Life / What kind of clothes suit Woodstock in Poland? [2]

Depends on your own personal taste. Have you looked on their website? There are pics of the crowd and you'll see that most of the girls are wearing shorts and skimpy little vest tops or jeans and t-shirts. However this girl has a more individual style and I think she looks great and it would suit someone a bit heavier than she is:

[Woodstock Poland]

Not sure whether it's a skirt or wide legged trousers she's wearing but either would be nice.

As one woman to another I would say, avoid shorts and if you're going to wear tight jeans then wear a loose fitting floaty top that covers your bum. Oh and don't forget a nice hat in case it's very sunny, maybe with a wide floppy brim seventies style. Bring something to slip on in case it rains, there can be thundery storms in August and it's been a wet summer so far. Hope you have a great time :))

Work / English speaking-Accountant and job in Poland [13]

Funny, I did wonder whether she was just calling herself Olga so as not to appear too foreign. It crossed my mind that she might actually be an Indian man!!! So she's actually a Turkish woman..........there's always something a bit fishy when people don't give their nationality from the outset as clearly that affects your ability to work somewhere. I would say that not being from an EU country and not speaking Polish her chances of working in her profession are slim :(

Work / English speaking-Accountant and job in Poland [13]

Well I certainly think it would be very difficult to work as an accountant in Poland with no knowledge of Polish. How would you complete tax returns etc for clients it you can't understand the forms and paperworK? Also you'd need knowledge of Polish laws on finance wouldn't you? The OP is probably just hoping that she can stumble across some role where she can get a foot in the door. With a name like Olga, she may be Ukrainian or some other Slavic nation and is probably confident that she can learn enough Polish fairly quickly due to the similarities in the languages.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


Maybe for some he is, not for me. I was first moved to curiosity about Hitler when I was fourteen and read a biography of him, two years later I'd moved on to Marx as I was trying to figure out the mess that was the Soviet Union, which appeared to me to be a facist, not a socialist state. Not everbody forms their opinions based on media-friendly soundbites and the sensationalist press.

But back to Hitler...........are you saying that the man didn't have a temper?? Because he most certainly exhibited incoherent rage on more than one occasion and Kaczyński also is well known for his outbursts. In Hitler's case, the jury is out as to whether there was a touch of deliberate 'staging' of anger in the early days for dramatic effect but according to those who knew him, he often showed remarkable self-control at times of stress, only to explode quite suddenly later on.


He's always been like that though he appears to be becoming increasingly unstable as he feels his power and influence waning and his particular vision of HIS Poland disintegrating.. His reputation for not being able to control himself is well established. Kaczyński in other times, would have been potentially a very dangerous person and is precisely the type of man who would have lead Poland into a war. He is also the type of person who would have no hesitation in having his perceived enemies rounded up and transported to an internment camp.

Work / English speaking-Accountant and job in Poland [13]

Google 'accountancy jobs poland' and if you see any ads in English then it won't matter if you don't speak Polish. I suppose your CV is in English? Try to get somebody with better English than yours (no offence) to take a look and check that it's correct with no grammar and spelling mistakes. You should also make sure that your accountancy training/qualifcations are recognised in Poland.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


Really? I'd say it was extremely disturbing that people aged 18-24 support a man who believes that child pornography should be legalised. If it weren't for that sinister aspect he'd be laughable and the thought that the youth of Poland would put any faith in such an individual or his party would be utterly depressing, and really raise questions about their intelligence if not their sanity.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


It was astonishing wasn't it? The man is clearly unwell. That kind of rage is actually quite reminiscent of Hitler who exhibited a similar lack of self-control, and all in the middle of a Royal Visit!! Poland is hosting foreign dignitaries and we see this conduct from the one of the highest ranking public figures in the country. Once again the Polish adminstration has embarrassed itself and its people on the world stage.

