History / Another WWII thread. [69]


sorry but you are a plain idiot in my eyes - and guess what - I never heard such Royal Navy bullshit from anybody Polish - only from you

Genealogy / Dabrawski - can anyone please help me find any living relatives of my wife? [6]

what you need is to contact the local parish there and get in touch with someone who will be able to find any relatives of your wife's dad if any still live in the area

or just someone local who would be able to check that in the parish archives

Red Cross may be of some help if that fails

I live far away from there so I cannot be of direct help

Well - I have just looked for the parish email and haven't found any - just got an email to the dioecese authorities kuria@pelplin.diecezje.org

if you receive no reply to a letter in English you can send me one for translation

I will PM you my e-mail address

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]

won;t happen any time soon

there were police offices on every bigger stations here up to early 90's but they were scrapped

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]


from very short distance - sure - this goes similarily - one needs pretty strong determination to use them as a lethal weapon (and not many are aware these can actually be such) - then you got lot's of people acting on an impulse, here - especially after booze - I don't think giving them weapons is a good idea - impulse (also booze fuelled one) is somehow contradictory to determination - I just don't see avarage Pole running around with a gun - a threat to others and himself

Life / Wedding Reception Venues in Gdansk [17]

there are amateur choirs at great many churches in Poland - I don't think it is difficult to find one in Gdańsk - you just need to phone a couple of parishes (well your fiancee should) to get in touch with some choir leader - I am sure you can hire these people pretty easily unless it is somewhere around big festivities - I believe though personal contact with a choir leader would be preferable ,if it is only possible, to talk and arrange things

(I am assuming your fiancee is Polish)

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]

those who are determined to get them perhaps will - but if they are available as a normal good and not only through black market anybody can get them just like that without much hassle this creates a society with many people running around with guns - I don't see it in Polish society - there would be much more gun inflicted deaths (murders and accidents) then there is car accidents now

and now I believe you are exagarating the influx of weapons from the East, too

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]


there are too many irresponsible people in Poland Sean - simple as that - this is why I am very much against easy access to weapons in Poland


heheh :) you're so humanitarian rover ;)

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]

you can if you don't make trouble

many people drink, make trouble and still get away with it on the trains - this is why PKP is loosing customers

Genealogy / Dabrawski - can anyone please help me find any living relatives of my wife? [6]


this site is rubbish - it states there are only 28 people called Dąbrowski in Poland which is clearly false

well, if you will be able to give more detail of where Czarna Woda was since Poland lost much of the pre-war eastern territories - there is Czarna Woda in Poland now in Pomorze (województwo pomorskie) but I would not be surprised if there was another one in territories now not belonging to Poland


sorry - there are 28 Dabrowkis according to the site not Dąbrowskis - there are plenty of Dąbrowskis in Poland - so actually the site maybe all right

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]

it maybe be illegal in theory - but in practice as long as you don't make trouble you can easily go with drinking beer - noones gonna ask questions

Wars was not selling any alcohol for a couple of years as far as I know but recently there were proposals to lift the ban (I maybe wrong on this one)

Life / Average Annual Snowfall in Warsaw ? [6]

well don't know that in fact - but a couple of factors may be important - snow does not have always the same density - fresh snow is much lighter than snow after a couple of weeks, snow that falls in deep freezing condition is much lighter than wet snow - maybe they use some average calculated from the water residue after snow melts

then there is a possibility they meant an average snow cover (not globally summed snowfall - but actually I doubt it)

yes to me it also appears that for the average yearly snowfall the figure is too low - I would see it over 20cm - but then again last couple of years (last year was sort of an exception) weren't that really snowy

Life / Average Annual Snowfall in Warsaw ? [6]

there has been a lot of snow where I live last winter - about 45 cm lay for a month - but as Wroclaw Boy said before it was freeze-thaw - 3 meters of snow even in the snowiest years only happen in roadside ditches (and in some mountain circumstances) - snow tends to fill the holes in the surface when in abundance, even the worst snowdrifts rarely exceed 1m (but a snowdrift of only 40-50 cm can be a serious traffic obstacle) - there were a couple of years that there was really much snow in the eighties - I remember one year when there lay about 80cm to 1m snow for a good couple of weeks - but recently winters have been milder - in 2007 there was no frost and snow untill Christmas - some people were picking mushrooms in December

News / Russia opens archives and Poland demands minority rights from Germany [60]

Ksysia - well - your argumentation is flawed - that you do not intend to - or support any Jewish effort to - openly or secretly run this country does not mean there are no Jewish circles that do

why do you believe there are no rumours and fears that Israel may be run in future by the Polish??? maybe because there is no substance to it, don't you think?

