When we think about Christmas we can imagine in the same moment spending time with our family and friends, presents under the Christmas tree and delicious Christmas dishes. How many of us think then about traveling?

Some people actually decide to go on holiday during this period. But what about oters, who are going to visit their families and friends? They also need to travel by car, coach, train or airplane! Being a travel search and booking platform, the GoEuro team wanted to see how and when seven diffrent nations are travelling home this Christmas.

Are Polish people traveling on significant diffrent ways than the Brits? The data, presented in the form of a graph, shows that increased traffic on the roads and increased passenger traffic takes place shortly before an important day.

In this regard, the Poles do not differ from the British people: we are traveling before Saint Nicholas Day, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Interesting is the fact that when our compatriots prefer to visit each other on the first day of Christmas, the number of Brits, who are leaving homes on that day (in comparison to 23th and 24th December) drops drastically.

Certainly we can not compare ourselfs with residents of British Islands in terms of the number of people who choose holidays in hot climes during the Christmas. Ot this decide 290 200 Poles and as many as 2 251 000 people living in Britain.

Also Christmas markets are more popular among Brits. The figure of visitors reaches in Britain 24 million and only 8.5 million in Poland. Definitely more Poles want to go skiing (300 000 of our compatriots / 52 000 Brits). Most of us (58% for both countries) plan to visit grandparents during their Christmas holiday.

In these statistics GoEuro also includes some interesting and fun facts about the December period, eg. the amount of consumed chocolate (in Poland / mince pie in the UK), or the number of homes with a real Christmas tree. Soon we will see, if the speculations regarding the chances of snowfall on Christmas Day turn out to be true!

A strike planned for Thursday by the staff of Polish national airline LOT could cost the company millions, the company’s acting CEO said.

CEO Marcin Celejewski said that the strike by the cabin crew could cost LOT millions of złoty in damages, further damaging the financial situation of the airline. The unions are demanding salary raises, among others.

A two-hour warning strike to take place between 6:30 and 8:30 am on Thursday was announced last week. The strike was announced by the Union of Cabin Crew and Aviation (which brings together more than 600 people).

The chairperson of the Union, Grzegorz Włodek, said that the protest will cause delays in departures, most of them at around 7:00 am.

“We tried to make those losses for businesspeople as slight as possible, and the least burdensome for passengers,” he stressed. (rg/di)

The position of Poland within both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is “getting stronger”, said Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna.

The voice of the country is being taken into account when making strategic decisions, the Minister said ahead of a Warsaw Security Forum 2015 which kicks off on Thursday in the Polish capital.

One of the topics of the Warsaw Security Forum is next year’s NATO summit, which will take place in the Polish capital.

Schetyna told the PAP news agency that Poland will not only host the NATO summit, but will also have an impact on its agenda. (rg/rk)

Three pianists are billed in the second day of the finals of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Chopin’s other concerto – in F minor – has been chosen by only one of the ten finalists, Canada’s Charles Richard-Hamelin, who will appear before the Warsaw audience on Tuesday, the last day of the finals, alongside his compatriot Yike (Tony) Yang and Dmitry Shishkin of Russia.

Prizewinners’ names will be announced on Tuesday night. Both concertos belong to Chopin’s early works. Inspired by his first, truly romantic love for Konstancja Gładkowska, a young singer of noble beauty, they were written before Chopin’s departure from Poland in the autumn of 1830 and are among the finest examples of the so-called brillant style.

Even though marked as Op. 11, the E minor Concerto was composed a few months later than the other one, No. 21 in the catalogue of Chopin’s works.  Chopin performed it at his farewell concert in Warsaw’s National Theatre on 11 October 1830. The Concerto in F minor Op. 21 was premiered several months earlier.

Music critics point out that only once in the history of the Chopin Competition did the winner perform the F minor Concerto. It was Dang Thai Son, the 1980 winner, who this year is a member of the competition’s international jury. The Chopin Competition has generated an unprecedented interest worldwide.

According to the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute, its main organizer, the event’s website has had about half a million visits daily, with an average visit lasting 24 minutes. The largest number of Chopin Competition website users come from Poland,  followed by Japan, the United States, Germany and South Korea.  (mk/nh/rk) – See more at: http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/225391,Penultimate-day-of-Chopin-Competition-finals#sthash.KT3JT7CI.dpuf