Life / Regional traits in Poland [27]

delphiandomine

Yes because stereotypes refer to these map:



So Silesians are today UpperSilesians, and "Westerners" are inhabitants of Poznań area

People living west and north from these borders are a mixture of people from all over the country so the rest of the society doesn't recognises them as a group carrying some common traits... Maybe some negative stereotypes like unemployment, poverty bankrupt state owned farms... Unfortunately

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Warsaw Metro & Public Transport & WiFI in Warsaw [10]

If you have valid Polish student card (unfortunately only those alow you to use discounted tickets) it will cost you 39 PLN (50% discount) for 30 day travelcard for all the types of transport (bus, tram, subway) i the 1st ticket zone (which means everything within the borders of Warsaw). If you are staying loger itis even cheaper to by a 90 day ticket for 98 PLN

Look up here:

ztm.waw.pl/index.php?c=110&l=2

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Amsterdam to Krakow and back [8]

About the trains Warsaw-Amsterdam:

rozklad-pkp.pl/query.php

reiseauskunft.bahn.de

What is funny, the tickets are probably chepaer if you buy them via Deutche Bahn website.

Regards

Lukasz

Life / What Do Poles think of Finns? [50]

I've lived in Finnland for half of a year so I know that the Finns are like the other people - different...
But talking about stereotypes in Poland:
Finnish guy - giant lumber jack in woolly pullover not saying a word and drinking a lot of vodka...
I've even heard such a joke:
"Three Finnish guys decided to meet for a drink - the two came to a house of the firs. One of them says: 'Hello' and the host says: 'We have met here to drink or to talk?!'"

I know it is not very respectful one but it is the only "stereotyping" joke about Finns that I've heard and it might give some clue about view of Finnish people here...

Also the films of Aki Kaurismaki were quite popular in Poland, and unfortunately they could rather strengthen this kind of stereotypes...

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Amsterdam to Krakow and back [8]

About your return journey:
There is direct train from Warsaw to Amsterdam which leaves Warsaw at about 18.30 - it's a slow overnight train which reaches Amsterdam at 10 am but it's quite cheap. The trains from Krakow to Warsaw are leaving nearly every hour thought the day and the journey takes about 3 hours with IC train (cost about 100 PLN).

Regards

Lukasz

Life / A few questions about the bus system [13]

As I remember Chipmunk lives in Warsaw so I advice reading this:

ztm.waw.pl/index.php?c=126&l=2

But if you have already been to the website...

So to say something about he tickets...
There are two main types of tickets:
single journey - normal and discounted for a single ride with one mean of transport
for certain periods - 20 min, 40 min, day, 3 days, week, month, 3 months also normal and discounted.
The second allow you to change buses, trams, subway etc., in the certain period of time from validating the ticket. Tickets with duration longer than a day allow you also on trains of Koleje Mazowieckie and SKM within ticket zones...

Because both kind of tickets operate either in 1st (City of Warsaw) or in 1st and 2nd zone (city+aglomeration - Piaseczno, Konstancin, Legionowo, Otwock etc)...

Tickets for a month and 3 months are coded on personalised magnetic cards...

You can buy tickets at newsagents (mostly the shorter) or from ticket machines that are mostly at subway stations (there you can also "load" your magnetic card).

Card itself can be obtained in ZTM office at Swiętokrzyska subway station.

I hope I helped you somehow...

Regards

Lukasz

Lukasz

Life / LOGS FOR THE FIRE...how much for a trailer load....? [18]

The price is as stated above and it depends on the kind of wood mostly.
The cheapest fire wood is birch - but it's energetic value is low.
Oak is better and more expensive.
The best are beech and hornbeam but the first is available only in western and southern Poland.

The cheapest solution is to buy the wood from a forester and cut it and chop by yourself - then you pay for "real' cubic meters of wood. If you buy chopped wood from a trailer the price can be surprisingly similar but half of the trailer is air...

Regards

£ukasz

USA, Canada / Calling an ERA cell phone from North America [13]

I will work for sure.
The one thing is if you dont have to activate roaning by sending some sms or so while still in Poland, but I have done it 10 years ago and since then much could change.

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Camping in Poland - are there any laws? [47]

As I remember forest service most often will fine you with 50 or 100 PLN (I've been fined twice for entering a forest road with a car which is sometimes tricky because the roads are often not described ant it is hard to guess if it is a poor public road or a good forest road - the only difference is the owner of the road)...

