Travel / Weekend trips from Olsztyn [5]

I you would like just spend the day somewhere (winter days are in northern Poland very short - the sun riser at 8 and sets about 4 pm) there are six lakes in the town of Olsztyn. The bigest is called Krzywe and it is 7 km long and 2 km wide. I like also very much lake Długie which has one end inside the town, and another in the forest so walking around you can see the reflections of pines in its still waters.

Nice place for a walk is Lasm Miejski (town forest) which is just north from the Old Town. Forest is really old with giant spruce, oaks and bleeches, and £yna river flows trough in deep valley. In the forest you will find walking paths.

Have a nice time!

£ukasz

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]

Tradition is something that very easily is picked up by people from their rulers, neibourghs etc...
For example Christmas tree that conquered the world in 150 years...

And also most of European traditions have pagan orgins, and becouse pagan religions vere very similar the traditions are similar and saying that "this tradition was invented by Germans, Rusins, Polish etc." is something very uncertain.

Of course there are some traditions which origin can be found. Good "Polish" examples are Easter symbols - hare and egg. Explanation is easy - Easter was pagan spring holiday in the time when first animals are born (hares) and first birds lay their eggs that symbolise new life...

But hares were more German - I don't remember exactly (maby Bratwurst would know it), but some german goddes had hares as her atributes. On the other hand egg was rather a Slavic symbol. In todays Poland both symbols are used but in the west it is more hare (that in wester culture has evolved sometimes into rabbit wich I find very annoying knowing the diffrences between those two animals...) and in the east is is an egg.

For example children from Greather Poland and Silesia get presents "from hare" that are hidden in the garden what I (coming from Warsaw) realised at the University when I met people from Poznan and Upper Silesia...

On the other hand I don't know if the symbol of an egg is present in other countries than Poland...

Lukasz

Travel / Comming to Poland from Finland [12]

The cheapest way is probaby via Tallin.

Don't try trains! This will mean many changes!

There is direct eurolines bus from Tallin to Warsaw, probably everyday (I was last using it in June 2007).
You can book tickets at their website.The takes 19 hours.
The cost two years ago was about 40 euro one way + 20 euro ferry (but I was using student fares).

Cheapest planes wouldn't be cheaper than 100 euro. I was one flying with Blue One (cheap branch of SAS) but I don't know if this connection exists.

Best regards

Lukasz

Life / Is Poland cold? [40]

Mankind is generally very "plastic" and you can get used to different weathers very quickly.
I am mentioning it for the second time, but while in Poland when the temperature drops below -10 C I try not to leave home, but when I was staying in Finland in winter after a short training I was cycling to the university when it was -25 C...

And of course when it is cold it is often calm and dry sunny weather (no wind, no clouds - heat disapears ito the space and the temperature drops) so it is much easier to stand. One of my friends who was spending winter in London said that he never felt so cold and he had to buy warmer jacket than this he is using in Warsaw becouse of wind and humidity...

Not to dispute what is cold and what is warm it is good to find some info on Polish climate:
I can say that:
Jamuary - can be -10 C during the day and -20 C at night or +5 during the day and 0 C during the night (nothing between becouse you are in Russian high or Atlantic low - there is no transition zone, of course can be one week cold one mild... this is normal winter)

February - much the same the same but the high pressure with dry cold weatrer dominates more often
March - also very often high pressue with cold, dry sunny weather but with much bigger difference between day and night (+10 day, -10 night), or if Atlantic low is strong we can have early spring with +15 C and rain

April - time of change - in the begining it is often +12-15 during the night and close to 0 at night while in the end +20-25 C day and +10 night

May - often warm in the begining and in the end (+25-30 C) with cold period in the middle (called "The Cold Gardners" - it is connected with melting of icebergs on the Atlantic and formation of high pressure between UK and Skandinavia) when it is about +15 C day and frost at night...

June - often warm +25 lets say (but there are a few days of +30), stormy
July - begining can be wery wet and cool (time of highes precipitation in Poland) - with about +20, end is often the warmest part of the year (for two-three weeks maksimium temperatures are clos to +30 C)

August - drier than July - beining hot (+30 C), end can be cool (+20 C)
September - often nice warm (+20-+25 C) weather with domination of high pressure from Ukraine (not this year - now we have low pressure over Ukraine and high over Scandinavia - just opposite as it shoud be and it results in +10 and rain..)

