Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]


I *think* that may be the reason for not being offered the ticket post-paid - they have no means of revoking a Belgian licence if you don't pay the fine, whereas they can do this easily with a Polish licence. Or maybe, simply, they thought that foreign licence = on the spot fine, without consideration as to your residency.

I don't know :)

Genealogy / Jankowice Town in Poland - records [77]


your....what?

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]


I know, but by getting the on-the-spot fine reserved for foreigners, you didn't get points - I assume that they would be obliged to give you them if they gave you the pay-up-in-a-few-days version :)

(do you have a Polish or foreign licence?)

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]


Yes - as far as I recall, the law surrounding this allows people with residency in Poland to pay later. But - and this is the big but - it may only apply to those with a Polish driving licence. I can't recall the exact details - I looked into it a while ago, but there is definitely some sort of provision for those with residency to pay later.

Of course - the front line officers may not be aware of this provision - and to be fair, by paying there and then, you managed to avoid getting points ;)


How come? The written test is about 22zl and is in English - I could even pass on the exam computer programme to you if you so wish.


Oh jeez, the law is even more of a mess than I thought. I could have sworn that this requirement was well and truly abolished - it wouldn't surprise me if there are conflicting laws on this issue, to be honest. Either way, EU law (which will take precedence over Polish law) allows people to retain their EU licence as long as it's valid. I seem to recall that Harry on this forum is still driving around with the old green UK paper licence?

As always - what the law says and what you can get away with are two different things entirely.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]


It says quite clearly that you must exchange your licence after 12 months, in accordance with EU standards. It's quite normal in the world that you have to exchange after 12 months residence - nothing special there.

Then again, it's not my problem if you're stopped and the licence taken away.


What's it like having to keep to the speed limit after Poland? :P

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

I don't have the inclination to trawl through the law to find it - but it's there. Go ask your local WORD if you don't believe me :)


Excellent, you've just admitted that you were actually breaking the law further, as an IDP cannot be renewed if you are continually resident in Poland. It doesn't count if you leave for a couple of weeks - the licence must be exchanged after 12 months residence, end of story.

Some versions of the IDP don't expire after a year - it depends on the issuing authority. Either way, they all expire after 3 years or when the licence does.


Good question. I suspect unfamiliarity with the IDP in this case.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

And funnily enough, it became an issue because someone knew that you shouldn't be driving on it after being resident for 12 months. And anyway, the IDP ceases to be valid after 3 years regardless of national law - so your admission that you've had one since September 2006 is enough to show that you're breaking the law, yet again.

No wonder you have such problems with the Polish police when you can't seem to stay within the law.


You should have been treated in accordance with the rules for someone who was driving without a valid licence. The fact you didn't - count yourself lucky. An expired IDP is the same as driving without a valid licence.


Nothing much. You should go to your local police station to find out when your driving "year" ends - at the end of the "year", your record is wiped clean. You have 24 points a year to play with, so really - nothing to worry about. Even if you hit 24, you can take a course which removes 6 points - so really, drive freely.


I think in all fairness, they may have been conducting additional checks on you. My suspicion is that they could have been waiting for confirmation of your residence - while they can check the criminal databases within seconds, I'm not so sure that they can check your residence status so quickly.

Either that, or the guy was just being awkward for the sake of it. Odd though, the Polish police don't like to keep people waiting around in general.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

He may have been querying your immigration status - not just against the Schengen database, but also the validity of your residence documents/etc. Or he may simply have wanted to punish you further for breaking the law - who knows? Wasting your time for breaking the law seems fair enough to me.


You broke the law, so he has the right to ask you what he deemed appropriate. Come on, read any police procedural novel - sometimes the most strange questions are asked.


If he was clued up, you should have been in more trouble for using the IDP after being resident here for more than a year. As a non-EU driving licence holder, you are obligated to exchange it after being resident for more than a year.


Nope. They are attached to your PESEL, not your driving licence.

You do seem to get quite a lot of hassle from the police, don't you?.

Love / Maintenance for child born between Irish/Polish parents. [60]


Doesn't work like that in Poland - if you get told to pay, you pay, irrespective of your living circumstances.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]

The problem is that (having been there a few days ago) - these people are actually harmful. I watched one of them harass and insult a young boy no older than 12-13 for the crime of having ridden up to the cross - apparently this was an "insult". When, naturally, he told them that he expected them to respect him - she went crazy and shoved him. Should we really be appeasing this type of person?

The people at the cross are deranged, fringe members of society who believe what they want to believe. The Polish episcopate has united against using the cross as a political symbol - yet these people are calling the church "traitors" among others. They don't respect the Church, they don't respect the law - nothing. And that's without talking about their hysterical views on Smolensk or Jews.

It's now becoming clear that most of Polish society is against the cross staying there. The reasons are numerous, some of them want to defend Poland's constitution, some of them want to defend it against blasphemy, others want to keep it out of politics - either way, the people there are causing great harm not only to themselves, but to the Catholic Church and its followers.


