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Advice for English guy on travel in poland; is it safe to travel alone?


samsmith 3 | 23  
28 Jan 2009 /  #1
Hello All:

Help appreciated. I am due to go to Poland in April ( Lodz & Pozan). This for a two week period. The only reason I am going is because I have to use up all my holidays before end of april so i thought it would be a laugh to go to poland and also everywhere else in europe i have been too.

Somone said to me last week that it would be dangerous for me to travel to these two places on my own. The reason being is that there is lots of bad behaving english people who go to these places, who have now ruined it for all eglish and as a consequence we have now a very bad repuation and no longer welcome. Further more, because of this if you are english and alone in a bar or club at night that people / polish will come to you for trouble. As all they see is an english guy on his own who they wish to teach a lesson.

I myself am not like this. Must admit i do like pubs/clubs and definatley do like drink but am also quiet, and can not be bothered with trouble.

Basically is the above true. It is is then i shall change my arragnements go somwhere else, thanks Sam
wildrover 98 | 4,441  
28 Jan 2009 /  #2
I have been to many places alone , in Poland , Russia , latvia , Lithuania , Belarus , Ukraine...never had any real problems due to me being English...Of course there are drunken idiots all over the world , that might want to start trouble with somebody for no good reason , but i would say that in Poland people are better behaved after a few drinks....Come on over , you will love the place , and most of the people are very friendly....
delphiandomine 88 | 18,163  
28 Jan 2009 /  #3
£ódz is quite a scary place for me, vast parts of it are incredibly run down and it just doesn't 'feel' comfortable for me. I know others will disagree, but that's my perspective - it's not really a great place to visit. The whole city seems to be based upon one huge shopping centre, so it's really not a great place to go! It should be nice and cheap, though. I should say though, I've never seen any signs of trouble in £ódz - it just seems absolutely run down to me.

Poznań on the other hand couldn't be safer. As long as you avoid the knucklehead bars/areas, you really won't have a problem - ie, if you stick to the beaten path, then it's very unlikely that you'll see any issues. Poznań doesn't have the same trouble with British drunks too, so people are quite happy with them here. People certainly don't get aggressive when they hear English - in fact, as long as you have some knowledge of football (and especially Lech Poznań!), then no-one will bother you except to talk nonsense about football. The other thing is that Poznań is studentville - so many people you can expect to meet on a night out will be students and therefore not particularly interested in beating you up.

I'd advise going to Wrocław instead of £odz - it's just a much nicer place and far more geared up for tourism. But of course, the Brit-Drunk problem is common there.

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