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Posts by sobieski  

Joined: 1 Jun 2008 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 20 Jun 2015
Threads: Total: 106 / In This Archive: 78
Posts: Total: 2111 / In This Archive: 1623 		From: Poland, Warsaw
Speaks Polish?: Good
Interests: Polish culture and history, cooking

Displayed posts: 1701 / page 27 of 57
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sobieski   
24 Nov 2012
Life / Karta Miejska in Warsaw [2]

I have a Karta Miejska strefa 1 - so valid within the city boundaries.
The thing is that every weekend I am commuting to Piaseczno and back, which is in strefa 2.
I was thinking on the next renewal to change my Karta Miejska to strefa 1 + 2, but that is a big price difference (and after 1 Jan that difference will be almost 100 PLN)

Until now I am solving this problem with buying in advance a train ticket from Warszawa Jeziorki (end of strefa 1) to Piaseczno. And from Śródmieście to Jeziorki my Karta Miejska.

This means on the same train I am using my Karta Miejska and a train ticket.
But I heard from several people lately that this might be illegal.
Is this the case?
sobieski   
20 Nov 2012
News / Poland's Guy Fawkes [88]

Andreas Breivik also was innocent until he went ape. The rest of the story we know.
It is only a matter of time until the extreme-right nutters here in Poland follow his example.
sobieski   
20 Nov 2012
Law / Can't get a social security number/PESEL in Poland (I'm from UK) [56]

I have it on fairly good authority that you *can* get a proper plastic card

Do you mean, that it replaces the joke that the karta stałego pobytu at the moment is?
Meaning a salmon-colored piece of paper which is meant to last for 10 years...
sobieski   
20 Nov 2012
Law / Can't get a social security number/PESEL in Poland (I'm from UK) [56]

Even as the owner (as Harry pointed out) I can only register myself for 5 years because I don't have a dowod osobisty, even though I do have a PESEL.

I own a flat, and have a meldunek na stale and karta pobytu na stałe and a PESEL since I arrived in Poland 9 years ago.

First time I hear about this 5-year rule? What is this about?

Another reason why landlords are not very keen (apart from the tax issue) to give a meldunek, is that afterwards it is very hard to kick that person out until his/her meldunek expires.
sobieski   
20 Nov 2012
Law / Can't get a social security number/PESEL in Poland (I'm from UK) [56]

From what I hear from friends (I own my flat so have no experience with renting), to find a place to rent with a meldunek is hard, and costs considerably more as a "normal" one. (without meldunek) This has something to do with taxes - i.e. when your landlord gives you a meldunek he has to register the renting of the flat with the authorities and pay taxes on that income. Poles of course can stay registered in their hometown, with their parents etc...

For us foreigners this is more tricky...
But that said and done, PESEL and NIP are the basics of everyday life in Poland.
sobieski   
13 Nov 2012
News / Hooligans in PRL times ... and Warsaw in 2012 [28]

Your story sounds attractively realistic.

Could you give a link to any video fragment / newspaper article supporting your fairly amusing fairy tale?
sobieski   
12 Nov 2012
News / Hooligans in PRL times ... and Warsaw in 2012 [28]

Just wondering...your wonderful fairy-tale...every square metre of that demonstration was covered by TV cameras - how is it possible nobody else did see it happen?
sobieski   
6 Nov 2012
History / North Poles are not native to North Poland.. [6]

Same as a sizeable proportion of the Wrocław population comes from Lwów. Including the famous Ossolineum library.
I would not call them transplants though. Rather very unwilling emigrants.
They were deported by the Soviets from their ancestral homelands and kicked to ancestral German homelands.
sobieski   
1 Nov 2012
News / 2012 - 2013 Will be the most severe Polish winter. [38]

Whenever I've been in Poland in winter, it's always rained! I've still never seen snow on Polish soil

Do you live in the greenhouses of the Botanical Gardens in Powiśle maybe?
Every winter in Poland has its snow and cold for prolonged terms.
That said and done, weather forecasts do not further as 10 days - and get shaky by that time.
It is in my view nonsense to predict weather for January.
Although I would welcome a really cold winter with lots of snow. It would kill all the bugs for the next summer an restore the water tables.

And to work...I will get somehow :)
sobieski   
1 Nov 2012
Life / Buying flowers in Warsaw [3]

Since many years I am buying flowers at Hala Mirowska - wide selection, prices OK.
But since some time I notice that the quality of the flowers (yes I know they are all grown in Holland, niestety) is going down.

Bought recently quite a few times roses for my dear one, and after 3 days they were almost gone :(
Any alternative?
Yes I know on Plac Wilsona the "flower ladies" are standing there since God knows when...But any other place in the city centre?
sobieski   
31 Oct 2012
Travel / Health Insurance in Poland for EU citizens for a travel trip? [7]

The European Health Insurance Card (here in Poland it is called EKUZ) is issued in every EU memberstate, and entitles the bearer health care according to the same conditions as the citizens of any given EU country are entitled to.

See this link: europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/health/unforeseen-treatments/short-visit/index_en.htm

I am always taking it with me back home to Belgium.
sobieski   
30 Oct 2012
News / Kudos to RCC for turning Poland into a laughingstock... again. [38]

I am afraid nobody in Poland associates Halloween with something solemn. (at least that is my guess). It is plain US commercial import.
All Saints' Day is a different matter. It is an enduring and touching tradition here in Poland, and rightly so. As it is in most West and Central European countries.
sobieski   
30 Oct 2012
News / Kudos to RCC for turning Poland into a laughingstock... again. [38]

Halloween has noting to do with Polish traditions.

Halloween nowhere in Europe has to do something with local traditions. It is commercialism, but the kind which seemingly is contagious despite being completely silly.

Do the Irish still celebrate it?
sobieski   
30 Oct 2012
News / Kudos to RCC for turning Poland into a laughingstock... again. [38]

I cannot recall any of this kind of celebrations in my native Belgium when I was young (60 -70's). I do not doubt there were pre-Christian celebrations. Still Halloween for me it is an artificial import from the US. And very silly, but that is my opinion :)

Albeit still with an ancient European pedigree - which cannot be said from Valentine, which is utterly artificial.