UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]


Sushi? Just goes to show that Warsaw is years ahead of the rest of the country ;)

News / Poland goes bankrupt? [110]


That's called "driving schools taking advantage of stupid consumers", nothing less. As I recall, driving schools are going to some some of their tax perks - as they should, why should driving schools be treated differently from other businesses? But no doubt, many schools will take advantage and raise the prices dramatically and blame the government in the process.

Anyway, more expensive driving courses are a good thing - it keeps the amount of new drivers down, which keeps cars off the road.


Unless the next government deals with ZUS, there's going to be a lot of pain ahead. The black hole is growing - and the only way to deal with it is to start slashing all the nice pension schemes that Poland has idiotically been funding for years.

News / Poland goes bankrupt? [110]


1% increase? It's nothing.

News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]


But who wants to mine such dirty things?

Life / INVISIBLE MAN in shops and offices in Poland? [70]


What, you mean they didn't differ from being anti-Jewish, nationalist and a bit backwards?

Law / Registration of right hand drive cars in Poland - possible? [82]

Standing on the seats seems to be a popular pastime of theirs as well.

No doubt there'll be the usual spike in accidents and deaths this weekend, which always strikes me as very ironic...

Law / Registration of right hand drive cars in Poland - possible? [82]


There's quite a few of them kicking about with no tax disc on show, so it's pretty obvious that they're not legal.


As far as I can tell, yes - the German prices are bumped up a bit because of Poles nearby buying everything in sight. I suppose it makes a change from stealing them ;)


They couldn't care less is my opinion. I can almost, almost understand it when they're by themselves, but when you see them with children in the car - well, it tells you a lot about the mentality!

Law / Registration of right hand drive cars in Poland - possible? [82]


Still not legal.

But on the other hand - do people really want Polish drivers driving RHD vehicles? Of course, they'll snap them up by the thousands because of how much cheaper they are - and given the driving of the average dickhead "Pawel" (thank you, Harry) on roads completely unsuitable for driving fast - who wants it?

It's clearly obvious that the average "superb" Polish driver isn't going to be so lame as to ask his wife if the road is clear ahead or not, he'll just swing out and hope for the best.

UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]

That could definitely work here - Poles like soup, they like (well, love) bread and the fruit based drink market is absolutely massive here. Your overheads would be so small - if you deliberately advertised "seasonal products", you could avoid using costly ingredients too!

But - tell you what, the office sandwich market isn't very big here at all. You know what I mean - people coming round to sell sandwiches.

Life / Weather in Poland - some explanations [30]


Without a doubt. It was 14c today!

I love the way that it doesn't rain constantly here.

UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]

Hmm, I'd make a point of spending a couple of hours in a milk bar - it'll give you an idea as to what people are after here.

Now - what could work would be take-away soup in winter.

UK, Ireland / Estimated number of Poles in Ireland thought to exceed 200,000 OR over 5% of population. [200]


There are certainly plenty of them claiming disability benefits while working on the side. Who is staffing all those guarded car parks, I wonder?

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]


That sounds amazing, I must try!

UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]


Spot on. Unless - I don't know if any such place exists in Wroclaw, but there's one area here on the site of a former factory that has quite a few specialist establishments. But this place was a huge success in terms of people wanting to live there (a lot of open minded, 30something types). There's about - I dunno, maybe 10,000 people living there, and the restaurants there are doing good business. It's a newish development (5 years old?) and still has that "new" charm - so it works.

But anywhere else? As you say - out of business in a few months.

Isn't property quite cheap in the unrenovated parts of Wroclaw near the centre though?


Sadly, probably not many. I would, I'm sure expats would - but the Poles would be a different story.

Tell you what though - we (as in the people on the forum familiar with Wroclaw) should draw up a list of restaurants and eating establishments for you to visit in Wroclaw when you're over - you'll get a great feel for Poland that way :)

UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]


It's doing very badly here - I was there on a Friday night (when you'd expect it to be rammed, right?) and no-one was there at all. It's in a shopping centre too.

Chef - check out a place called "Marche" in Wroclaw. You'll need to take those guys on if you want to have success with such an idea - they have more or less dominated the "quick, easy, good international food" market.

