Love / So I am told Polish men are a chivalrous bunch? [49]


Good, he's a 21st century man.......pity the vast majority of his compatriots aren't the same.......they are changing though.

Love / So I am told Polish men are a chivalrous bunch? [49]


Yea, it's terrible.

Thankfully though it is changing. Roll on the future!


Yea, it's a certain type of two-face chivalry, they'll open the door and buy you flowers but as soon as the door closes it's 'you're doing all the housework kochnia, I'm watchin the volleyball!'

Love / So I am told Polish men are a chivalrous bunch? [49]

Men are chivalrous indeed to women, they are also incredibly sexist and should you marry one you'll be expected to iron their shirts and make their dinner (including soup starter) every single day of your married life.

News / Poland to withdraw from Visegrad defence radar project [10]


Germany, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey have all invaded Poland over the centuries, 3 of those 6 listed are Nato members.

Poland in Nato is a bit like Burnley in the Premier League, good for a laugh but completely pointless.
Putin's a prick but leave him alone and he tends to leave you alone.
I can't really blame Russia and the whole Ukraine thing. Russia were given assurances that a buffer zone of Ukraine and Belarus would remain in place when the 'new' EU countries joined. The EU has gone back on it's word in chasing Ukraine and Russia has done what any country would've done.

Having a Nato defence radar system in Poland achieves nothing other than to annoy Russia. In this day and age of such wonderful technology the system isn't even needed anyway. All it would've done is establish a supposed legitimate target for the Ruskies and should it have been hit (by the Russians or a staged attack) the Yanks...sorry...Nato would've been able to temporarily satisfy its insatiable bloodlust and get another war going to help boost Western industrial economies while the bombing and killing goes on far away.


Can't blame Poland for not wanting to be a pawn anymore, indeed I support them in standing up to the bullies and telling them to get f*cked

News / Poland to withdraw from Visegrad defence radar project [10]

Fantastic news.
America and Nato can look for a biatch somewhere else.

Life / Which sim card to buy in Poland? [30]

Play is good reception-wise in urban areas, once you get outside cities/towns it's by far the worst network.
However, it's probably one of the best if you're staying in city/town areas

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]


I would really pay no attention to googles times.
I drove to Vienna from Katowice 6 weeks ago. Google says 4 hours, took us 5 hours, 10 minutes. Stopping once for fuel.


Gliwice is very nice, has a small university there so shouldn't be a problem to find a place. Best of luck.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]


Verbal, there have been plenty of reports of physical attacks though, especially when football hooligans are involved.


No, that's impossible. I drive to the Chorzow area quite often during the day and it takes about 20 minutes, during rush hour it takes around 30-40 minutes, minimum. You get a huge amount of traffic at these times. Bytom takes long then obviously because you need to drive passed Chorzow to get there.

The tram from Kato centre to Chorzow takes 30minutes all day long. To Bytom it's about 45 minutes.
The bus is a lot faster than the tram as it only stops 3 times (I think) between Chorzow and the city centre....these are 'fast' buses, they are usually 800 numbers. I don't remember exactly, but the 800s are faster than the other numbers. The same applies to Bytom, but I've taken the bus there once, it took over an hour. Nightmare.

From certain areas of Chorzow, you can get a train, they are cheap and take about 20minutes, but it's a rough area of Chorzow called Chorzow Batory. Zabrze is also serviced by this train, it's an OK area, some parts are rough, but overall it's OK. Quite a boring place though. The train also services Gliwce, it's about 40minutes from Katowice, but it's probably one of the nicest 'cities' in the GOP area.

I used to travel to Chorzow by bus before getting a car, during the day is was roughly 30minutes to Chorzow, longer during peak periods.


Yea, that true, the reason being that the distances between the different cities around Katowice are so small but take ages to drive during peak periods. I was lucky with a previous job, starting at 10 and missing rush hour and finishing at 5.30 and again missing peak traffic. But I know people who work normal hours, 8am-4pm and they spend 45-60mins commuting each way. Madness, I cannot understand why they wouldn't move closer to work. Losing almost 2 hours per day is ludicrous for me.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]


The reason it's so cheap there is because nobody wants to live there.
It's full of social housing tenements and crime.
There's a local football team with a large hooligan following.

As I said to Monitor, I wouldn't ask my worst enemy to live there.

Besides that there's just very little to do there, there's a main shopping street that's full of really terrible shops, with really crappy products. There's a couple of decent restaurants, but the town is usually empty by 8pm. It has a hooligan problem, graffiti everywhere, the streets aren't clean and hooded teenagers prowl the streets at night looking to pick fights. Avoid.