October - begining can be nice (+20, sun - but cold nights and fog in the morning)
, end often cold and wet
November, December - worse weather, like English winter, between -5 and +10, wind, snow, rain, fog etc... And horrible darkness (this can be a problem when you are from USA where you live at the latitiude of Rome and can not be used of reddish low, cold sun between 8 and 4 o'clock...It is dark when you go to work/school, and it is dark when you are back...

So when we add terrible weather of this time of the year we have on average 10 hours of sun in whole December...

Lukasz

Life / What Flower is Representative of Poland [14]

Personaly I can not think of any single flower that would be connected to Poland.
Of course many flowers and plants have in Polish culture their meanings but there is no that would represent Poland...
For example flowers of horse-chestnut are connected to school ending exams that are held in may, mistletoe with Christmas (it was the symbol beafore the christmas tree came into Polish culture in XIX century), willows for Easter etc.

Lukasz

Work / How to find an Archaeology job in Poland? [4]

I think the olnly way to work un Archeology is to start a scientific carieer.
But it won't be easy - most of Polish Universities have faculties of archeology - but they are rather small and not very well funded. And they probably all teach in Polish becouse it is not the field in which they expect foreginers to come and learn.

And I don't know about the costs of for example Master's course becouse as non-EU citizen you will probably have to pay for it.

But I have good opinion about scientists and asumme that they are nice people and like those who are really niterested in some field.
I reccomend you to find e-mail adresses of some workers (best will be profesors) of Archeology faculties at Polish universities (there are adress books on every university webpage) and just write some kind of letter of apliccation telling them about your education, expiriences , expectaions for Masters thesis (or the subject you are interested in most). We have a few universites so you can expect some answes, not maby straight but maby somebody woul tell you who you must conthact and what to to to apply.

Best regards

Lukasz

Life / How important is it to have a car in Poland? [37]

Hi!

It depends much what you want to do there.
Olsztyn is really small town (for me) and you can easily get everywhere by foot. Public transport is ok, but it is not as good as for example in Warsaw (most of busses run every 15 minutes or half an hour while in Warsaw you very rarely wait longer than five minutes).

But to get out of the town (which I reccomend you) you will need the car. Especially if you like to spen weekends in the countryside, which is very beautifull around Olsztyn (lakes, hills, forest). About 30 km from the center you will find wonderful forest lakes like Limajno, Lanskie, Pluszne etc...

To travel around Poland you can use trains but as Olsztyn is small town (only 150 000 citizens) there are no IC trains there and the "regular" ones are less tidy and much slower (the trip from Olsztyn to Warsaw which is 200 km takes now, becouse of construction works on the tracks, nearly 4 hours - by car it takes 3 hours, and for example IC train from Warsaw to Krakow or Poznan, which are 300 km away, needs 3 hours). And as I remember there are only tree - four trains to Warsaw daily.

Enjoy your stay!

Lukasz

Life / Should I take my motorbikes to Poland? [14]

I was spending half year in Finland (including winter) and after this stay I can say that there is no bad weather for biking (not even motorbiking). Students there (also those foregin, including those from Spain and me of course) were biking from student houses to the university (8 km) untill it the temperatures were not lower than -30C (during the day!). Below this temperature oils in mechanic parts become still so it is hard to bike...

Before this stay I would say that it is crazy to bike on the snow whern it is -20 C. Then I saw that it is normal I was not a problem for me...

It is only the case of acclimation... When after a month of heavy frosts, came "warmth" of -6 C I went to uni without a jacket becouse I felt so warm...

The thing I would be more afraid are car drivers. In Poland there is much less motorbikes than in mediterenian countries and you woul be alone between cars which drivers will treat you as worse road user...

Have a good time

Lukasz

News / Has there ever been gold found in Poland? [21]

There is still some gold found in streams araoun Złotoria town south-west from Wroclaw.
They even have there some festival of gold-searchers with competition in washing gold...
Gold was found also in many other places in Sudety, which you can find by looking at the names of the places (Złoty-, Złoto-,).

Lukasz

Travel / Hunting nearby Krakow [9]

I can not help you much but I can say that hunting in Poland is similar to this in for example Germany - so it is somehow snobbish (unlike the Scandinavia where it is sport for everybody).

