Life / Used book stores in Poland [10]

And that's where I should go to pick up a battered old polish translation of a Steven King or Carl Hiassen paperback for half a zloty?

Because, in Ireland and the UK, "antiquarian" bookshops implies expensive, bound first editions of serious literature.

I don't expect to have the dosh or the expertise for this.

Life / Surviving the Polish Winter [27]


And what about Krakow?

Real Estate / How much rent do you pay in Poland? [18]

Will do. keep an eye out.

Love / Are men more unhappy about being single than women [47]


I agree, try as I might, it simply won't fit in my ear.

Love / Does speed dating exist in Poland? [10]

I know a fair few couples who met by being set up by third parties like friends, family or speed dating/dating agencies.

Real Estate / Problems with switching apartments at short notice [10]

I suppose the thing to do there is to get them to email you the rental agreement and get a local Pole to translate for you.

Any websites I should check out to scope landlords advertising privately?

UK, Ireland / Are Polish girls replacing Irish girls? [41]

'cept I'm a fella!

Is my gender not obvious. Must start talking more about football and war.

UK, Ireland / Are Polish girls replacing Irish girls? [41]

Yeah it's important not to over generalise. A lot of people think that the ladette phenomenon is a positive, liberating thing, and who am I to disagree?

It is true that many Slavic people have a facial structure which is quite uncommon here and which many of us find very beautiful. So we'd certainly, in many cases, like to "replace" our local potential girlfriends with one of these so-called "exotic creatures".

Many Irish girls are quite open about feeling the same way towards Italian men. Vive la difference, I guess

Love / Does speed dating exist in Poland? [10]


I think you're not expected to form any deep opinion beyond simple first impressions. But the first impressions are the most important. Without a good first impression, a happy relationship is unlikely to form, in many cases.

UK, Ireland / Are Polish girls replacing Irish girls? [41]

It's a slight exaggeration but you do see some pretty sad spectacles of a Saturday night. Women here often drink high-alcohol content sugary drinks, with unfortunate effects.

Love / Are men more unhappy about being single than women [47]

AFAIK, single men live shorter lives (and jokers say married men feel like their lives go on for 1000 years)

Real Estate / Problems with switching apartments at short notice [10]

I'm an EU citizen, so I hope that won't be a problem.

So do I have to expect to pay a premium if I want the option to "bug out"?

Can anyone confirm about the requirement to give 3 months' notice of intention to move? Is that really what's required?

UK, Ireland / Are Polish girls replacing Irish girls? [41]

"You also don't usually find polish women crawling on their hands and knees to a bank machine on Dublin's main street at 4am on a saturday drunk our of their minds with a burger in one hand and a tube of lipstick in the other!"

You say that as if it was a bad thing to do.

I was chatting with an Polish young lady on Saturday night. She thinks Irish people are really open. She expressed surprise that intelligent, educated women in Ireland still talk about soaps and Big Brother with each other.

One other observation: when I asked how she knew the people at the party she said "oh, I'm X's girlfriend and he knows the host for years".

Now and Irish woman would never volunteer the information that she was attached. The norm here is to hide that information during the course of the conversation, so it was nice and refreshing to see someone not do this.

Law / Investing in Polish stocks and bonds [8]

I don't want to spoil your enthusiasm, but Ireland's unemployment quadrupled during its first 22 years in the EU.

We joined in 1973, the economy started to seriously improve in about 1995.

Law / Investing in Polish stocks and bonds [8]

huh, but has much of that been due to the currency moves, I wonder?

Law / Is there money in English Proof Reading in Poland? [7]

English proof-reading work - available in Poland

Is this widely available in Poland? How does it pay?

Law / Setting up an internet gaming cafe in Poland [9]

How regulated is this aspect of business?

I presume you need special permissions and licenses to do this.

If you're going to have a wii for public usage, I imagine you'd need to acquire documents giving you permission. Who on here can give advice about such things?

Law / Setting up an internet gaming cafe in Poland [9]

Okay I'm talking Bubba.

Tell me about your location. What are the typical overhead costs per month?

What does insurance cost. In Ireland this is typically the thing that breaks a business. I know crime is rare in Poland but that's no consolation if my equipment gets stolen and don't get insurance!

Tell me about what business permits are needed. Is it possible that a corrupt official will close the business down because the location "doesn't meet regulations"?

This happened to a relative of a friend in Prague.

Real Estate / How much rent do you pay in Poland? [18]

In Ireland, the primary web site for people seeking an apartment is daft.ie.

Is there a similar website for Poland, or just a bunch of different ones.

As I don't speak Polish, I'd ideally like to use a website which doesn't offer places for sale. I need rent-only sites, to avoid confusion as much as I can.

A 40-50 square metre apartment will be lovely for me.

Some vocabulary: wynajem = lease, is that correct?

Also, what is the difference between wynająć and czynsz? They're both "rent", right?

In Ireland a lease is a specified period of renting. Is there another word for renting where you do not commit to a specified time period? I want to be free to move if I want to

Another newbie question: how much of a deposit (if any) are you supposed to put down?

Are you generally required to commit to a long period of time, or can you just go month by month.

Let's say I take a place in Krakow, and decide I want to move to Warszawa after two months, can I expect to get my depsit back in full?

Real Estate / How much rent do you pay in Poland? [18]

Wow! thanks very much!

I hope to learn some polish, but I'd probably not charge money. If they just get me a piwo now and again it'll be fine.

I saw the following written down on one of those links:

Cena: 345 tys. PLN (4,31 tys. PLN / m2)

I know cena is price, but I'm lost as regards what tys is

Law / Amount of capital to start a small business in Poland? [32]

I *love* the idea of investing in a wii and you have an internet cafe specialising in gaming.

In fact, if anyone's interested I'd like to talk some more about that!

Some obvious questions:

The wii will be a target for thieves, how much does insurance typically cost?
Taxes: what is the rate for this sort of thing?
Corruption: how do we deal with officials demanding money so we can get the proper permit to run a gaming house?