Travel / Torun, Poland - Good Restuarants [12]

If you want to eat well and not pay too much, go to the Czarna Oberża (ulica Rabiańska I think). If you have money to burn, you will pass loads of fancy restaurants anywhere you go in the Old Town. For an expensive but very fancy, fin de siecle experience complete with waitresses in almost period dress, go to Róże i Zen. :-) for coffee and cakes.

Enjoy! :-)

Study / AGH Studying (Computer Science) in Poland [20]

The breakdown of degrees into undergraduate and graduate in Poland took place recently - about 10 years ago or less. Before that, you either studied the 4 or 5 years, wrote, submitted, and presented your thesis and got your Master's - or you did not and got nothing (even if you completed all the relevant university courses). So most people over 30 would be magisters, yes, and it has nothing to do with being "hung up on titles". Funnily enough, most BAs (licencjaci) also choose to continue to the MA level. Maybe they're ambitious? ;-p

Life / Angina, Polish resources needed [27]


not quite. it's tonsillitis (severe bacterial infection of the tonsils).

if the lady is in Scotland though, and her doctor is Scottish, I rather think he is talking of angina pectoris - dusznica bolesna. there is probably a wiki.pl site for this.

Genealogy / Races of white people... [99]


On the basis of just one family (mine): 50% Czech, 25% Polish (actually Kaszubian and Catholic Byelorussian, to be exact), 25% German (from East Prussia, so actually somewhat "Slavicized" - if there is such a word). But I have Polish citizenship, speak Polish most often, have married a Pole and have Polish citizens for children who have a very vague idea of their origins. I am sure that at least 30% of all Polish citizens have such convoluted backgrounds ;-)

But we're still Polish, because what makes you Polish is in the water, the soil, the air, the literature, the bricks and mortar your house is built of.

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I've been to weddings where not only the bride and groom were made to kiss by calls of "gorzko, gorzko", but the best man and bridesmaid as well. This might well hold true for the starosta and starościna at this particular wedding. Each area has its own traditions, heck, each family has them in this respect, and also remember that if you hire a band with live music, they will also act as "wodzirej" (a sort of entertainment officer), and organize the wedding fun and games for you, some of which that I've seen have made me cringe, they were so sexually explicit. Like ballroom dancing lying down (man on top of the woman, making dance moves which in this position resemble something entirely different). I personally don't like this, but on the other hand this is a reminder that in pagan tradition, the wedding night was a time of revelry and sexual freedom, invoking the spirits/gods of fertility and long life. These "games" seem to be the last remnant of such beliefs.

If you're really worried, ask to watch the wedding video with your girlfriend. This is absolutely the norm, wedding videos are sent out to friends and family as part of the proceedings. :-)

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]


With all due respect, do you live in la-la land? If a bunch of drunk, happy, rowdy wedding guests, and the master of ceremonies as well, expect you to behave in a certain way, and you're in the limelight, it's really pretty hard to say No. Of course, nobody's putting a gun to your head, but I'd think it's very much a situation it would be very embarrassing and difficult to back out of.

Food / A Polish Soup-What is the name? [16]


No, it's not. Barszcz is either the red barszcz (clear) or Ukrainian (with lots of vegetables, beans, and with cream added) or white (żurek). The spectrum of Polish soups is much, much broader than that ;-)

Love / Starosta & Staroscina - Polish wedding tradition [10]


This is not necessarily true, unfortunately... Overall, I think that if the gf in question felt she had done something very untoward, she wouldn't have even mentioned it to her bf in the first place.

Food / A Polish Soup-What is the name? [16]

How about mushroom soup with sour cream? Or krupnik with bits of bacon? Or rosół on a very cold day? Or chłodnik during a heatwave? :-)

You need to try them all!

Genealogy / Races of white people... [99]

I get the feeling that you are making a genetic differentiation here between vikings and Scandinavians... I know nothing about genetics, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always laboured under the impression that the term viking is not the name of a nation or racial group, however understood, but a common term for seafaring warriors/traders/adventurers hailing from the coastlines of the Scandinavian peninsula and all the way down the Baltic to Denmark, incl. the sea coast of what is present-day Poland.