My friends did a biking trip along the coast some time ago and they were just camping on the beach...
In the forests you can sometimes find free (or very cheap - 10 PLN per night - if they have facilities as running water) camping sites (you can get maps where they are marked).

Just to give a positive example my other friends have this August travelled by car through Central Europe through Czech Rep. Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria for a month and spend most of their nights just in a tent by car parked somewhere in the forest...

They had just one "accident" in Czech Rep. where they were woken in the morning by shots and it turned out that they camped at military training area (they were searching for a place to camp after dark and they missed the signs...)...

Regards

£ukasz

Travel / Camping in Poland - are there any laws? [47]

In Tatras you cannot say about wilderness at all...
Those are the most crowded mountains in Europe...
Karkonosze as welll...
Both are National Parks, and you cannot camp there or even walk outside of the tracks...

Camping in Poland outside of the designed sites is forbidden but of course if somebody catches you... That somebody means forest ranger (which can end with a ticket) or the owner of the land (which can end OK if he is friendly, or otherwise you can have hay forks in your back...)...

I've be camping for a few times during canoe trips just one night at one location in less touristic areas and it was OK...

If you want to visit more wild not crowded areas I would recommend you northern Poland -especially after (September) or before (June) season. You can choose Drawskie Lakeland (between Drawso and Szczecinek or south towards Drawski NP - our PF colleague Wildlover lives there), Tucholskie Forests (between Chojnice, Bytów, Kościerzyna, Czersk), Eastern Mazury (Ełk, Olecko, Gołdap) or Suwalszczyzna (esp. near Augustów or Sejny - north of Suwałki landscape is nicer but it is densely populated area).

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Poland Autostrada / Motorway Map [10]

I don't think so...
It depends on where they will be going - S7 will be passing lakeland west of Olsztyn so somebody going there (or to Ostroda) will chose that way.

S8 for a long time will end probably in Białystok, so it takes another 100 km to the nearest lake...
So people going to the central part of Mazury between Szczytno and Pisz will probably take those roads that I mentioned because it is really not that far (180-220 km)...

Regards

£ukasz

Genealogy / Where can chalk be found in Poland's geological makeup? [4]

You can see here geological map of Poland without trietariy and quaternary deposits.
Green colour indicates Cretarious deposits that are in 90% chalk. Blue colour indicates Jurassic deposits that are also limestones but rather rocky of coral reef orgin (for example forming rocks north of Krakow).

But of course in the lowlands chalk is covered by trietary (land) and qaternary (glacial) deposits (sand, silt, clay etc.) that can be 500 m thick in some places. Sometimes, where it is near to the surface chalk can be found in the river valleys (like in Milelnk at the Bug river about 150 km east from Warsaw).

In the uplands Wyżyny) chalk hills dominate (excluding Swietokrzyskie Mts. that are of Paleozoic origin) but also are often covered with loess deposits that are 5-10 m thick and chalk is found often at the slopes and escarpments and of course in quarries.

Places where chalk is at the very surface and at the fields you can found white rocks etc. are the Chełm region and some places between Krakow and Kielce.





Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Poland Autostrada / Motorway Map [10]


Unfortunately non of these roads (S7, S8) will be finished as soon as 2014 or later...

S8 is a motorway only to Wyszków (about 60 km from Warsaw) then it is a normal road packed with TIRs from Baltic States...
I am using it to get into Eastern Mazury (Ełk, Augustów) but you have to turn north in Ostrów Mazowiecka towards £omża, and then you follow 61...

S7 is a motorway only to Płońsk (60km from Warsaw), then it is also a normal road crowded with tourists heading from and towards seaside.

I would recommend you two routes which I've been using a few times this summer:

61 to Pułtusk, then 57 to Szczytno, then 600 or 58 and 59 to Mrągowo or
61 to Ostrołeka then 53 to Rozogi and 59 to Mrągowo

Regards

£ukasz

History / Silezia: Breslau, Wroclaw or something else? [16]


What do you mean by real Silesians?"
The region was named by a Slavic tribe hat lived here in Early Middle Ages before any Polish or Czech national identity appeared (all Western Slavs consisting of a dozen or so tribes spoke more or less the same language and were spread from North Sea till Danube and Bug).

