News / Poland versus Greece in economy [175]


Welcome to the Balkans... :/

Travel / Two Older Polish American Sisters to visit Poland 1st Time [29]


I'd go with Warsaw, Kraków and Gdańsk. Those three will give you the best possible tourist experience - Wrocław and Poznań are nice, but they aren't must-see. The only problem is logistics, but - I can suggest something.

Fly into Copenhagen - there are plenty of flights there from the US, and it will be a great starting point. However, unless you have a personal reason for visiting (such as always wanting to see it) - it's not that great, and doesn't contain anything particularly impressive. I'd actually rather suggest visiting Berlin - the history there is much more 'now', and it's a great place to start such a trip.

From Berlin, you can take the Berlin-Gdynia-Express train, which runs straight to Gdańsk. You can then visit the WW2 Museum and the European Solidarity Centre, both of which are must-sees. The Gdańsk Old Town is loved by a huge amount of tourists as well.

From Gdańsk, I'd suggest going to Warsaw, and using it as a base to visit Mosciska. You can also see many important things in Warsaw, such as the Warsaw Uprising museum and the Museum of the Polish Jews. It's then very easy to go to Kraków to see the attractions there.

Then everything is easy - I would suggest the Kraków-Budapest night train (with a private sleeping compartment). You can then go from Budapest to Vienna, Vienna to Prague and then Prague via Dresden back to Berlin for the flight home.

I'd suggest something like this -

Berlin (3 nights) - the city is so full of history that it deserves 3 days.
Gdańsk (2 nights)
Warsaw (3 nights, including trip to Mosciska)
Kraków (2 nights - third night is on the train)
Budapest (2 nights)
Vienna (2 nights) (you could also stay in Bratislava and make a daytrip to Vienna, which is popular)
Prague (2 nights)
Dresden (2 nights)
Berlin (1 night)

All of these cities are well connected by train, and apart from the Kraków-Budapest leg and the Berlin-Gdańsk one, all of the connections are around 2-3 hours.

I can suggest a great agency (run by an American, but based in Poland) that would reserve all the tickets for you, and then send them by courier to the US so that you don't have to worry about anything.


Absolutely. I'm more than willing to help you put everything together - and for certain you can do it for far less than $6000 for two weeks.

News / Poland versus Greece in economy [175]


I wish they could just agree on Republic of Northern Macedonia and get it over and done with.

News / Road deaths increase in Poland [43]

It's all down to the lack of enforcement. My friend was just caught with highly illegal headlights, and they basically told him to change them and send him on his way. The car is king, and there's no will to enforce the rules.

Law / Spouse Polish Visa For non-eu citizen with UK residency card and travel to Poland [8]


No, you can't I'm afraid. You'll need to get a visa issued by Poland (or other Schengen country). The visa is free, and will be processed quickly, but it's still required.

europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-family/index_en.htm

All details are here.

History / Israeli wants to wipe Poland off the map! [198]


I think Orthodox Jews do accept converts, as long as you accept their rules and that you prove to their satisfaction that you've converted. It's not like Christianity where most denominations go "sure, no problem, just have some simple baptism and that's you", but the road is open.

With other denominations, it seems that some rabbis will accept you for cash, while others will make you prove it to varying degrees.

You're right though, it is strange that they don't actively try to convert people. Never thought of it like that before...

Life / Poland safe for a Greek? [93]

Not really, it wasn't needed anymore.

The IMF and the EU still play a major role in Polish fiscal policy. The 3% deficit limit is respected by PiS, and the IMF has played a huge role in Poland for what, 30 years now? The IMF didn't stuff a loan down anyone's throat, it was simply there in case it was needed - which it wasn't in the end.

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]


Some are, but I think the course she's looking at will be subject to competitive entry and won't be easy to get into.


Have you noticed a trend in the last few years of ex-military weirdos turning up with no connection to the country? I've had several encounters with them over the last few months, including one chap who was moaning and whining because girls only wanted "free English lessons" and not serious dating.

Agreed with what you say about translation - though with the caveat that there's still not many native speakers of English able to translate from Polish to English correctly.

Law / Probate laws in Poland - banking data access and money transfer [6]

Quite easily, and in fact, such data is routinely sold in Poland by companies.

UOKiK should be your first step if you suspect something like that has happened.

News / Polonophobia rising in Israel. [144]

To be fair, if the 140% is in military technology, then it's not a bad deal for the Americans. Iron Dome is a fine example of Israeli technology that is low cost and effective.

News / Polonophobia rising in Israel. [144]


Hahaha American taxpayer paying for replacements. It's your taxes going to their warmongering, don't forget.


This much is true. Plenty of Israeli Arabs are living decent lives, though I do strongly believe that we need to once and for all create a three-state solution. Israel needs to be within the 1967 borders (with East Jerusalem turned into a city under UN administration along with the Golan Heights), the West Bank needs to be the basis of a Palestinian State and Gaza needs to be given a free vote on whether they want to join the West Bank or operate as a free city.

But all conflicts also need to end - Israel's withdrawal needs to be met with peace from the Palestinian side too. It's in everyone's best interest to have a stable situation there, though I suspect plenty of other non-Palestinian Arabs have too much to gain from Israel as the enemy.

UK, Ireland / Living in a Polish/Gypsy community in Poland. People don't like me there. [25]

Don't even get me started on the poradnia (what would you call it in English, by the way? I have no idea...) and their...strange behaviour. I dealt with one kid who should have been kept down a year because he was barely scraping through - he was young enough (born in November) that it wouldn't have made a difference, but his parents were stubbornly refusing to cooperate. It was finally agreed with them that he would go there and that both sides would agree with the decision.

We get the report, and it essentially claimed that he had a very high IQ, blah blah blah. Not a single teacher had seen any evidence of it, nor had his parents provided any evidence whatsoever to suggest that he was intelligent. His language in Polish was easily 2 years behind his peers, and at least two teachers were openly giving him fraudulent 2's so that they didn't have to deal with the parents. It was clearly nonsense, but what else could be done?

My suspicion to this day is that they didn't want to give a bad opinion to a well-connected local family.

UK, Ireland / Living in a Polish/Gypsy community in Poland. People don't like me there. [25]


Never, they're pretty much identical to other national minorities.


It's quite commonly reported - it seems that they get sent to those schools either very quickly, or they get sent there for bad behaviour while comparable badly behaved Polish kids don't. But it's not an easy problem to fix - the Slovaks in particular told the EU that they had already tried all of their methods 50 years ago and to stop trying to push solutions that simply don't work with them.

It's an old article, but it's the best I could find in English for the benefit of everyone else: Artykul/57509,Polish-Roma-children-shunted-into-special-schools

The project that I was talking about in Usti nad Labem -
romea.cz/en/news/czech/together-we-can-staffer-of-youth-drop-in-center-says-differences-between-czech-and-romani-youth-are-minimal
- we really need more of this sort of thing, but not only for Roma kids, but for all children in Poland. I was involved with one such project before, but it didn't succeed because we couldn't get the funding to keep it going.

UK, Ireland / Living in a Polish/Gypsy community in Poland. People don't like me there. [25]


The problem lies on both sides - some in their community don't want to integrate, and others don't want them to integrate. There are some successful examples (for instance, I can point you to a great project in Usti nad Labem that really made a difference to the lives of young gypsies), and there are some unsuccessful examples (for instance, in Poland, treating them as retarded and putting them into special schools because they can't use Polish competently, while others are given extra support). There's no simple answer, though - Poland is no worse than other CEE countries.

Polish gypsies are pretty well integrated though, and many of them hate the Romanian Roma that caused so many problems in the 1990's and 2000's.

Law / Urgent - Poland's National Visa Expiry and 90-days Visa-free Travel [8]


In that case, go visit the Straż Granicnza and get them to confirm it. You can also call them, but it might be easier just to visit them as you're in Warsaw anyway.

You can go here - strazgraniczna.pl/pl/kontakt/1946,Komenda-Glowna-Strazy-Granicznej.html - but I think it would be better to go here - nadwislanski.strazgraniczna.pl/wis/kontakt/11235,Kontakt.html - as they have territorial responsibility for operational matters in Warsaw.

Life / Poland safe for a Greek? [93]


...well, to be fair.

Macedonians are lovely people as well, I've been there and found them to be very friendly, even if the country is very surreal.

Law / Urgent - Poland's National Visa Expiry and 90-days Visa-free Travel [8]


When your visa expires, you'll be automatically given a 90 day visa-free period in Schengen. It's automatic, though if you want to reassure yourself, cross the external Schengen border and come straight back. But there's no need - you'll get that extra 90 day period .

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Easy answer: because social work is a profession dominated by ass-coverers who simply don't want to get involved in 'difficult' situations. It's way too long to get into here, but I'd argue that social services in most European countries are totally incapable of dealing with foreigners.

The UK brought in mandatory reporting, but they still can't deal with it properly. I'd like to see parents of girls mutilated facing a mandatory prison sentence if a girl is found to be a victim of FGM while under the care of her parents. It's nothing but complete evil.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]


Actually, you're completely wrong. The new system allows approved institutions (which can be universities, language schools, etc.) to conduct examinations at a time they choose, with approved examiners conducting the exams. It's identical to the system used by Cambridge.


Of course they are. I can even introduce you to one if you want. There are numerous non-BC test centres - IH Wrocław, IH Torun, in fact, the BC only has two test centres as far as I'm aware. The British Council handle payments and process candidates information, but they don't provide examiners except for exams that they administer themselves.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


What, come on, it's great fun. There's no stress at all relating to being caught, and as long as you treat every other driver as an imbecile, it's fine.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]


Dominic, again, you're way out of date. The law regulating this changed in 2015, and now private institutions can become exam centers too.

News / Road deaths increase in Poland [43]


Yes, of course. Everyone does, it's pretty much a guaranteed fail if you don't. If you stop and the person doesn't cross, you're supposed to verbally ask the examiner for permission to proceed.

Work / Sikh coming to Poland with over 14 years experience in Customer Service and running operations [30]


Plenty of them are doing just that after graduating here. I know one guy who graduated from the art school in Poznań and landed a good entry level job with one of the better corporations.

Things have changed Dominic. Right now, there simply aren't enough people to fill the jobs going.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Wrong. Ireland had 5.2% growth last year, not to mention 26% in 2015.

News / Beata Szydło - the best Polish politician, world's politicians could learn from her [80]


Until it happens. We were fortunate that the Wroclaw bus bomber didn't blow that bus up, and as the prosecution said, the bomb would have killed and maimed a large amount of people if it had gone off.

News / Poland has the most dangerous roads in Europe [34]

[moved from]


Shame we can't say the same about Polish roads. Over 3000 killed yearly at the hands of Polish drivers.

News / Beata Szydło - the best Polish politician, world's politicians could learn from her [80]


Convicted. And there was that idiot that tried to blow up the Sejm, also convicted.

And there's someone else up on terror charges too.


Don't boast.

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


Bingo. The EU doesn't need to fine Poland at all, it will simply be enough for the net payers to refuse to contribute anything to Poland. As soon as the PiS puppets realise that there's no EU funds to divert into their pockets, they'll soon find a new party led by more...pragmatic leadership.

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


What if someone wants to log a few trees in an area enjoyed by all Polish citizens, just for personal gain?

You're happy with Poland losing for the sake of one person's profit?

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


Ever had a look at his financial statements?

They make curious reading for those familiar with Polish university salaries...