Real Estate / Is there an issue with sitting tenants in Poland? [5]


The issue is if the tenant has children living with them.

You can still let long-term with a yearly tenancy agreement, renewed as necessary.

Law / How to register a new business in Poland [129]

What sort of legal basis for the business? Self-employed or limited liability? Partnership, sole-trader or company of investors? Makes a difference. BTW there are plenty of threads here with up to date information.

Travel / Whats the cheapest way to get around Poland... train or bus? [25]

Actually it is run from Poland rather than the UK. Out of Gdansk to be precise. If their prices seem higher than PKP, one can only guess at the reason.

The PKP website is ok for checking times. It isn't always reliable for fares and counter services at the main railway stations in PL aren't aimed at non - Polish speakers. Monitor's links are a good bet.

One good thing about the escape2poland site is that there is exhaustive information there which is very worth looking at. Just remember though that it is entirely geared up to selling you stuff which you may well find more cheaply and easily elsewhere.

News / Why is Amazon not present in Poland? [57]

It will take quite some time before people start to trust that business model here. Allegro had done a lot of good, but people still prefer to see what they're buying and ask a thousand questions.

News / Why is Amazon not present in Poland? [57]

We have courier companies and payment methods here ( though online payments still lag behind the west a bit due to the banking culture).

It will take a few years before online shopping truly takes off. I do think the mistrust in commercial life that was engendered during the 80s and 90s as well as the rather strange law that means retailers aren't held responsible for the quality of what they sell act against the growth of online sales.

News / Why is Amazon not present in Poland? [57]

You can use Amazon in Poland.

Worth remembering that Argos isn't here either. It isn't a trusting society and there is scepticism about buying things you can't see, feel or ask the shop assistant ten minutes of pointless questions about.

News / Barbara Piasecka Johnson, Maid Who Married Multimillionaire, Dies at 76 [57]

That would go down very nicely. I wonder what happens to the estate now - it's presumably still vast.

Law / Bank accounts taxed by up to 10%. Can it happen in Poland? [150]


Definitely not by an English-speaker. It screams second language at most readers and 'Polglish' at others; managing to come over as clumsy in the extreme.

If you aren't clued up enough to get Europe's language of business right on your website, what other things has your service overlooked?

News / Barbara Piasecka Johnson, Maid Who Married Multimillionaire, Dies at 76 [57]

Sadly not to me.

Law / Bank accounts taxed by up to 10%. Can it happen in Poland? [150]


That's the drawback - it isn't. The upside is that their requirements for borrowers are tougher than for most banks and some of them spread your investment across various different loans in small lots so if one defaults, you still make a profit. Most p2p companies have a default rate of less than half a percent.

And of course your savings aren't funding bankers' bonuses.

Law / Bank accounts taxed by up to 10%. Can it happen in Poland? [150]

I envy you the fire. Just thinking a lot about banks etc and their potential instability/crapness for savings. Have you come across P2P lending? I use Funding Circle and just started with ThinCats. The former generally gets you 7%+ and the second around10%. Potentially not good news for the high street banks since these services are staring to really take off. Until of course they figure a way of muscling in.

Hang on! There's some gin left in my cabin...

Law / Bank accounts taxed by up to 10%. Can it happen in Poland? [150]


No. They're just switching custodians from Deutsches Bank at the same time as moving to paperless trading - a result of the merger with Fortis. No mystery.

Interesting though that the exact phrase you use, capitals, punctuation and all, is identical to the 'headline' in some internet trash called the 'Daily Sheeple'. You cut n' paste panickmonger, you.

News / Barbara Piasecka Johnson, Maid Who Married Multimillionaire, Dies at 76 [57]


His money. His decision to whom he bequeaths it. His success in business suggests he knew exactly what he was doing where money was concerned.

Love / Have been living with my Polish girlfriend. Moving the relationship forward, what now? [18]

Hilarious even.

But people are starting families later and also living much longer, so there's really no issue here.

News / Barbara Piasecka Johnson, Maid Who Married Multimillionaire, Dies at 76 [57]


Good for her. And him ;-)


From the NYT article:




Odd that the NYT thinks Basia is pronounced

Love / Have been living with my Polish girlfriend. Moving the relationship forward, what now? [18]



Not everyone ages as quickly as you have.


Nothing new.

People are having families later. Maybe there can be problems with that - but there can also be problems staring families when you're in your 20s.

A friend just started a family (with a lady he isn't and won't bemarried to or live with) for the first time in his 50s. He's in rude health, judging by his parents and grandparents he'll have a very long life and he's sufficiently established in his career to provide for the child very well indeed.


The people I mentioned above both have a PhD in Maths.

There's no one size fits all approach - and with increasing life expectancy (and people staying younger for longer) this will be more and more common.

Life / Do Polish Barbers secretly hate their clients? [7]

That's what one has to do.

Life / Do Polish Barbers secretly hate their clients? [7]

There are certainly both good ones and bad ones in Warsaw - more of the latter than the former. For men, you have to make damn sure that they don't leave you with too much at the back - almost a mini-mullet. A normal style for less fashionable people in PL.

Real Estate / Is it possible for a bank to prevent you from selling your apartment at a logical price? [17]


Getting a mortgage in a currency you don't earn is extremely foolish. Pure gambling. As I remember, when the zloty fell against the euro and the CHF, the Financial Times described the Polish mortgage crisis as an act of collective stupidity, which it was.

It affects the market even today.

Real Estate / Is it possible for a bank to prevent you from selling your apartment at a logical price? [17]

Exactly. If he had the funds to make up the difference, he'd have deposited it already, wouldn't he.

Travel / bus from Gdansk airport to Slupsk [8]

There are several direct trains a day. Takes a couple of hours. rozklad-pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/en?

Also you don't even need to get the bus to Gdańsk Głowny (the main station) - you can get the first bus out of the airport to any suburban station and buy the ticket there.

Real Estate / Is it possible for a bank to prevent you from selling your apartment at a logical price? [17]

If they have a charge on the property they can prevent a sale.

Explains a lot though, doesn't it?

Travel / bus from Gdansk airport to Slupsk [8]

Try a bus to Gdansk or Sopot Station, then a train to Slupsk.

Google PKP for the online timetable - they have an English version of the site.

Language / About the Polish vocative case - expressing affection? [6]


Yes they would.

Whether or not they would use a diminutive form or not depends a lot on them as people and on the age of the person they're addressing. I often hear adult siblings and close friends use those forms.

Language / About the Polish vocative case - expressing affection? [6]


Dawidku.

As in "Ty jesteś moim skarbem Dawidku"

Language / Slavic accent correction [110]


I know a few people in their late 80s and 90s who still use it. One, however, is an actor. All are from places in the east that are no longer in Poland and all are from cultured backgrounds.

Life / Hey, Nice Airport Wrocław! Or! Day #1 for an American Ex-Pat in Poland. [128]


Nothing wrong with it at all. Protects the parquet too. Though not everyone does it - the higher up the social scale, the less likely it is.

Food / Borscht - Zurek / Bialy barszcz recipe [153]


Some say that żurek uses rye and barszcz biały uses barley.

Food / can I find curd and sour cream in Poland? [24]


Worcester sauce too.


That one's quite good for cooking with - it stands up to high temperatures..

I remember being shocked the first time I saw someone in Poland buy a half litre pot of double cream and drink it as if it were kefir. Imagine what that does to the arteries...

Language / Slavic accent correction [110]


Almost but not quite. It's called the 'dark L'. Older people (in their 80s) often pronounce it a little more strongly, sort of / lj /.