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Posts by sobieski  

Joined: 1 Jun 2008 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 6 Jan 2016
Threads: Total: 106 / In This Archive: 11
Posts: Total: 2,118 / In This Archive: 167 		From: Poland, Warsaw
Speaks Polish?: Good
Interests: Polish culture and history, cooking

Displayed posts: 178 / page 1 of 6
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sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Travel / Is it safe to take a train in Poland? [35]

Travel by IC or Express train, and sit in the compartment just behind the one the train guard is using (they always sit in the first class wagon. IC and express trains are safe, at least I have heard of or experienced anything bad in them. Some railway stations are to be avoided though at night. Warszawa Wschodnia is to be avoided at nighttime. Katowice Central Station is also not my favourite place to spend the night.

Warszawa Centralna, despite its grim and shabby appearance is safe, if only for hundreds of policemen, military police and security guards patrolling. Getting lost in the labyrinthine passageways is another matter though :)
sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Travel / Polish visa - Nightmare! [40]

This is all very hard to believe. As somebody wrote before - it has to be something for non-EU citizens. As a Belgian I can live and work here without problems.

No need to have a work permit. You register with your local Gmina to get your meldunek and then you go in Warsaw to the Foreigner's office on ul. Długa 5 where the very friendly girls in the EU section you will issue you a "Karta Pobytu" (Residence Card" for EU citizens.
sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Travel / Warsaw Uprising Museum [7]

I have finally managed to go there recently. It is a state-of-the-art museum, best in Poland I should say. If you go there you will understand why Warsaw looks now the way it does.

I would not call it a holy place, but it makes you think.
sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Travel / What time does the stores close in Warsaw Poland? [5]

Shopping malls stay open until 22:00. But there are always "night shops" open all night, where you have to brave all the alcoholics buying their booze :)

And of course all petrol stations have always the essentials in stock.
sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Life / An alternative for Medicover ? [3]

My wife and I have already since 4 years a Medicover Gold Cardd. But lately I see that Medicover's services are going down - waiting lists where in the past you got an appointment let's say in two days' time. Do other people here experience the same thing.

And what is the alternative in private health care? After all we pay per person monthly 500 PLN...
sobieski   
1 Jun 2008
Travel / Warsaw seen from the river. Vistula song? [2]

The whole summer the "Water Tram" will sail again every 2 hours or so from the quay down opposite to the Royal Palace to the £azienkowski Bridge and back. We did that trip last year - and I have to say it was very enjoyable. Despite living in Warsaw for 4 years, I saw it from a complete different side.

They also do in the weekend day excurions to the lake "Zalew Zegrzynski" in Nieporęt.
A nice place peaceful lake (provinding you pick the right beach), and you would not even think you are close to the capital.
sobieski   
5 Jun 2008
USA, Canada / Will residency be lost after marriage breakdown? (Canadian married to Polish) [8]

Actually I have a Canadian friend who is in the same position. He was married for five years to a Polish woman and she is now going for a divorce. Actually he has no idea what to do with the red tape (meldunek, work permit, karta pobytu) and gets conflicting information everywhere.

Długa 5 telling other things than his Gmina. Gmina tell other things than the lawyer..
And so on...
His employer already started to procedure to get him a work permit.
sobieski   
7 Jun 2008
Life / What is there to do in Warsaw?? [37]

Take your bike and ride from Pole Mokotowskie to Kampinos Park. Very well signposted route, leads you through £azienki park, Ujazdowski Park and further through various green zones to Stare Miasto, and then under the trees along the Wisła up north.

Very pleasant and enough places on the way to stop and have a cold beer :)
sobieski   
14 Jun 2008
Life / Who has moved to Poland in the last year? Swap stories. [115]

I moved from Antwerp/Belgium to Warsaw in 2004 and honestly speaking my life here does not differ all too much from life back home.
- Getting up much too early to go to work (05:30)
- Crazy drivers on the road to work (thanks God not too many traffic jams, although 50 kms one-way)
- In the evening thinking if I will be home in time to catch the Flemish TV-news on Cyfra+
- Waiting forever in our local Tesco because there are no people to work there.
- In the weekend trying to meet friends in between shopping, cleaning your car and a thousand more errands.
And then it is again Monday :(

In these four years I have never encountered any safety problem. Maybe I have been lucky ?
The worst happened to me was that some idiot made a car-long scratch on my VW Touran with a screwdriver. Not nice but it is a company car :) so financially I did not suffer. Idiots you find everywhere in the world though.

In Antwerp they broke into my car tiwice in two months' time.
sobieski   
14 Jun 2008
Travel / Krakow going down the toilet! [184]

I live in Warsaw but went recently on a two-day business trip to Kraków. (Actually my wife is from Rabka so I know the city well :) )

I stayed in Kazimierz where it was on a weekday very peaceful at night. No stag idiots around at that moment.
sobieski   
18 Jun 2008
Life / Customer Service in Poland, what are your experiences? [106]

We opened a savings account with Multibank (the branch in CH Arkadia in Warsaw) last year. That was done in 15 minutes' time. The only thing they did was copying my karta pobytu and wrote down my Pesel and that was all. No stress at all. Was it one of the old state banks you went to? From them I hear all kind of horror stories.

