Life / Please help me find this Polish song (moja droga ja Cie kocham)! [15]


He had to finance the song's release himself, because no record label thought it would do well - and it turned out to be a big success.

USA, Canada / Traveling to Poland to study. Polish passport question. [11]


This is still true, although some people do it, and the authorities don't check too hard.

Law / New ID 'card' in Poland [19]

Rogalski

Exactly. A passport suffices for most things including utilities.

If you want a Polish credit card or a mortgage you should probably have one.

Life / Order of the Mass practiced in Poland? [3]

Believe it or not, it's under copyright. You might find an illegal/informal copy, but it is generally only available to buy.

edit

I found the congregational responses here liturgia.org.pl/mszal_online.php. Unfortunately they are split up section by section, so you'll need to cut and paste from each part before printing out. The links to the sections you want are listed on the lower part of the page as 'Obrzędy Mszy Świętej z ludem'. Some parts like the Eucharistic prayer aren't there, just a note in Polish that they're preparing the page.

Language / Do you think there is something like Warsaw accent ? [29]


I agree. This is becoming almost normal in UK with the horrid, whining South-East accent almost accepted as normal. Sometimes I heard quite nasty sounds on the radio in PL too.

The justification in UK is about broadcast media reflecting how people speak - though most people don't speak Estuary English.

For people with less than perfect hearing, this can be difficult to understand.

For non-natives, trz and cz sound almost similar, but with a bit of practice easy to get right.

History / What if scenario´s for WW2 and Poland [112]

joepilsudski

Amateur in both conception and execution and disurbingly sentimental. Sub-chocolatebox drawing. Not an artist. Then again he loved the works of Lehar and for long periods subsisted on cream cakes.

A creepy, paranoid guy. Such pictures are better left to gather dust.

The guy who painted this was purely a hobbyist, who painted what was around him, to relax. He never had any aspirations to be a professional artist. Or to conquer the world and kill millions.



And the difference in styles says a lot.

History / What if scenario´s for WW2 and Poland [112]

Fourteen years of economic crisis, political violence, whipping up unjustified hatred towards minorities and capitalising on the paranoia and prejudice of the uneducated had a lot to do with it.

History / What if scenario´s for WW2 and Poland [112]


Hardly suddenly. His rise to power took several years, a jail sentence and two general elections.

History / What if scenario´s for WW2 and Poland [112]


Sane is the relevant word here. All that ranting about Jews, conspiracies etc...


Almost none of his paintings had human figures in. His 'art' dealer used to implore him to include them, to make them more saleable. He painted some townscapes entirely empty of humanity.

History / What if scenario´s for WW2 and Poland [112]


29 October 1942 - Final "General Settlement Plan" from the RKFDV. Concerns population transfers in occupied Poland and Bohemia and Moravia. See Mechthild Roessler and Sabine Schleiermacher, eds., Der "Generalplan Ost": Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993), pp. 96-117.

This is a good article, with reference to the original documents; in German, albeit not too difficult:
nadir.org/nadir/archiv/Antifaschismus/Themen/Revanchismus/nwh/gpo.html

News / Farrell makes the statement that a type of dinosaur was even 'dumber' than Poles [19]

ob1

Sounds like grounds for a legal case if they're saying that.

News / Farrell makes the statement that a type of dinosaur was even 'dumber' than Poles [19]

Sounds far fetched - are you sure that's what he said?

And if so, is it about Poles the nationality or poles the long pieces of wood?

Food / Looking for Cider around Poznan Area [16]

I think Tesco stock it, that big one behind the Cytadela.

UK, Ireland / UK government refuses me to live in the UK!!! [22]

Can you imagine that there are certain areas in Warsaw, where people don't understand English? It's all because of these bloody foreigners. Therefore a British passport to enter Poland is definitely a step in the right direction.

Greetings from OUR Poland ;-)

Merry Christmas!

Love / Friendship With a Polish Women [29]

Zero Cool

Watch her body language. Not her eyes - that's a man thing, but how she sits, what she does with her legs, etc. You will know very soon.


Mmmmm, give me his phone number!

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

I just asked my friend, over gadu gadu, who's a tax inspector and briefly explained the situation.

He told me (but he'll check tomorrow) that if you're a private individual and you're renting from a company, there is VAT, but it's 0% because you are renting it for non-commercial use. Even hotels charge only 7%.

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]


You flatter me. LOL

It's just that I've rented flats here a few times, offices too. But there are also two Polish people within shouting distance who are both sure that there shouldn't be VAT added to the price. Neither were sure about rentals from companies, but as you said, any VAT should be included in the price.

It isn't uncommon in PL to offer a flat at a particular price, wait until you're ready to move in, pen in hand to sign the contract, then spring something on you at the last minute when it would be inconvenient to withdraw.

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

Moonlighting

I'd get another accountant, pretty quick. There is no VAT on flat rental for residential use.

Only for companies needing a faktura (and this is not always the case) or short-term holiday lettings. Apartment sales can be subject to VAT at 22%, under certain circumstances (over 150sqm, with a residents' swimming pool). But not normal flat rental.