I suspect that if Jarek continues with provoking the protesters, we'll see PiS in all sorts of trouble in the elections later this year. And with that, the knives will be sharpened - will the members of PiS really want to see their election chances ruined? No way. I agree that they will survive - but I wonder just how much longer the Kaczynski "dynasty" has to run.

Having said this - I wish PO would call an election to coincide with the local elections this year - a win for them would see a clear mandate for their reforms and would give them 4 very clear years in which to do so.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


Well, there's the other point - who wants to litter one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) streets in Poland with a bunch of protesting grannies? ;)

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


Technically, it is secured by the security forces - there's at least two members there in army clothes at all times from what I could see. I suspect it's a trivial distinction, but the police are there to arrest people and keep order, whereas the security forces are there to protect the grounds/palace.


I'm mystified as to why the police/security forces don't just allow someone to grab it and go. It's not like the defenders will be able to give chase ;)

Life / Polish people and Politeness [84]


To be honest, what the Poles need to learn is that when someone does this, you don't stay and negotiate with them, you just walk out and spread the word about their lack of skills. There is this defeatist attitude here that "nothing will change" - when in reality, many business owners are very quick to deal with such attitude problems.

To give an example - me and my friends would visit this pub every Thursday as our usual haunt was closed for summer (which is fair enough - the economics didn't add up for the place to be open during summer!). We would bring about 20-25 people every Thursday, until the owner went on a massive sulk one night. Have I been back since? Nope. We found somewhere else that welcomed us with open arms.


I wouldn't say just the younger generation - it isn't helped by this attitude that women should get married, pregnant and stay off work as much as possible - rubbish propogated by Babcia.

I guess it's swings and roundabouts - if people want to have strong laws in favour of the employee, then they need to accept that employees will act like idiots if you give them half a chance.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


It's in a conservation area, it doesn't have planning permission and additionally isn't located on public property, but rather Presidential property and is located within the so-called security area.

Life / Polish people and Politeness [84]


PO and PiS alike, to be fair. Both parties are all for low taxation - it's why PiS has some supporters among the yuppie set.


Decline? If anything, it's massively improved - I remember the state of PKP Intercity service in 2006 and then now - it's vastly, vastly better.

The fact that more people have money to open businesses tells you that bad service isn't being tolerated, especially in the food and beverage market. I can also tell you about one bar in Warsaw that I went to a few days ago - the service was beyond spot on and professional to the point of ridiculousness.

Food / Why is it that some Polish people refuse to eat anything that is not Polish? [120]


That's the thing - it's expensive, but that's because there isn't much competition and that resourcing quality ingredients here is much harder. I don't grudge it - if I wanted to eat cheap Asian food, I'd live in a place which had plenty of them. Look at Manchester - cheap as anything to eat in, but yet you have to accept that the city will be ridiculously multicultural, which not everyone wants.

But at the same time, with a bit of savvy, you can knock up quite decent homemade ethnic food here for not that much money. Sure, it takes preparation, and the ability to hunt down things, and then the ability to cook - but it's worth it :)


Or you can pay the going rate to access quality food in your own city. Like I do in Wroclaw on a frequent basis - and like you don't, because you can't afford it.

One interesting development in Poland is that we're starting to see Asians opening up places that are catering very much for the takeaway crowd - there's an Indian takeaway opened up near me that does very reasonable food for not much money. It's actually owned and operated by a guy from India and he seems to be doing well at it - so prices are definitely coming down and the food is starting to lose the aura as being only for people with money.

Who knows Fuzzy, maybe you'll be able to afford good ethnic food soon too!

Please keep to the topic and not the personal insults. Otherwise you'll find your posts in the bin. Thank you.

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]


Not much, to be honest. All four major parties in Poland support the status quo, as do most Poles.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


That's the $64,000 question now - have these people gone so far that even Kaczynski can't stop them? He's certainly not helping things - but I wonder - would they listen if he showed up and said "enough"? I mean, they've now gone against the Church - what's next?

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


He should because it's political suicide to support the cross demonstrators. I know quite a few moderate-PiS voters who sway between PiS and PO - and they're very much upset with Kaczynski not putting a stop to this when he could. The opinion polls seem to be saying the same thing - that people do not support his lurch to the right and that they preferred his "human face" opposition.

It's a shame for PiS as a party - because Kaczynski's human face was very electable and appealling to younger people and women. But by opposing in a hysterical, EVIL COMMUNIST way (and his statement today confirms this) - he's doing himself and PiS no favours whatsoever. The fact that now even the church has came out and said "stop it, you idiots" and yet he still won't tell his supporters to stop tells me everything - that he's lost the plot.

PiS as a caring, human, Catholic-socialist party is very electable in Poland. But Jarek Kaczynski's party of "EVIL COMMUNISTS, CONSPIRACY, JEWISH, CROSS" is unelectable. And why he chooses to appease those idiots rather than appealing to the people that got him the election result is entirely beyond me :/

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]


What rules and regulations? The shops should be closed (unless operated by the owner/family member) - but in reality, the regulation is routinely ignored.

