Travel / Getting from Wrocław to Lubin [17]

Enter in E-podróżnik:
A - Wrocław
B - Lubin
Date - ignore date (select such an option instead of the time that appears by default)
Time - 24 hours
You will get a timetable for the whole day. There is an option "Show details and map" by each bus there.

In E-podróżnik some buses are marked with a mini-bus symbol, some are marked with a coach symbol (there symbols are not much different from each other in the current layout of this website, but you can see the difference though). These marked with a mini-bus symbol will be, almost definitely, mini-buses, those with a coach symbol are likely to be a coach, although it may happen it's a mini-bus too.

With this option you can see the location of the stop on a map. Now, what else you can do, is to open Google Maps, find the same place and watch it in Google Street View.

Then how to use the bus? You enter it, tell the driver the place you want to get to, he tells you the price (if you don't understand in Polish, he will show you the price on the till display or he will give you a receipt first), and you pay. That's all. It works so in almost all the public transport buses and coaches in Poland, except for the city public transport (when you usually have to buy a ticket in advance and validate it in a special device after boarding the bus) and some modern long-distance ones, where you should buy a ticket online first (especially PolskiBus). Sometimes, when the bus stops at a coach station, it's possible to buy a ticket from a ticket counter at the station, but it depends on the company the bus belongs to - sometimes it might be impossible even though there is a ticket office at the station (when the bus company has no contract for ticket sale with the company the coach station belongs to). The advantage is then such that you have priority in boarding the bus when there is too many people wanting to ride, there is no price difference.

If you are a student, tell it the driver, some bus companies have discounts for students (although it's different from the railway, where the 51% discount for students is obligatory due to the law - it doesn't work for buses).

Travel / Getting from Wrocław to Lubin [17]

These are mostly mini buses.

There is a train station in Lubin, but the last passenger train stopped there in 2010.

Language / Czesc/pa vs. no czesc/no pa [18]

Even native Polish speakers have sometimes problems with it.

Travel / How can I get from Wrocław, Dworzec POLBUS-PKS to airport? And to the PKP Main train station. [6]

First of all, the Polbus-PKS bus station doesn't exist any more, it has been closed for renovation. Buses are using temporary stops. There is a temporary bus station in a different location, and PolskiBus is using it too.

The temporary bus station is at the neighbourhood of the main train station, namely, behind it (within the block of streets: Sucha, Joannitów, Dyrekcyjna - see on Google Maps, watch the Street View).

Directly from the airport to the train station goes the bus 406. This is the timetable from the airport:
wroclaw.pl/przystanek-port-lotniczy-linia-406-kierunek-dworcowa-slupek-17530

As you can see, it takes something like 40 minutes and the bus goes every 20 minutes. Let's say, you leave the airport 1 hour after the plane arrival (which should be much faster). 13:05. You take the bus 13:09. You are about 14:00 at the bus station and you have yet something like 2 hours left to eat something and as a precaution in case of a plane delay.

You can book a taxi, but I would recommend rather ordering it by a phone. There exist some taxi driver ("taxi mafia") who cheat foreigners by choosing a much longer route and they usually take people from just in front of the airport. If you are taking a taxi from there, look for such ones on which there are symbols of a company the specific taxi belongs to, together with a phone number.

Bus ticket costs 3 PLN (which is less than 1 EUR). Taxi - about 25 PLN (6 EUR). One of the cheapest taxi companies in Wrocław is Wicar.

Travel / Mobile internet for tourists in Poland? [35]

Such threads appear quite frequently, just look at the forum...

The offers of the main networks:
play.pl/oferta/play-internet/internet-na-karte/
orange.pl/kid,4003445692,id,4003784086,article.html
t-mobile.pl/pl/oferta_specjalna/internet-na-karte
plus.pl/internet-na-karte

Just compare the offers (Google Translate, or just a dictionary, may help) and look for the cheapest one. We do not know, how big data package you want.

The SIM cards don't demand any registration (although it's possible), they work immediately after inserting them into a device.

It shouldn't be a problem finding a free wifi in Warsaw.