Perhaps your friend is confusing this with the flat owner's personal income tax. Though this wouldn't be 22%. Are you renting from a person or a limited company?

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

This sounds a bit strange. I'd ask them about the tax before parting with it.

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

Moonlighting

Are you renting it with an invoice for office use? That would (but doesn't always need to) incur 22% VAT. Residential lettings don't.

Otherwise no.

I'd be very wary of this landlord if I were you. And the agent too.

Life / grrrr... internet issues (or customer service issues) with TP SA [14]

A concrete link would indeed be good. Not for any internet forum point-scoring, but because of a potentially serious matter that's going on at the moment. It could save me a lot of future money and trouble.

Instead of shelling out a fortune in legal fees to prove that a contract for something was out-of-date it would be so much easier if the contract wasn't valid in the first place.

Life / Who has moved to Poland in the last year? Swap stories. [115]

Honest George

You get such people everywhere, every country. Having said that, Poland has more than its fair share of very extremely nasty people. Fortunately they are quite easy to deal with. Humour (not the self-deprecating kind) helps a lot.

But with time, people who move here settle into a comfort zone, away from such people.

Life / grrrr... internet issues (or customer service issues) with TP SA [14]

That's interesting (and if true could save me a bit of hassle at the moment). It would be great if you could provide a link about this.

UK, Ireland / Its strange that there arent many Poles who live in the UK on this Forum [102]


It's frustrating when that happens, but remember the waiters don't have much time to be patient. They appreciate your efforts speaking German, but at the end of the day are just interested in serving you quickly.

UK, Ireland / Its strange that there arent many Poles who live in the UK on this Forum [102]


Some of us do that too:-)

Law / Polish Govt website for foreigners, marriage, family, etc. (in PL and EN) [19]

Magdalena

It's indeed worth reading all of it. A fair reflection of what the respondents actually think.

Of course you'd get a different result in Warsaw than in a village and a 35 year old graduate might think differently to a 75 year old housewife.

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

Grzegorz_

Grzegorz, I'm sure you know perfectly well about The European Infrastructure Fund. Details of it are painted on the sides of the new trams that have been bought with it, it has very well publicised both when the SKM local train track was replaced and new trains bought for SKM and WKD and also during the tender process for line 2 of the Metro and the planned 'Most Polnocny'.

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


Clean (even a bit sterile), efficient.


It isn't. The first line probably won't be extended. Ever. There may be one or two new stations, like the pl. Konstitucji station (actually by ul. Wilcza in the premises now used by a gogo bar, called Chilli) and pl. Inwalidow, which were planned but not built. The second line is in the technical planning and finance stage. The original plan was to have part of the second line running for Euro 2012. This won't be, but they should have started before the end of next year. Most of it will be 'cut and cover' rather than tunneled which should make it quicker. The third line's route isn't agreed yet. I'll see if I can find a map of the second and third lines and add as an edit.


Buses and trams are generally good, and EU membership has allowed modernisation. Trolleybuses (Warsaw to Piaseczno) were stopped amid protests a few years ago. The WKD (light rail to the Western suburbs commuter towns) is being upgraded. Local trains are significantly improving, but slowly, and with beaurocratic arguments. Small suburban stations are being upgraded with EU infrastructure grants - but the service is still so bad that they are under-used.

There was meant to be a tram to Wilanow two years ago and was never built. This is now a problem due to thousands of flats and no transport infrastructure. A bigger priority is Tarchomin, north of the city. There's meant to be a new bridge with some sort of rapid transit connecting them to the metro. Land has been bought, tenders submitted for building, but no significant progress yet. The people who live there wish there was.

Still no airport trains. There's a station a few hundred yards from the terminal, but no easy way to get there and not many trains stopping there. The plans to re-route the WKD past the airport came to nothing.

One problem is lack of co-ordination between services leading to public arguments between the different providers. This has improved lately, with the monthly ticket now working on train and WKD.

A bigger problem is that the small towns around Warsaw have a high degree of administrative autonomy, and there is no one central body to co-ordinate transport in the Warsaw 'travel-to-work' area. This has led to the Warsaw bus company threatening to pull transport to Piaseczno and putting posters on the buses about that (threat now averted), and a bewildering array of mini buses and private companies with no central timetable or co-ordination.

This is a bit old - all of line one is finished. Line two will cross at Metro Swietokrzyszka (that's why it's such a small station - only half has been built). They can't cross at Metro Centrum due to a certain very well-known building, too heavy to tunnel near.

Line 3 is a very, very long way off, but will probably cross line 1 at pl. Konstitucji and have a station at pl.Trzy Krzyzy.

@ Joe

You might like this site about the metro:

metro.civ.pl

Life / Polish TV on the internet?? [54]

woodland

Slingbox can be good, even very good. I found it fiddly to use though.

Easier to use is streamtorrent. You have to know the address of the stream (not hard to get from the internet) and then you have all the channels.

UK, Ireland / Its strange that there arent many Poles who live in the UK on this Forum [102]

peter_olsztyn

And yet Brits moan about how much nicer French shop staff are!