A very tricked out long wheel base cruiser on Piotrkowska street. This is the main street in the City of Lodz, and is over 4kms long. They claim it to be the longest shopping street in Europe. The buildings here are just fantastic, old school 18th century over the top architecture, and as you can see the background, evey 200 metres or so, there's an outdoors beer cabin that serves food too. Could you imagine these on Patrick's Street in Cork? They'd be fantastic. Found an Irish Pub on this street too with the most expensive Murphy's I've ever had, but more on that later.

How's this for ingenuity? This is a tour bus. It has headlights, indicators, even a PA system for Music and the guide to give our his info on the area, but the incredible thing, is that everyone sits down into a bar counter, where they can have a cool drink, and they pedal together to move the tourbus. 20 people pedalling! I want one!

The obligatory MINI shot. There's not many new MINIs in Poland, but this is the Cooper S special edition known as the Checkmate. It was 33000 Euro in Ireland, which is expensive enough, I can only imagine how much it cost in Poland, where the average industrial wage is about 250 Euro per month.

I like this photo. The road sign kinda says "No, you can't go down the scary derilict street" ... but it reminds me that while Poland is undergoing a huge economic, and visual change, that there are still people, and areas that haven't felt the tide turn yet.

This is probably the coolest thing in Lodz. This was an old Cotton Mill that was empty, run down, and abandoned. And they turned it into a state of the art shopping centre called Manufaktura. It's about 8 times the size of Mahon Point, with the best of shops, restaurants and bars. In fact, it would leave most of Ireland's shopping centres looking like they were designed in the past.

An interior shot of one of the long shopping aisles within the centre.

Just to prove the lack of forward thought in Ireland, here's the outside of the shopping centre in a huge courtyard. There's a beach. That's right, a beach! Complete with beach bar, volleyball nets, and all around the perimeter, there are themed restaurants and beer houses. People stay here long after the shopping centre has closed, there's music being pumped out through speakers in the plaza, and fountains that squirt water, and change water colour timed to match the music. There's a huge outdoor TV on one of the walls, and at weekends, they have beach party's here ... so instead of going to a nightclub, you throw on your shorts/bikini and head down for some cocktails and dancing. Now that's living!

Babewatch! You didn't think I'd forgotten about Babewatch did you? Inside the shopping centre they were having a combined Salsa Dance competition and a Dog Show. Here's a gorgeous specimen ... the dog of course, right?

The Irish Pub on Piotrkowska. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ireland, and looked more French than anything. There's a roadsign for Kenmare, and they sell Murphys. That's about as Irish as it gets. So here's my Missus drinking my Murphys.

SatNav is a weird and wonderful thing. I lived for the few days being ushered about by the voice of 'Karen' in my Satnav. And on the way back to Katowice Airport, she didn't steer us wrong. I got immensely worried though when she brought me through a forest, where the tarmac eventually disappeared, we came across an old Nazi border checkpoint complete with German signage, and the the skies opened up with a Thunderstorm from hell. Before the Thunderstorm though, we did manage to stuff ourselves with Blueberries growing in the area. Funnily enough, after taking me on this mystery tour, the SatNav did eventually get me to the Airport!

One of the many strange sights on the Motorway from Lodz to Katowice. This is an old passenger jet that's been converted to a restaurant. And it's not the only one. outside another Gospoda (Or family small restaurant), there was a Russian Fagot (And old single engined fighter plane, pre the MiG) just sitting there, looking very sorry indeed, complete with missiles underneath. Other oddities on the Motorway, were literally dozens of people selling jars of Blueberries. Kids, Pensioners, all up at the crack of dawn picking berries in the hopes of selling them and making some badly needed money.