UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]


There's one on our high street that sells stuff cheaper than the supermarket. Doesn't matter if you're Polish, Pakistani or English, you tend to shop where stuff is cheapest.

History / Cowes prepares to celebrate Polish Heroes during World War II [10]

And without the allies supplying 16.5million tons of goods to Soviet Russia via the Artic convoys, the Persian corridor and the Pacific route then Russia would not have been in a position to keep up the fight and would have been defeated.

History / Cowes prepares to celebrate Polish Heroes during World War II [10]

On their own? So the Western Front was an irrelevance then?

History / Cowes prepares to celebrate Polish Heroes during World War II [10]

The Soviet Russians did most of the killing as well. Their battle tactics went along the lines of bombard the hell out of whatever stood in their way then throw loads of men at whatever was left standing. They didn't care how many people died be it military or civilian, enemy or ally.

News / Polish baby boom, but not in Poland [40]

And as far as I'm concerned the only people who should get assistance are those who have contributed to the system regardless of where they have come from.

Travel / What do you think about hitchhikers in Poland? [33]

So you think it's only Poles and Polish hitch hikers with this kind of attitude? A very narrow minded attitude you have.

Law / How many years to study in Poland to receive a Polish passport / citizenship? [6]

The best place would be the official Polish embassy website from your country of origin.

Law / How many years to study in Poland to receive a Polish passport / citizenship? [6]

Resident means living there. Like I said, as a student that may not necessarily count as part of your 5 years. It depends where you come from originally and what agreements the Polish government may have with your country of origin. If you are from an EU country then studying will count towards those 5 years but it may not count from a non EU country.

Law / How many years to study in Poland to receive a Polish passport / citizenship? [6]

You have to be resident in the country for 5 years before you can apply. I am not sure if your time as a student counts towards those 5 years.

News / Polish baby boom, but not in Poland [40]

Are they giving away council houses somehwere?

Is it just Polish workers who claim tax credits and receive child benefit or are the Indian, Chinese, Irish, French, British etc etc not entitled to them?

UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]


Why should it puzzle you? What is wrong with keeping in touch with your roots?

UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]


Haha Yes, there's a big M&S on Marszałkowska and in Złote Terasy but then again one of the founders was from Poland ;)


I should do, I was born here and run my own business but I am no expert which is why I employ an accountant. I guess you aren't either which is why your statement


doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.

UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]


Did I say orange juice? I don't see anywhere in my post that mentioned a specific flavour but I'm assuming you haven't had a close look at what Kubus actually is.


Ah, sorry. I didn't realise we had such an expert and connoisseur in our midst. My taste buds must defer to your greater knowledge.


So in other words you're just another troll making ignorant, ill informed statements in order to provoke an argument


VAT, business rates, income tax and NI contributions all going to the British exchequer. If you know a way how these can be sent to Poland please let me know so I can inform my accountant who can then do the same for me.

UK, Ireland / Sooo many Polski Sklep in the UK, LOL [64]

Depends on what the Polski sklep sells. We have a couple in the town centre, one sells everything out of a packet the other is more of a deli and sells mostly wędliny and kiełbasy. There is a big difference in taste between the bland British hams & sausages and the continental ones.

Have you ever tried Kubus or any of the juices made by Tymbark? If you haven't I recommend you do. I think you'll find they have more flavour than the other bland stuff you buy from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's.

Have you ever thought that these shops might have been set up by enterprising Poles who have identified a gap in the market? I remember when I was a kid we use to have 3-4 continental shops/Polish shops in my town but we eventually lost them all. In recent years I've been able to but a lot of the stuff I enjoyed when I was a kid without having to fill my suitcase up with grocery products after a holiday in Poland. Also these shops have usually been set up in units that may be left empty and boarded up and surely it's better to have something a bit different on the high street rather than another charity shop, pound shop or fast food joint.

News / Polish baby boom, but not in Poland [40]


I was born in England too but that was more down to Churchill and Attlee.

Wroclaw Boy could be right with his figures because there's still a lot of people around from the initial post war generation and their children, me being one of them, so add those to the 2004 onwards immigrants then the number is easily over a million.

Travel / Wroclaw Euro 2012 - how much zloty I should be taking with me? [16]

More than enough unless you are staying in 5 star hotel.

Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

Find the website of the Polish embassy pertaining to your country of residence and there should be a passport/citizenship section with all the information you need. If your parents didn't renounce their Polish citizenship then according to Polish law you already have citizenship automatically regardless of where you were born. If it's a passport you're after then the website will explain what you need to do to get a Polish passport.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Prices will also fall if people can't afford to buy either.

News / Will EURO 2012 be a proud moment for Poland and its people or set back Poland 20 years? [86]


Is this a fact according to gdyniaguy or a fact attributed to a genuine study into the habits of football fans?


Really? When I was in Germany and Austria that's exactly what I did as did a lot of my friends. I also met a lot of other football fans whilst doing this. Who wants to spend 3 days between games in a city centre sitting in a bar when there are plenty of other things to go and see that you might not get chance to see again. What you say might be true of English football fans though.


There's a difference between what people are asking and what they are selling for. There's a lot of repeat posters on the thread on this forum who have failed to sell their tickets at the ridiculous prices they've been asking. Furthermore anyone who pays 15x fave value for a ticket is an idiot IMO.


So have I and I've seen a hell of a lot of crap in Spain. Spain was a bit of a hole before it joined the EU back in the 80s and they've done pretty well out of the EU funds which have helped restore many of their crumbling cities, building new motorways, airports etc. Poland is still recovering from 45 years of a Russian puppet government (thanks to your government of the day) and has only been in the EU 8 years. Kraków, Wrocław and Gdansk have beautifully restored old towns so even if people don't venture outside those cities there's more for them to see and do than the likes of Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool did back in 1996.

Sorry, you have that wrong. Polish hooligans will not attack random fans unlike English hooligans. Most of their fights are pre-arranged with other hooligan groups. They have their own honour system and will punish their own for bringing shame to their group if anyone attacks a random, non hooligan fan from another club or country. If there's any trouble it's likely to haver been pre-arranged or will be between hooligan groups and the ochrona/policja.

I know many ticketless fans who are going over and those who aren't going have been put off by the stupid price of accommodation not because they think there is a likelihood of trouble.

News / Will EURO 2012 be a proud moment for Poland and its people or set back Poland 20 years? [86]

Not really. I was in Germany for WC 2006 and Austria for Euro 2008 and people were trying to sell tickets at those events up to 4x, 5x ticket face value. What hacks me off about this is that the footballing authorities do sod all to stop it happening. Of course football fans could also help themselves by refusing to buy off these guys. I've offered quite a few of them face value of their tickets plus admin and postage expenses but of course they've all knocked me back. One guy even told me he wasn't bothered if he didn't sell his remaining tickets because he'd already made a profit from the tickets he'd already bought and he couldn't care less if genuine fans like myself are deprived of the chance of seeing my country play on home turf in a major tournament.

Yes, there is a fine line but you usually find that in most countries that in towns that have a lot of tourists you will find that stuff tends to be a little bit more expensive. I tend to gauge things by the price of a beer eg in Warsaw I could pay between 9-12PLN, in Kraków 8PLN is not uncommon but in Katowice or Kutno between 4.50-7PLN is the norm. Eating out pretty much follows the same trend although I do know where there are a Bar Mleczny or two where the food is pretty good so I tend to eat cheap anyway :D

I can't say anyone has tried charging me more as a tourist than they would a local but then again my Polish is good enough to get by.

The Olympics had a massive boost on Barcelona simply because it had suffered decades of neglect under the Franco régime. The Olympics helped transform the city and put it on the tourist map. Any tourist destination that is already well visited won't see that much of an boost. Will London benefit from a post Olympics tourist boost? I doubt it very much as it's already a major tourist destination. Why hasn't Athens benefited? Easy, anyone who has ever been to Athens will know that apart from the area around the Parthenon the rest of the city is a dump and you can see all there is to see in 3 days so why bother going back.

I also doubt the Polish host cities will see much of a post Euro tourist boost but other parts of the country might. Kraków and Warsaw are already well established destinations for tourists, Wrocław and Poznań less so but I'm sure people who haven't been to Poland before will be pleasantly surprised.