You have to be a member of hunting club that "owns" some area for hunting (very often on the other end of Poland), work for them for free (feed the animals in winter, help to catch pouchers etc) then you are given a permission to kill some (strictly defined) amount of animals in specified (by the club) place and time. You can not just take a gun and go into the forest...

But as I know many clubs are earing big money by selling permisionss to foreginers (it can be very expensive) but I can not help you to contact any club near Krakow.

Best regards

Lukasz

Travel / Kayaking the length of the Wisła River [4]

Great idea!

I know that you can make a kayaking trip around Warsaw, but it can be quite dangerous.

Wistula between Sandomierz and Płock is a wild river with thousands of islands, few branches, trees in the water etc...

zumi.pl/namapie.html?&loc=Warszawa&Submit=Szukaj&long=21.1675184&lat=5 2.1403088&type=2&scale=4

Here you can see Wistula in the outskirts of Warsaw...

This is the last wild big river of Europe so I wish you very nice trip!

Lukasz

Travel / Train from Warsaw to Vilnius/kaunas [8]

There are no trains from Warsaw to Lithuania - tracks end in Suwałki....
The only way is the bus...
One line is even owned by PKP so iyou will find it when searching for trains - but it is a bus...
There are other lines al Eurolines etc. that you can also check.

Lukasz

Life / Cost of stuff (phone, internet, cable) in Poland [5]

Fist check if you can use broadband internet he place where you live. It is avilable mostly in big cities, and even if you live in otskirts of Warsaw it can be only catchable outside the building.

Bust most of the companies (for sure Plus) allow you now to test it for seven days, and if you have problems with network you can give it back.

The cheapest options (Play, Orange) are about 40 PLN/ month but you have then small limt f transfer (0,5-1 GB) and after your connection speed drops.

If you pay about 120 PLN monthly you have much greater limit.

Lukasz

Travel / Best way to get from Gdansk Airport to Kolobrzeg [19]

Witnters at the Baltic coast are the mildest in Poland. It is rarely very very cold, but it is often very windy. The coast is the place where Atlantic lows are attackig Poland after passing UK and jumping over Denmark, so the weather is often rainy with temperatures around 0 C and strong wind.

But forecasting winter weathr in Poland is very hard - the winters here are generally very different one from another. There is no standard pattern. For example mean temperature of January in Warsaw this and last year was about +3 C (+5 day, 0 C night) while two years ago it was -10 C (about two weeks af frost at about -20 C dropping to -32 C).

Very often the weather changes and there is one week of frost and one week of rain (this pattern is used in a saying that says: "If Barbaras nameday is "on water" than Christmas will be "on ice", and other way round")...

I know that it is not very helpful but this is the main pattern of Polish climate.
If you are in London you know it will be rainy, if you are in Moscow you know it will be freezing. And in Polant it won't be in between but rain or frost or one afer another...

Lukasz

Life / Swimming certificate/bribing the bureaucrats in Poland [13]

It is not true.
Thos papers as swimming, biking, saling papers are not in use any more.
You just need to be adult to ride a bike or rent a small saling boat.

Brbing of course happens, ut less and less frequently when you speak about everyday life. Sometimes, especially in the countryside you can bribe a policeman not to give you a ticket for speeding, but it is risky, becouse if you bump ino honest one you can end up in jail.

Todays bribes ount in milions and are called lobbing....

Lukasz

Life / HEAT IN POLAND (with no air-condition) [26]

I agree with Wujek_Dobra_Rada. Heat in Poland is not the heat in the US.
It is mostly dry, and there is musch greater difference between day and night, so when you have even 30-32 C during the day dry air cools down much faster and at night it is 15-18 C so just OK to sleep.

Lukasz

History / Poland between 1989 - 2008... [7]

For a person at your age it is normal salary (or even not so bad).
Average salary is near 3000 PLN per month, but if you don't pay rent, food etc. 2000 is ok (for example rent for a double bedroom flat in Warsaw is about 1500 PLN so you save a lot of money).

I am just after studies and people with Masters but jus after graduating earn often below 2000 (unless they are working in banking, finance etc.).

I think you should try for a few months and see how you like it.

