Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

Val I have red, pink, blue and yellow!

OK, so what about the MP3 players?

Life / "Gdzie jest barszcz?" How do I get talking Polish with real Poles? [16]

Dear Jan

I know what you mean. I see Polish number-plated cars in my own street, for goodness' sake, as well as the car park at Lidl. I overhear Poles talking in the changing rooms of the swimming pool. But how to make friends with them. Despite my name, I don't have any Polish friends here.

Helena

Life / Poznan. The most hated city in Poland? [21]

My father and I arrived in Poznan off the train from London one day in 1986 and we had nowhere to stay. We got in a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a hotel, any hotel. But when we arrived there were no rooms, and the taxi driver heard this because he was bringing our luggage into reception, so he took everything back to the taxi and we drove from one hotel to another, all full up. Turned out there was a trade fair in town. By this time it was about 6pm and the taxi driver took us to his flat. He left us outside while he went in and asked his wife if we could stay. We sat in the kitchen while they rearranged all their rooms to provide my father and I with a whole room each. At their request we paid them two pounds a night bed and breakfast and stayed there a week.

Here's a funny thing: their 20-year-old blonde student daughter spoke fluent English, but there was something really strange about her accent: she sounded like an African, not a Pole. I puzzled over this for a few days, until she introduced me to her boyfriend ~ a big, black African student! He was a secret from her parents, who hated black people. But it explained her strange accent!

Helena

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

I don't know what Allegro is!

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

I'm coming round to the tea idea, not sure about bath products maybe my friends have only a shower - who knows?

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

Don't they have all that stuff in Poland?

Life / How well is English spoken in Poland? [27]

Come on then Mags, let's see it. I love garbled English - so funny!

Life / "Gdzie jest barszcz?" How do I get talking Polish with real Poles? [16]

Yeah me too.

Language / Polish language MP3s [24]

Thanks for that.

Genealogy / Do I Look Polish? (my grandfather was Polish) [60]

Yes you look Polish, and he looks German.

I'm half Polish but I don't look Polish at all!

Travel / Just Returned from 10 Days in Poland (...my previous trip was in 1972 :) [6]

Yes, that is the question I wanted to ask!

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Tereska.

I am just about to embark on an independent trip of 9 days in Poland on my own entirely. I'm staying at cheaper places than you, though, and no car!

UK, Ireland / Phoning home & Skype from Poland to the UK? [19]

Thanks Marky! I'm only coming for 9 days and I don't think it's worth me getting involved in anything complicated. I'm going to email home daily with my news, use a callbox for a few minutes a few times, and have found a hotel with Skype!

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

Thanks Mary and Tomek. More food for thought. I'll ask my friend if her son is interested in football; some boys prefer things like dancing.

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

Yes, VIncent. I had to re-register under a slightly different name cos I forgot my login/password!

Travel / Itinerary for trip to Poland - comments/tips? [27]

New itinerary! And this is fixed, as I have booked and paid for my train and air tickets now!

September 2008

14th Boyfriend drives me to Ebbsfleet 1145-1245

14 Ebbsfleet– Brussels 1315-1603
14 Brussels – Koln 1725-1945
14 Koln – Warszawa Centralna 2228-1055
15 Warszawa C – Bialystok 1120-1349
15 Bialystok – Elk 1410-1558
15 Elk – Gizycko 1612-1702
15-16-17 Overnight x 3 Hotel Mazury, Gizycko
16 Boat excursion to Mikolajki 0900-1800
18 Thu Train Gizycko – Ostroda 1037-1325
18-19-20 Hotel Promenada x 3
21 Sun Ferry Ostroda – Elblag 0800-1900
21 Train Elblag – Gdansk 1925-2053
21 Overnight (x 3) Gdansk
22 Mon Train Gdansk – Hel 0953-1212
22 Ferry Hel – Sopot 1300-1430
22 Ferry Sopot – Gdansk 1615-1800
22 Overnight (2nd night) at Gdansk
Day in Gdansk
23 Overnight (3rd night) at Gdansk
24 Train Gdansk – Poznan 1107-1532
24 Tues Train overnight Poznan – Utrecht 2105-0956
Train Utrecht – Den Haag 1015-1055
25-26 Overnight x 2
27 Train Den Haag – Amsterdam Schiphol 1703-1739
27 Plane Amsterdam Schiphol – Gatwick 1830-1840
27 Sat Train Gatwick – Eastbourne 1919-2013

Stay at boyfriend's and get driven home to Hastings next day.

