WE ARE BACK FROM POLAND AND HERE IS OUR REPORT

Very nice report. I enjoyed reading about your experiences. We had a similiar experience last fall. We went to Northern & Central Poland. Gdansk, Malbork, Lubawa. For 10 days we spent about $3,000 including car, etc. People don't realize that there are castles, palaces, etc. that you can stay in for $50-150 per night! It didn't seem to us that people smiled very much either.

We visited the village that my great-grandfather came from. We did not find relatives there, however, until we returned home. Now, I have oodles of cousins, and can't wait to go back.

Bob,

Thank you very much for sharing this information about your recent trip. It is right on time for me because I just booked a trip to Poland with my father for late September. My father is Polish and we are going to visit the villages his parents came from and do some family-tree research. I tried to send you a PM, but the forum software wants me to make three posts before allowing me to send a PM.

We will be arriving in Krakow and plan to stay there for four days. The villages where my grandparents came from are Futoma and Harta, both of which are just south of Rzeszow. We will be in Poland for a total of 15 days. We will rent a car once we are ready to leave Krakow. My father is fluent in Polish, so reading the road signs will not be a problem.

I am glad you bought your Tomtom GPS to Poland, because I am shopping for a GPS right now and was looking at the Tomtom XL. It sounds like your Tomtom performed well for you. Which model do you have?

Do you think it would it make more sense to rent a diesel car? They get better mileage and diesel is a little bit cheaper in Poland when I checked. I have looked at a few rental agencies on-line, but have not seen any diesel cars yet.

I just discovered this great forum and will be making another post in the genealogy area.

Jeff

So, I'm just curious: what has changed in the appearance of the "old-fashioned" Polish girls to the stark-raving beauties of today? Anyone have a theory?

Nice to hear about your travels. I definitely want to go soon.

I never looked into a Diesel but I've been told they are cheaper to run.

Bob

Your report sounds very similar to my experience in Poland this year. Poland indeed is a beautiful country! It has a lot of history thus lots of historical views and monuments! The food is irresistible and very fresh and natural! The restaurants and food are cheap. The people are very friendly but most unfortunately like you said, have lost their smile due to the current situation in Poland, sadly. Poland is such a beautiful country that it makes me sad that the younger generation is trying to escape from Poland because of the horrible situation in Poland. What makes me angry though is that Polish people can never get along and fight with EACH other instead stick together and be a strong nation!

Polska Piecny.

You make it sound like Poland is communist again.

My husband and I are both pretty smiley people. At first we would get people that would just scowl at us or give us that look like "what are you smiling at" but we refuse not to be ourselves! Now it's almost a contest when we go walking in the park to see how many people will smile back. Usually children smile, wave, say hello. Sometimes this makes the parent(s) (or nanny I guess) smile as well! If I see the same people on the street often, or even more than once, I've started saying hello to them. It catches even the old people off guard but they are usually the ones that say hello back. The first couple days we were in our apartment it was really warm. We had all the windows open to air it out. Some of the neighbors just stared for a long time. We tried waving and smiling and they just stared. But we won't give up!

Yeah nothing like annoying the locals with your totally out of place habits to make friends :)))

Seriously I have nothing against you being positive...but it is a bit pushy to try and force that on everyone else. Would you go trot around in a muslim place in Daisy Dukes because you like them? Overbearing friendliness is NOT a Polish characteristic and a bit rude of you to be so forceful with it to be honest. You likely make more people uncomfortable than anything.

Superb, a very balanced view of many things connected with Poland. The tips are also useful as pointers for people new to Poland.

It's good to see such a fair and well-considered posting.

Thanks! ;)

Hey, I haven't got round to commenting on candidness yet ;)

THANKS FOR YOUR DETAILED REPORT ON YOUR TRIP TO POLAND.Question. where did you find a tom tom gps with the latest east europe maps on it?I am having a difficult time finding one for easr europe.

