside from Warsaw Łódź is only city in Poland that has a big city feel. I might be biased as I’m from Manchester and love post industrial cities, but Łódź Is truly great. Also a fan of Kato for same reason Perhaps a video from some of the smaller towns too. Like Bielsko-Biala?

Thank you for beautiful video and very interesting thoughts. I think the city is in the process of reinventing itself and this process is sort of fascinating to watch. NB You should always listen to your mother :)

Love watching your videos about Poland. Have you visit Zamość?

I'm from lodz and proud of it

Where in Poland should I travel to next??

I am from Canada 🇨🇦 and lived in Łódź for 3 years. It has a lot of cool places to visit and I have a special place in my heart for Łódź. I prefer it over Warsaw. In fact I hated Warsaw. Warsaw is corporate and plastic. Typical consumer culture. The people in Łódź are real, artsy and contrasted. It has heart. It is a great place for the art and culture scene and the bar scene is the best in Poland. There are a lot of great restaurants and festivals. I used to hate having to visit my family in Warsaw and couldn’t wait to come back to Łódź. 🇨🇦❤️-> 🚤

I think it's amazing that speak multiple languages! My boyfriend is bilingual (Polish) and it's so hard to learn even just a second language for me. Your English is awesome :) love your videos!

At the end of the video you asked for suggestions about other cities in Poland to visit, including smaller ones. I highly recommend Olsztyn, my favorite town in Poland now - very nice Old Town, but also lots of interesting architecture outside it, starting with the City Hall and continuing past it, walking north and east. I suggest getting off at Olsztyn Zachodni station, not Glowny, because it's a short and nice walk from there to the Old Town. (I live in Warsaw btw.)

I Belice your English is great, I would like to see more videos speaking in polish maybe with English subtitles 🥺🥺 I’m learning polish haha it would be great to watch your videos and keep learning. I’m planing on visiting Poland in a few months, I think I’m adding this city in my visit list I really liked it Thanks for showing 💖💖

Ig you go up to Gdansk, you should visit Torun, smaller but amazingly historic. Nearby Bydgoszcz is more-like Lodz.

The mirror installation must have taken years! How many millions of pieces!

You really made it! :-) Łódź is a city I live in, not pretty but if you find its "vibe". If you ever come back, dont miss Piotrkowska Off ! Łódź has specific underground life and has many cool pubs like Łódź Kaliska. You have good polish pronunciation!

Hi Kaja, nice vlog! Personally, I think you have nothing to worry about your accent - you sound very natural and pleasant to listen to. Since I live in Łódź for more than 30 years, I get to know all the pros and cons of the city, but certainly one of the cons is a lack of renovation of the buildings and old tenements. That is mainly because of the ownership - many tenements are still owned by the Jews who live in the US. That causes a heck of a lot of problems with the renovation - in order to do so, you need to have either a legal renovation order for the owner of a building or waiver of tenement rights which of course does not happen often. Lack of contact with the building/tenament owner causes the problem leading to a crazy situation where you can see a few of nicely renovated tenements, and one (or a few) ugly one's which stands out, on the very same street.

My favorite city ❤️

come to lodz now, the places youve been in the beggining of the video are now renovated and are SUPER pretty

I love my Łódź ❤️

I'm from USA and your English is just fine. I actually find the way you say certain words very cute. Such as ---other---you sound like you're saying udder. And I love that! Love your videos and would like to see some smaller towns that you may visit. I'll be in Poland this summer for two months and look forward to seeing places that you have been. Thank you!

6:13 Wonderful smile! Always listen to your Mom!

I mean, I moved to Łódź to study here and even though I personally love living in this city, I am definetely not surprised it's not a popular tourist destination :D But I can safely say it's definetely not the ugliest city in Poland ( that would be Zabrze: D) it's definetely a city full of stark contrasts but you can easily find a lot of hidden gems.

greetings from Łódź❤️✌️

Lodz is capital of Polish film industry, fashion and textile manufacture industry. But not only. Lion part of the city buildings is original. World wars left city almost untouched. We have many secession palaces and buildings. During summer and autumn during weekends tourists have opportunity to take a trip by original XIX century ancient electric trams like they are comparative in San Francisco.

