nothing special. It used to be a grand place to visit. The Brits did not come so often for stag parties and all that ****. You could go there and have a grand vacation and get by reasonable cheap. Now, Poland is becomign too expensive for tourists. I wouldnt go and never plan to go again and I lived there for 6 years. Inflation in Poland is ridiculous, and flats cost too much and hotels cost too much as well. Everything cost too much. Not worth visiting. No, not at all worth visiting. You can have a better time anywhere else and not get finacially raped by a bucnh of post communist arrogant ******* new business class freaks who still pay their help ******** wages. In shirt, screw Poland. Go to Mexico instead. it still cheap to visit, the weather is better, and you can visit the ocean on either side. poland is a dine deal. Its just Europe now. Nothing special. Nothing at all.
Thanks for your opinion. We'll keep that in mind. In short, what's in your shirt? I'm sure Poland is pleased to know that you won't be stopping by again. Tell me when you're in Mexico so I can be sure to avoid traveling there.
My keyboard is screwed up. Anyway, you get the picture. You know its true. Poland will be completely bought by Western Europeans leaving Poles with nothing. Poles will be a slave class to the rich elite Western Europeans. You know it. What is in my shirt? Tits bigger than yours, I imagine.
Ale to prawda! Ty mieszkasz w Ameryce. Nic o tym nie wiesz. Nie jestes' prawdziwą Polką. Odwiedzisz Polską od czasu do czasu i myślisz że rozumiesz jak sytuacja jest dla Polaków. Nic nie wiesz. Ja mieszkałem tam przez 6 lat. A Ty? W Chicago z ojcem...y gdzie babcia? W Pulawach. Ona distaje (see? i czy o?) dostaje 5oo zl za miesiąc od rządu na emeryturę. Twoja babcia nie moja. Ja nie jestem Polakiem. Ale dawno kochałem Polską. A teraz? Polska juz nie istnieje. So you get your wkurwiona dupa out of my country and go back to Poland. It makes me nervous that so many of you are still here in the USA. Go enjoy your new inflationary fiat economy. Enjoy watching your countrymen being enslaved by Western Europeans. Ja pierdole.
No. See? you dont get it. It's not the Polish people..not the common Polish people. Its the twins! And the Sejm! They sold Poland to the foreigners. Polish people struggled for decades alone, and now the influential Poles sold it to the foreigners and left common citizens unprotected and uncompensated. The old still struggle just to survive and the Brits, Irish Danish, Italians, whatever come and pay 300,000 Euro or 200,000 GBP for a flat that a Pole could never dream to afford. That's Ok the German banks will issue credit! And when the real estate market implodes, they will throw you out and you will be living two families to a 25m flat. Anyway, good luck, the Polish wife and I have already sold our flat..to a German, and came back to the USA..where we plan to stay until your economy collapses. Good luck with that new economic boom!
I think you should worry about your own economy right now. Polands EU accession is a win win situation for Poland, the EU and Poles. If you think Polands economy will implode take a look at Ireland 15 years ago, the EU integration model is similar in many ways.
Foreigners may be buying a fair amount of property over here but I can assure you the majority are being sold to the new middle class of Polish professionals.
Sorry to have to say it but in a rather blunt way michaelp is actually right. Everyday grocery shopping prices here are just becoming crazy, I really don't know how folk at the lower wage scale can afford to eat here at all. Electricity prices went up 30% in one go. Price of train travel is lunacy (I can fly to UK for less than return train ticket Warsaw-Krakow) and still the pavements and roads are f##ked, everything is dirty, people are rude and just out to get as much money as possible, rents increase at such an alarming rate that soon ALL small stores will shut down for good and only those ugly malls with no choice will survive (although rumour has it that rents in the malls are increasing as well and many shops are bailing out). It seems you cover debt by just increasing the price of everything
Anyway, good luck, the Polish wife and I have already sold our flat..to a German, and came back to the USA..where we plan to stay until your economy collapses.
