My mother also comes from Czestochowa. I visit there at least once a year (I love this place).
The prostitutes don't tout for business in the city but on the outskirts of large towns and cities. They are definitely on the way into Czestochowa as I've seen them many times when driving back from Katowice airport. The first time I thought I'd seen the hitchiker from my dreams and wanted my friend to pull over until he told me why she was actually standing there :)
Ah, you're talking about 'girls' here ? If you're in Poland and 'hungry', you can always check my neck of woods - the road between Opole and Strzelce Opolskie. You'll always find some 'company' there. If there isn't anybody, it means they're busy
Been there and got back in one piece............The driveing wasn't as bad as I thought. the worst part was the road works that are going on at the moment.
Didn't see one accident, or evidence of road rage or madness, things were quite calm. Didn't see many police either, I think driveing at home in britian is worse.....
Didn't see any sluts by the road side, the only person I picked up was a " babcia" outside a cemetry in Bartne, she was waiting for a bus and cadged a lift to the next village, and all i got from her were the pearls of wisdom in "bog bedzie placic ce".......
From my experience, driving in Poland is way too dangerous. It almost feels like most drivers don't really care about reaching their destination as much as they care to show that they can press the gas pedal harder than another person on the road.
I think part of their problem is that the Poles want to show off. They have lived under communism for so long having to travel by public transport. Now, they can buy new fast and expensive high performance cars on credit and it seems to be going to their heads a bit. You need to be very careful in Poland. The Police will stop you for speeding and will then take a bribe and the roads in winter are dreadful. I even knew of one man who lost his head in a car, quite literally!! If you can, avoid the country all together.
The bribe thing is pretty much gone anywhere near the cities...they are cracking down on it.
Rurally however old school rules still apply.
I also wouldn't say PL is the worse place in the world to drive (Asia comes to mind) but it for sure is not safe....horrible road conditions combined with poor and aggressive drivers is not a good combination. Poland has consistently the highest or second highest road fatality rate in the EU depending on the year...this is not my opinion...look it up.
in the uk i would agree with you - boy racers tend in the most part to be very young men - this is not what i have observed in poland where most of the high speed and show off drivers i see are grown adults, male and female, driving what appear to be high spec company cars
sure if you go down town NY, I’m sure its one of the worst, but is it really? how hard is it to drive in stop dead traffic, put the car in Park and honk the horn.
Poland is fun to drive, I drove my cousins car a few times in Warsaw and it was a blast. driving in Canada is boring in comparison.
I agree Italy is bad...and NYC is not representative of the USA...France and Spain have lots of bad reputations that simply are not true as people who have lived there would know.
I still say none of the places you mention are worse than Poland...and Poland consistently has either the top or second from top highest road fatality rate in the EU.
Just survived another trip on Polish roads, did quite a lot of milage on this trip, but still can't say they are bad drivers in genral.
The city of Wroclaw was a little hard to navigate through with all the road works, but that was lack of local knowlage.
On the final trip back to the airport at Katowice got stuck in the most horrendous tailback of motrway trafic, it sreached from krakow to almost the exit for Katowice. I broke every road trafic law known to do the last 50km. Got to checkin desk as they shut, thank you Wizz Air for being so considerate and letting us through.
just came back from a lovely ski trip and i have to say that for the most part drivers were more responsible than ever this week, maybe ferie had something to do with it. At the start of it, i saw loads of accidents last friday and saturday but going up to the mountains it was incredibly civil. But leaving only one major collision and maybe 3 overly aggressive drivers out there. Then again i left there and back with plenty of time so maybe i just was in spoko morroco mode this week.
Driving for me is the very worst thing about living in Poland. There is a perfect storm of factors making it a nightmare. Spend a full day on the road in Poland and you will feel very weary at the end of it.
- the drivers, without doubt there is a hardcore of maybe 10% who are the most aggressive in Europe. That means in a 200km journey you will be on the road with approx 60-70 real headcases
- inexperience, driving standards are improving but in the 90s the number of cars increased tenfold and it was possible to pass your test by bribing the examiner. The results are obvious, most often the people who indicate 5 or 10 metres before turning off.
- the Police. There are a lot more road cops than any other country I have driven in but perversley Poland still has one of the highest rate of deaths in the EU. Thats because they are more interested in collecting bribes than genuinely punishing dangerous drivers.
- the roads. Awful, much worse even than other ex-Commie neighbours like Czech and Lithuania. They are improving rapidly though.
- the cars. Horses and Carts are gone and Maluchs are almost gone but there is a new generation of second hand buses, Cinquecentos and Daewoo Matiz as well as that perennial Polish favorite, the drunk unlit cyclist.