Food / What's your favourite tea that's sold in Poland? And what tea do you like but can't find here? [3]

Alma used to have a few Twinings blends but I don't remember if they had Assam. I think they had Darjeeling from time to time. They also had a range of very reasonably priced ones imported direct from India. I think they were called Silver Pot and they were packed in little wooden tea chests. Haven't seen them anywhere else since. Since Christmas Biedronka have been stocking Twinings Earl Grey and English Breakfast loose tea at 11.99 per tin as opposed to 15.99 in Auchan. It used to be about 18.00 in Alma!! And they still went out of business.............

Is the Lady Grey blend milder than Earl Grey, Harry?? Because that wouldn't go down well in the Atch camp at all I must say.

I can't say I've ever found a blend of tea in Poland that I find acceptable for the Irish palette. They simply have no kick at all and the depth of flavour isn't there. I suppose most of the brands known to us in the British Isles are not available in Poland because it would take a major marketing campaign to launch them onto the Polish market, otherwise they would just languish on the supermarket shelves, and it's a big expense to undertake with no certainty of a return on the investment.

History / Podhale Rifles Brigade records [3]

Sorry, I misread that last link, the lady got her relative's records from the Polish section of the British MOD. Still it gives you a bit of extra info on their activities during that period which all helps in filling in the whole picture.

History / Podhale Rifles Brigade records [3]

This might be of interest to you, it's a discussion about the Podhale Rifles with some great photos:

panzergrenadier.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=6318

However as to records I would say this is your best bet:

caw.wp.mil.pl/en/82.html

There's no guarantee that the records you need have survived though and they may not even be in Poland. They were moved all over the place during the war and some are in America. However it's definitely worth contacting the archivist at the Polish military archives office as they can do a search for you.

Also found this, could be useful, one of the posters here got her relative's records from the Polish MOD so it looks promising:

warrelics.eu/forum/polish-armed-forces-west-polskie-si-y-zbrojne-na-zachodzie-1939-1947/podhale-rifle-brigade-1939-france-621720

Life / ATM's in Poland with Euro withdrawal facility? [12]

Yes the card can be used in any ATM which has the Visa symbol which pretty much all of them do. As to charges you need to check with your bank as it can vary. Oh by the way it's often best to inform your bank that you will be going abroad and making withdrawals as otherwise they may block the card for security reasons, thinking it's been stolen.

News / Poland being the powerhouse of Europe [40]

There isn''t really anything new in that article that hasn't been said before and the treatment of the subject is pretty superficial, just filling a few column inches 'we haven't done anything on Poland for a while and Trump is going there'. In the short to medium term the outlook for Poland has been consistently good. However the author skims over the very real concern about lowering the retirement age in a nation with declining birth rates and trying to solve the problem by giving cash subsidies rather than better maternity/paternity leave policies, affordable childcare etc.

Back in 2012 the European Commission predicted that Poland's GDP per capita would decline from a potential 4.7% to 3% after 2021 and sure enough last year the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2017 forecast for Poland from 3.7% to 3.4. While it's not exactly gloom and doom, one can't be too complacent.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]


Interesting. If you go to the HIV data breakdown on the WHO website you will see that there is column after column with 'no data' for Poland. This either means that successive governments have failed to collect the data which is criminally neglectful or they have the data and don't want to share it.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]

America is such a young country, it's beyond its comprehension how one can survive a crisis, but Europe as a continent has been through all this before in different forms. Europe has always been in turmoil of one sort or another.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]


Well Johnny to put it simply, culturally America is an infant and Europe is in its second childhood :)) or perhaps America is in its early teens and Europe is having a mid-life crisis..........


Hand on heart Johnny I'm not the least bit jealous of America or Americans. I don't find it an attractive country at all, never did. There are aspects of classic American culture that I love, but modern America doesn't appeal to me at all. The problem with it is that it's just TOO big, it can never really be run satisfactorily for that reason amongst others. It does a great job at selling itself, the Americans are the true masters of propaganda, not the Russians. Everybody with any sense knows that Russia is a hellhole but they readily buy into the idea of the American dream.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]


No, the everyday vernacular of the majority of people in the English speaking world. There are even homophobes who use the word 'gay' when referring to the object of their disgust. The world gay has been in common usage for well over thirty years at this stage and has become common parlance.