As for efficiency I am very impressed by the friendly and efficient work by the nice girls in the Foreigner's Department in ul. Długa here in Warsaw. (EU citizens' section) I lost two years ago my karta pobytu and I got it replaced without any fuss.
sobieski   
22 Jun 2008
Life / How easy is it to get into trouble with the Police in Poland? [26]

I think police here in Warsaw are OK. I was once stopped in Winter coming back from work - a sunny day so I forget to switch on my lights. The policeman in charge just asked "Can you do that in Belgium as well ?" and then let me go.

Another time I went to the local police place because I lost my Karta Pobytu. They made the necessary paperwork without any fuss.

The best example was a few years ago. I was on the tram on Marszałkowska. Some skins entered and started to terrorize some teenage girls - grasping their breasts and so on. Seems somebody (not me) phoned the police with his mobile.3 police cars stopped the tram car. Entered some robocops on the tram. One skin made the mistake of pushing a police officer. They smashed his face against the doors of the tram, put him on the floor and put their heavy boots on his face and later more or less threw him from the tram in the police van.

In some countries this would be reviewed as incorrect police behavior guess :) I think it was plainly wonderful.
sobieski   
9 Jul 2008
Travel / anyone put the new shengen rules to the test? [30]

I drove last Sunday from Warsaw to Belgium. Crossed the border at Swiecko / Frankfurt a/d Order without even taking my foot from the gas. There is no border anymore.
sobieski   
9 Jul 2008
Travel / Warsaw: A day in the life [16]

Marymont is now the new (and nice) terminal for a lot of buslines, including the "£" from £omianki. A lot on the new terminal was written in various newspapers regularly and on this website:kmlomianki.info/

For the people living on Plac Wilsona this is a big improvement in their life quality, a lot of buses less on the square.

Besides I find Marymont easy to use, good connection to the metro, P+R...
sobieski   
9 Jul 2008
Law / Do EU members need RESIDENCE CARD IN POLAND [29]

If you go to your local "Gmina" to get your meldunek, your PESEL is written on top of it. In my experience you need a Pesel for pretty much everything in Poland.

For example I went back to my home country Belgium on holidays and wanted an EKUZ card - well the first thing the NFZ wants you to fill in on their forms is that PESEL...

As for ID-cards I have heard a rumour that they are thinking of issuing ID cards for EU citizens... I also still have one of these flimsy plastic karta pobytu with my photo on.
sobieski   
30 Jul 2008
Law / Documentation required to get married in Poland [13]

What I remember from my marriage 5 years ago (but we had a civil ceremony) :
- Certificate proving that you are not married
- Certificate that you have no criminal record (although from this I am not sure)
- Certified copy of your birth certificate

Everything translated into Polish of course by a certified translator

And the church will most likely also require
- Baptismal certificate
- Certificate that you did First and Holy Communion

I know from friends that your local parish in your home town has to issue these and that the church uses documents in Latin for that = no translation necessary
sobieski   
30 Jul 2008
Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]

IKO is a good one (or used to be good when I was there a few years ago) Courses run for 66 hours / 3 months.
You can find them close to Foksal and on iko.com.pl
sobieski   
30 Jul 2008
Real Estate / House ownership as a EU citizen [4]

Our house in £omianki reached the stage where the developer will (finally, because 3 months late) hand it over to us. I am Belgian, my wife is Polish.

We own a flat in Warsaw, I have pobyt & meldunek na stale.

There are two issues with the ownership from my non-Polish side. The house means I will own a second property. Polish laws tell that as EU citizen you need to be registered minimum 4 years in Poland to be allowed to own a second property. Thanks God this is the case and I have already all documentation to prove that.

A second hurdle I have heard from is that to be able to register a property on your name, and to have the notarial act on your common (as a couple) name, you need a meldunek na stale in the place you are building.

A Dutch friend of mine in Wrocław almost "lost" his new house because of this.
Now I am wondering:
1. Is a meldunek / pobyt na stale transferable from one Gmina to another one ?
Or can £omianki refuse me that document?
2. Our house still will have to be finished after the transfer into our hands. So how can you get a meldunek/pobyt na stale when you do not live on that address

3. Can you have in this case a meldunek / pobyt na stale in two places?

The weird thing is that when my wife several years ago transfered half of the ownership (of what was on that moment her) of her flat to me, the notary did not ask that document, and nor did the court when we registered the notarial act.

So it is all very confusing to be honest :)
sobieski   
31 Jul 2008
Life / How often do Utility Companies send out their bills in Poland? [4]

Our electricity meter is inside our flat and these thieves from STOEN managed to make an estimate 200 % higher as the actual usage. We sent them a registered letter of complaint which they did not bother to read but instead threathened us with selling our furniture and DVD player so settle their thievish bills.