Lukasz

Life / The nations Poles don't like (stats) [55]


Unfortunately, as we can see at this forum, most people are close minded...
I think that people, who claim: "This nationality is these and that..." never made an effort to get to know any foreginer really good... People are people and everywhere they are good and bad...

Of course stereotypes often have some "real core" in them, and there are some features of character and behaviour specific for every nation that stem from culture and tradition, but as every generalisation they don't aply to single people...

Lukasz

Travel / What has changed (travel-wise) after Poland's joining the Schengen zone? [15]

I don't want to sound germanophobic or so, but I heard today on the radio that throwing rubbish by Germans into the forests along the border is a serious problem. Forest service has for collected 80t of rubbish fom forests around Gubin since Poland joined Schengen zone.

They do it becouse of the same reason as Polish - disposing waste costs...
And they don't have to drive so far if they live in Guben or Eisenhuttenstadt or so...

Lukasz

Travel / Kayaking in Poland [4]

I have just been kayaking on the Wkra river near Wasaw...
But it is not top destination but a very nice day off, on the nice river with clear water not discovered by kayackers (most of "top rivers" are crowded during the season)...

For moutain kayaking I can recomend Białka Tatrzańska.

The other top rivers for "normal" people are the rivers in the lakelands (you traver trought some lakest connected by qute fast flowing rivers, mostely the lakes are upstream, and after passing them river starts flowing faster - Polish lakelands river are "reverse" - the flow slowly in the upper paqrts where the lakes are and then become faster).

These are (from west to east):
Drawa (very famous becouse it was the favourtie river for pope JPII, who was also a kayaker, you start in Drawno first you pass five lakes connected by river and then long streach throught forests and national park)

Brda first some lakes (from Szczytno to Charzykowskie) then again fast river throught the forest
Wda - from Wdzydze lake and then fores
£upawa - from lake Jasień north to he Baltic sea - very nice river
Słupia - also from the lakes of Kaszuby region throught bautifull valley and bleech forests to Słupsk
£yna/Marózka - near Olsztyn, but also quite close to Warsaw thus crowded, many lakes ( at least 10) connected by slow or very fast few kilometres-long rivers. Rapids of Marózka between lakes Świete and Pawlik are one of my favourite places in Poland

Krutyna - Great Lakes -very famous, and very crowded....
Rospuda - you begin in the beautiful lake named Rospuda an end in the lake named Rospuda... between 5 other lakes and some fast and slow river

Czarna Hańcza - from beautifull lake Wigry to throught forest to Belarussan border - conected with the trail of Augustów Channell - old channel build 1820's connetinh Biebrza and Niemen rivers via few lakes

When you google thos names you will find much more

£ukasz

Travel / June Weather in Poland - What to wear? [13]

But it can also be cold.
I remember some Julies with temperatures hardly reaching 20 C, and rain...

July is the month with highest rainfall, but often it is due to short but strong evening storms...

Lukasz

Study / Confused about the different universities having the same name [6]

Nieither of them.

Warsaw University of Life Science is about 10 km south from city center in Ursynów, and those two are more or less in the middle of the city (exept from science faculties of University of Warsaw which are in Ochota).

Frankly speaking Warsaw University of Life Science is the richest of them, so has the best equipment. (It was fomerly agricultural school surrounded by fields, which they sold few years ago for real estate and gathered hudge amount of money for modernisation)

But in terms of prestige the best computer science studies are in the University of Warsaw (students from this university every year are in finlals of world championship of programists, and as I remembered they won twice).

There is fourth public university in Warsaw - Warsaw School of Economics but as you see from the name it taches somethnig different)

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Fishing on the San River in Poland [7]

I was fishing there some time ago, but what can I say It is one of the best places to fish in Poland but quite crowded (the part of the river down from Solina reserviour).

There is the special fishing ground from Myczkowce dam to £ączki village - it is NO KILL zone and you need a special permit for 70 zł per day. The number of fisherman there is limited and for most of the summer weeknds licences can be sold off many days beafore.

The rest of the San (up from Solina lake, and down from £ączki) and other rivers in the region are "normal" waters so you just need a license for Krosno area (50 zł per day) to fish everywhere (you can buy it in angling shops in Sanok) . The San down from £ączki to Sanok is a nice river but often crowded.

