Travel / Things to do with a month is Poland [5]

Thanks Sean

Thanks a million, I have read through both your threads and numerous of the links that hang off them and they are absorbing. Great work!!

Nowa Huty is certainly on the list of things to see and the Crazy Tour might be a fun way to do that. Some awesome information on Kazimierz as well, which we simply did not get the chance to experience last time so is a "must do" this time around.

Will certainly post pics and info of the trip once done.

Thanks Lori,

Yeah museums etc I am interested in seeing, I was thinking more along the lines of death camps and gruesomeness that i want to avoid this time. I do have a strong interest in that period and have read much on the topic, but in many ways I think the world associates Poland and WWII as going hand in hand and I wanted to drop that stereotype and just get to know the place more.

This is especially true of course of Krakow and it's proximity to Auschwitz and of Warsaw, the ghettos, the uprising, the underground and the city being leveled and rebuilt. I am really very keen to limit the WWII element of the trip this time around to perhaps 5% of the total trip, whilst not dismissing the places that are worth really going to see like the one you mentioned.

Life / Price of beer in Poland [90]

Unless things have changes then Fosters is not re-branded "Crownies". I used to work for CUB who make these these beers, though it was a long time ago. Aussie beer is not great to be honest. There are a couple of okay beers, but overall it is not great. I am not a fan of Boag's and to be honest one of the better mainstream beers here is just Carlton Draught. When you taste it you realise it is a pretty average beer.

On Polish beers, there are a lot of comments about it being terrible, but it actually ranked up there with some of my favorite beers when I was out that way.

Zywiec was the only one that I could remember the name of, but it was very nice as were the others we tried (cannot recall the names, but we specifically asked for local beer everywhere we went). Also had nice beer in Austria and in Plzen. The only place that had really awful beer in my view was the UK. It obviously is an individual tastes thing, but whilst I drank mainly beer in continental Europe (barring a really big/expensive night out in Krakow) I ended up switching to scotch whilst in the UK as I could not stomach the beers.

Also of all the places that we drank beer, Krakow and Plzen were far cheaper than anywhere else we traveled.

Life / Price of beer in Poland [90]

Nah crown uses different ingredients completely. The name "crown" comes because it was released to the public to coincide with the coronation of the queen.

With Boag's it has mainly been the premium lager, unfortunately a lot of friends used to drink it, so I was often outvoted when choosing the beer.

If I was to go for any Australian beer, Coopers would be very close to the list, with the Pale Ale/Green probably being the beer of choice for me from that group.

I must admit though I am pretty unpatriotic, if I want a beer here, I will usually go an import now days.

Life / Price of beer in Poland [90]

There are quite a few boutique bottle shops and Flinders Portfolio in the city gets in most beers. But it is not true to say that the we do not have imported beers, it would be more accurate to say that some of the major imports are brewed here, but that is different. There are plenty of places that have Australian brewed "imports", but there are a lot of truly imported beers as well. Beer such as Zywiec is available here, but to my knowledge there is no one that brews it here.

Life / Polish Hooligans [41]

I arrived in Krakow the day of a derby and was stunned by the riot vans and buses of supporters etc.. It looked like it was a potential explosion. It appears that is the case going by these :O

In saying that there was no trouble that I noticed that night out and about.

Language / "Dear ....." re addressing a person in a letter. Szanowni Państwo? [3]

Related: List motywacyjny (motivation letter) - Szanowna Pani/Szanowny Panie?


I would say more popular is: Szanowni Państwo,
"Szanowni Państwo" is universal and better.

Law / Banking in Poland, as a foreigner. [26]

Change banks

I banked over there with hardly any fees whilst there. I did not have an issue. Make sure you take out enough to not need to withdrawal cash 5 times a day and it is little problem.

Real Estate / Foreigners: Please don't buy Polish Land! [823]

I actually think the point about needing to be a national of a country to buy property was a good one. I think Japan is like that (could be wrong, but thought that was the case).

It makes perfect sense to keep prices affordable within a country.

Work / The cost of an IT programmer in Poland? [9]

Thanks esek and frd for the answers it is very much appreciated.

Life / 3 Things I LOVED about Poland [58]

A bit boring but..

1) I loved the architecture in Krakow
2) I really enjoyed the company of anyone I had dealing with, from the waiters/waitresses to the shady characters that we went out drinking with.

3) That when I was there it was still not commercialized as much as western European countries or Prague etc. It has a "real" feel to it.