I also think that you should not confuse vikings with the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who settled all over Europe incl. Portugal (a major Visigoth kingdom during the early middle ages) and Russia (founded it, actually, those Ostrogoths), and along the coast of northern Africa. They are related, of course, all being Germanic, but I'm not sure they would have shaken hands and sat down to dinner at the same table ;-)

Why are you so hell-bent on tracing all the different genetic bits and pieces making up the wonderful patchwork that is Europe? This does not make us different races, it can at best make us different tribes ;-)

I think that nobody really knows where most of the different peoples of Europe came from in the first place. And as they arrived in waves, each incoming group messed up the existing genetic pool real fine. Trying to unpick it seems pointless to me... Just my humble opinion.

Love / why is the older women such a problem for polish guys [37]


My great-grandmother was middle-aged when she married. I'm not sure she was actually older than her husband, but in that day and age a 40-year-old bride was not run of the mill either. My mother was 6 years older than my father. I am 7 years older than my partner. One of my friends has a bf at least 7 years younger as well. They're getting married soon. Etc. I am 40, and I have never heard of any older/younger prejudice. Sure, most guys tend to go for the younger crowd, but if they settle down with an older woman it's not really seen as a big deal. Is it just the people I hang out with?

Life / Polish Train Travel - Scary? [101]

Hey there, I got robbed while sleeping on an overnight train as well, long-distance of course. That was waaay back somewhere in 1992 - and it only happened to me ONCE in my life so far. I have learnt my lesson - don't sleep on night trains unless you are travelling light (I wasn't at that time). I also got pick-pocketed (is there such a word?) maybe 5 times in my life on various trains and suchlike.

So what? There are pickpockets and thieves and robbers and muggers everywhere. When I lived in India with my parents, my father would keep finding strangers' hands in various pockets and bags of his - does this mean I should forever remember the Indians as thieving scoundrels?

There is a Polish saying - okazja czyni złodzieja (the occasion makes the thief). Walk around London with a wallet sticking out of your pocket or a half-unzipped bag and let's see how far that takes you. My friend was robbed at an internet cafe in Paris. So what? Does it tell us anything about the French? My bf had his wallet stolen in London, even though he is usually very cautious. So what? Should I be branding the English as thieves from now on?

I hope you get my drift.
And pardon me, going to sleep on a night train, in a 2nd class EMPTY compartment, on a stretch of railway that has no major stops, and carrying a laptop - I don't think that's a very smart thing to do anywhere - be it the UK, the US, China, Poland, Greece, Denmark, Brazil.

Life / Polish Train Travel - Scary? [101]


Polish railways have been "regionalized" (whatever that means) quite some time ago, so the quality of service, age of carriages etc. does not depend on any central/nationwide management, but rather on the resources and transport priorities of a given region. I have travelled on spanking-brand-new second class electric traction trains from Białystok to Ełk, and on lousy "regular" 1st class trains elsewhere. Go figure. On the other hand, the situation in the UK is not much different, depending on whether you're travelling by the "one", "southern", "southwestern", "virgin" or whatever other line, you'll be getting anything from state-of-the-art computerized gizmo-type trains to trains that look as if they'd fallen from between the pages of a history book (and hadn't been cleaned since) ;-)

Travel / Warsaw aiport to the central train station??? [16]

There's lots of little ticket offices dotted all over Warszawa Centralna, the lines are usually much shorter there. Don't bother going into the main hall at all is my advice. The best way to cope if you don't speak Polish is to write down, legibly, the exact train, no. of people, and date you want to buy tickets for (use the departure timetables that are also put up all over the place). Some trains have names, that makes it even easier. And do watch out for pickpockets! When you're all wrapped up in getting your tickets right, they might have an easier job. If there's more of you, one should guard the luggage and one should buy the tickets, carrying just the amount of money needed. Just good common sense, I think.

