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DESTINATION Łódz´, Poland GO FROM Warsaw TRAVEL TIME 2 hours GETTING THERE Take the train to the Łódz´ Fabryczna station (48-42/511-6003; www.pkp.pl), a short walk from the town center. The Łódz´-Kaliska station receives trains from all over Europe; you can also fly in from London on Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) or from domestic locales on LOT (www.lot.com) STAY 1 or 2 nights
WHERE TO STAY Piotrkowska Street—at nearly three miles, one of the longest commercial roads in Europe—is lined with more than 100 pubs and restaurants, their neon signs attracting a stylish urban crowd. To stay centrally, check into the 160-room Hotel Grand (72 Ul. Piotrkowska; 48-42/633-9920; www.orbis.pl; doubles from $110), a former textile factory that was converted in 1888. • If you prefer your retreats more intimate, try the Déjà Vu Hotel (4/6 Ul. Wigury; 48-42/636-5656; doubles from $77). There are only six guest rooms in the restored Art Nouveau mansion, which has retained most of its period furnishings, along with a decorative wood-paneled bar on the second floor.
WHERE TO EAT Time seems to stand still in Łódz´'s restaurants. A violinist's strains greet patrons of Anatewka (2/4, 6 Ul. Sierpnia; 48-42/630-3635; dinner for two $35), which looks like the house of the wealthiest merchant in a shtetl (its name comes from Fiddler on the Roof). Pawel Zyner's wild mushroom soup—served in a bread bowl, with Podgrzybki mushrooms and chunks of beef—has won Best Soup five times in the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków. • Top Warsaw restaurateurs Andrzej Dom'zał and Artur Jarczyn´ski stayed true to Poland's past when they restored an Art Deco confectionery for their restaurant Esplanada (100 Ul. Piotrkowska; 48-42/630-5989; dinner for two $60). The lights are 19th century, the copper and brass fixtures are handmade, and the Polish pork chops are, of course, served with cabbage and dumplings. • To get a taste of pastoral Poland without leaving the city, try Karczma u Chochoła (200 Ul. Piotrkowska; 48-42/637-0919; dinner for two $35), with its sheep's-milk cheese (from mountain sheep), boiled ham shanks, 140-proof Sliwowica, and wagon-wheel chandeliers.
NIGHTLIFE This may not be raging Warsaw, but at night it's still hard to find a table at the dimly lit, three-story Łódz´ Kaliska (102 Ul. Piotrkowska; 48-42/630-6955; www.lodzkaliska.pl). After dark, the city's artists, young professionals, and high-energy bartenders form a politely raucous mass.
WHAT TO SEE The Jewish Cemetery (entrance at the corner of Ul. Bracka and Ul. Zmienna; www.jewishlodzcemetery.org), with more than 180,000 graves, is the biggest in Europe. • Roman Polanski graduated from the film school here, contributing to Łódz´'s (its nickname is HollyŁódz´) reputation as the Polish Hollywood. Visit the Muzeum Kinematografii (1 Pl. Zwyciestwa; 48-42/ 674-0957; www.kinomuzeum.pl), housed in the 19th-century residence of Poland's onetime "cotton king," Karol Scheibler.
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