Now let's get back to the mess that is America. To tell you the truth now Polly that's where most of the developed worlds' problems originate, the good old USA. You notice how European society has been undermined and polluted by cheap American pop culture which has spread its vile tentacles out from television since the 1960s? The disease of mass consumerism and greed very much orginates in America, buy an over priced giant tin fridge on easily available credit, stuff it full of frozen stuff that vaguely resembles food and live the American dream.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]


Once upon a time perhaps 'gay' was a PC buzzword but it has now entered the vernacular and is everyday speech.


I object most strongly to some euphemisms eg 'little girls' room' or 'powder room' or 'going to the bathroom' which are not only euphemisms but Americanisms, also 'tuxedo' for dinner jacket and dentures instead of false teeth.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]

You're at it again Polly quoting the American experience. America is an insane mess of a country and that's a fact. The only wonder is that it's not worse than it is, you do a slightly better job at managing yourselves than Russia and that's about all one can say on the topic.


I neither approve nor disapprove of gay or transgender people. I simply accept their existence. As for all the other weird stuff that you come up with, like any normal person it never crosses my mind but if my attention is drawn to it I am as naturally repelled as anybody, gay or straight, would be.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]



Considering something to be so doesn't actually make it so. The science please Notty to support your disease theories.


That's a general stat provided by the WHO based on worldwide figures and weighted by countries with no sexual health education programme and many transgender females working in the sex industry. It's completely meaningless in the context of Poland. How much data on transgender Poles has been gathered by the central statistics office of the Polish government? Does the government even know how many transgender Poles there are in POland, let alone how many have HIV? In any case, the spread of HIV is always down to governments doing a bad job of educating people about the dangers of unprotected sex and providing the necessary support services.

Now while you're doing your research Notty perhaps you could give us the stats for how the Polish hetero community stacks up against other nations in the general level of STDs?

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]

Notty are you really that simple? Let me explain it for you. Gay people who live in small towns, or rural places often decide to move to the big city as it's easier to live openly there. So in a big city, especially the capital city, one is likely to encounter concentrations of gay people. Therefore you might go to London and think there are loads of gays but in fact the percentage is the same as anywhere else.

Life / HIV/AIDS growing in Poland - more fear of pregnancy than STDs [82]

[moved from]

Once again Polly you deliberately miss the point in order to start one of your rants. The point, is that Notty said one would never see gay people in Poland which is complete rubbish as one already does.


Referring to yourself are you? Because believe me dear, no normal person knows as much about weird sexual perversions as you seem to. I haven't even heard of most of the stuff you talk about. There is no doubt whatever that you take great pleasure in referencing these things.

News / Trump will hold Poland up as an example for other nations to follow [106]


But protocol takes precedence over social norms on state occasions. You Americans don't understand these things of course, 'we're all just folks' :D However on state occasions precedence is determined by official rank and not by gender. Mrs Trump has no official rank so the correct form is either:

The hosting head of state greets visiting head of state, then greets wife of visitor, then wife of host greets visiting head of state followed by wife of same.

or
Host greets visiting head of state, wife of host greets visiting head of state, host greets wife of visitor and then wife of host greets wife of visitor but either way 'wife of visiting head of state' comes last.

You can see why Mrs D got a bit confused! 'Tell me again who I'm supposed to be greeting now??' It's a bit like Danny Kaye and the famous Chalice from the Palace, the Flagon with the Dragon and the Pellet with the Poison in the Vessel with the Pessel.

News / Trump will hold Poland up as an example for other nations to follow [106]


Neither. It's a simple breach of etiquette. There is always an order of precdence and a protocol in meetings and greetings of foreign dignitaries and their wives. This is the fault of the Polish diplomatic corps/senior civil servants who should have briefed the Dudas on the correct form. I'm no fan of the Dudas but Mrs Duda looks genuinely warm and friendly. I think she was just carried away with the excitement of the occasion and behaved a bit impulsively. I don't think there was any underlying agenda.

