The strangest things in Poland

yeah... i noticed that too... weird, innit?

Im pretty chilled on hols so dont really mind waiting, but when you ask for the bill and it takes the about 20 minutes to get it and you see two waiters there chatting without a care in the world it does start to pissed you off....got chatting to some Polish people and they told us, if you are only staying for one drink ask for the bill when they bring the drinks, avoids hanging around....best advice I got..:)

Yeah, I know. One time in a restaurant in Poland we asked the waitress about the price when we got the bill. I thought she was going to chew our heads off!

In the US the waitresses have to be kind to the customers, or they lose their jobs. They follow the saying: The customer is always right.

It the same here, always there to clear up as soon as you finish always there with the bill if no coffee ordered...I suppose it will change, I always tipped though, and I wouldnt do that in the UK if I got bad service, I suppose because the food and drink were so good I forgot about the bad service..:)

ohh... you meant 'in' the plane - I thought it was clapping from whoever was observing it landing ... :) :) There was no clapping in my plane.


I would feel right at home, then.

The smoking in public places was different for me. We have had a non-smoking by-law in parts of Canada for years now and I had forgotten how it was before, being a non-smoker. It was an extremely unpopular by-law at the time, mind you, but it seems that smokers, organizations and businesses have found ways to adapt to it, as best they could.


Yes, I have. I had not planned to but that's how it worked out. You have lived in Poland after living in the US, is that right? How was it living in Poland, finding a job, being an immigrant, returning to Canada (zl vs Cdn $)?

Polish people buy 2 or 3 cans of beer at a time, in oz you buy a slab (24 cans) or block (30) cans....if you buy a slab or a block it is much cheaper than buying a single can/bottle ...no discounts for buying bulk in poland!

I try to be objective - there is one strange thing about Poland.

All these women we call them "matki Polki"- women who devout themselves completely to their children, then grandchildren, .....They don't have time for themselves as even when grandmothers they look after grandichildren all day, they cook for all family every day.....

They don't have hobbies, leisure time, many friends....

"All these women we call them "matki Polki".."

I live in PL , I am a mother myself and I must admit that I never met "matka polka" in my life. I thought they died out just like dinosaurs...

I think that women really understand these days, that it is like a suicide not to work at all outside of your home/ family. What happens if your husband is dead or become unemployed, even if your family is doing very well now... And what about retirement compensation for women who never worked in their lives?

I am Polish and for me one the strangest things here is dog s*** everywhere on the pavement. Even in the center of Warsaw...

how the polish make coffee. that's not ''really strange'' though, that's defenitely considered to be a huge no no over here.. -lol- you heathens! :)

so I urge you to use the filters people! :) (but maybe some of you do?) to drink coffee like that is horrible really.

sorry if I just offended someone's tradition, but it's just not drinkable that way. :)

Maati,

I know woman ( my aunt's friend) she has 4 children all adult, some mrried all living together ( big house) She cooks for them every day, wash up after them, do shopping..... She doesn't have much life. Like servant.

Another my colleague she has 2 children her mum looks after them all days, cooks for all of them everyday....and I rememebr once my colleagues was moaning that on one Saturday morning she couldn't stay longer in bed and sleep as her mum dind't want to look after children. Appaling.

how the polish make coffee. that's not ''really strange'' though, that's defenitely considered to be a huge no no over here.. -lol- you heathens

In coffe bar in Krakow you can get delicious coffe. I think that nowadays more and more people buy coffe-machines.

I lived both times in Canada. Returning to Poland was interesting because the system changed and everything was so new. I worked there using English and never had a problem with finding a job - just the opposite. I gew tired of some politics in Poland - I guess I wanted see things progressing faster, since I was used to a western life-style here.

There are a lot of good changes in Poland, however the speed of change left a lot of people behind who were used to a communist system and it was all they knew.

As for my return to Canada - yes - I became an immigrant again even though I don't want to see it this way - I have people who remind me of it often,which is quite irritating at times. So there are some struggles there. You are very observant.

As for exchange rate - my savings didn't last long.
I own a property in Poland and the value of it is going up -it was a very good investment.
You can't loose in real eatate unless you are speculating.
If you have questions about Poland I would be happy to answer. I left 4 years ago.

All the best...

Me too. I mean I also didn't receive a warm beer in the UK, not that I'm English. :)


LO in Opalenica. Great times. No pressure at all. All were good people. Well almost all. :)

a pint of nice cold ice cold larger shouldnt be served at the same temp as a pint of real ale... which isnt exactly served warm... but isnt exactly served ice cold either... especially when sitting in front of an open fire on a chilly winter's day... :)

bless. :)

Sorry maati, could you explain what you mean?