Thanks for all the great info, I'm hopeing to go to Poland to do genealogy reseach, do you have any suggestions on where to start, right now the only clue to my ancestors is they came from Prussia in 1883. Also can you suggest an area with less expensive hotels,as I'm certain I'll need an extended stay to find the info I'm looking for? thanks for any help you can provide. Rinny

Nice post Rjrogalla ; ) I am also from Wisconsin. Just moved to Olsztyn permanently from Milwaukee. Of all things that u made mention of. . the no-smile factor was the toughest thing for me to get used to. In fact. . its still tough and I'm not quite used to it yet. Milwaukee is one of those places where almost everyone will at least make eyecontact w you as u walk passed them on the sidewalk. I've been w my Polish girlfriend for 4 yrs now. We met in Milwaukee working at a private countryclub. As we spent 3 summers together, she always thought it was funny when i would say hello to a complete stranger walking down the street, or make small talk with a cashier, or even say "How ya doing" someone i didnt know. She also thought it was strange when i would say "Hey" Hi, w'sup. hows it going, etc to a person whom i wasnt friendly with. I remember the first time i visited PL last march and april, we went into a take out pizza place to get a pizza that we had ordered over the phone. I greeted the lady at the counter with a warm and friendly "czesc". My girlfriend blushed w embarassment and the lady almost fainted. It was then that i realised that i wasnt in Milwaukee anymore. In fact yesterday. . as we stood in the checkout line at a large grocery store, i looked around at 100+ people. It was like we were on the set of "Dawn of the Dead". 100+ ppl, 100+ frowns. It's a bit sad. . and it can be draining and infectious. But so can smiles. Sometimes. . .giving a smile will get you a smile. . .sometimes not. When the weather is bright and sunny. . spirits are high. .and smiles are bountiful. I'm fortunate that i am able to teach English in a private school here in Olsztyn. Sometimes i can't believe that i get paid for laughing for hours on end with my students. The most gratifying part of it all is when almost every student has a smile on their faces as the walk out of the classroom. Priceless. Anyways.. . it was nice to read your post. Until next time. . . . ; )

My husband and I visited Poland for 2 weeks in the summer of 2006 and loved every minute of it!

Reading all of your posts today has brought me back, and since we are planning a longer trip (a month) this summer, it was good to get some reminders, as well as learn about Europeans' reticence in smiling. (We were part of a tour on our last trip, and did not really notice any problem with getting smiles in return. Of course, we were part of a tour, and perhaps the locals just cut us a little slack, since we were obviously "not from here.")

We visited Zakopane, Katowice, Krakow and Warsaw. The Tatra Mountains are breathtaking! It was like looking at a picture in a calendar, so beautiful.

Krakow was our favorite, the Market Square made us feel . . . part of history, I guess, to be standing where other people had stood and shopped and gone about their daily activities, hundreds of years before us.

We also had to opportunity to enjoy a piano recital of Chopin music in Warsaw, a lovely experience if you get the chance. (I understand there is also a regular performance of Chopin piano music at the Chopin Memorial each weekend in the summer, near £azienki Park in Warsaw.)

The trip we are planning this summer includes Wrocław, Poznan, Warsaw, £odz and Krakow, and we have been able to find several self-catering websites with apartments at very reasonable rates, for most of our days. (We are part of a tour for about 10 days in the middle of the trip, so will be staying at hotels some of the time.)

What was really interesting to us is that the apartments sent us a booking form, but most would not take a deposit. They asked us to sign and date the form and email it back to them. Both my husband and I thought it very refreshing - here in the States you are required to book with a deposit or credit card, it seemed that PL is less suspicious (?), and ready to believe you when you make a commitment to book a room. (Hope you understand what I am feebly trying to impart . . .) Any thoughts on this?

We are planning to fly into £odz and take the train into Warsaw the next day, will be staying at the Focus Hotel (sp?) for that night. Does anyone have any suggestions for which train or ??

We'll be staying at a self-catering apartment (the owner has been lovely, emailed us, offered to pick us up at the train, told us some of the best sights, etc.) for the first 3 nights in Warsaw, in a flat on the 3rd floor of an old apartment building.

