History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]

It beats me! They know that it could open Pandora's Box, a nasty can of worms. I saw some Jews here and Polish gymnazjum students were showing them around. My wife and I were joking about them having plans for those properties they were being shown out of architectural appreciation concerns.

Her dad, one of the fairest guys I have ever met, had bad experiences with Jews and that's why he's sceptical and questions their intentions. Sorry, too little, too late!

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

Yeah, it would be interesting to know their net gains under the EU. Yeah, the Pesel has really done little or nothing for me.

My guess is that there was marked opposition to Tusk's proposed streamlining. It's a bit like the situation in Britain some 25 years ago where people denied voting Tory in the polls but, come crunch time, the truth came out. It's the same here by way of analogy. They secretly like all these rules and they have become a way of life for those involved with it. It gives them sth to moan about.

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

I didn't mention their capability, yehudi. I was merely making the point that there is inherent bias, or potentially could be. Those prisoners could have been coerced or paid off, I'm not saying that they were but let's not be naive here. Do you believe in the testimony of Israeli IDF soldiers, yehudi?

News / Do you think Germany will stop buying out Polish media? [15]

Well, there was never any hatred between them so, why not? ;) ;) ;)

Travel / Poland from a Persian Tourist's Perspective [269]

Yehudi, look at your source, LOL. Hardly the most objective, now is it? Check the word 'denial' up in the dictionary. I'm not saying that it happens or doesn't happen, I just take issue with your 'convenient' sources.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Oh, I met some drunken yobs on the train in Żywiec. I was waiting but there were so many of them that there was no space. They were packed in like sardines, all they needed to separate it from Africa was people on the roof. A bit like Japan. They were graduates from a leading Kraków university which made my jaw drop.

You are a xenophobe i tyle!

Oops, I forgot that you lived through WWII, Harry. What first-hand experiences can you share with us?

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Ironside, I covered that point above. It was Churchill's own belief, not mine.

bpcc.org.pl/en/content/view/2089/ on the topic of Kraków (a speech), Sir Martin Gilbert spells out the ambivalence Churchill felt towards Poles. Many others have this too.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

May I suggest 'Confronting Legends' by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud? "They doomed themselves by their follies" was said by Churchill. He was critical and I meant that he didn't care insofaras he didn't sufficiently acknowledge the huge and telling contribution made by Poles. Yalta and Tehran were hardly rewards ;) ;)

Roosevelt and Churchill were acting together.

So, how about Kraków?

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

What nonsense, BB! Are you talking about w urzedach/in administrative offices? Or do you feel that most can speak those 3 languages here? If so, you are in error. Silesian dialect is strong but, even then, only in parts. Not here in Gliwice, for example. I suggest you talk to frd as he will back me up on all of the above.

Do you want the phone number of my wife's mother? ;) ;) She speaks German fluently and has lived here all her life. Have you? She will give you countless tales.

Yes, exactly, they left. She didn't and hasn't.

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

Ksysia, you've got it the wrong way round. Yes, I'm foreign but I see that many Poles really know little about Silesian life and history. Pieprzą głupoty!

Speaking German was not seen too favourably in the 1970's and before for quite some time. Have you ever been called a German pig? Before my wife's mum learned to speak Polish, she was called this as a kid for speaking German. She was born in 1952 so I trust you can do the arithmetic here.

Silesia has a different dynamic and, remember this, I have lived here for over 5 years and have listened to many who lived it back then. There was hatred, sorry!

What impression, BB?

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

Nomad, you have access to the internet. I suggest you read up on the causes of hatred and apply them to the topic at hand.

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

I don't have a car but I have books which show Polish-German hatred. Care to read them? Not much mention of oil in the indices/appendices ;)

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

I don't sit on a pedestal, Dariusz. I was talking about the Englishman, Churchill.

Bzib, I didn't say that, Churchill did. He let Poland slide and I feel that much of the Polish spirit is summed up through the resistance that came in its aftermath.

As for Kraków, I like it there. Some of the snobbery can get on your wick but it's easily ignored.

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

Nomad, I'm not talking macropolitics here, I'm talking about the impact and aftermath of German policy in Poland back in WWII.

Ksysia, true enough but German isn't that popular here. My wife's mum is a native speaker of Polish and German and always gets strange looks when she speaks German here. It's not a comfortable trilateral region ;)

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

Ksysia, I know that your views wouldn't go down well in Silesia. I dare you to say 'am I in Konigshutte?' in Chorzów. Or 'is this Hindenburg? in Zabrze.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Care to elaborate? OK, yes. I got that from Neil Aescherson's book 'The Struggles for Poland'. It is a very well-written book which also covers Yalta and Tehran. Anyway, this is about Kraków. WB, he was but his emotions also got in the way.

History / Actually, there never was any Polish-German hatred [149]

That's what it's all about, Ksysia. Also, good Christians find it hard to fully accept 'forgiveness is divine' when their families have been wiped out.