Took us 4 visits to the local office to correct that one.
The other gangsters of TPSA / PlusGSM send monthly bills.
We have direct debit for these ones which saves a lot of hassle.
Cyfra+ does not bother to send any bills at all since we have direct debit. We asked them several times for hard copy bills but they do not care.
sobieski   
7 Aug 2008
Life / HEAT IN POLAND (with no air-condition) [26]

Why do you ship an A/C unit to Poland ??? Walk in the first MediaMarkt or Saturn branch (Or Tesco for that matter) and have them buy it locally :)

We do not have an A/C in our flat here in Warsaw anyhow. Our flat is sheltered by trees on the "sunny" side and with the sunblinds combined I guess it is not so bad.

And besides, Ok a few days we sleep a bit more difficult because it is too hot but so what ?
sobieski   
9 Aug 2008
Life / Swimming certificate/bribing the bureaucrats in Poland [13]

Short guide to go swimming in Warsaw:

1. Take your bike/car/bus/tram/ whatever to the closest-by OSIR (swimming pool complex)
2. Pay to enter or present your subscription-chipped card (my company gives everybody a chipcard for six months for a reduced rate)
3. Enjoy

By the way the "Warszawianka" OSIR on PUławska is to be avoided at all costs. Too many loud teenagers, and they start to count your minutes to moment you enter. My friend's wife has very long hair which needs ages to dry and every minute is counted.
sobieski   
10 Aug 2008
Travel / The best way to get around Warsaw? [7]

Take bus 180 or 100. These are normal buslines but officially named "sightseeing lines" which in fact they are. Bus 180 goes all the from the Powązki cemetary through the old Jewish quarters / Ghetto area, then to the Old Town and it follows the Royal Way / Trakt Królewski all the way to Wilanów, passing Ujazdowski and £azienki parks. As these are normal public transport busses there is no guide or so aboard... But there is an explanation in Polish and English on the bus + indication at which stop you can get off to visit something.

Buy a day ticket (costs 7,20 PLN) and you can hop on and off wherever you want.
A very cheap and efficient of getting around the sights.

Bus 100 is doubledecker which only goes in the weekend every 2 hours or so and goes also to the Praga side of the river, passing the Zoo etc.
sobieski   
12 Aug 2008
Travel / Will my rented car be stolen or broken into when in Poland? [24]

Well I drive each year 20.000 kms on home-work travel in Warsaw (actually from Warsaw to somewhere beyond Nadarzyn) and my VW Touran has never been stolen anywhere. One stupid git scratched it one over the whole length of the car with a screwdriver (but then this can happy anywhere in the world).

The most-stolen cars in Poland these days are apparantlly Maluchs and Trabants because of the spare parts :)
And if you can rent a car you can for sure pay a few zloty for a guarded parking space.
Paying for parking = you feed the nearest meter with some coins and put your ticket behind the windscreen. Simple, no ?
Buyig tickets in a pharmacy ???/ I can guarantee they will look very odd at you here in Warsaw if you want to do that.
sobieski   
29 Aug 2008
Travel / Tips for driving in Polish cities [29]

I am driving 20.000 kms per year in and around Warsaw (mainly to/from work) and driving here is not fo the faint-hearted for sure :). You have to go with the flow and forget - to bad but it is true - the basic politeness on the road you have learnt at home. Especially roundabouts are very thrilling, I have until now not met a lot of Poles who really know (or care) how they are working.

What Poles have in common with a lot of West Europeans is, when you drive a Mercedes or BMW or a bg Audi, this makes that any kind of traffic regulation is not made for you..

Although I think there is gradually some improvement, if only because of the steadily growing number of "photoradars" as the Poles call them :) Every week on my work I see another new one standing somewhere.
sobieski   
29 Aug 2008
Travel / Wot? No beer allowed on Polish PKP? [30]

Smoking is now forbidden on all Intercity trains. Thanks God :)
As for alcohol... I took the IC from Gdańsk to Warsaw somewhere in May and when I ordered in the restaurant car a non-alcoholic Żywiec (the bottles with the blue ribbon), the girl at the counter suddenly asked "if I would not prefer Tyskie".

Which was not on the menu list and definitely was the standard Tyskie you buy everywhere.
When I asked if this was not forbidden, she shrugged and just told "sure" and smiled.
sobieski   
29 Aug 2008
Travel / Your favourite place/thing in each Poland's city:) [8]

The bike route from Pole Mokotowskie through Park Ujazdowski and through the green zones to my home in Bielany,passing Warsaw's Old and New Town.

And a perfect stop in Kępa Potocka park for a refreshing cold beer.
And as a "thing" the roof garden on the University Library here in Warsaw. Amazing.
As for weird.... the ruins of "Fort Bema" in Bemowo. Especially in wintertime an unforgettable and somewhat eerie sight, this Russian fortress.
sobieski   
14 Sep 2008
Life / is there wireless internet in poland [19]

Imagine that since recently we even have cars and other mechanical vehicles here :) And steam-driven calculators :) Even the blasted I-phone can be bought here .
What a question that is of a very ignorant twit.
Wifi is available in may places, though mostly they are hotspots you have to pay for.
I am using an I-plus card in my laptop. Suits me fine out of home for mailing and surfing.