But of course they weren't first in Silesia...
Lets forget the megalithic "Stonehenge builders" - "original inhabitants of Europe" but after them came Celtic tribes (that left animal-like statues on the top of the holly mountain Sleza (which become also the religious centre of Slavic Silesians a thousand years later). Name Bohemia also derives from the name of the Celitc tribe. Then came some Germanic tribes which all left towards Roman Empire in Vth century living he land east from Elbe nearly uninhabited till the Slavs came from the east.

Till this time tribes were so unnumerous that they could just "pack and leave" as Germanc tribes did so the land changed it's inhabitants quite fast.

Then the times of Early Slavic kingdoms came and Silesia was incorporated into Polish territory but still being influenced by Czech. Then after the death of Władysław Krzywousty in 1138 the country was partitioned between his sons, and their land also between their children etc. which created a mass of small fighting duchies. These in Silesia came more and more under influence of Czech which was a powerful country during this period. At he same time German cultural influence increased. To have more power rulers needed more money, to have more money the needed more taxes, to gain more taxes the needed more people. The country during this time was a vast forest with some villages. A plenty of land to inhabit. So the rulers started colonising their land using people from region witch overpopulation which wanted to live for a better future. An those were colonists from western Germany that were given the land, cutting he forests and establishing villages and towns. They appeared in XIIIth and XIVth century throughout Central Europe (see for example Transilvanian Germans) but in Silesia hey were most numerous they brought their culture language etc. and soon they overpopulated the Slavic Silesians in the southern and western Silesia. And trough ages Slavic Silesians mixed with German colonists taking their language and culture. (the same happened in Pomerania or otherwise in the more eastern Poland - where German colonists were a minority that took up Polish langage and culture living only the names like Tymbark, Szymbark Gorlice etc. - in Kraków St. Mary's Cathedral last masses in German were given in XVIIIth century).

I can say that throughout those centuries the Silesians from western Silesia become 100% Germans.
Only in the easternmost Silesia at the border with Poland still some kind of mixture culture Survived which is known today as Silesian - but have probably very little in common with medieval Silesians - it is rather a result of German influence on Polish people that settled there since XVII th century (since that time Polish become again more "vital" than Germans and started moving west and north - see Masurians). Also some of the eastern parts Of Silesia were were under polish influence till XVIIth century (nearly whole Upper Silesia - some duchies under Polish control (Racibórz, Pszczyna) or properties of Krakow's bishops.

Regards

£ukasz

History / Silezia: Breslau, Wroclaw or something else? [16]

frd said the truth but the influence of Czech culture in Silesia disappeared in late Middle Ages when most of the Czech noble become germanised, and still the main colonisation in Silesia was coming from Germany.

In my opinion Silesia was maybe similar to Alsace Lorraine till IIWW but is not today...
In Alsace we haven't got complete removal of the German Population after IIWW and in Silesia we had - probably nobody from pre-war Breslau stayed in post-war Wrocław - most of the todays citizens of this city were relocated by Stalin from Lwow...

The German minority can be found in eastern part of Silesia - near Opole and pre war Polish border - but we have to understand that these people had to recognise themselves as Polish in 1945 -they had to speak polish then etc. - otherwise they will have been deported to Germany - there wasn't something like free choice in 1945 - Germans had to live their homes... Those people recognised themselves as Germans again in 1989 mainly because they were receiving huge funding from Berlin...

And Silesians (some say that they are a nation) - they live in easternmost part of this region - Upper Silesia and I think that they fell (and felt in history - look Silesian Uprisings) much more connected with Poland and Polish than with Germany.

Regards

Lukasz

News / Japanese red maples in Poland [15]

You can for sure grow Japanese red maples (Acer palmatum, Acer japonicum, Acer grisetum, Acer schirasavanum, Acer sieboldianum) to some extend (good soil conditions, and stand hidden from eastern winds) in Poland but I would reccomend "natural" or slightely changed selections (like A. palmatum 'Atropurpuretum') becouse those grafted tiny maples like 'Dissectum' tend to be less hardy.

Poland lies in USDA zone 6 (western in z. 7) but you have to consider that Polish climate is very different from those of US - Poland lies much further to the north so the winters are much longer and summers shorter and less warm.

See here: glebowski.eu/UPRAWA/usdaeuropa.jpg

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / Inland Fishing in poland [24]

You can for sure purchase it at the place from fishing guards (before you start fishing), but becouse the number of anglers per day is limited it is better to book it in advance.