I reccomed you to visit some of the smaller rivers of Bieszczady moutains as Osława, Solinka, Wetlinka or upper San. You won't find there very big fish but fishing alone in wilderness is worth it.

It is easy to find some places to stay in Lesko. It is a very nice town just at the river. You can also find a rom at the Solina reserviour (there are may hotels) but to get to the river you will have to drive for 15-20 minutes and in Lesko and neiberhooding villges you can find a room just at the river

Best regards

£ukasz

Work / Horticulture/Landscape design - opportunities in Poland [17]

As I read your thread and see the lists of the plants that you are growing in your gardens I must say that it will be very hard to implement them in Poland...

I never heard of any palm that survived -30 (maby Nanhorrops rithiana but somwhere in the middle of a desert).

The climate is very variable and unpredictable in Poland (For example now we have the period that is called "Cold Gardners" which means that for Wednesday night we will have probaby frost - which means second year in a row without an apple, plum or cherry that are all after blooming and their young fruits will fall down. Also big loss in forestry and gardens can happen becouse young leaves shoots of conifers are very easily destroyed by frost. Such kind ow weather happens nearly every year but if it comes in April beafore leafs and flowers it is ok, but when it comes late it means great loss)

If you want to know something about exotic plants in Poland you can go there:

oleander.pl/index.php?p=showforums

It is forum in polish but you can find there some pictures and names of exotic plants grown in Poland.

I know that some people try growing Trachycarpus species but I am very sceptical about it.
I is the same with Araucaria araucana (maby somwhere o the very coast...)
Some Musa are grown but every year from the ground level.
In the west some fruiting Poncirus trifoliata are also found.

Of course it is a great difference between the east and the west.
For example having some Cedrus species in Szczecin is not a big deal while in Warsaw I know only 3-4 living trees (not in very good condidion exept Turkish C. libani) and further east you will find no Cedrus at all.

It is much easier with for example North American Opuntia species that are quite popular and do well in dry Polish climate

Best regards

£ukasz

Study / High school programs in Poland for US student [6]

I reccomend you visiting his site:

studyinwarsaw.org

It was made by all high schoolls in Warsaw together.

£ukasz

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]

I don't think we have arleady in Poland such "trends" for plants ech year as in UK. There are some plants that are prefered but it is not as "eweryone has to have blue violas this spring".

The plants that are on top since few years are dwarf conifers, rhdodendrons also some Asian styles like Hosta, Miskantus, Acer palmatum etc..
There are also some one year fasions as this for Cortaderia selloana or grafted roses on high stem which trned out to be completely not hardy here... But of course people bough thousands of them beafore the winter came...

I am now attending a course at the University on some gadening basics and we are visiting some proffesional nurseries around Warsaw (those which are really doing well) and one is producing only magnolias (using in vitro methods), the other is specialised in Clematis forms (but also other climbers as Wisteria, Campis, Akindia, Lonicera, Aristolochia - clematis.com.pl) and the third is specialised in big trees (when some new construcion is build they want to have green sourounding immidiately and they buy a 20 year old tree) - grabczewscy.com and the last is producing everything but has a great collection of plants - szmit.com.pl

News / The polish Zloty getting stronger versus British pound? [15]

The value of each currency is determined by lots of different factors. One of course is he grownth rate of country's economy but the other, even more imortant are interest rates of national banks.

Polish economy is growing for latst few years about 5-6% per year (ant this rate is not falling a lot even nowdays) while Euro and US eonomies were growing 1,5-2% per year.

What is more during last year interest rates of FED are falling becouse FED is tryng to "feed" US economy with cheap credit. So keeping US Dollars on accounts is not bringing a lot of income becouse rates are so low (now about 2%).

Polish economy is in totally different stage. It is growing too fast (which causes inflation) so National Bank wants to cool it down and make credit more expensive so it brings up interest rates as high as 5,5%. That makes locating money in Polish banks more profitable than in US so banks are selling dolars and buying zlotys which changest the value of currency.

Lukasz K

Travel / Good Idea? Travelling by car near Poland's Tatra mountains? [2]

When I am visitig a new place I always prefer to rent a car there (o course unless I am there with my own car) becouse it gives me an oportunity to "get off the beaten track" (in the meaning of most crowded turistic places) and explore the "real" side of everyday peoples' lives.