Life / 3 Things I LOVED about Poland [58]


Oh there was no violence whatsoever, it was just visibly obvious through appearance and demeanor that these were not men to mess with. Thank goodness for us, we were there to just drink and have a good night, so got along really well and had a great night.

Life / Problems for Dual Earner Families in Poland (and rest of EU) [19]

It is extremely tough.

There is no doubt that across many countries the trend of the average person/family to treat real estate as a means of investment has driven the prices of property so high that now the average family can only afford a modest house with two average salaries. Once a modest house would have been the reward for a man supporting a family on an average salary, but as the gross income of a family increased and the investment in property became common place, the ability to support a family and buy a house decreased for 'average joe'.

I think it is just as poor an indictment on the later 20th and early 21st century's affects on family life as anything else.

To me in a perfect world, one parent would be home for the majority of the time (or as described above 2 sharing the load), perhaps with assistance from family as required. It is a two way street though. Once upon a time the mother would spend time with their child, talk to them, read them stories and show them how to grow, learn and become well mannered toddlers etc. Now I think many stay at home mums are more interested in catching up with what their friends are going on Facebook/My Space or any other such place. Do not get me wrong, I am not devaluing the stay at home mum, who treats it as a job of equal or even far greater importance to the family life as the working partner. I am saying that few people do it now and of those that do, a large portion of them are more interested in social networking than they are in taking care of the household duties. This is not about Poland, this is an epidemic world wide.

A fair portion of that has to be attributed to the lower class. A % of these parents would not have been great parents throughout any age, it is just that now they have something to occupy them instead of Days of Our Lives or Eastenders.

Many families with two educated parents find the lure of the buying their house or upgrading to a bigger house and the accompanying mortgage too strong for them to resist.

How though do children learn the values the parents are trying to instill? They can of course learn all the political correctness taught in pre-school even these days, but how do they learn the values that the parent consider are integral to the makeup of their children?

I strongly favour a stay at home parent as well, or one working full time and the other going back to part time when the child is at school or a family business scenario or anything along those lines where 1 parent (mother or father) is responsible for the majority of the raising of their own children. I just know that it is a harder reality to achieve for families these days.

Love / Polish girls are pretty and high on morality. [65]

Are there not girls prepared to chase an older rich man just about anywhere in the world, I am not sure it is predominantly in Poland?

We had a pretty feral case this week when a rich doctor made the headlines for spending a fortune on marrying his heavily implanted young wife.

Surely it is ridiculous to categorize a whole race of people on the experiences of a group of people. Usually those people that 'act out' are more pronounced and therefore spoken of more than the average girl who gets married or goes about her job or whatever she is doing.

You see so many of these type posts talking about the attitude of Polish girls, be it a foreigner trying to talk them up or down and others taking the other side. Surely Poland has good women and slags, much like just about every other country out there really

History / Kazimiera Mika - famous photo from WWII/Warsaw [4]

Here is a link with multiples pictures of the story => sgm.casposidad.com/foro/viewtopic.php?t=443

One example quoting the photographer on this can be found through this link => ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=8527


I have listed the full quote, because it is on many web pages and there is no "source" web page, so I cannot see any copyright issues. IF the admin want to reduce it to 100 words and just the link, that is okay, I have just added why I cannot see it being necessary and hence why I posted it in this manner.

Language / Not sure if I will be able to speak Polish [53]

I agree in general and I am really struggling with my Polish.. REALLY struggling :(

Food / Is lamb big in Poland? [53]

I do not know about donkey's but when I was in Switzerland I tried horse meat. I was stunned that they ate that, but figured "when in Rome" (or Interlaken).

As for lamb I am surprised about people talking about its smell. Never have I had lamb that "smells"...

It is a nice meat, but in a roast or in steaks, not in chops. Also lamb has to be tender and like all meats should not be cooked more than medium rare. In saying that I probably only mainly have lamb/beef on maybe 6-7 times in a year, I prefer chicken whenever I am having a "meat".

History / Poland and Lithuania [161]

I have also wondered many times whether or not Poles - Lithuanians think of each other and if general relationships are strong or week. Obviously there is a large history between the two nations, but I am unaware whether they consider themselves allies or "brothers in arms" or quite the opposite or even if they are apathetic about each other.

Food / Eggs - how do you like yours? Poached? Unfertilised? [60]

Poaches eggs are "easily" the best way to eat eggs, the others do not really compare...

Love / Dating/friends sites to find Polish girls [44]


That is very funny :P
Who really puts their mobile phone number on a website...