Anyway, the vast majority of people like having holidays.

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]


Tell me about it :( I was in Berlin a few months ago from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning and nearly went mental with the lack of shops open. At least here, the law is absolutely ignored and disobeyed!

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]


Germans seem to manage with their closed shops every Sunday.


Because the Polish people, who have democracy, voted for people who introduced a working ban on this day. But you can still buy food anyway, many shops are still open - do you really think corner shops are obeying the law?

UK, Ireland / Ive been in the UK for 6 days to relocate and im going back to Poland. [281]


Haha, come on - if you could live next to an open-cast mine, or you could get it all from abroad for cheaper, which would you choose? ;)

UK, Ireland / Homeless Poles living on barbecued rats and alcoholic handwash? [62]


You really do keep posting nonsense, don't you?

Minimum wage in Poland for a daily wage (8 hours) is about 16-17 euro a day. Bear in mind that living costs are stupidly low here - I saw potatoes in one market for 0.60zl (or what, about 15 cents?) a kilo, it's not as bad as it sounds.

And another thing is that many people aren't on minimum wage, either.

Food / Why is it that some Polish people refuse to eat anything that is not Polish? [120]


As far as I can tell, being friends with a few restaurant owners - the problem in Poland is that people often get the presentation right but completely fail with the service, food or location - or usually all three.

One restaurant here does small snacks (some chicken wings and bread, for instance) for 10PLN and it's very, very popular - it's cheap enough to eat for lunch for most people without fuss, yet they get the quality of a good restaurant.


It's surprising to me, to be honest - I found that Vietnamese place entirely by accident, tried it with a sort of "ah well, if it's rubbish, i'll go elsewhere" attitude - though there were a lot of locals there - and was thoroughly shocked at how decent it was. Then again, the fact that the people working there were really from Vietnam might have had something to do with it :P

UK, Ireland / Ive been in the UK for 6 days to relocate and im going back to Poland. [281]


The UK only escaped being a major loser because of the rebate - but yes, I'd agree. Germany I suppose has gained from having a massive single market for their products - and to be fair, Wallonia hasn't exactly done badly from having the EU as well. Denmark gained because without the EU, they would have lost their major trading partner (the UK) at the time.

But the Dutch are and were definitely the big losers - no rebate, no farming and really not much to show for what they've paid.

The point about the RoI is bang on. They were still acting like a poor country when they were raking it in - even with the current crisis, they're not a poor country!

I only hope the EU can reform the CAP sooner rather than later. The problem is that countries like Poland were sold on EU membership through the carrot of farming subsidies - removing that now is going to cause chaos :( I really don't know why the A8+2 countries were allowed to be included in the CAP in the first place.


Most people are happy to have the mines closed (who wants mines? terrible things) and the work sent abroad, really.

Food / Why is it that some Polish people refuse to eat anything that is not Polish? [120]


And to be honest, it's starting to happen now. Looking in Warsaw this week, you're absolutely spoiled for choice and variety now - Japanese/Indian/Vietnamese seems to be dominant, but pricewise and tastewise, it's on a winner.

Poznan and Wroclaw are miles behind in comparison - which is why Fuzzywickets doesn't know anything about it, because he can't afford to go to Warsaw to try it for himself - and he can't afford to eat in the quality ethnic restaurants in Wroclaw. I'd invite him to an Indian place that I know, but I doubt he'd be able to afford the 50-70PLN a head that it costs to stuff yourself completely.

(and no, it's not overpriced - for the quality of the food, ingredients and skill of cooking, combined with the location, it's a very good price......for those that can afford it)

UK, Ireland / Ive been in the UK for 6 days to relocate and im going back to Poland. [281]


Forgot to reply to this.

Maggie culled many of the inefficient, lumbering State businesses. Look at mining - it made NO sense to subsidise mines when coal could be bought cheaper abroad - just like at the minute, where it's cheaper to buy subsidised Polish coal than to buy British coal.

Social unrest? Nothing compared to the mid 70's - read about the Winter of Discontent and the 3 day week!

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


No-one is going to care less about a tiny increase in VAT. Income tax/ZUS increases would cause trouble, but really - no-one is going to pay much attention to such a small increase in VAT. Even look at the UK - the rise from 17.5% to 20% hasn't really attracted much attention. Anyway, most people accept the VAT rise to try and pay some debts off - it's really not that much of an issue.

It looks very much at the minute as if PiS are losing some of their moustache support to the SLD - which is entirely predictable and not surprising at all.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski is showing absolutely no sign of reigning in these idiots - and he's going to lead the party to electoral ruin. Many of the moderate PiS voters are being turned off by his politics now - heck, even Rzeczpospolita is turning on them now. PiS may survive, but Kaczynski is all but finished as long as PO don't do anything exceptionally stupid.

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]


Sure. Equally my right not to shop there and for them to go out of business.

As long as people are free to decide, what's the problem?

(if people don't want to work Sundays, get a job where it's not required - simple)