Malbork Castle

IMG_0927
Originally uploaded by ronald_gainey.

In Poland, Malbork castle is an impressive, medieval (in parts) brick castle. Our guide seemed perhaps less bitter and more sanguine about the abuse his country had suffered from its neighbors, as compared with the Estonian guide from the day before. In the grossly unscientific method of generalizing based on tiny datasets, is there anything to be gleaned from this? Probably not, but in my reckless speculation, it could be as simple as near term realities and prospects. I believe Poland's economy has been one of the fastest growing in Europe, and it is a sizable nation with significant resources. Estonia was apparently deliberately left with a lousy to nonexistent industrial/economic base, to maintain dependence on the larger Soviet empire, and now has little to grow on. Who knows...