I live in Żary (Tier-3 City), which is near Żagań. Quick overview:
- small city is quite cheap. Prices said by @burntoutfire are right
- there are around 2000 US soldiers hanging around here. So you won't be alone :) if someone told you that small cities in eastern europe may be intolerant (or unsafe or unwelcoming) for travelers - it's not here. Here Everyone thinks that every American met is a soldier with combat training ;)
- internet is cheap and stable. mobile is cheap and stable (comparing to US or western Europe). In almost every place you can pay using credit card.
- ecommerce is working great here. Delivery takes 1 working day. Parcel lockers are on every corner of Poland already :)
- it's close to Germany (10 miles to border, 100 miles to Berlin) so you can get two cultures in one visit.
- people in Poland are... mentally somewhere between Russians and Germans ;)
- most of the people <40yo understand english. But many of them have no practice and are just afraid to speak. The younger people you meet the bigger chance to speak english you have.
- it's the region with a lot of forests (like 70% of area). So the air quality is decent comparing to any large city.
- covid is not an issue here right now. We had 6 new cases in last 24h per 1 million people. There is no "next wave" coming. You should wear a mask in closed space, but except visits at hospital/doctors no one cares.
I live in Żary (Tier-3 City), which is near Żagań. Quick overview:
- small city is quite cheap. Prices said by @burntoutfire are right
- there are around 2000 US soldiers hanging around here. So you won't be alone :) if someone told you that small cities in eastern europe may be intolerant (or unsafe or unwelcoming) for travelers - it's not here. Here Everyone thinks that every American met is a soldier with combat training ;)
- internet is cheap and stable. mobile is cheap and stable (comparing to US or western Europe). In almost every place you can pay using credit card.
- ecommerce is working great here. Delivery takes 1 working day. Parcel lockers are on every corner of Poland already :)
- it's close to Germany (10 miles to border, 100 miles to Berlin) so you can get two cultures in one visit.
- people in Poland are... mentally somewhere between Russians and Germans ;)
- most of the people <40yo understand english. But many of them have no practice and are just afraid to speak. The younger people you meet the bigger chance to speak english you have.
- it's the region with a lot of forests (like 70% of area). So the air quality is decent comparing to any large city.
- covid is not an issue here right now. We had 6 new cases in last 24h per 1 million people. There is no "next wave" coming. You should wear a mask in closed space, but except visits at hospital/doctors no one cares.