Life / Polish Train Travel - Scary? [101]

If you don't have a reservation, this means just that - you might end up standing in the aisle. The ticket inspector won't let you stand in the 1st class aisle if you have a ticket for 2nd class. You either have to pay the difference or get the hell out. Ironically, the 2nd class carriages are often half empty on the same train ;-)

The only trains that never sell more tickets than the actual no. of seats are express or IC trains. They are clearly marked as "reservation only" trains. You can choose to travel by those only. ;-p

BTW, I have stood in the aisle in lots of countries, including the UK. I always thought this is the way things are - a ticket purchase does not guarantee me a seat on the bus/tube/tram either. (Unless reserved, as above).

Each Polish train carriage is divided into a smoking and non-smoking end, marked appropriately. It makes sense to check that while getting on the train so you don't end up on the wrong side ;-)

Of course train travel isn't all wine and roses, but why the heck should it be? Life is never smooth going all the way. ;-p

Travel / Warsaw aiport to the central train station??? [16]

It's probably less a question of timing than of location... as I said, there's lots of those window thingy offices, and some of them are hidden way back in the recesses of the underground part of the station. Therefore, some are relatively unknown, at least to people just passing through Warsaw. I've had the luck to never have to wait longer than 10-15 minutes. It makes sense to run around a bit and check before choosing your particular window :-)

Travel / Warsaw aiport to the central train station??? [16]

I know it's confusing down there. But it might be worth it, overall. ;-)

Life / Polish Train Travel - Scary? [101]


If you are on a normal Polish train, the compartments are usually closed (aisle on one side, and compartments on the other), so how can these fat people (and why only fat? and why odorous, all of them?) push you over in your seat?

As I said, all cars are half non-smoking only. You need to check which half you are in. If someone smokes in the non-smoking half, people usually react very angrily to that and the culprit is banished into the aisle ;-)

Come on, don't make it sound worse than it is in reality. I'm a seasoned, born-and-bred Polish train traveller and I've had to sit on the floor by the loo once because of the crowding, but that was way back in 1984 ;-)

Some trains are crowded, some could be cleaner, but that's true of any railway. I am always happy that I get from A to B. Maybe I've been hardened by my communist-oppressed childhood, if so, I am thankful for that. ;-)

Life / Goth scene in Poland [30]

You wouldn't believe the stuff young people used to wear back in the eighties in Poland. ;-) We were very adventurous and anarchistic. Reality sucked bad, so we just did our thing and couldn't care less. I'd say so-called "modern" youth is extremely tame and unimaginative by comparison.

And because there was basically nothing in the shops back then, we used to trawl through parents' wardrobes, flea markets, and other unlikely places (not charity shops or "łachmyciarnie" existed in Poland then), and then remake, dye, take in, shorten, whatever, until the desired result. ;-)

I particularly remember one cute guy waiting for a concert at Riviera-Remont. He was dressed all in black, had the tightest jeans you could imagine, and the jeans were very decoratively torn on his bottom, revealing... red underpants. Awww... all the girls were swooning over his fashion statement... ;-) Bye the bye, getting your hands on red underwear in eighties Poland must have been a task in itself - I guess our generation used up all the red and black fabric dye in the country ;-)

The way young people dress nowadays is really depressing me. No creativity, no personal touch whatsoever.


You too? Greetings! ;-) Wasn't it loads of fun?

Life / Cool Polish names [133]

Sławomir, Lech, Kalina, Grażyna, Zbigniew, Władysław, Wojciech, Mirosław, Jadwiga (Jagoda), Kazimierz, there are more, but my memory has betrayed me. Dunno if they're cool, but they are Polish/Slavonic/Lithuanian (they are geographically and culturally connected to past and/or present-day Poland).

Later: and Jarosław, of course! How could I have forgotten! ;-)

Life / Cool Polish names [133]

Yeah, they are now, but they used to be variations of each other. My aunt's name is Jadwiga, and she is called Jagoda/Jagusia all the time. It's like Halina and Alina, actually they're the same name, and if I'm not much mistaken they are actually part of the Helena/Jelena/Elena family, but who knows nowadays? ;-)

More Polish/Slavonic names: Bronisław, Zdzisław, Bożena, Milena, Miłosz, Bożydar, Radosław, Dobrochna, Malina... there's loads more of them.

