Gdynia vs Blagoevgrad

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Gdynia ( gə-DIN-ee-ə; Polish: [ˈɡdɨɲa] (listen); German: Gdingen; Kashubian: Gdiniô, 1939-1945 Gotenhafen) is a city in northern Poland. Located on Gdańsk Bay on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, it is a major seaport and the second-largest city in Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk. Gdynia has a population of 246,348, which makes it the twelfth-largest city in Poland. It is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population of over 1,000,000 people. Historically and culturally part of Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia for centuries remained a small farming and fishing village. At the beginning of the 20th-century, Gdynia attracted visitors as a seaside resort town, and began to build tourism. The local population increased in response to the change in the economy. After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the government decided to construct a Polish seaport in Gdynia, between the Free City of Danzig (a semi-autonomous city-state) and German Pomerania, making Gdynia a primary economic hub. In 1926 Gdynia was granted city rights, after which it enjoyed a rapid demographic and architectural development. This was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, during which the newly built port and shipyard were completely destroyed.

The population of the city suffered heavy losses, as most of the inhabitants were evicted and expelled by the German occupiers. The locals were either displaced to other regions of occupied Poland or sent to German Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. After the war, Gdynia was settled with the former inhabitants of Warsaw, which also suffered major destruction, and lost cities, such as Lviv and Vilnius in the Eastern Borderlands. The city was gradually regenerating, with its shipyard being rebuilt and expanded. In December 1970 the shipyard workers' protest against an increase in government-established prices was violently repressed by government forces. This greatly contributed to the rise of the Solidarity movement in nearby Gdańsk. Today the port of Gdynia is a regular stopover on the cruising itinerary of large, luxury passenger ships. A new ferry terminal with a civil airport are under development. The city has won numerous awards for its safety, infrastructure, quality of life, and a rich variety of tourist attractions. In 2013 Gdynia was ranked by readers of The News as Poland's best city to live in, and topped the national rankings in the category of "general quality of life".

Source: Wikipedia

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Blagoevgrad (Bulgarian: Благо̀евград) is а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province, with a population of 68,679 inhabitants(as of 2019). It lies on the banks of the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa River. The town is the economic and cultural centre of Southwestern Bulgaria. It is located in the valley of the Struma River at the foot of the Rila Mountains, 101 kilometres (63 miles) south of Sofia, close to the border with North Macedonia.

Blagoevgrad features a pedestrian downtown with preserved 19th-century architecture and numerous restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, and boutiques. Blagoevgrad is home to two universities, the South-West University "Neofit Rilski" and the American University in Bulgaria. The town hosts also the "Sts. Cyril and Methodius National Humanitarian High School", the former Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki moved from Thessaloniki to Blagoevgrad (then Gorna Dzhumaya) in 1913.

Source: Wikipedia