Empik

The Empik in Sopot is everything you've come to expect from this Polish megastore chain. One of the biggest success stories in the country, Empik can be found in every prime location of every major Polish town and city - and not without good reason. Here you can find a comprehensive selection of music, DVDs, and video games as well as all the articles you would expect to find in a decent magazine and stationery store. Their huge book department includes a foreign language section if you didn't bring enough reading material for the beach!

You won't find a great selection of music here (and the CDs are way overpriced), but there are English-language books and magazines available, as well as electronic gadgets to play with.

Brits will follow if I describe this place as a Polish WHSmith. They stock quite a few British papers, though they'll be at least a day old.

They don't have music shops in Poland so you have to come here if you want to keep your finger on the local soft-rock pulse. A veritable archive of the works of Bryan Adams/Tina Tuner as one would expect.