We were thinking we may wander over to the zoo while in Warsaw, does anyone recommend that? Also, can someone explain about the bears on the island? (I've been told something vague about that, but would love to hear more!)

Thank you in advance --

It's a nice Zoo, the elephant enclosure is on of the most modern ones in Europe.
There is constant remodeling and new buildings replacing the old ones.
The bear enclosure was built in 1952 as an invitation to the zoo.

I think Poznań Zoo should be your priority this time: polishforums.com/gay_elephants_useless-47_34157_0.html

Wroclaw zoo is better, I think... :)

Lots of rebuilding going on at the moment. It should be in good shape in the summer.

If you didnt know, in Kazimierz dolny if you want to build something new it must be accepted by city hall and its project needs to fit in that old city. Thats why it looks so nice-old and i hope it will be still like that. Btw i was there with my girlfriend three years ago, now she is my wife and we have a 4 months boy :)

Next time you are in lublin give ma a call or something :) I'll guide you. Cheers.

i'm polish. i live in Poland and i didn't know that my country is so beautiful. it's glad to know. best wishes and visit us again, we'll be waiting :) :*

Next time you visit Poland don't forget to visit Wroclaw (aka Braslau). It's magnificent city and a lot to see as well :) Nice to hear something good about our country for a change ;)

Regards

And if you'll be visiting Cracow, you should definitely also visit Wieliczka, which is a Salt Mine – I guarantee you never seen such a thing before.

"The historic Salt Mine in Wieliczka is the only mining site in the world functioning continuously since the Middle Ages. Lying on nine levels, its original excavations (longitudinals, traverses, chambers, lakes, as well as minor and major shafts) stretch for the total of about 300 kilometres: reaching the depth of 327 metres they illustrate all the stages of mining technology development over time."

Best Regards

wroclaw.fotolog.pl - a blog showing everyday pics from Poland. Worth seeing.

Driving in Poland:
- very few highways.
- a LOT of sales reps on the roads need to make quota - hence they overspeed A LOT - check out small cars (panda, corsa) with juice or soft drink ads all over the car (limited visibility)

- it's MUCH EASIER to drive if you have CB (channel 19). You'll get reports on traffic, weathe r and MOST IMPORTANTLY - police radar controls

- nearly every car with CB, and info that road is clean WILL OVERSPEED
- the big truck (TIR) will pass you through almost always, and on the average drive very responsilby. Yet, for an unknown reason they like to overtake each other on highways and since they're limited to 80kmph it takes a while. Also if two lanes are reduced to one in 1-2km, they will block the left lane, but this changes a little now.

- as everywhere you'll find a lot of reckless youngters - driving in optically modded VW Golf II (blue LED on antenna), thankfully mainly on village roads. But if it's comming-back-from-disco Sunday morning - they can be VERY DANGEROUS!

Wow, I didn't know we don't smile :)
Perpas, not so often, but belive me - we are happy anyway :)

Cheerio!

Ewa

if avoid flights then LOT for sure

Thank to inspect Poland.

Polish boy :D

Driving in Poland:
- very few highways.
- a LOT of sales reps on the roads need to make quota - hence they overspeed A LOT - check out small cars (panda, corsa) with juice or soft drink ads all over the car (limited visibility)

- it's MUCH EASIER to drive if you have CB (channel 19). You'll get reports on traffic, weathe r and MOST IMPORTANTLY - police radar controls

- nearly every car with CB, and info that road is clean WILL OVERSPEED
- the big truck (TIR) will pass you through almost always, and on the average drive very responsilby. Yet, for an unknown reason they like to overtake each other on highways and since they're limited to 80kmph it takes a while. Also if two lanes are reduced to one in 1-2km, they will block the left lane, but this changes a little now.

- as everywhere you'll find a lot of reckless youngters - driving in optically modded VW Golf II (blue LED on antenna), thankfully mainly on village roads. But if it's comming-back-from-disco Sunday morning - they can be VERY DANGEROUS!