Bytom is literally hell on earth. I got racially abused there by some local scum and I'm Irish, so I'm more white skinned than your normal Pole. Nobody I've every met here, nobody, has a good word to say about Bytom. It's a dump, full of crimes, junkies, social housing. It's probably the worst place I've ever been to in Poland.

Bytom and Chorzow have more crime than any of the other cities in the Katowice region.

Y'know man, if you wanna save money and live in a sh!thole, then it's your choice, but you get what you pay for. The cheaper something is the crappier the area you're going to be living in.

Plus travelling from Chorzow to that university will take roughly 50-60minutes, more during peak times.
From Bytom it would take even longer, about 20-30 minutes longer.

If I was you, I'd be looking for something in this area: goo.gl/maps/4SWrZ

Close to your school and walking distance to the city centre.

Up to you, but no way in Hell would I touch Bytom or Chorzow.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]


well, in fairness if you're going to say someone should live in an area....or like you say, that's it's possible then you should at least check out whether the place is an utter sh!thole or not.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]

LOL, obviously you know very little of the area, especially if you're recommending Chorzow and Sosnowiec.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]


I wouldn't tell my worst enemy to live in such dumps.

Real Estate / Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice? [48]

Go to gumtree.pl
I'd recommend Tysiaclecia, it's pretty close to the city centre and is serviced by 3 different tram lines and a few buses. It's walking distance from the largest shopping centre in the area and the biggest recreational park in Poland.

Further out, Brynow, Piotrowice & Ligota are all fine, but they aren't as well serviced by public transport, they have buses, but no trams and the traffic during peak times can be pretty bad.

In Katowice, avoid Zaleze, Szopienice, Dab & Zawodzie, they are scumholes, full of hooligans and undesirables.
Where will you be studying?

Avoid Bytom and Chorzow, they are sh!tholes and if you're a (non-white) foreigner you won't exactly be made to feel welcome.


More than likely, from gumtree you will find plenty of places that will be rented privately.


Sometimes, depends on the landlord though


You'll lose your deposit more than likely, but if you give plenty of notice then they might give it back to you....maybe.

Since you're going to be studying, can you contact the university and ask them for help in finding a place to stay?

Travel / What to do in Katowice? (short journey) [9]


You missed Katowice's main party street, ul. Mariacka. It has at least 20 pubs and about 10 restaurants all on one street. And more on its side streets.

It's a pity you missed it, every time some one from home comes over to visit me here they always have a great time there. Shame that the receptionist at your hotel didn't tell you about it.

Hipnoza is here:
goo.gl/maps/3RGwm

La Grotta closed many, many years ago.


There are at least 4 bars/restaurants outside the main entrance of the new train station, they are on the left built onto the side of the new shopping centre.

I wouldn't worry too much about Matt, his post was from September 2013 :)

Work / I am a graphic designer. Is Poland a good country to come to and work? [16]

Sorry, brain fart man, I've no idea why Australia came to my head.

Checked a website, it would seem that Johannesburg is certainly cheaper than Warsaw
But J'burg is a lot more expensive than Katowice.

Figures were from numbeo.com

Work / I am a graphic designer. Is Poland a good country to come to and work? [16]

That's pretty obvious man. The advantage like I said though is being paid in dollars and living in a cheap country.
$1 is 3.17zl
$1 is 1.07 Aussie dollars and Australia ain't a cheap country.

Work / I am a graphic designer. Is Poland a good country to come to and work? [16]


If you can build up a nice portfolio and sell you images on stock sites like iStock, Fotolia and Shutterstock then you can live quite well.

You're paid in dollars and the dollar has a decent exchange rate against the zloty.

Web design/web developing doesn't pay well though and clients are usually d!cks. You'd be better off on the stock image sites.

Travel / Water parks / theme-amusement parks in Poland [13]

There's one in Katowice.
wesole-miasteczko.pl/www/pl/

But it's crap.......well, it's for kids really.

Are you searching for the proper words in Polish?

Here's another one in Krakow

krakow.m1-centrum.pl/aktualnosci/aktualnosci/szczegoly/archive/2014/may/article/lunapark-w-m1-krakow.html

Work / Moving to Lodz - will my 2500 PLN salary be enough? [52]


No: 1,680 PLN (€405) per month

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country


Yea, I use my phone internationally, is that OK? Am I allowed to?