One other thing - so far, world food hasn't worked in the Polish suburbs - stick to the centre. You'll see a lot of property available in suburbia for catering, but there's a reason why - people in the suburbs either travel to the centre of cities for such food, or they don't eat that foreign muck at all.

UK, Ireland / How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust? [80]

One of them would make a killing in Poland. Densely packed neighbourhoods, lots of children - almost certainly, they'd do well.

Law / Nasza Klasa, rumoured to be up for sale for €130m [11]

I'd be shocked if anyone but the Allegro Group bought it.

News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]


But this industry was artificial as hell - while there's demand for small shipbuilding (can't recall the name of the yard, but it's the one that's been getting all the CalMac orders - Rementowa or something?) - there's no demand for the kind of thing that was being produced before.

Anyway, the shipyards had their chance under Solidarity management - but - as you keep pointing out, socialists made a mess of that.

Would this government strip all the subsidies from the mines, the factories and the farmers and slash all the Communist-era pensions?

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]


Jeez, no idea. Even the Japanese have stolen it these days, so - probably best to call it a Slavic dish more than anything else.

Do they eat it in Lithuania, I wonder?

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]

That's just called clever marketing to the Polonia ;)

(must admit, the idea of the Polonia buying pierogi from the Russians makes me laugh)

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]

Not hard really, is it?

I'm not sure what makes me madder, the use of "pierogies" or describing them as "Polish dumplings".

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]


Odd, the website I checked showed the accent. That'll teach me for not relying on Google Translate! :(


It's not impossible, it's just a bastardised Polonia word.

Interestingly, Brits don't call them "pierogies", but "pierogi".

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]

Wow.

Anyone who says "Pierogies" is a ******* idiot, end of.

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]

I still want this list of pierogi that they make, could steal some ideas ;)

USA, Canada / Polish Food - 40 flavors of pierogies in the US [113]


FOR THE LAST TIME, THE PLURAL OF PIERÓG IS PIERÓGI, NOT PIEROGIES.

gah. If you're selling them, at least get the name right!

News / Overcoming (or fostering) political hate speech in Poland? [15]


And this says it all - Kaczynski doesn't want to end it at all. He plays the victim card (to appeal to his core electorate), but it doesn't work - especially when he accuses Tusk and Komorowski of being murderers!

News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]

Beats me, last time I checked, Poland was getting a lot of cash from the EU and was seen as an important regional player in Europe. She's also using her power to bully Lithuania a bit, so it doesn't sound like she's being cold shouldered at all.

More Polonia Paranoia?

News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]


You don't have that expression? :s

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


I believe you, but it's weird how the situation is exactly the opposite here - schools in the satellite towns are often full of desperate people willing to work for cash in hand, just to get some teaching hours. Companies are a totally different thing though - I've seen proof that a large-ish factory outside of Poznan was paying 75zl an hour to Polish teachers, just because of the inaccessibility of the factory. Certainly, if someone wants to do the whole "car, commute, car, commute, car, commute" thing - they can make a hell of a lot of money very quickly.

But - I think we can agree that language schools in the small towns are making a killing!


I think it's a one way trip to going mad to be honest - it's bad enough in Scotland when you barely see daylight (light at 9, dark at 3:30) - but given the much worse economic situation here, it's not like you have a huge paypacket to comfort yourself at the end of the month. Or worse - you'll earn a lot of money by Polish standards, then realise that you need 6000zl to get home!

Having said this Fuzzy - if you could stand it (what with the over-Germanic way of doing everything), you should check out Switzerland some day. The going rate for private lessons is 50CHF minimum, with 70-80CHF being more of a realistic rate - at today's rates, it's almost 1:1 with the USD! Fair enough, it's an expensive country (rent will cost you about 2500CHF for anything livable) - but the money you can make there is absolutely staggering. From what I've been reading, there's a lack of properly qualified/experienced teachers there who can teach English at a very high level - especially with regards to things like the British use of sarcasm or aggression.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


I think it depends exactly where these small towns are. In rural Wielkopolska, you'd be exceptionally lucky to get that - more realistic would be 30zl-ish. But without insurance, you're also gambling as a foreigner that you're not going to get sick. It can work for EU citizens, but a non-EU citizen would be taking a hell of a risk to live in Poland without healthcare paid for.

One thing that many foreigners (especially Brits) don't understand is that it's possible not to have health insurance here.