Life / HOW CAN POLISH PEOPLE AFFORD IT?? They are said to earn very little..? [43]

How about the possibility that some Poles might actually have access to a) savings b) assistance from parents/family c) credit cards / bank loans? I don't think most Poles earn extra, untaxed cash.

I know many people who regularly take out loans to finance vacations or expensive purchases. I personally took out bank loans to buy my flat, my car, my computer, washing machine (not all at the same time ofc) - all repaid ages ago. Wouldn't have been able to afford any of that stuff otherwise.

BTW - spending more than you officially earn is not a Polish phenomenon at all. Just think about the sub-prime crisis or the lending crisis in general (US, UK).

Life / Cool Polish names [133]

I just wrote the same in my post. I said they used to be variations. And because Jagoda is being now given to girls as a name in its own right, I put it next to Jadwiga (as a distinct variation). But Jadwiga and Jagoda both are the same name, actually I did some research a minute ago and they both come from the German Hedwig, so they are not "truly" Slavonic after all ;-(

And I disagree, Jagusia is not a totally different name, it is a pet name for someone called Jadwiga or Agnieszka - I have yet to see a birth certificate with Jagusia on it. ;-)

Life / HOW CAN POLISH PEOPLE AFFORD IT?? They are said to earn very little..? [43]

What you are doing is not "lewizna" - the tax code duly authorizes costs deductible from income, i.e. costs without which it would be impossible to conduct your business = koszty uzyskania przychodu. Unless you bend the definition of what is necessary to your business, ofc ;-)

You pay VAT, you claim VAT - as a business.
Not as a private person employed by a company, though.
I ran my own business in Poland for 10 years, I would never choose the ryczałt option. I almost never had to pay income tax, but ZUS was a major pain. Overall, I think the Polish income tax system is quite easy to understand and rather fair. I used to do everyone's tax returns, actually when I visited my dad in Poland last year, he made me do his tax return again! ;-)

Life / HOW CAN POLISH PEOPLE AFFORD IT?? They are said to earn very little..? [43]

Back in the day, ZUS was approx. 600-700 from day 1.
And believe me, the majority are no fools and either know how to do their tax returns, or ask someone knowledgeable to do it. Most people have an accountant in their family or among friends somewhere ;-)

The only good thing about ZUS is that since the "ubruttowienie" of salaries that took place about 5-6 years ago (i.e., your ZUS is included in your gross salary), ZUS is taken away from tax payable (odliczenie od podatku) at the end of your income tax statement. This means v. good news for many people, sometimes even a considerable tax refund at the end of the year :-)

Whereas in the UK, I actually had to pay extra National Insurance at the end of the year, even though my taxable income was under 2000 pounds... ;-(

I don't really understand the British system, I'm afraid. Thank God for the online tax return thingy on the HMRC website...

History / Where do Polands non Jewish victims go? [64]


omg, here we go again... I wish I had never been interested in WW2 history, then I might just pass such comments by... on the other hand, I hate feeding trolls. contraband, you are wrong on so many levels that I don't know where to start, so I won't.

BTW - you say "I didn't see Poles" - where you personally there? And did you take the train?

Life / Goth scene in Poland [30]

The thing is, appearance very often speaks volumes about the person. I am sure you would know who I am, at least in very general terms, if you saw how I dress. Dress is our code, our second skin, our mask, and our confession, all at the same time ;-)

Life / HOW CAN POLISH PEOPLE AFFORD IT?? They are said to earn very little..? [43]


Examples please? I mean 2007-2008, not the old stories about builders carrying a construction site away bit by bit (I know these things used to happen, I'm just not happy with the way you frame your thought).

Capitalism is just a tiny bit different from communism (or, rather, from a socialism rotten on the inside). You might want to keep that in mind.

Life / Cool Polish names [133]

Jagna is actually Agnieszka (Jagnieszka - regional), Jagoda comes from Jadwiga, both happen to have the same possible form of Jagusia. Why not?
Halina, Alina and Ewelina can all be called Linka, or even Inka. I don't think I get your point...?

Life / Cool Polish names [133]

Robert shortens to Bob (in English)
Aleksander shortens to Olo (in Polish) - so there! ;-p
Alicja, Alina shortens to Ala - surprise, surprise!
There's probably more, but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now.