There you have phone numbers to fishing guards, but I cannot say if they speak English

san.flyfishing.pl/rezerwacje.html

Best regards

Lukasz

Travel / Inland Fishing in poland [24]

You can try this but I think they are something like travel agency, and if you would buy licence yourself it would be cheaper.

fly.fish.pl

Or only in Polish:

san.flyfishing.pl

Best regards

Lukasz

Life / Just cross the damn road...Is Poland strict about road crossing rules? [13]

I think it is more the matter of safety...

Becouse we are not doing it in Poland (crossing the road at red light) the drivers are not used to people doing like that so when they have green light they just behave as there was no crossing at all...

My collegue's friend from France was nearly hit by car in Warsaw becouse she entered the road at red light thinking that the uncomming driver would slow down (the car was quite away) but the driver just didn't spot her at all and continiued with the same speed and passed just behid her back...

Lukasz

Travel / Backpacking/Camping in Poland [29]


I didn't heardd about this particular situation but those pig farms that aroused in collapsed PGRs are more and more talked about...
Recently according to a disease that is killing salmon and trout coming for spawning into Pomeranian rivers (mainly Rega, Parseta nad Slupia) - every day people see more and more dead fish with destroyed skin (and now is the time of spawning)...

The disease is caused by some bacteria that are thought to got into the water from those pig farms, but for today there is nothing sure known about it...

But there is very litte we can do about those farms - in places with such powerty and unemployment as Pomerania everyone who is giving workplaces will have support from the local goverment (which probably is also being corrupted) and from the locals...

Lukasz

Travel / Backpacking/Camping in Poland [29]

It is possible in Sweden where you have "Law of Free Land Use" which allows anybody to put a tend anwhere further than 200 m from the nearest settelment (but not inside most of Naional Parks ,excluding giant NPs of far north - Sarek etc., where you can camp only on specyfied places).

What is more in Swedish forests along the hiking tracks you will find fully prepared (with chopped timber, place for fire and cooking etc) free huts where you can overnight...

To Wildlover;
I am not saying that your guest pariculary will trow rubbish or etc. (I know that shamefully Polish people are competig with Mediterrenian nations in game called "What and in what amount can you throw away in the forest.")

I am just saying that people in general are spoiling places...
I don't konow if you swimmed in Krzemno lake south of Czaplinek. It was one of the clearest lakes in Poland wth water transparency to 8 meters in the summer! (You could feel like diving at a coral reef...)

It was untill somebody sold nearby field for summer cottages...Of course peple estabished there some small huts but thus there was no sewage system people biuld their "free standing toilets" which throught groundwaters were leaking to the lake...

Which led to algie bloom... Which killed most of the unique biota of this lake...

Lukasz

Travel / Backpacking/Camping in Poland [29]

To move back to the topic.
Camping outside the specific signed places is in Poland illegal...
But...
If nobody catches you you can do it.
I camped few times especially during cayacking trips at the sandy river shores.... It is a good place becouse those are not national forests nor private arable land so nobody will case you for doing it...

Of course very often you can camp on somebody's land if you just ask. In more turistic places you will be supposed to pay something.

In national forests sometimes you will find free campsites similar to those from scandinavia but they are very rare...
There is no problem with just wandering around. You will not find in Poland signs: "Tresspassers will be shot";-). You just have to watch out if you are not destroying crops becouse somebody could get angry...

To Wildlover:
I also have a litte plot of land just nearby you - in Siecino willage (near the lake)...
In my opinion the Drawske Lakeland is one of the most beautifull and wild areas of Poland... But nobody knows it... People prefer Mazury where lakes are much dirtier, where you meet thousands of noisy tourists which throw rubbish around forests, and where German tourists made prices inccredibly high...

But to be honest - I like it how it is becouse I know how little you need to destroy a lake, or spoil a nice forest... So for me the less people in Drawskie the better...

But I understand that you want to live from it and want people to come there...

Lukasz

Language / bring (towards) versus take (to) - Confusing ... [6]

I think you are mostly right.
The first translation is perfect.
Take to will be zanieść which is fomed from the verb nieść (to carry) so it can be roughly translated "carry to". "Wziąć" is not good in this situation becouse it refers to sitation when the "doer" takes something towards him (piks someting up).

"to give"="dać" sigtly canges the mieaning becouse give means to give in hand or to give sombody something to own it and "zanieść" can also mean just to put the book on a teacher's table.