Genealogy / Name Identification from an old passport [17]

Józef Stolarz was able to read and write in Polish :) mabe his pa Wawrzyniec Stolarz had taught him

Travel / Alcohol on trains in Poland [40]

as far as I know they do not sell alcohol on trains, however you are allowed to drink on train as long as you don't make trouble (and many Poles do after a couple of beers or a shared bottle of vodka)

Language / Osram - Misnomer that means, "to poop" in Polish? [17]

no Seanus - osrać is perfective also
the reason is if you add a preposition to a basic imperfective verb you get a perfective verb (most of the time)

słać - posłać
witać - przywitać
kopać -wykopać, zakopać, odkopać, przekopać -all perfectives

srać is imperfective

you can create an imperfective out of osrać - it would be 'osrywać' - you won't hear that word much though I guess (though simmilar words (imperfectives) can be pretty common)

News / The most spectacular errors in Polish politics. [264]

no backstabbing here - the Polish ukranian border agreed with Petlura government was not very different to the Polish-Soviet border of the Riga treaty - and the treaty was due to attrition of both forces - and not because the Poles wanted to divide Ukraine with Soviet help - there was not much Poland could do to help independant Ukraine at the time - had not Ukrainians from the west fought Poland had they seen the much greater threat and joined the Polish in fighting the Soviets early there could perhaps be an independent Ukrainian state and broad minority privileges to Ukrainians in Poland - Pilsudzki envisioned cooperation if not confederation of nations between Russia and Germany

News / Russia opens archives and Poland demands minority rights from Germany [60]


yeah 30 thousand poeple - Jews are aiming to run this country little naive girl - Israel is not a safe haven anymore (as depicted by a defeat of Israeli army in Lebanon at the hand of Hesbollah) - and they are desperately looking for some comfort landing - Poland the main target

History / A few thoughts after plowing through most "Sabaton: 40-1" comments on YouTube [59]

the ordinary Czech soldier was willing to fight and ready to die for his country - it was not their decision to surrender - I watch Czech tv from time to time and happened to see a document on this

Genealogy / Need photo from Wrzeszcz of childhood home. [53]


I think it should be Brętowo now - uphill from Wrzeszcz/Langfuhr - there is some big cemetry there as far as I know but only a person there can check if old graves still exist - I am not a Gdańsk native

sorry I didn't read all of the thread before I wrote my entry

Genealogy / Searching for my Father- Help Please! [14]


my guess is Sucharski which could have been changed to suit English ortography to Sukarski or something similar (if he is ancestor to early immigration parents - first half of 20th century or before)

History / Is there a good recent film on an important Polish battle/war/history fact? [11]


this is really hillarious ;) i loved it ;)

'Krzyżacy' - by Aleksander Ford ending in a mass scale battle scene of medieval chivalry encounter (Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg - quite reasonably made - my opinion better than its Hollywood contemporaries

'Potop' is the best historical film I ever saw (though it is not strictly based on history but on the prose of Henryk Sienkiewicz) - I am of course biased being Polish

there were no recent films like that (excluding 'Ogniem i mieczem' but I think it is hugely inferior to the 'Potop')

Juliusz Machulski envisions a film of the 'Saving private Ryan' sort about the Warsaw Uprising but it would be much more difficult from the technical side (urban scenes that have to emulate Warsaw) and would cost God knows how much and there's little chance anyone ever gives it a credit

Tajemnica Westerplatte is supposed to cast shadows on the defenders - I don't think we need another film on Westerplatte - there is one already made in the sixties as far as I can tell