I agree that the polish "babcia" now plays a more low key role than before, "babcia" is better remember as the one handing out sweets and money for a ice cream

Ok.This one is really, really strange. But it's all over Europe, not only in Poland. When writing a date down, they put the day of the month first then the month.

Or the number 7 gets crossed in the middle.
Or when writing a name, they put last name first. In US you put your first name first.
A week starts from Monday, in US from a Sunday

yeah, when you see a seven crossed, you say to yourself they must be polish!

Polish men are generally very polite and well mannered, most still maintain the traditon of kissing the hand when greeting a female

Sorry not read all the posts in here so might be repeating.
The things that gets me most is the absolute obsession with getting as much change as possible out of your pocket and into the tills. If something costs 1.99 zloty the person at the till will ask if you have the correct change then "do you have the 99 zloty " and then even "do you have the 9 zloty" :)

Sometimes it is just to the point of completely illogical extremes. It also just adds that little bit longer to a queue formed by 10 people with 2 items each..

This send me crazy and I find myself deliberately giving large notes just to see the panic caused....

I feel I am close to needing therapy on this :)

This custom generally stop being proceed some time ago. It's only present among elderly people now. Very rarely by people in their 40's and 50's.


Never saw anything strange in it until I went shopping in the UK. For a moment I even thought to offer the cashier "końcówka" but I'm glad I didn't. I can only see the surprised look on his face with the eyes of my imagination. :)

Yeah, it can really be annoying.

"Sorry maati, could you explain what you mean?"

no work=no money=no food for your kids...

communists times are over...

nothing we get as a gift "from the state" anymore.

we have a wild capitalism here right now.

pseudocapitalism.

being a "matka-polka" means that:
a. a woman is unemployed without chances of getting any job...

b. her husband is a president of a company and she does not have to work and to worry about the money...

c. if he's not the boss, both of them are in the UK having 2 s*** jobs while grandparents are taking care of their kids here.

d. money is sent through western union.

and i really know what i'm talikng about

i have 2 daughters

my parents are quite young.

they work average 10-12 hrs a day in the hospital .

they will be retired in about 15 yrs. when my daughers are nearly in their 20-es.

My mother couldn’t afford not to work when I was little, because it would be very difficult for us to get along. I never had any "Lego", "G I Joe's", "Transformers" and other stuff like that, but I also never run hungry nor never had any problems with lack of clothes, etc....

My mother is a working woman but at the same time a typical "matka polka". She didn't had the opportunity to have a higher education, nor never had time to develop her own hobby. She contributed her whole life to the family. She would skip buying anything for herself just that her children could go with the class for some kind of a trip, etc...

I must confess that I'm a very lazy person when it comes to doing some house work, but when I saw that woman coming back from work and immediately starting cleaning the house, washing the dishes, etc it really made my heart bleed. These days TV is promoting more self-centered life style, where number one priority is "I" rather than "you". My "matka Polka" showed me that giving more to your family and friends can also be very satisfying.

Some say that people search partners that have very similar traits to their parents. Actually I never thought about it until recently when I found out that my girlfriend aside that she is very intelligent, independent, and beautiful woman also has the best "matka Polska" characteristics. Those two women really motivate me to be a better person, and I wouldn’t want the “matka Polka” stereotype to vanish entirely. There is a side of it worth keeping.

PS: And I agree with iwona that they still exist here, predominantly among the poorer and less educated part of our society.

I have the same experiance.
Matyjasz - you make people cry.

I know... I'm not even trying to read this post again as my eyes water :) , and boys shouldn't cry! :)

:)

Matyjasz,

I really like what you wrote about your mom! It's really touching!

Glad you enjoyed it VladG2... It came out a little bit to melodramatic… I didn't want to make it sound that way, but "alea iacta est"..

reminded my mom, too

Matyjasz

And these are the best statements I have seen on the forum since visiting....The first because I look for someone that is hard working (my father and my mother) and look for someone that is thoughtful and funny (my mother) and someone who I feel safe with (my father) and someone I could spend the rest of my life with (my parents)

The second statement because my mum always worked and my grandmother looked after us, simply because they couldnt aford not to have one out of work, we didnt do without toys, but I understand that things were a lot more difficult in Poland...

And the third because, doing things for friends just because ....is what life is about...no pay back, you do it just because they are your friends...and as David Brent said there is no I in team....


but it makes sence to put the day, then the month and then the year...why put the month before the day.....

I forgot to mention also about my parent they have the driest sence of humour you will ever come across, thats what I also look for

Matyjasz-I would call your mom a TYPICAL POLISH MOTHER not Matka Polka.
Matka Polka is like a dumb "kura domowa" to me. You know what I mean?
And education has nothing to do with it.
My grandma is not well educated, because of the war etc. and she is one of the most intelligent people I met in my life...

mine was like that too -experiance baby, experiance !!!!!