Lukasz

Life / What do people think of Italian Products? [37]

italian shoes - stylish and fashionable
italian clothes - the same
italian electronics (maby more AGD stuff - fidge, oven, etc - I don't anybody here buys Italian computers...) - well designed, cheap but not good quality

italian cars - well designed, stylish but with a lot of failures (you can be advised to buy an italian car as a new car and then sell it when varrianity expires, but nobody will advise you to by used italian car)

italian furniture - stylish, well designed, expensive...

Lukasz

Travel / Ice fishing near Warsaw [5]

For exmple buzing a ticket to Rome...
But to be serious as a person born and living mz whole life in Warsaw every year I dream about escaping somewhere in winter...
It is extramely cold (but without much snow - just some greyish patches) or wet and windy...

Last two winters we havent got any ice at all...
But usulally there was some for a few weeks in january and febuary.
Th you can visti Zegrzyński Reserviour. I have seen there also some ice sailers but I don't know if you can hire those vechiles...

Lukasz

Love / Are (most) Polish unmarried people virgins? [60]

I thik that in Poland beng virgin unitll marriage was never very common (maby in XIXth cenury...)...

Having wedding being pregnant is even a kind of Polish tradition ;-)
Even statistics say that th first child is born less than 9 months after wedding in more than 50% cases...

And if we move backwards we can rely n words of Ibrachim ibin Jakub - Jewish trader that wisited these lands in IXth century and written: "Slaw won't marry a virgin becouse he would think - if nobody wanted you then there have to be someting wrong with you..." ;-)

Lukasz

Travel / Night Travel Warsaw-Prague [5]

In Poland you can always buy tickets for a normal train (unless it is IC) but if the train is crowded it means that you will be standing.

hy you would like to buy the ticket in train? You can do it at the station. If at the station at which you are entering are opened ticket offices you pay more if you are buying ticket in train. So in Warsaw it will be good to buy the ticket at the station just before departure. In Zebrzydowice at night when office is closed you can buy ticket in train for the same price.

It is true that long-run international trains are more expensive than those inside country and it is cheaper to cross the border in local train.

But I don't think you will find something much cheaper than Eurolines bus (the prie of train will be similar). Check if you can use student discounts on trains and bus.

Regards

Lukasz

Travel / SIM card details in Poland [4]

As I know you can buy at the newsagent pre-paid sim card for 10 PLN (3 USD)...

And of course you will have to buy "minues" . You can do it also at the newsagent and cards are often for 20, 50, 100 PLN.

I don't jnow nothig about the fares to India, but as I heard today one operator Heyah has a flat rate to all EU for 0,40 PLN per minute.

Regards

Lukasz

Life / Unusual Sightings in Warsaw - millions of black crows... [22]

This crows (nort ravens - ravens are not very rare but you won't find them in city centre and not in big groups) are only seasonal thing.

They come to overwinter in Warsaw from East and North (mainly fron northern part of European Russia).
They are overnightng in poplar forests at the Wistula rivr banks, in Koło forest or so on and at sunrise they fly to the dumping grounds that are lokated in the outskirts to feed and at the sunset they are back...

It is really unusulal viev becouse there are milions of them bu it is not a pleasant viev becouse their voices alvays remind me of dark, grey wintertime...

Lukasz

Life / Wedkarski (fishing/angling) questions in Poland [7]

Hello,

There are three top fishing magazines in Poland:
Wędkarz Polski, Wędkarski Świat and Wiadomości Wędkarskie.

You will find them in every newsagent. I prefer first the two - there are a little bit more profesional.

About permits - Poland runnining waters are maitained by Okręgi Wędkarskie of Polish Angling Association (PZW - you will find some info in english at their website: pzw.org.pl). And the whole country is divided into fourtysomething parts (similar in shape to previous adiministativ division - before 1996). To fish in some region you have to buy a premit wchih allows you to fish in every running water an some smaller lakes in certain area. There are two type of waters and two types of permits - waters with trout/salmon/grailing and without. If you buy the permit for the firs type of waters it is more expensive but you can fis also in other waters. Cheaper permit allows you to fish in "other" waters (which in lowland Poland are dominating).

You can buy permit in office of Okręg Wedkarski whih adresses you can find on PZW website.

Wit the lakes of Polish lakelands it is more complicated becouse their are owned by private people or fishing companies and you have to know or ask who owns this lake and where to buy a permit

I hope it was helpful info.

Lukasz