Szczecin - opinions and impressions from two directions

How will Szczecin be in the future? Photo: Lucas Dujon

Szczecin, a Polish city where over 400 000 people live their lives, many of these young people in our age (18-30 years). What do they think about their city? What do they like and dislike? And can they see themselves living in Szczecin in the future? We decided to find out the answers to these questions at the same time as we the authors wanted to give our impressions and opinions of the city.

The general impressions we got when we spoke with people about the future was that they wanted to see something else, they wanted to travel and discover the world. This is a feeling we share with them and in fact one of the reasons why we decided to become volunteers. Most of the people didn't dislike Szczecin but for them it’s nothing new living here and as one of them said “the world is much bigger than Szczecin”. In our age we think that it is common that people want to discover the world for a while. Afterwards they often return to their hometowns, probably mostly for one reason; you often have your family and closest friends there.

Some people said that Szczecin is a bit boring without so many things to do. We can understand them, they have lived here much longer than us. But our personal opinion is that the city offers quite many activities, especially cultural ones. It was also mainly the cultural offer that many people said that they liked with Szczecin. Some places that they mentioned as worth visiting are the Kasprowicz's park big, maritime academy, the selection of thrift shops, the castle, the theatre and the surrounding environment. Many people preferred the area next to the river, we agree with them. It’s a nice area which offers a wide range of restaurant and bars, especially in the “old town”. We also like the parks that the city offers and the proximity to the Głębokie Lake and its surrounding forest.

A downtown that was described as a bit cluttered was one thing that was mentioned as something that people didn't like. There were also wishes of a better night life and a subway system. Something that we don’t like with Szczecin is the lack of adaptation to pedestrians and cyclists, Szczecin is still a city mainly for cars. A good example of that can be witnessed by clicking on this link.

It’s quite evident that this city has great plans for its future, by for example the floating garden project 2050. There is and there has also been a lot of renovation of many buildings, like the renovation of the castle. So what we think is that Szczecin will become a better city in the future. It’s already good but it can become better, it can especially get a bit more tourist friendly.