You can not drive into the Tatra moutains (you have to leave the carat the entrances to National Park), but in the area of Zakopane you will find many pituresque vilages and winding roads from whith you will have bautiful vievs on the moutains.

I reccomend ou to visit Niedzica and Czorsztyn castles, wooden church in Dębno, old village of Czarny Dunajec and whole Pieniny region with nice walking tracks.

Genealogy / Polish Silesians? [25]

In Poland when you think about the dialects you must always think about the history and the former borders of Poland (those before WWII or even earlier).

Nowdays most of the people speak just "plain poish" becouse of the hudge poulation movements after the war.

We are jealous to hear that in GB you can tell somemodys birthplace when you hear him speaking.

Some dialects are still spoken in eastern and southern countryside Poland but they are not very different from main language - they just consist of some more archaic words an some don't have sz,cz sounds but just s,c.

In north-eastern Poland (near Bialystok) they also have different (more melodic) accent nad few eastern-slavic sounds and words (near Bialystok you will also find willages of Belarussians which just speak their language not any dialect).

Highlanders have their own dialect but it is also more about accent than differen words. It can be hard to understand for a while but when ou get used to accent it seems not so different from lowland rural dialects.

Different vocabulary can be found in the areas that were lying on Polish-German border (where it was more or less from XIV century to WWII) so in Upper Silesia Kaszuby (near Gdansk) and till 70's in Warmia and Mazury.

In Upper Silesia this dialect consisting of Polish, Geman and Czech words is still widely spoken but only between silesians (when hy speak to other the switch to normal Polish not putting there any of Silesian words - so it is more like speaking two different languages). About 170 000 people claim there that heir nationality is "Silesian".

In Kaszuby you can find other dialect (language) that consists some german words (but rather as a result of influence) becouse originally Kaszubian is a relict of ancient western-slavic language of Pomeranians (tribes that were living in X century from Hamburg to Gdansk) so it is related to Polish as Czech or Slovak.

Other dialect were spoken in Warma and Mazury. It was very similar to Maziowia rural dialects becouse it was spoken by Mazowians who setteled from XV century in Eastern Prussia. They become Protestants and gathered some German vocabulary. Unfortunately in 70's they all emigrated to Western Germany (due to the law that said that all people born before WWII in Germany and their families can emigrate to Western Germany - of course all wanted to take this chance to leave the Eastern Block ant today ony deserted willanges in the forests remind of them).

In Western Poland (in Wroclaw or Szczecin) people speak plain polish becouse their families came there from all over the Poland (most of them from east that we had to give Russians) and they learned to comunicate in oficial language. Some older people can have there some eastern accent.

In west Pomerania nad in northern Mazury you can also find a lot of Ukrainians or Carpatho-Rusyn people which were foced in late 40's to leave south-eastern Poland and settle in vilages abandoned by Germans. Today some come back to their moutains but not all.

So in Poland nothing is as it seems to be. German-infuenced dialects are found far from German border and near to it you will find rather easter-slavic dialects...

Lukasz

Life / Most famous, respected Polish last names? [46]

Names ending with -ski, -cki were reserved mostly mostly for nobles (these are Polish von or de) So Adam ze Zborowa (Adam from Zborów) in XVth or XVIth century become Adam Zborowski.

But then other people also wanted to have this ending so it is not 100% that only noble families have sch ending.
Names that are "strainght" as Nowak, Krzak etc mainly mean that they were farmers.

Jews didn't have surenames in Poland so in 1795 when Ist RP was divided between Prusia, Austra and Russia the Prusian adiministration had a problem with them and some oficialist had just given them names "from dictionary" and that is why they have often german names and the names are so similar.

In Polish towns and cities you can find also quite a lot of German names. Some written originally som changed. It is becouse in midle ages the inhabitants of Polish towns were mainly Germans. Most of them got "Polonised" during the ages but the names stayed. Also in XIX century a lot of german buinessman came to Poland (to the Rusiian side) to build factories. I had for example 2 friends - one is Fischer - his family came here about 100 years ago, and the second is Fiszer - so this family was here probably much longer. it is most probable that you will fing german names in proffesions an places that are occupied by "old town class" as teachers (I had Mr Braun, Ms Stec, Ms Wagner) doctors, lawyers etc..

Lukasz