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Posts by jon357  

Joined: 15 Mar 2012 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 15 Aug 2025
Threads: Total: 73 / In This Archive: 51
Posts: Total: 24830 / In This Archive: 10045 		From: In the Heart of Darkness
Speaks Polish?: Tak

Displayed posts: 10096 / page 264 of 337
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jon357   
17 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Renewal of British passport in Poland (how long does it take?) [27]

Last time I was there was years ago and not a great period in time for the city, so I had a good look round and enjoyed it. It's seems a lot posher than I remember.

I went to the Tate Gallery, had a good look round the shops and came back loaded with cheddar etc and lamb.

The Adelphi was only 35 quid, which wasn't bad.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
Work / Female Juris Doctor/Native American Speaker/Jobs in Warsaw [59]

Maybe you mentioned it in the thread, but what about teaching Legal English? I used to find it very hard to get teachers for that and there is definitely a demand from law firms for high quality training.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
Work / Female Juris Doctor/Native American Speaker/Jobs in Warsaw [59]

Well, perhaps according to EU law. But I think that Poles are rather patriotic and I think that my being born in Warsaw is a little different.

The fact that EU wide (more or less) we can live and work where we want is only a positive - and worth mentioning that some of the greatest patriots have all their roots elsewhere - I'm sure you'd say you're an American patriot ;-)

I think that my being born in Warsaw is a little different.

That can work either way - some people can be awkward about it for reasons I've never bothered to analyse.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
Work / Female Juris Doctor/Native American Speaker/Jobs in Warsaw [59]

You should be able to find some work here, however in the field of law, as many connections as possible help. The legal profession can be something of a closed shop. A British guy had to really push a few years ago to be admitted to the bar.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
Travel / Worth visiting Warsaw? [20]

Would it still be worth visiting Poland if I am restricted to just Warsaw?

Yes, very much so. many prefer it to Krakow and there is plenty to see and do. It's the capital, after all.

Krakow much more and say it is a bit more touristy.

And consequently full of tourist traps and a pain in hot weather.

Also, how easy is it for a tourist to get around who doesn't speak a lick of Polish?

In Warsaw, very easy.

If you come, you'll like it.

Warsaw rynek
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Renewal of British passport in Poland (how long does it take?) [27]

I did mine in mid June. The important thing for them is that the photos for your new passport look enough like the photos in your old passport.

Depends on your budget, but try the one day service in L'pool, fly over Wizz Air, get a cheap hotel and fly back the next morning on Ryan Air (or vice versa). It can be quick, and if they have any issues to raise they can do it there and then with no waiting since the one day service is by appointment.

edit. Needs to be 2 different airlines since both do the Warsaw-Liverpool flights on alternate days. Very very cheap if you book online. You'll need your old passport with you (they clip the corner off) and show it if they ask at the gate - this is due to Ryanair liking the passport number to match the booking card. Or get the new one as a second passport if you can get/make a credible letter from an employer saying you travel on business and need it due to visa applications.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

This poll is possibly the worst thing that could happen for PiS. Without the PSL, they've got a mere three choices of coalition partners - PO, SLD and Palikot. All three parties are sworn ideological enemies of Kaczynski - which makes it even easier to agree on a confidence/supply agreement to return Tusk to power.

Pretty well.

I'm always sceptical about polls at this time of year, when a significant proportion of the urban vote are on holiday.

libertine, anarchist social-democrat scum,

More fascist talk? At least you haven't mentioned your sexuality.
jon357   
17 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Renewal of British passport in Poland (how long does it take?) [27]

And for only £21 more than it costs to have your passport done in four weeks by post.

Quick, easy and cheap.

I booked an appointment by phone, popped over with a couple of photos to Liverpool (direct on one of those low-cost airlines - a strange experience), arrived at the office round lunchtime, paid 137gbp and popped back a couple of hours later to pick up a 40 page second passport. Very good service and pleasant people to deal with.
jon357   
16 Jul 2013
News / Gazeta Wyborcza of Poland losing readers [301]

I have never owned a car that did. Have you?