Everyday grocery shopping prices here are just becoming crazy, I really don't know how folk at the lower wage scale can afford to eat here at all. Electricity prices went up 30% in one go.
it's not much different in the UK .... people are struggling to make ends meet .... fuel prices going up, grocery bills going up ,etc ..
Things are getting so expensive in UK , which is why so many are emigrating to Australia, Spain, US, Canada, France and some even to Poland, in search of a cheaper and better way of life .... somewhere where the quality of living is much better !
And they are in debt out the dupa! New middle class professional Poles..well..Ive met a few. Ive worked with many. Nice folks. But that's Warsaw. I was in Wroclaw just last year. Except for the architecture, I might as well have been in the USA. A throw away economy with more trash than you know what to do with. I am not worried about the US economy. My investments are in Euro denominated CD's. FDIC insured nonetheless. As the dollar declines I get richer, according to American standards. Ireland and Poland are two very different economies, and since Poland is a late comer, by the time you catch up, foreign companies and wealthy individuals will have bought everything. The new professional middle class will decline in numbers and you will have the very rich and the very poor Poles...and the bankrupt middle class Poles who supported their lifestyle with German debt and your middle class will have been replaced with the Western European chaff that floats around looking for new adventures and blond pale skinned Polish girls to bling! I wish Poland the best for the sake of my wife's family. But really, you went down the wrong street when you allowed foreign banks to economically enslave Poles with all this damned credit. It will take a few years, not too many, to see mass default on consumer debt and hyper declines in real estate prices, leading to huge defaults in real estate loans and worthless portfolios, just like the US, leading to insolvency in the banks and interest rate decline leading to high single digit inflation. Yes, just like here. Get In Bank will become Go Out of Business Bank. Dobra noc!
Good points by finT. I've said it b4, Poland received EU grants in 2005 SPECIFICALLY TARGETTED at improving road standards. It was a generous donation too. It was punted over the wall to be spent on God knows what, certainly not roads.
As for the people are rude comment, it's the bigger city mentality, esp Warsaw and Kraków. There are job types here in Silesia that require more cooperation, e.g mining, so it is less visible (tho it still exists).
Inflation is kicking in for sure. More and more people will have to shop at Lumpex for their clothes as it is calculated by weight. I do that sometimes and feel no shame whatsoever. I've bought good designer stuff for a snip of the RRP there.
There is a shop here in Gliwice called Piast and, boy, it's expensive. Anyone that does a big shop in there needs their head examined, or has cash to blow.
Property is the killer. Prices here have soared exponentially. Wrocław was the booming property market last year but rent is being raised across the board. I'm glad to only pay 750zł all in (bills, internet etc). I'm quite central. Thankfully, we are out of winter so don't feel the pinch so acutely.
The key thing is just to move with the times and roll with the punches. Keep afloat!!
I believe that communism was largely responsible for entrenching this 'we are poor' or 'once poor, always poor attitude'. It is a resigned approach which is thankfully changing. I hope Poles follow the American approach of carving out new possibilities. There was an interesting book written about creating new jobs but, sometimes, it is easier said than done.
When I hear stories of Poles considering what car their neighbour has and competing with them, my first temptation is to say, what does it matter? However, at second glance, it is a good thing as it shows that Poles are beginning to adopt the capitalist mentality needed to survive (in the loose sense) in the Western world. Almost 20 years after the collapse of communism, it is a positive step forward.
Price of train travel is lunacy (I can fly to UK for less than return train ticket Warsaw-Krakow)
Rubbish! A return train ticket from Warsaw to Krakow is 99zl if you use the cheapest PKP option which can be bought at the time of travel. That's a superb deal. Try taking a three hour train ride in the UK and see what it costs you.
