Poland is buzzing with innovative energy, and while a generation of creatives take up space in its cities and shift their country’s focus from the past to the future, its profoundly important past is honored in museums, monuments and moving memorials. Having survived the ravages of war and the fall of communism, Poland’s cities have a strong sense of place and a uniquely personal history. Warsaw now rivals Berlin and Prague as a cool European hotspot, with a progressive plant-based restaurant scene, neon-lit bars and quirky gallery scene flourishing beneath Gothic spires and a former railway station turned lively food market. In Kraków, moving memorials to Holocaust victims and essential elegies mark important moments and movements in Poland’s history.