History / Medieval Polish Knight Armour [2]

That's a very early period and examples would be limited in the sense that you won't find too many in Polish museums or even recorded in paintings of the time as the dominant theme in art was religious imagery. I suggest you read the Wikipedia article on warfare in medieval Poland. There's quite a lot of detail in it about armour and weapons. Some of the armour worn was universal in that it followed general designs of that period throughout Europe. Once you know which items were worn you can search for those items as opposed to just searching for Polish armour.

This site might be useful to you:

polisharms.com/category/knowledge-base/galleries

And this one:
tojuzbylo.pl/wiadomosc/cmentarz-w-bodzi-elity-panstwa-pierwszych-piastow

Lots of images here, mixed Slavic warriors so you have to keep scrolling but there are Polish examples:
pl.pinterest.com/pin/442126888391300086

Have fun!

Study / Help !! I want to study Dramatic Art (Acting ) in Poland [6]

Nana be realistic. You want to study drama of all things in English in a country where English is not the native language and where English is not widely spoken. Obviously most drama degrees will be in Polish. As for rankings, it might get you through the door of an agent, but at an audition the casting director will not care where you studied, he'll care about how you read the lines and whether you're right for the part. If you're talented, hard working and determined you will have as much chance of success as anybody else regardless of where you study.

News / Officials in Poland are hailing an upcoming visit by Donald Trump [720]



And yet the innovations of Scottish engineers changed the world.

News / Officials in Poland are hailing an upcoming visit by Donald Trump [720]


And what do they want? The bottom line Johnny is that Poland still needs EU money and other forms of help and that the benefits of EU membership for Poland far outweigh the disadvantages. Now perhaps America can indeed afford to pump another 200 billion into Poland (about the amount of EU funding received) but why would they want to? And are they likely to send their top people to Poland to assist in getting various development projects up and running? I don't think so.

UK, Ireland / Why did you move to the UK / Ireland from Poland - what incentives were you given ? [26]

Roz is right about how expensive it is. Yes, there is a drug problem in parts of Dublin especially and related crime, but it's not as bad as Roz suggests and most people will never encounter drugs unless they go looking for them. You will see dealers and junkies hanging around the city centre though. Some of the junkies are real scumbags and can be quite threatening, others are just quiet stoners. On the other hand there are many places in Ireland where you can go out and leave your front door unlocked - my own sister lives in a country town and frequently leaves the door open. Last time I visited her when we came back to the house a neighbour had been in and left her a box of freshly laid duck eggs for her baking :)

As to whether you should move there it depends on what kind of work you are qualified for. Employment opportunites are very limited outside of Dublin, Galway and Cork. Salaries are very high compared to Poland, even for unskilled minimum wage jobs and are among the highest in Europe but the cost of living is also very high, rents are sky-high and buying a place of your own is just an unattainable dream for many. If you work in IT especially in software engineering, even at the junior level, salaries are high enough to live comfortably.

News / Officials in Poland are hailing an upcoming visit by Donald Trump [720]


As your own countrymen might say Johnny, that doesn't amount to a hill o'beans. In the end it all boils down to money and Poland still needs a lot of cash ploughed into it. America is not going to stump that up. Poland isn't yet strong enough economically or politically to function without some kind of support and America cannot afford to give that. I'm sure Polish people also wouldn't want to see politics in Poland run along American lines with American 'advisors' pulling the strings.

Breaking up European unity and weakening Europe doesn't do America any favours either. You can figure that one out for yourself over your tea and toast :)

News / Officials in Poland are hailing an upcoming visit by Donald Trump [720]

The exact quote is:

"Poland has expressed hopes Trump can persuade U.S. business to invest in a network of north-south rail and road links central to the regional initiative, something U.S. diplomats and many economists dismiss as unrealistic."

So actually that could be the highway/motorway to which you refer.