Thanks for the great video. I will be visiting Łódź (and Krakow) when I go to Poland in April. On a depressing note, many of the old buildings that are located north of Północna Street along Piotrokowska, Franciszkanska and other nearby streets were once part of the Łódź Ghetto, where the Nazis forced the Jews to live in horrible conditions during World War II. Many of the old, crumbling buildings where the Jews were housed have never been restored and have been left to deteriorate (like in other parts of the city). I plan to tour this area when I visit the city. Also, your English is fine. I'm an American, and I think you are very easy to understand. Don't listen to the haters!

We won't get tired of hearing from Kaja. And I had no clue that Łódź was pronounced this way and I was trying to pronounce like it was an English name. That could be a challenge for outsiders to read the Polish city names apart from Warsaw and Krakow :)

You have a wonderful command of the English language! I would question the person who thinks otherwise. I am envious of your ability to speak three languages.

I'm happy that you visited my hometown and you liked it. You're english is great, to be honest, I thought you were native speaker.

(I am using google translate). I come from Lodz, thank you for a nice movie about Lodz. As I am a "national" tourist, I recommend visiting the following cities: Toruń Gniezno Sandomierz Kazmierz Dolny Castle Malbork Wroclaw Rzeszow Kurozwęki + Szydłów (Świętokrzyskie Province) Karpacz + Jelenia Góra Zakopane (+ Castle Niedzica + Castle Czorsztyn + Morskie Oko, or Eye of the Sea) Łowicz Łęczyca Ustka + Słupsk Krynica - Zdrój + Nowy Sącz Ustrzyki Dolne + Sanok (generally the Bieszczady Mountains) Inowłódz + Spała Świnoujście + Międzyzdroje Lublin Hrubieszów Castle Książ

Thank you for the video. Your English is great, You would run or laugh if you heard my Polish.

I love seeing and hearing you. ❣ My first girlfriend looked just like you.

Why you didn't talk about łódź fabryczna? It's one of the biggest railway station in Europe.

thank You, You Beautiful Woman for this Video. I live in Lodz. Many thanx

Welcome to Torun!,Nicholas Copernicus from the city, you may test ginger bread, very popular biscuits in Torun. I highly recommend to visit , it is wonderful place next to the Vistula river

You can go to city called Białystok (2,5h from Warsaw), it’s really good🤗

I lived in Łódź once upon a time. If you know its history, you may appreciate its architecture. There are some beautifully restored streets and buildings in Łódź now but it is extremely expensive to restore old buildings and keep them up. Some interiors are also magnificent. If you visit the old cemetery, many of textile manufacturers are buried there eg Poznański. The head stones are gorgeous. It was an industrial city but the architecture is unique and lends itself to modern living or commercial spaces eg Manufakrura. Part of Chicago called the Loop reminds me of Łódź.

Łódź is what we can call the capital of wild capitalism in Poland. In the mid-XIX century, people from the whole of Europe came to make money in the textile industry. Łódź was called the "Polish Manchester". It was the biggest textile production place in the whole Russian Empire. Businessmen built factories (now some of them are transformed into lofts, shopping centres - Manufactura, offices) and palaces (houses for themself) - some of the hotels are in these buildings. Lodz until the end of communism in 1989 was the textile headquarter for Poland. Some of these factories used XIX century machinery. When Andrzej Wajda was nominated for an Oscar award for Ziemia Obiecana (Promised Land - movie about XIX century Łodz and transformation of feudal society into capitalism) everybody in the US asked him how he got the whole scenery? They thought it cost a fortune. The answer was simple. He just entered factories o that time :-) Lodz because it this textile background was the most feminised city in Poland. There were 130 women for 100 men.

Urodzilem sie w Lodzi. Studiowalem w Warszawie. Za kazdym razem jak przyjezdzalem z Warszawy do Lodzi to mi sie mozg skurczal zeby dopasowac sie do waskich ulic srodmiescia. Obecnie mieszkam w Edmonton w Albercie , Kanada i patrze na Lodz bardzo zyczliwie. Moze jeszcze tam przyjade.

I live in Lodz and it's not so bad here

Have you been to Olsztyn?

Lived in Krakow, Wroclaw, but came back to Lodz as it is the best city in Poland:) One love

I've only seen a lil. Very busy day today . Need to work on home emergency repair. But your English is phenomenal. Hardly an accent at all. First I thought you were Polish then thought perhaps not. Like your videos so far. Best regards.

The people who criticize your English are fools to be ignored. To be able to speak multiple languages is a gift to be appreciated.