Life / Buying a laptop in Poland - where/whats a good deal? [32]


That's true, but still the descriptions on the keys are a problem. Having a laptop with an American vel Polish keyboard, when I switch to a standard German keyboard layout, I don't know where the letters with umlauts are (it's easier when someone works with a German keyboard every day and just remembers where they are, but this is not my case), not to mention that some of the special characters like _ have also changed locations. And Y and Z are exchanged, but this is the least important problem when you remember about this.

I deal with this using an "English-multilingual" layout (in Linux; in Windows, I think, it's necessary to download and install something like this, it's not present by default - but I may be mistaken), which has for example ü under Alt+Y or ö under Alt+P, so it works more or less like a Polish keyboard.

Life / Need the best Poland data sim card provider for use in personal unlocked wifi device (mifi). [21]

I also think it works so - the first month after the end of validity you can receive calls, then it gets blocked and quite quickly it gets reused in a new SIM card that someone can buy. I am not sure how it is with losing the money from your account, but I think you don't lose anything before this first month ends.

If you are really not going to make many calls and write many SMS'es, then the offers "rok ważności konta", especially the one from Play (it's cheapest, maybe Virgin is yet cheaper, I am not sure, but from the "real" networks and not MVNO's, Play is definitely cheapest), are good for you.

Life / Buying a laptop in Poland - where/whats a good deal? [32]

With Germany the problem is that you get a laptop with a German keyboard there, which is quite different from the American one, used also in Poland.

The markup is higher in big stores like Media Markt, Saturn (these two are, by the way, the same company, even though they present themselves as competitors) or RTV Euro AGD and lower in online stores, many of which have also small shops in shopping malls. So I really recommend doing it online.

I have recently ordered a Lenovo from Vobis and I am happy of this. I have also bought another model of Lenovo from X-Kom and it was quite good. Why Lenovo? Virtually only this company had laptops with 1 TB HDD's at a price level I was interested in :) Which is quite interesting taking into account that the 500 GB HDD's on the market cost only something like 5-10 euro less than 1 TB ones.

Life / Buying a laptop in Poland - where/whats a good deal? [32]

The online stores are cheapest. Some of them offer a possibility of making an order online and receiving the ordered product in a real shop.

If you already know what exact laptop you want to buy, use one of the price comparing services:
ceneo.pl
skapiec.pl
(the best is to use both of them, there are cases when there is a shop in one of them and it isn't present in the other)

They show prices of the product you want from a lot of different online stores.

The most trustworthy online stores with computer equipment are:
x-kom.pl
morele.net
agito.pl
vobis.pl
komputronik.pl
I especially recommend X-Kom, they have a really good approach to the customers, and they have also traditional shops in many big cities. But the other ones are also OK and if the laptop you want is cheaper there, you can order it there.

You can also visit shops like Media Markt, Saturn, RTV Euro AGD, it sometimes happens, that you can buy a laptop cheaply there, but the online branches are usually less expensive. They are better for just seeing and watching the laptops. Be careful in terms of what the sellers in such shops recommend, they are often paid by the manufacturers to advertise their products, so that they would for example persuade you to buy an Asus laptop, and not an Acer one (or vice versa), because Asus paid them more. It's better just to look for opinions and reviews on the Internet.

If you are ordering the product via a post or courier service, compare also the price of delivery. Some of the online stores charge also some money for the delivery from a warehouse to their shop, be careful here too. The safest option of the delivery is "za pobraniem"/"przy odbiorze", you pay then to the postman/courier when you are receiving the package with the product. Another options are "przelew" - you are supposed to pay via a bank transfer then (if you don't have a Polish bank account and you don't want to make an international bank transfer, you can also send a money to any bank account at any post office, it costs 3 PLN for a fast option and, if i remember well, 2,90 PLN for a slower option) or by a bank (credit or debit) card. A delivery option which is often possible is also "paczkomaty" - then you receive the parcel in a special machine, they are often located at gas stations and in similar places, but for them the payment "za pobraniem" is usually not possible.

Sometimes you can choose between the post and a courier service. The post is better in that when you are not at home when the postman is delivering the package, you can receive it the next day (or even at the evening if it's still open) at the post office. But it's usually slower than the courier service. In case of the courier service, if you are not at home at the time of the delivery, the courier will try to deliver the package the next working day, but, probably, at the same time, when you may also be unable to receive it. If you cannot be at home when the courier is delivering the parcel, you will probably have to make a trip to their logistic centre, which is usually one for a very big area and it's often located at the city outskirts.

In terms of the keyboard, there will be no problems. In Poland, English (or rather American, it's slightly different from the British one, but the differences are really small) keyboard is used.

Life / Need the best Poland data sim card provider for use in personal unlocked wifi device (mifi). [21]


And this is the case for almost all the offers of all the networks, apart for some special ones, marked as "rok ważności konta" - "a year of account validity", like this one:

play.pl/oferta/play-karta/play-na-karte/play-na-karte-rok-waznosci/

But there is nothing for free. Normally in Play you have free calls to the other people in Play, but not with this offer (unless you pay something for this possibility).

Language / Czesc/pa vs. no czesc/no pa [18]

Are they related? Not at all :)

The original meaning of "cześć" is "honor", "reverence", "worship", e.g. "Uczestnicy uroczystości oddali cześć żołnierzom poległym podczas wojny", which is, then, probably related to the verb "czcić". From this, I think, came the very common usage of this word as an informal greeting - "hi", "hello". But I cannot see here any reason to relate it to the word "część". I also think that it may be related to another greeting, typical rather for scouts or soldiers (normally not used by normal people every day, unless deliberately) - "czołem".

Australia / Lost Polish passport, how to get a new one (Australia)? [4]

It's very likely that the old passport has already expired. Was it issued less then or more than 10 years ago? In such a situation there should be no problem with getting a new one, but it would be best to ask the consulate.

Genealogy / I'm trying to find my old friends who used @poczta.onet.pl email [22]

Maybe register yourself at poczta.onet.pl and send the e-mail from there.

It seems that this server has a hypersensitive anti-spam filter and it blocks messages in English from American servers considering them to be spam. No idea why.

Sending an e-mail from a Polish mail account would be a good idea.

Language / Ambulans displacing karetka - similar meaning of different Polish words? [19]



I think it's rather for the foreigners. Ambulans is a word which is similar to its equivalents in many languages, including English. And it's shorter than "karetka pogotowia". "Karetka" only sounds very unofficial and it's in fact a diminutive for "kareta" - "carriage" (a type of a horse vehicle). Before the era of cars, ambulances were also horse vehicles, and probably hence the word "karetka" used now for ambulances.

The same is on the firefighters' cars, where it's written STRAŻ only, not STRAŻ POŻARNA, as it's shorter and more visible. Another thing is that they are now dealing with a lot of issues different from fires, but they are still called "straż pożarna", so this is definitely NOT the reason not to put the word "pożarna" on the cars.

I would say that in Polish the word "karetka" or "karetka pogotowia" is used much more frequently than "ambulans".


Computers rather not in these times, but a TV could be there.

I think the term "ambulans pocztowy" is rather old-fashioned and no longer used (although maybe the post people still are using it on a daily basis), but... a news from 2002 where it's used:

wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1348,title,Aresztowani-za-napad-na-ambulans-pocztowy,wid,224353,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=115821

A more interesting case: panoramio.com/photo/57345101
"Postój dorożek samochodowych" from 1960's. I don't know how to translate the word "dorożka" to English, but it was a horse equivalent of a taxi. So the taxis were initially called "dorożki samochodowe". I think the change had to take place in the 70's.

Language / Polish dative case: Why do you use "mu" in this sentence instead of "go" [9]


Powiedz mu żeby tak nie mówił -> Tell him not to say so
Powiedz mu że nie może tak mówić -> Tell him that he cannot/should not/must not say so (Polish "nie może" seems to mean here something like English "must not" or "should not" rather than "cannot")

Meaning is more or less the same, but even just a simple literal translation to English shows the difference :)

Life / Fitting balanced flue Gas Central heating boiler in Poland [32]


Kominiarz, not komin, komin is a chimney :)

About the brush and about cleaning the chimney, maybe something from here will help:
czysteogrzewanie.pl/komin/czyszczenie-komina


You rather meant CO (carbon oxide). CO2 (carbon dioxide) is not poisonous.

The problems are:
- there is an obligation to monitor the state of the chimneys and to clean them in multi-family houses, but there is no such an obligation in detached houses

- people tend to block the air vents in winter with rags or whatever they have, thinking that because of the cool air coming to house they are loosing heat and therefore money, not understanding that proper ventilation is needed in the house due to different reasons; there are also, for example, cases when people change old draughty wooden windows into new ones made of PCV and then they suffer from mould on walls - because installing the new tight windows blocked the ventilation system, fresh air is unable to enter the rooms

Why Polish gas companies and administrations do not like these balanced flue boilers - I have no idea.

Life / Imagine a man killing 15 students in Poland. Would Polish flag be removed? [26]

He would be considered an idiot having nothing in common with patriotism. The flags wouldn't be removed but descended to the half of the height of the masts and black ribbons would be added because national mourning would be anonunced - this is the most likely scenario.

Life / UK's 1471 number recall - equivalent in Poland [6]

For mobile phones such a service is not needed, you always can see the number of who is calling, unless this is a "restricted" number (its owner doesn't want the number to be displayed on others' phones and activated a special service).

In case of landlines, you can activate this if you have a telephone, which is modern enough. In case of some operators (e.g. Netia), you have to pay for this service extra, for some (e.g. Orange) it's free. But, there is no exactly such a service as you are writing about in Poland.

The service I am writing about is called CLIP, for English Calling Line Identification Presentation (this abbreviation is used by Polish telephone service providers, especially the landline ones). The service of "restricting" a number is CLIR (Calling Line Identification Restriction).

Language / Why Genitive instead of Accusative in Polish language? [8]

This is not genitive, this is accusative :)

Accusative in Polish can look either like nominative, or like genitive. Generally, it looks like genitive for people, animals etc. and like nominative for non-living objects - but this is not a strict rule. In official language - in different documents, technical texts etc. - the "non-living" version is used more frequently than in the everyday speech.


What?


That's the case, although, I don't think in the past it was different. This is just a difference between the formal and informal language.

Life / Health system in Poland one of the worst in Europe: report [78]


Have you tried finding another doctor of this type who also has a contract with NFZ - in another clinic? It sometimes works.

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]


We have the 21st century, they should be able to check it on their own in the database...


In Poland, you can currently have one address registered as "zameldowanie" and another one used by the tax office (they have their own database and on the tax declaration you are supposed to put the place of living, not "zameldowanie", although it's "zameldowanie" which is supposed to be your place of living used by the offices) and everything is fine.


I have a friend who had to make new documents including identity card, driver's licence etc. after he had been stolen. He got the ID in the new version, without the "zameldowanie" address, so he had to go to another office and get a document confirming the place of "zameldowanie" when he wanted to get a new driving licence, even though he already had a new ID. And he had to pay for this paper.

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]

Yes, you are right. But it's an absurd that a proof of "zameldowanie" - either in form of an address in the ID, or as a separate document - is demanded by Wydział Komunikacji, while it's not present in the currently issued ID's.

If they want to know the address to which they should send some documents, maybe traffic fines, they should just ask me for the address I prefer for this.

Another thing is that the "zameldowanie" addresses are already in the PESEL database and they should have access to it. It seems that they probably don't have it. But even if so, it's an absurd that for the document confirming it, you have to pay extra.

And for similar institutions in the countries where there exist nothing like "zameldowanie", or even they have no identity cards, this is not a problem.

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]

Unfortunately, the level of education in Poland is still falling down. Let's look at the "matura" - exam after the secondary school which allows to begin studies. In the past, it was really not that easy to pass. Now it's much simpler. Why? Because the country has to look well in European stats of people with higher education :)

There was once even a case, when too few people passed "matura" and the minister of education decided to allow some of the "failed" students to pass it. The threshold of passing is 30%, the student must gain at least such a number of points in each of the obligatory subjects - which were changing during the time. In that times the obligatory subjects were: a written exam in Polish, a foreign language (usually English, but a few others are also possible to choose) and any chosen subject, and an oral exam in Polish and a foreign language. The minister decided that the students who gained an average of at least 30% in all the obligatory subjects would pass.

It's also interesting that from the 80's maths wasn't an obligatory subject in "matura". From 2010, it's obligatory again, but the exam is very simple.

From this year, they changed this exam and it's a little bit more difficult. But it's still much simpler than it was in the past.

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]

But what shall I tell you? The address of "zameldowanie" (how is it exactly called in English?) isn't even present in the identity cards issued from this year. But they still demand it in some offices, like if you want to get a driving license :)

What is interesting, when they was going to introduce these changes, banks were saying that this will be a problem to them. So, how are banks able to work in the countries where there is even no identity cards, not to mention "zameldowanie"? :)

UK, Ireland / City management - differences between Poland and UK [20]

For sure even the national police don't have a single database for everything, they have many different computer systems incompatible with each other. Like all the public offices.

If you speak Polish, you may read a little about it here:
e-korupcja.pl/24-poltax/88-najwieksze-afery-korupcyjne-iii-rzeczpospolitej

If not, you may try with Google Translate. It smells conspiracy theory a little bit, but, generally, seems to be true.

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]

BTW, asking for "zameldowanie" is in this case totally stupid taking into account that it's now almost removed from the Polish law. It was going to be removed at all from this year but the parliament changed their decision at the last moment.

And what is this translation for if it must be confirmed, regardless of this, by the embassy (where they rather speak the language of their country)?

It's impossible to understand Polish politicians and public office employees.

UK, Ireland / City management - differences between Poland and UK [20]

First of all, the courts are independent of the local authorities and government. But, I think, it's a rule in the whole Europe, it comes from the Montesquieu's triple division of authorities.

First of all there are local courts (sąd rejonowy), one for a powiat or a few powiats. They are the first instance dealing with the least serious issues.

Then there are regional courts (sąd okręgowy), there is usually a few of them for a province. They deal with more serious issues (crimes, divorces etc.) as the first instance and with appeals from the local courts.

The next are appeal courts (sąd apelacyjny) not each province has one, dealing with the appeals with the regional courts - only as the second instance.

Generally, you can appeal only once, to a court of a higher instance. For most cases, you can then make a complaint to the Supreme Court in Warsaw (Sąd Najwyższy). But there are some exceptions, for example in case of alimony.

If it's not enough, then there are international courts.

There is also a separate system of courts, in which you can appeal from administrative decisions.

Another thing, which is independent of the local authorities, but subject to the government, are the tax offices (urząd skarbowy).

UK, Ireland / City management - differences between Poland and UK [20]


In Poland, there is a separate force responsible for the railway - Straż Ochrony Kolei (SOK).

The police has different regional and local departments and then they have divisions responsible for example for road traffic, crimes, prevention etc.

The difference between the police and straż miejska is that the police is state, the straż miejska is managed by the local authorities. Although you can often see a patrol consisting of two people: a police officer and a straż miejska officer. Maybe because straż miejska isn't authorized to some issues, to which the police is.

Here you can see for example divisions of the regional police department in £ódź:
lodzka.policja.gov.pl/content/category/7/73/129

They have:
- Computer crime division
- Narcotic drugs division
- Escort division
- Intelligence division
- Economic crime division
- Psychologic division
- Road traffic division
- Corruption division
- Operational division
- Investigation division
- Division for protection of secret data
and some "technical" divisions like finance, transport, IT etc.

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]


On the websites of different offices responsible for this in different cities and powiats, I didn't find anything like this. Isn't it enough that the translator has a license to make translations of official documents (so called tłumacz przysięgły)?

Law / Driver license: Moroccan/UAE into Polish exchange / convention. Zameldowanie (residence registration) [13]

bip.poznan.pl/bip/wydzial-komunikacji,20/
Wydział Komunikacji
ul. Gronowa 22a
61-655 Poznań

What you will need:

- filled in application form - it looks so: prawko.com.pl/przepisy/wniosek.pdf - you will get a form in the office because it's a special format

- copy of the original driving license and its translation made by an authorized translator
- a clear, current photo in color, taken from the left profile, of the size 3,5 x 4,5 cm (if you go to a photographer and tell you you need a photo for a driving license, he will know)

- identity document (identity card, passport) and the document that allows you to stay in Poland (visa, stay card etc.)
- 100,50 PLN to pay for the document
- I don't know if they speak English in this office, I think you had better take with you also somebody who speaks Polish