The standard of living in the US has really gone down thanks to Bush and Congress giving the wealth of the US away to the Chinese. The war has bankrupted us. The housing boom was sure to collapse. Everyone knew that. Everyone is filing personal bankruptcy. Wages are actually declining in real purchasing power terms. Yes, the US is in serious trouble. What seems unfair is that we are stuck here. We cannot go anywhere else, but many foreign citizens live here. I dont get that. I live in the subs. of Chicago and Chicago is loaded with Poles. I asked a Polish friend about what it would take to move to Poland and was told that it is impossible unless I am an EU citizen? That I cannot even go to Poland to teach English because the British have automatic work permits and it is too difficult for Americans. That really does NOT seem fair. If that is the case, why don't we all just stick to our own countries? I read recently about World War II and found that it was the Russians who liberated Poland and not the Americans and that the Marshall Plan did not help Poland at all. So I asked how did Poland rebuild itself and was told by a Polish collegue, "$5.00, $10 and $20 bills from Chicago." That materials were so cheap and US currency so scarce that you could build a house for $2000 back in the 80's. That we took many Polish immigrants before and after the war and have always done so, and that now that Poland is doing well and many are going back to Poland, they dont want US citizens coming to Poland because Poland is just for Poles! That seems very unfair. Is this all true?
That we took many Polish immigrants before and after the war and have always done so, and that now that Poland is doing well and many are going back to Poland, they dont want US citizens coming to Poland because Poland is just for Poles! That seems very unfair. Is this all true?
No, it's not true. The USA does not welcome Poles. Even getting a holiday visa for the USA is a farce. Not so long ago there was a case of a Polish soldier who came back from serving in Iraq and decided to use his combat pay to take his wife and kids to Disneyworld. But his wife was refused a visa.
It is a hell of a lot easier for a US citizen to get a residency visa for Poland than it is for a Pole to get a green card for the USA.
Well, now that depends Harry. It takes 2hrs 20mins to get from Aberdeen to Inverness, a trip I have made several times by train. It costs 37.70 return (4hrs 40 mins of travel), 190zł in kantor terms. In real terms, more like 120zł. The cheapest PKP train is not as comfortable as the First Scotrail offering. Last Oct, I got tickets for, I think, 20 quid return, maybe even less. There are various promotions that u can take advantage of, not only student status. Another difference is that more people have to use the Warsaw-Kraków route than the Aberdeen-Inverness one for business purposes. So, I wouldn't say 'super deal' necessarily.
Price of train travel is lunacy (I can fly to UK for less than return train ticket Warsaw-Krakow
A return train ticket from Warsaw to Krakow is 99zl if you use the cheapest PKP option which can be bought at the time of travel. That's a superb deal. Try taking a three hour train ride in the UK and see what it costs you.
I just got back from Poland .... a first class ticket , one way from Krakow to Warsaw, cost me 107zł, which is about £24.
A return would be about double, so £48 is what you pay if going first class;
I fly regularly from London to either Krakow or Warsaw (not first class though !), and on average I pay £100 for a return trip.
The number of Americans of Polish descend is about 10 millions, but the number of the illegal Polish immigrants is also high, 70 thousands and it ranks us in the 10th place in the USA. This is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to receive a visa to the USA for an average Pole.
culture.polishsite.us/articles/art41fr.htm
Just found this. Maybe this is why visas are hard for Poles to get.
Rubbish! A return train ticket from Warsaw to Krakow is 99zl if you use the cheapest PKP option which can be bought at the time of travel. That's a superb deal. Try taking a three hour train ride in the UK and see what it costs you.
The price might be low because of competition. On some routes it's quicker to take the bus.
A three hour train journey in the UK would take me twice the distance as a three hour journey in Poland. [On particular services]
A return train ticket from Warsaw to Krakow is 99zl if you use the cheapest PKP option which can be bought at the time of travel.
Yep, if you are lucky enough to get a 'special' after standing in line for an hour. My last ticket to the UK cost 10GBP and that was a centralwings 'special'. I believe that's about 50-55PLN. So I stick by my statement!
I regularly pay 1p each way for my flights. Once you've added the 20GBP tax and 20GBP baggage charge (wtf) that brings the cheapest flights I get to about 40GBP.