Ksysia, is it possible to address the inbetween time? I hear far too much of now and then without the efforts made in the middle. What do you make of the European Coal and Steel Community, then the EEC, then the EC and then EU? I feel it necessary to address this as why harp over 70 years back to the start of WWII? Much repair work lay between.

You believe that sons are not guilty of what their fathers did? I don't pick up on that with discussions with people here on this point.

Also, are you any part German? This would lead to some natural bias.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

WB has a point here too. The level of gratitude is lacking in parts and is due to deep-seated resentment towards Poland being formerly occupied. Part of the reason was that Churchill didn't give a stuff about Poles, he disliked their selfishness. He let them slide at Tehran and Yalta. I can understand the anger of Poles quite easily.

The fact that billions have been pumped back into the Polish economy is only the start for some.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Thanks once again, dxx. I was thinking about Ojców actually. Am I gonna get beaten up there? ;) ;) Nah, Poles seem to have a healthy respect for me, I don't know why. It must be my face :)

Bzib, yeah, I believe that you should try and speak so that everyone understands. Not using Polish if you know it can easily be seen as rude. I wouldn't use English in the presence of my wife's parents, for example.

Well that is just being stupid, Dariusz. Such people are not interested in cooperation.

Thanks, jeden. Wadowice might be solemn and sober around this time given the half-decade anniversary of JPII's death. I'll give it a miss and let people mourn. I wouldn't want to be a pesky foreigner ;)

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Thanks, jeden. I was looking more for hidden gems, though, rather than mainstream options. I have been to all of the above before. Any places more off the beaten track?

Dariusz, it is rude in one sense but they do have a right to use English at the same time. It's all in the will. Najpjerw, trzeba zagadać, potem dogadać i, w koncu, pogadać :)

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Mirko, please tone down the hate rhetoric. You have made some decent points before but why are you ruining that by posting sth irrational?

I've seen Polish police beat MANY Polish football fans for misbehaving. Aren't they Polish too?

I pay for their upkeep too, a healthy amount of tax at that. I don't use standard public services much here so I see my tax as going on policing. I pay for them to do their jobs by maintaining order.

The level of foreigners here is much lower than Poles in the UK. Don't give the powers the wish that they want, the need for a police state. Don't give in!

I am VERY welcome here by many Poles who respect my credentials and demeanour. The respect is mutual.

Mirko, please start commenting on Kraków and its options. It is a lovely city and people might want to learn about it. Thanks!

Many thanks for the recommendation, dxx. I'll be sure to have a look :)

News / Official language of EU (is not Polish) [119]

Good pint, Dariusz? I wish I could have one :)

English is the preferred language as it is the most widely taught.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Look, wink marks make that sure. You can't just say he was joking, jeden, you don't know that at all.

Look, let the police do their job and accept that sh*t happens!

Now, can we start focussing on Kraków!? My wife and I are thinking of coming through sometime soon. She only knows the main landmarks. Any recommendations for nice little finds in Kraków as regards shops or sightseeing?

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

As long as innocent tourists enjoying Kraków aren't harmed, let them learn their lesson. You don't go to other parts and start living the life of Larry at the expense of the locals.

Guys, lets tone it down before the thread gets closed. Discussing Kraków in a touristic sense is what the thread was intended for and not solely some moronic behaviour by some fools.

Bzib, those digs don't help at all.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

There will be plenty of drunkeness which will only compound the problems. I'm glad that a stand has been taken against foreigners who disrespect Poland's cultural capital. Fine, have a drink and have a laugh but keep yourself under control and remember your guest status.

Every country is developing, or attempting to. That's what we call evolution. America is very much in that bracket too.

If you have an awareness of the Polish psyche and Japanese psyche, you can see why they are wary of foreigners and what they are doing there. I tried to make this point to SeanBM but he hasn't got it yet :(

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Those British morons are as they are, they are not gonna change. So, we accept that constant and the police are the variable. It is their job to keep the peace and prevent crime.

They must not be slow to act. The vandalism I have heard of gives them every right to step in and put a stop to it.

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Which just goes to support what I maintain on many threads. Namely, the art of the set-up. Chaos serves the interests of some. The EU is often not for Joe Bloggs or Paweł Nowak but for those high above.

For different reasons, Scottish people can be afraid of them too. Polish people have more cause to be afraid. Polish police can be quite confrontational.

News / Official language of EU (is not Polish) [119]

I agree with BB. He's just frustrated that Polish isn't a major EU language. He clearly hasn't been through the job searching process in EU circles.

News / Official language of EU (is not Polish) [119]

I'm aware of that, jeden. However, it is one of the 3 main languages of the EU. Many jobs in Brussels require you to know it. It all depends on the jobs that you want. Some jobs require all 3 languages. There are plenty of candidates from the Benelux countries that can take up posts. Another exclusionist arm of the EU. It's not the fault of British students that their national curriculum doesn't put more emphasis on languages like they do in the Benelux 3. Ah well, Farage got his own back on Belgium :) :)

Travel / Krakow a safe and friendly city for foreigners? Read this! [161]

Where is the policing, jeden? The market square should be regularly patrolled, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Kraków had a visible contingent of police when I was there so what has changed?