Life / Poles always ask how much money you earn. Why do they do this? [30]

I have had this conversation with my family members too. My UK earnings seem like a fortune to them but when I then tell them how much I pay for rent, council tax, utility bills etc plus the cost of food and transport expenses they soon realise that comparatively speaking I'm no better off than they are.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

I live in a university town. Why do you keep making statements trying to make out I'm stupid? I have already provided reasoning as to why I think 2000PLN is excessive but also qualified my statement by saying it is not aimed at you personally. I have seen the links you provided and those are also excessive. Do you want me to provide some of my own so I can say those are excessive too?

News / Will EURO 2012 be a proud moment for Poland and its people or set back Poland 20 years? [86]

The tournament lasts for about 5 weeks so of course the jobs will only be temporary but look at the jobs that were created in order to build the new stadia and infrastructure.


Is this a problem exclusive to Euro 2012 in Poland? Get real!


"Rafal Pankowski, a member of Never Again and the Football Against Racism in Europe (Fare) network, says racist incidents are less frequent now.

Clubs now have safety directors and stewards trained to recognise racist banners. Never Again is involved in their training and its volunteers lead educational programmes for schools.

"We are not promising we can eliminate racism overnight but overall Euro 2012 has had a positive impact in terms of raising awareness of racism in Polish football and society," Mr Pankowski told the BBC.

Some argue that racism and violence are much more prevalent among supporters of rival clubs than they are among fans of the Polish national team."

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Pawian, it was on that principle that Stalin re-drew the Polish borders and I guess the UK and USA also agreed. It's not my idea of where our borders should be but I'm not going to go into that as it's been argued about too many times on here. Also as you say, this 21st century and hopefully all that territorial crap is behind us. Our borders are where they are now and there is still much to be done wit the territory we have to bring it up to modern standards without having to deal with the mess that our Lost Territories are in.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

I'm not sure you could call the territories of the Holy Roman Empire as being "German", not all of them anyway. Also, there would be know Germany because Germany as an entity did not exist until 1870. Even the German states used to war amongst themselves with Prussia eventually coming out on top and being the dominant force in German politics under the Kaiser and Von Bismarck.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]


:) I am glad we have reached an understanding.

I think this issue has been debated several times on here over the years so maybe it's not a good idea to go through it all again. :) What would be interesting though would be seeing a map of Europe if all the countries borders were redrawn to their 11th century equivalent as Poland's were in 1945.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Ah, you mean the territory the Teutonic Order controlled that was owned by the Polish crown which the grand Duke was supposed to pay annual fealty but then forged a document to the Vatican which claimed the Polish king had gifted the land to the order.

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Sure :) I assume you mean the territory that was Polish before it was conquered by the Bohemians which was then conquered by Prussia and subsequently returned to Poland in 1945 :)

History / Ukrainian-occupied Eastern Poland [135]

Agreed.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


Oh please, is this question really necessary? Of course, I know plenty. If you'd bothered to read my post properly you would see that.

The UK property market goes in cycles and not necessarily due to whether there is a recession or not. What tends to happen in the UK is that property prices, when booming, usually outstrip people's ability to borrow the required funds. When I bought my first house I could only borrow 3x my gross earnings but up until a few years ago, before the banking crisis, it wasn't unusual to see lenders offering to lend 6x someone's gross earnings. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's obvious that lending at the old ratio would have meant that it would have been impossible to sell anything unless the lenders relaxed their criteria, which they duly did thus fuelling a series of unsustainable increases in property values. Another factor was people buying to rent to others which pushed up the value of first time buyer properties beyond what people could afford.

Now as peterweg has pointed out, what is true for the UK isn't necessarily true for Poland but when I see you saying that you can get 2000PLN for such a small place I can only compare it to what I know about the UK property market. 2000PLN equates to £370 on the current exchange rate, someone on minumum wage here in the UK earns around £250 a week which is around 5400PLN a month. What is the average wage in Poland? 1500PLN a month? So you can ask and get 500PLN a month more than someone on average wages can earn in a month. So maybe by looking at some simple economics you can see why I think the sort of property you want to buy and rent out is over priced. Please don't think I am having a go at you personally, I am only responding on this thread because of the example you have given and you are operating in a market created by others. I think you should be given some credit for wanting to renovate the place and furnish it with new products as many landlords would not. I don't want to get into the political arguments about the perceived rights and wrongs of buy to let as I can see the arguments on both sides and there are merits on each side.