Life / Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here: [185]


The difference is your initial point of contact. In the UK, you take it back to the shop, in Poland, you take it back to the manufacturer/distributor. The shops here are just warehouses with cash registers.

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]


probably not much. In 300 years, WW2 will be a footnote

Life / Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here: [185]


There is no "and". The man bought batteries. DURACELL batteries. I don't need to know the rest, I'm already outraged.

Work / An IT System Engineer interested in moving to Poland [11]

The majority of English speaking work out there is customer service...ish. Google, HP, etc. I think the only way that you would get IT work is if you had specialized skills. Like if you're a crazy old bearded man that has been working on AS/400s for the last 15 years.

Seems like friend of a friend manages to get quite a few people jobs here.

I'd keep my eyes open for a contract job. Work for a couple of months on the island or wherever, and take the rest of the year off in Poland.

Work / Why is Polish workmanship so bad? [52]

there is no incentive to do a good job

when the incentive is provided, you get a great product

I had some data recovered, great work. friendly service, no complaints. They were pricey, but the service was great. I think they have since gone out of business.

I had a new radio put into a plane, utter failure. The labor was cheap compared to doing it in Germany. After a month of back and forth, I had it reinstalled in Germany. They were pretty appalled by the workmanship. I understand they're still getting customers.

I guess it depends on the needs of the customers. The price vs. quality balance definately seems to be tipped towards price here...

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]


Who is "they"? The 150,000 poles that died there? The jews that died there? The survivors from the camp?

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

I just read that too. Defacement, I could kind of understand the motive... but stealing it outright?

Travel / Driving from UK to Ukraine via Poland - need car insurance [46]

If you're not driving your own car, make sure that you have a POA to take the car over the border. They were really hard on this a couple of months back, probably still are.


Ukraine was alright, Russia was like driving in Germany, and Kazakhstan was, well, like driving in Kazakhstan....

Food / Can you do online food shopping in Poland? Supermarkets. [42]

alma delivers too

alma24.pl

News / "Drink Hard" - Bruce Willis to endorse Polish vodka [48]

sobieski vanilla is now my standard for white russians. all kinds of good.

News / "Drink Hard" - Bruce Willis to endorse Polish vodka [48]

Heh, I saw the truth in vodka ad in Bulgaria on a roadtrip this summer :)

News / WHY DOES POLAND BUY GAS FROM RUSSIA? [105]

I guess if the Ukrainians would start paying the same amount of money that Poles do, then their gas might not get cut off. There are plenty of sources that Ukraine could get gas from without ever touching Gazprom pipes.

With the new contract, it's pretty straightforward. Ukraine pays market gas prices, Russia pays market transit prices. win-win.

Law / How will the Zloty be against the British Pound over the next 6-12 Months [45]

NBP will probably be doing quite a bit to keep prices where they are now to make sure that Poland remains competitive in the EU market through low labor and investment costs. I wouldn't expect the zloty to appreciate when investors are already a bit shaky. Keeping it where it's at will help Poland maintain investment while belts are tight.

Tusk already missed the deadline for joining ERM for his 2012 "join the euro" deadline. Once Poland joins the ERM, NBP will probably do everything in its power to make sure they hit their targets, which probably won't be pretty, but will mean a stable exchange rate against the euro.

I have a really hard time seeing the pound increase in value unless things get a whole lot better globally. If it gets any worse, the only recourse will be printing up more money (those interest rates can't get any lower...). Darling has managed to officially dump 175B GBP straight off the printing presses, that can't help it's value.

So hey, from the couch, I'd say the pound will lose some to the zloty and the euro. If you want somewhere relatively safe for your money for the next 6 months, gold is always an option (maybe even a profitable one)....