Magiczne Miasta: Backpacking in Kościan by Night

It was an absolute delight to be invited to the town of Koscian for a charity football tournament in December 2017. Sometimes I pinched myself to check if this was really happening. But it was, it was game on, perhaps my series “Śmieszne Historie o Piłce Nożnej w Polsce” had some kind of purpose in the end. It was a message from Jan who invited me to this event and that also meant I could see some of Koscian (in a limited to night time only way) and write about it. I promise to come back again and see the city in daylight hours, but by night, this is what I saw.

Arrival in Koscian
I arrived in Koscian by train from Poznań. I was picked up and driven to our cool accommodation for the night. I had a really cosy room!!

 

Sightseeing in Koscian
It’s a decent sized town near Poznan. As I mentioned, I backpacked Koscian only by night, and so I saw these places and liked them:

Kosciol/ Churches
How many churches can you see in a town like Koscian? I found three on my jaunts around town at night.

1.Kościół Pana Jezusa
2.Kościół pw Świętego Ducha
3.Kościół Rzymskokatolicki pw. Najświętszej Maryi Panny Wniebowziętej

Stary Rynek
All cool Polish towns and cities have a “town square” or “stary rynek”. As civilisation progressed, it still surprises me that more towns and cities aren’t cool enough like Polish ones to have a “central point”, an “old town square”, somewhere to meet for the people. My birthtown of Newtownards has Conway Square which has a statue of our town’s most famous person, Paddy Blair Mayne, but the town I grew up in, Bangor, has no real “central square”. Some will argue it is the McKee Clock, the “top of main street” or Ward Park, but it’s not. There is no “see you in the Rynek” that Polish towns have. Koscian excels again in this regard with its prominent, domineering and gorgeous Rynek. It was decorated for Christmas and suitablz gorgeous.

Ratusz
At the centre of the Rynek and Old Town Square sits the impressive Town Hall (Ratusz), I was there at night and there were some small night market stalls and an information board for tourists (me).

Christmas Tree and Decorations
I was backpacking here at Christmas so there was a huge Christmas Tree in the main town square.

Pubs in Koscian
In a town so small and religious like this, pubs are few and far between. In fact it didn’t remind me of Starogard Gdanski, Tczew or Biskupiec in any way as I had to look to find the bars. I remember backpacking Starogard Gdanski in 2016 (without even any local friend’s help) and I was able to find bars, café and restaurants within minutes. Here, I struggled. But then arguably, of the town’s 8-9 licensed venues, I hit gold with the best one. At least for me.
I ate and drank on the Friday night in the Piwnica (basement) Pizzeria Pub. What this basically means is I was on the rip with pizza and beer in downtown Koscian. The pizza was great and well priced for just 26 zlotych. Beers were 7 zlotych and I was invited by the barman to sit and drink with the locals.

My time in Koscian was mostly for the football tournament and concentrated on that, therefore my time touring the sights was cut short. In fact I didn’t really see the town AT ALL in daylight, as in Polish Decembers, the sun rises at 8am and sinks at 3.30 pm and I arrived at 7pm, left at 7pm and played in a football tournament from 8am until 5pm. So my sightseeing in the city won’t make the local newspaper, but I did make a few videos. The videos are below. However my thanks go to Jan Budzyzincki who invited me to this tournament and without whom, none of these memories would have occurred. Here are some more photos from Koscian…

Here are some videos from Koscian:

Here is a video of the second match I played in (I was sub, came on at the end and my only contribution in this clip is to mis- control the ball and give away a throw in!:

Here are some more videos from the tournament: