Travel / What to do in Warsaw at Christmas? [21]

The bigger hotels in Warsaw always stay open, and they certainly have restaurants and bars.

Plenty of nice parks etc in Warsaw; you will find them busy with people enjoying the outdoors.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


What the experts say is a tad more reliable than what you try to say.


A casual reader of that might think he even believed what he just wrote...

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Somehow, Tacitus, I doubt facts are important to him.

Amazing how climate change deniers suddenly become experta contradicting the overwhelming opinion of real scientists. Anti-vaxxer nuts are much the same.

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


I don't think the Ministry of the Interior is about to hire 'agents' to persecute you; they're too busy doing real things. So are the Masons, who are generally people very busy with their careers, with socialising and with self-development and charitable activities.

You've made some pretty bizarre claims, and no proof or even a credible story.

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


Never a good idea.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


I was down in Kraków for a meeting a while ago, and my white shirt was grey in parts after just a day there. That's the pollution, part and parcel of the same industrialisation that has caused man-made climate change. Poland is far from being the worst offender; much of the damage was caused by among other things ethyl lead, used when America was still industrial. China is now spilling all their nasties into the atmosphere.

Man-made climate change is certainly real; there is no credible doubt on this issue. The deniers tend to adopt their odd ideas as part of a package of anti-vaxxing, anti-fluoridosation and various other bits of nonsense.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Processed pork (kielbasa, szynka), certainly. It's apparently less damaging to the environment than beef though. Nevertheless, it still isn't ideal. More and more veggies now in Poland, which for the environment is a plus.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Looks that way, doesn't itt. Palpably unhealthy fantasies, rather like the same person's views on man-made climate change and the other dog-whistle issues floating around the web.

Man-made climate change is a huge issue for Poland, especially the urban centres. There's a positive side; in Poland there are some genuine initiatives to be greener and cleaner.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Beef consumption is even one of the worst things for the environment. By all means enjoy meat; just not so much of it and not so much waste. Pork is less damaging, as is (sustainable) fishing, and not eating meat the best of all for the future of the planet.

Poland is far from being the worst offender here; other countries have diets based containing more beef. Nevertheless, there are things we can do in Poland to help the situation.


Yes. I'd go further and say that it's actually contempt for humanity, for society that has rejected him and nature which has given him such a bum deal in life.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Quite. Never mind the 99% of people who actually got the doctorates and study something full-time. What do they know compared to Alex Jones or David Icke...


Depends on the specific role. It's expensive enough to fly people long haul business class every month; and therefore those who pay for people to do that spend quite a lot of time and effort deciding whether or not it's 'very very necessary'.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


Some roles couldn't work any other way.


Never having been to a sh1thole (except maybe Tarchomin and Slough, I wouldn't know about internet in such places. Some things however can't be effectively (or legally) done online.


Plenty of cases are very special indeed, and business/holifday flights are here to stay.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


We'll all have to in the end. A three week journey home by ship is however a sacrifice too far, especially six times a year. There are other more practical sacrifices that can and should be made for the common good. Stopping eating meat produced by factory farming, not using (or hugely reducing) fossil fuels, and buying as few Chinese-made products as possible are a good start.

Banning private jets is a small thing, however since nobody really needs one, that is a good start too. Car engines above a very moderate size are not a neccessity, nor is the vast amount of disposable plastic used in the developed world; these should both be kept to a minimum.

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


For some of us, with a foot in more than one country, it's very preferable to three day train journeys or sailing long-haul.


Absolutely. The residents there are right to be so angry. Not long ago in Lisbon, I was saddened to see vast floating hotels disgorging fat tourists from across the water right in the middle of the city.

Man-made climate change is the biggest threat to humanity right now. The fossil fuels used in the production of plastics are a particular worry. Even someth8ng as simple as restricting excessive packaging would make a difference.

If it isn't too late already.

Travel / Train stations - travel from Wroclaw Zerniki to Boleslawiec [5]

Most people get the bus or a taxi/uber (not expensive) into the city and use the main Wrocław railway station. It isn't far.

Genealogy / Mary Barnawich (?) - Is my great-grandmother from Poland? [28]

Baranowicz?

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


They are quite busy now, Sylvio.


A few in the Soviet Union were diagnosed with 'sluggish schizophrenia'. This wasn't that common there, and was not a generally accepted medical diagnosis in Poland.

It reminds me of a lady in England who I won't name for her privacy and for the sake of not spreading conspiracy theories. Thousands of vexatious online individuals claim she is being detained without trial in a 'secret facility' because she 'knows something' and make memes about it. She doesn't 'know something', she is actually in her local prison serving a sentence for arson.

Reality is usually much more prosaic than fantasy and delusion.

Food / Polish cheese looks like string, is pale yellow, rubbery in texture, and slightly salty? [16]

This stuff? Some people like it. It's also available unsmoked. People serve as part of hors d'oeuvres (przekąski) and/or in a buffet. It's OK-ish but nevertheless a processed version of a better cheese.

If you like Polish cheese, try Ser Koryciński from Korycin in Podlasie. It's exceptional.

• 
  Screenshot_2018121.jpg
  

News / Could Poland be self-sustainable in energy? [56]

Why do you think that being self-sustainable in energy would be a sell-out?

News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]


All except for the airline tickets, yes. Everything else should happen as a matter of course. Not that taxing cruise tickets would bring in much money in PL. I'd replace it with a tax on second homes, unoccupied properties and underused land. Vodka too, which is on the cheap side and causes societal damage.


I wish that had been the case back in South Yorkshire a few years ago. Having said that, it's much greener and cleaner now. A short term step in Poland could be to move more to smokeless fuel; the miners would keep their jobs, more would be created at the refining plants and we would see a clear improvement in a relatively short time.

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]

I remember seeing him and Izabela walking down ul. Wilcza. She was nagging loudly him about how much of a dead loss he is and he was looking absolutely miserable.


Fewer than a thousand, mostly female, and none a current elected politician.

News / Could Poland be self-sustainable in energy? [56]


I guess the same; there's a long hard road ahead before it becomes truly viable. Perhaps we'll see a real breakthrough over the next couple of decades; that's still quite a long way before it can be rolled out.

Real Estate / Looking for a room or flat to rent in Poland - discrimination against age [17]


No, it isn't.

Your best bet is to look at the rental ads on Gumtree etc. Make sure you tick the box to exclude agents and also check each phone number on google (some advertisers are letting agents pretending not to be).

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


That covers quite a few people on here. There's something about the internet that attracts things like that; Stanisław Lem summed it up in his famous quote.

Posts that are obviously crazy are probably best deleted. I suppose there's always free speech, allowing things like the original post, my reply to that post, and your vexatious 'comment'.


It's the Ministry of the Interior. They don't have agents who harass people. Nor are they 'masonic' (the Masons don't have agents who harass people either).

Life / A Pole returning to Poland harassed by MSW [25]


Yes, very familiar. I've met and spoken to people before who have paranoid schizophrenia.


Cobblers.


Also on a different planet. Does he still rant on about 'reptillian aliens' and 'new wold order'?

USA, Canada / Small taste of my U.S. prison experience [6]


Good story, well written.

Off-Topic / Ukraine - a country in Central Europe? [28]


Yes. It's culture not physical geography.

It really doesn't matter how vast the empty wastelands of Russia are before they get to the Urals. Central Europe is Mitteleuropa, Most of Germany, Austria, Czech, possibly Slovakia, maybe a very small part of Italy and some of the Balkans. Perhaps Switzerland, though that, as ever, is a special place.

Other places (including parts of Poland and the Low Countries) may have characteristics of it, however on the whole they are not part of it.

But not Russia, Poland, Ukraine.

Law / P2P Lending in Poland [2]

There are a couple of Polish platforms, including Fellow Finance. Most significantly Mintos now also operate, as you say, in Poland. They are established, and based in the Baltic's. It's likely the area will grow, however there's some resistance to it in the market, and lobbying against regulation, by established lenders. As far as regulation is concerned, it's perhaps safer to do peer to peer lending in more established markets where it's easier to collect delinquent debts.

I use Funding Circle and Thin Cats and have done for years. It has (especially Funding Circle) been a worthwhile home for savings. They lend only to business which is a plus, however currently I would only do this in the U.K. where the market is big, established, and relatively easy to collect a lender's or their guarantors' debts.

Off-Topic / Ukraine - a country in Central Europe? [28]


It is certainly culturally, economically, linguistically, gastronomically, religiously and socially Eastern Europe, however Lviv (ex-Lemberg) has some special characteristics of Mitteleuropa.


This is key to the motivation for some of these threads that appear.

Life / Have any of you ever been to any of the Pijalnia bars in Warsaw [19]


So many of them now.


Even without, you get it a lot in that part of the city centre. It's been like that for years now.

My favourite watering hole (for 20 years) is close to the bottom of the street. Away from the unfortunate women twirling their umbrellas but still in peak beggar zone iwhen the tables are out in summer.

Chinatown behind is a bit of a zoo; a lot of drunken students.

Life / Have any of you ever been to any of the Pijalnia bars in Warsaw [19]

Me too in Warsaw (for coffee rather than the t-word), though definitely not at Pijalnia. There is however quite a nice all-night bar just round the corner. Very little trouble, none of the hick crowd, though it's one of those places where you feel drunk as soon as you enter.

That area round Chinatown has gone down a lot since those bars became popular. Pijania is probably the worst of them.