Go to Lebork -50 km north and mostly west of Gdansk for your next trip and video please 🙏.

I would recommend you to visit Radom (100 km from Warsaw). It is quite underrated mid-size city in Poland. Feel invited :)

I'm from Lodz. I always had lots of fun hanging out and clubbing here. Later I moved to Warsaw for a better job. I found the city so boooring. I left and never came back to Warsaw... We simply have more lively and friendly people in Lodz.

Really good video however I wish you visited Poznanski Palace. It’s the beautiful building by Manufaktura. He built Manufaktura and his palace next to it which is beautiful indoors.

You can get there free working space for a start up.

You should visit Lodz once again and this time check places such as Księży Młyn and area of past Schibler’s Imperium. It’s like time travelig to XIX century.

your English is excellent and no one should criticize, love your videos

Lol.. I don't even know what you said about my City yet (Born and raised there, left when I was 12) but I can already say that Lodz is pretty industrial. Manufaktura is probably our only recent thing to brag about. Other than that, you might wanna go to Piotrkowska St. which is the one of the longest if not the longest streets in Europe! Everybody goes there :) thanks for making a vid about our city btw!

Visit Katowice and Sandomierz, I love both of these places!

hi) what is your first language? your English is perfect!

You have a great accent and voice.

Dziękujemy.

My favorite city in Poland. Lived there for few months.

In the film, you stay mainly in old housing estates. If you would like there to be no neglected tenement houses, etc., you would have to visit Widzew or Olechów. Apart from that, in the movie I do not see anything that could attract people to the Łódź, for example; palm houses, parks.

I'm living in Łódź and i need to say that This city have a lot like A LOT hidden wonderfull places. If you want to know Łódź you need to try harder than you do it in Another cities.

polish citizen here. Looking for travel advices in his own country. Any way, it's useful to get this kind of information and the foreign language doesn't bother me. That's great video and I liked it : )

Don’t worry! You English is better than most by far! All the best!😂🙏

hehehe ja zacząłem oglądać Twoje filmiki bo Twoj angielski jest w łatwy do zrozumienia dla mnie polaka i szkole angielski :D i mówisz, ze nie jesteś native speaker english hehehe dlatego pewnie mam łatwo Cie zrozumiec :D Pzdr

We have grown up with an idea of having a perfect life, a perfect place to live, of having a life of illusion. But this illusion takes us out of this reality. We create expectations about what should be when in reality we stop living because we are investing energy, time and effort imagining our perfect life. Life is what it is and in itself is wonderful and powerful.

Hi there! That's a really nice review that you made and there was this one sentence of yours that somebody for some reason decided not to renovate the city unlike everything else in Poland and this is actually true and as a born Łódź citizen and also a licensed Łódź Tour guide (a bit passive lately through) I felt I must share comment of why is that so. Łódź is a fairly new city, not a medieval one as the most of Polish cities where you meet a traditional structure of old medieval town with a main market square and city hall in it, old town walls, narrow streets, etc. The city centre as you see it now was founded in early 19th century so only so 200 years ago in a pattern of long perpendicular streets as much as American cities were planned, and grew its power on textile industry in the ages of early heavy capitalism that merely started to crawl back then, in the era of the steem machine that powered all the factories. It was a magnificent place still in the beginning of the 20th century with lots of beautiful palaces and residences some of which you showed in your video. Unluckily for the city the history has taken its toll on the city's reputation as after the dramatic times of war the city was left on its own deprived of the former upper class that actually set up all the businesses and filled with only the lower class citizens (factory workers) that had no longer where to work. Sadly again, under the communist rule after 1945, this idea of a poor, grey, depressing city was in favour of a socialistic propaganda that wanted to make Łódź an example of how bad a "rotten capitalism" was. This was intentional and indeed hardly no investments in the city centre were allowed unlike the rebuilt of destroyed Warsaw for example. Only now, in hopefully better times, with a massive engagement of local people's activity and of course various funds the city regains its prestige and identity. I hope this explains a bit:)

Your English is far better than mine :)

please visit bydgoszcz, i woukd be happy to show you around

Buildings look bad because they are owned by the government . All the buildings sold do private investors are renovated and nice . Eq Kościuszki 39 . Or Piotrkowska 146 Next to those buildings are council owned buildings which are in fatal states . There are some nice council owned buildings

Lived and worked there five years, 2014 - 2019.