Travel / Is it safe to take a train in Poland? [35]

If you check out my itinerary for next month you 'll see a lot of train travel on it, England to Poland, within Poland and back again. I'm getting first class tickets within Poland for comfort reasons, like UKPolska said.

Love / My polish g/f can be a nightmare,is it always like this [262]


Well, stick with her then and quit coming on here whingeing!

Love / What's God's answer TO my gf, after cheating on me after 4 years? [65]

I'm sure God is far too busy to worry about one relationship between one couple.

Travel / Specific question about large baggage on a train from Poznan to Torun [7]

I'm sure that if it won't fit on the rack you can just put it on the floor or by the doors. People do that all the time.

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

Very true, Maf.

Cheers everyone.

Helena

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

Vincent, Osiol, here is the link

https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/life/poland-romance-unknowable-country-15831/

I was Pani Wojtczak then, now Helena Wojtczak, not so different!

Enjoy!

HW

Love / How do I get my Polish girlfriend back?? [26]

I don't intend to be rude but I cannot understand why anyone would want to ask this question of a load of strangers on the internet.

Simply email/write to your girlfriend, tell her the truth that you have told us about how you will go to Poland to be with her, etc.

If she does not want you to come, there is nothing you or anyone on the internet can do about it.

This really is something that you have to talk to HER about, not a bunch of strangers. Honest!

Life / Present for Polish friends ~ is anything hard to get any more? [57]

Like I am going to carrry bottles of lemonade in my suitcase from Hastings to Gizycko changing trains seven times. :-)

So far I have got a Nike tee shirt for the little one and an "England" baseball cap for the 13 year old. Both very light!

For my friend I might take some jewellery, and for her husband ... a bag of Doritos!!! Hahahahaha

Travel / Specific question about large baggage on a train from Poznan to Torun [7]

Once my friend and I had to stand all the way from Lublin to Warsaw. Even standing was crowded and there was no floor space to put down our huge ssuitcases, so we put them in the toilet compartment and stood outside the toilet door.

It was weird because we had to stand aside every few minutes to let someone use the toilet, knowing our suitcases were in there!

The following year we sent our suitcases ahead of us so we did not have to carry them. We arrived in Torun but they would not let us take our bags until the customs man had inspected them, and he did not work Sundays. So the first day and night we had no access to our luggage and had to wear the same clothes we had travelled in. When we returned to the station to collect our suitcases the customs officer took everything out of our cases and spread all our things across the desk, it was realy embarassing ~ all our knickers and bras and sanitary towels etc. NEVER AGAIN!

Travel / Specific question about large baggage on a train from Poznan to Torun [7]

Yeah I can laugh now. But when my friend and I were very young women we were really embarrassed about that kind of thing ... If you take your suitcase with you, they don't search it, so why did they?

Amsterdam, huh?

Travel / Beautiful film of Lublin [6]

Hiya!

I've spent a lot of time there as my father was born there and we went back and met his old friends and made new friends.

My friend Maria Parakowska lived on the corner of Lipowa and Krak. Przed. next to the park. At least, I think it was Lipowa. I wish I could find her again, she has moved.

Travel / Is it safe to take a train in Poland? [35]

On that video the oncoming train on the left has gone past the signal at danger that was protecting the entry to the bi-directional single line and is fouling the opposite line. The resulting accident is known as a side-swipe and isn't anything like as serious as the head-on collision that it might have been had the oncoming train gone further past the red signal.

It never crosses my mind that a train I am on might crash. Statistically, you've got more chance being killed by choking on food, but this doesn't make us all feel anxious about every meal.

Most of my adult life I've worked as a guard on the railway. I rode on trains 40 to 60 hours a week, 47 weeks a year for 20 years and didn't have a single crash. I was of course full trained in emergency procedures for every possible eventuality, but luckily the worst operational accident I had was when my train derailed in a siding. I also had seven fires, but I'm getting way off topic here so will shut up as soon as I've said that I wrote a related book..

hastingspress.co.uk/railwaywomen/railindex.html

Helena

Some people from Poland have suggested it could be safe unless it's your fault ;)

Travel / Beautiful film of Lublin [6]

Yes I heard about that KJC. God forbid (I wish he would!)
The view from what was her first floor window overlooks that KFC.

I once booked myself onto that course and got 6 weeks off work to attend it (unpaid leave, I hasten to add!)

However, in the event my mates in Lublin said save your money, just hang around with us for six weeks, so I did.