I've driven one. An old (late 1940s) Rover.

A pain in the arse to have to do.

I know what you mean about the feel of a print edition - I always tend to read more with them rather than just skim, but I fear their days are as done as the gas mantle and the kind of radio that used to warm up before it started.
jon357   
16 Jul 2013
News / Gazeta Wyborcza of Poland losing readers [301]

The feel, the rustle, even the smell of printer's ink as well as the general ambience -- those things also play a role.

The hiss of the flat iron, the plaintive cry of juvenile chimney sweeps, the sheer exhilaration of double declutching.

The media is changing - many people prefer to read in their iPads. Better for the planet too.

Worth mentioning that the GW website is the most frequented and influential by far of all the Polish newspapers' sites.
jon357   
16 Jul 2013
Life / Where do artists like to live in Poland? [21]

I see Warsaw as more a financial centre and too expensive for someone trying to get by as a writer or painter (please correct me if I'm wrong in this observation)

There's a very large building across the river in Warsaw, city owned, which is rented out as cheap artists' studios.
jon357   
16 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Warning by Poland's Government before you go to the UK [53]

Obviously, but its the degrees of this system that bothers me. The rich are getting richer because they have the money required to make more money and the poor, poorer.

If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers we call him crazy. If a woman has a house full of cats we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation and our children's futures, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.
jon357   
15 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Renewal of British passport in Poland (how long does it take?) [27]

Your application will take at least 4 weeks from when it's received by Her Majesty's Passport Office in the UK.
Applications may take longer if:
Her Majesty's Passport Office needs to ask you for more information or documents
the photographs you send are rejected.

The Warsaw embassy doesn't do it anymore - you have to apply from the UK and pay for delivery by courier:
gov.uk/overseas-passports/y/poland/renewing_new/adult
jon357   
15 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]

A kind of nostalgia for when people were poorer probably. Some people like Quality Street, but when I had some for the first time in years I realised how bad they were. I didn't know they were still made.Ptasie Mleczko which are mostly chemical are the same to me.

One thing I've noticed about Polish shops in the UK is that they stock things like Masmix and Winiary stock cubes. Identical to products that every local shop sells for less. In the same vein, I've always wondered why M&S in Warsaw bothers stocking white sugar.
jon357   
15 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Warning by Poland's Government before you go to the UK [53]

Tell me about it. My home has 3.5 metre ceilings and underfloor heating - the bills are macabre. If people come here wanting a 'Western' lifestyle, they'll find it far more expensive that they ever imagined.

I would say that anyone over the age of 25 when coming here needs to be very realistic about what Poland has to offer them in the long run. I got an e-mail once from a guy who was over 40 that was looking to move here with his Polish wife - it turned out that her family had essentially told him a load of nonsense about his career prospects here. How often is that story repeated?

We see it here on this forum a lot. People wanting to work in blue collar or call centre jobs and assuming PL is like the UK but shunted further east. At best they'll be fodder for the kind of language school that pays subsistence wages.

Would be wonderful if Brits would leave Poland.

How would you know? You've never been here.
jon357   
15 Jul 2013
News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

Nope, only heard it on the grapevine. If it's so important to you, do some research. I couldn't care less.

So what exactly do you mean by:

ethnically correct Berman

??
jon357   
14 Jul 2013
UK, Ireland / Warning by Poland's Government before you go to the UK [53]

Not my world Jon, although I do feel for the family unit being destroyed by reckless parents falling ill thought out dreams.

The ones on the game come from families both good and bad. I know what you mean about 'the dream' though. Far too many people end up in one poky room and a shared kitchen somewhere like Tottenham or FFS, Wigan working for minimum wage or less. The streets are not paved with gold.

there are so many Brits getting sucked into the Polish dream by the Polish wife, poor buggers turn up here with a pocket full of cash and no idea, two years later they are looking for the exit

And those who went in that direction can end up thoroughly miserable in PL, speaking the language badly and no place for them in the jobs market with nothing left for them to do back home either. Or sleeping on a sofa in a grotty Polish flat, only staying here so they can see their kids on access visits.