Life / Could I live on 2000zl in Poland? [30]


I guess hardly any reliable internet connections - I would think broadband is hardly existant there

two years ago it was quite possible to rent a studio flat (sort of) in Gdańsk for lower than 800 zl (maybe things have changed from that time) - these though rather excluded flats with a good internet connection - I rented a studio with shared kitchen and a bath for 500zl in Gdynia (shared with one other guy like me) - of course not a central location

Food / Who drinks fruit juices in Poland? Best Polish juice makers? [25]

mixed carrot fruit juices are served to little children

then there are younger and mid-age generation who are used to this kind of stuff
(and not into colas, sodas and other) but they are minority

there has been a brand in pure fruit bottled juices - some exotic mixtures - namely Frugo - the stuff was quite good but at the same time a bit too expensive I guess and the brand has fallen out of use - must be the sales weren't that good - don't know the exact fate of the makers

anyway I think that juice making buisness in Poland is pretty competitive - though the quality of some major brands in recent year has fallen dramatically (maybe it is the competition pressure and people buying the cheaper stuff rather the better - for whatever reasons) - so maybe it is a field to explore - but it sort of would have to be somewhat elitist product that would catch on with not so many - so the problem is the business scale - but you see Polish youth (many of them/especially educated) are quite susceptible to mind forming when you know how to address them (must be self-worth deficit)

then juices are bought for hospital patients as well so they have something to drink at hand - but it is a minor thing in sales I guess

older generations usually don't buy that stuff (our grandmas used to make fruit juices on their own and many people still do now - my mom does)

News / The most spectacular errors in Polish politics. [264]


you are so deluded ;)

Language / Czy jest pan or czy pan jest? [14]


would make some sense but completely different to the one before chucking the Pan/i out

children are addressed to directly - meaning in second person and not third

Life / A famous psychic Ms. Nina Szymanska. [8]

Jestem Wodnikiem, w astrologii chińskiej Metalowym Wężem. Numerologicznie jestem szóstką. Wróżeniem zajmuję się od 40 lat. Nazywam się Janina Buczek - Szymańska. Od poniedziałku do soboty przyjmuję między 12 a 18 w salonie w £odzi, przy ulicy Kilińskiego 117.

I think you are looking for this person

Feedback / Thread Leader [9]


yes - seems to be a good idea to me

Language / Polish Present Tense - Please Help Me. [8]

its true that there is no aspect thing to the prestent tense but the way it is formed is often quite irregular (so not easy to predict - you simply need to learn some instances and remember what they look like - by contrast past tense forms are pretty regularly built and easy to predict)

Language / Example sentences for different cases. [42]


mieszamy requires 'accusative' (biernik) - and accusative of kolory (which is a plural of a masculine noun) happens to have the same form as 'basic' - 'nominative' form of the noun - this is for all nouns in plural actually - except a class which is called 'personal masculine' (personal masculine is for example names of occupations/professions/positions held by males - Polish distinguishes robotnik from robotnica, lekkoatleta from lekkoatletka - the former are masculine the latter feminine (robotnik - worker/labourer, robotnica - femala worker, pracownik - employee, pracownica - female emloyee)

ci pracownicy - these employees te pracownice - these female employees
widzę tych pracowników - I can see these employees
widzę te pracownice - I cans see these female employees

(widzę requires accusative case just as mieszam(y) does - you can see that for "pracownicy", a masculine personal, accusative does not have the same form as the 'nominative' (basic form) (but accusative is equal to genetive in this class)

in general youprobably already noticed that Polish declination system is pretty irregular (unlike Hungarian as far as I know - though maybe there are languages with even more irregularities to their declination)

aha

now prepositions - 'z' is preposition in Polish require specific cases as well

'z' is a bit problematic here because it actually has at least 2 basic meanings

the first is 'z' = 'with' and it requires 'instrumental' - it is often described as a question - z kim/ z czym? with whom/ with what?

the other meaning of 'z' is - out of, from (sometimes off) - this is the case here - z kranu - from the/a tap (out of the/a tap) - this one requires 'genetive' kran, z czego? - z kranu?