Could you point out where Marysus said they are from a Western country?

Study / Do any places in Poland teach people eastern languages like Farsi/Persian Arabic ... [6]


Get in touch with the embassies of Iran and Afghanistan, since it is an official language in both countries.

en.warsaw.mfa.ir
afghanembassy.com.pl

Work / Living in Katowice (programmer, 3000 PLN) - is it enough? [65]


Depends on where you live, but 1000-1500zl per month for a 2 bed flat.

This post will help you:
https://polishforums.com/life/poland-cost-living-katowice-71368/#msg1443099

Work / Moving to Lodz - will my 2500 PLN salary be enough? [52]


As above: It's only 1000zl more than minimum wage.
I don't particularly drive much, mostly 20-30min journeys to and from work 5 days and week and shopping on weekends etc. and my diesel is roughly 500zl per month...add a phone bill of 250zl to that and you're left with 250zl from that extra 1000zl.

Naw, buddy, the money they are offering is an insult.

You'll live, but you won't save much and you won't be able to treat yourself from time to time.
Tell them you want 4200 + rent and if they offer 3700 take it.

Travel / Foreigner traveling in Poland - is it better to rent a car or travel by train? [9]


Yea, but she said that almost 2 hours after my post!
Derren Brown I am not (^_^)

Yea, it might be difficult to get to there.....where are you flying to/staying?
Maybe Wroclaw (being the closest big city) has some day tours to the place?

News / Closet homosexual politicians in Poland [83]


Then be amazed baby:

Robert Biedron

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Biedro%C5%84

He's on Polish TV quite a bit, seems like a pretty decent guy.

Travel / Foreigner traveling in Poland - is it better to rent a car or travel by train? [9]

Car, you'll get everywhere faster.
Train, safer but far slower.

You don't need to speak Polish to rent a car, you can do it all online and the reps in the airports will speak English.

Train tickets can be bought online too and you won't really need to speak to anyone on the train.

Personally, I'd take the train. It's a nice way to see the country and you don't have to worry about not being able to have a few beers the night before you need to drive somewhere. Poland's alcohol level is 0.02 and the Police love testing motorists in the mornings.

Poland's roads aren't the safest.....but the highways are fine.
If you drive download the smartphone app called Yanosik....it's a GPS that shows the positions of speed camera/police patrols/accidents etc. The app is free.

News / Closet homosexual politicians in Poland [83]


I would like to direct you to the title of this thread:

"Closet homosexual politicians in Poland"

Also, the post by the OP:


I realise that reading isn't your forte, but please try to understand this thread is about politicians who have been outed as being homosexual. It's not about what you think it's about.


Again, you're readings skills let you down.
I point to this:


So, if this guy was lying, then Jarek would've made sure he was a) sued for a ton of money for defamation of character and b) sent to prison.

Clear as day, it makes no difference whether you accept it or not.

News / Closet homosexual politicians in Poland [83]


Maybe you're not sure with the whole idea of sworn testimony.
I suggest that you look it up post haste.

Harry has shown it, you can go look it up yourself.

Why does it matter?
So what if he is gay?
Who are you to judge someone based on their sexuality?

I wouldn't dare judge him on his sexuality, I judge him on his batsh!t crazy political ideals.

News / Closet homosexual politicians in Poland [83]


You can prove that?

Nice work Harry.

Case closed on that I'd say.
Couldn't care less that he is. Actually I think if it was public knowledge it would be accepted by the silent majority. Sure the Church would go mad, but that's OK, if they want to be left behind in the last century that's their business.

Study / Where I should study journalism(in Poland ) [32]


Well then, I suggest you do some kind of humanities degree, such as politics or fashion, or something broad like culture studies and then once finished do a post-grad in journalism. The previous qualification will serve you better in the long run than just a journalism degree.

But if you like fashion so much then if I was you I'd do a degree in fashion/art/culture studies, Try to find a course than combines them. When finished then you can become a writer or maybe find your way into television.

Best of luck

Study / Where I should study journalism(in Poland ) [32]

For a career in journalism it would be better for you to specialise in what you want to write about first and then do a H Dip in it.

So for example, you want to be a political journalist, you should first study politics to a degree level and then take a 2 year additional course in journalism.

Most journalism degrees aren't worth the paper they're written on and the vast amount of professionals in the industry now have followed that path.

Also, get writing for free sites immediately and get some experience. And stay motivated, it's difficult to break into journalism especially now but if you're good at it and willing to put in the years of work it'll pay off.