History / Are you proud of Polish colours? [27]


That's the sad thought that occurred to me when I thought about the flag some weeks ago. Is it actually why the flag is that colour? Surely not.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]

Good luck on whatever you and your partner/wife decide, one thing I would say is to have more children if at all possible, or adopt if not.

With greetings from a 28C/81F Wrocław, but breezy. Roads as bumpy and crazy as ever, but way cool beer :o)

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


Certainly a lot of new vehicles on the road, but I suspect or should I say fear it is all borrowed money - the disease of debt.

Real Estate / Thinking of buying an offplan Luxury Property Wroclaw [79]

Thank you Avalon, if I go ahead I wil try to find out if the 5k is for the bank pre-sales clause, or just for building works to be funded. I'm also guessing that the finished project could be a long time off from when I put my deposit down, perhaps even a year.

Real Estate / Thinking of buying an offplan Luxury Property Wroclaw [79]

Merged: Buying off plan, not yet built apartments from a developer in POland

Probably in the archive but I couldn't find it when I searched, so here's a question if anyone knows the answer.......

A developer is offering a reasonable price per square metre on flats or apartments that they are yet to build.

In the UK, we call this buying off-plan, AFAIK.

The developer wants a 50000zl deposit put down, that apparently guarantees they will sell me an apartment at the low price after they are built.

Typically - do developers set a deadline and guarantee to the buyer that the flat will be built by then or refund their deposit?

If the developers become insolvent, are there safeguards in place yet for the buyer to not lose their deposit?

Any other advice? Possibly to wait for prices to fall on already-built apartments might be the best idea, I know.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]

When I go into electrical shops, always seem fairly empty. Vast, huge warehouse shops, barely 10 customers walking around. Are customers buying online, I wonder.

Quite rare that sales staff are busy with anyone buying anything, except perhaps a memory stick or mobile phone.

So I have no idea how they keep open, unless they are jumping joints on Saturdays.

The only shop that seems noticably busier here, is Tesco. Compared to last year, more customers. (Possibly as a result of the spend 100zl and get a 10zl voucher deal that I think has ended now.)

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]


If you mean the SIM cards, of all the networks they seemed to offer the best value in my circumstances - because the credit didn't expire for at least a year if you didn't use it up. Probably some prices on the tariff were not as good as others, but the fact the money I topped up on to the phone stayed there if unused without me needing to top up again to get it back was a big plus. I still have that SIM, but I think some corporate bought the network now. (SIM: wrodzinie)

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

What I am saying, Jon, is that you said the Vatican had shunned them. Unintentionally perhaps, that gave the readers of the thread the impression of present tense. The truth is very important - from both sides. That truth seems to say the Vatican are not shunning them presently, 2006 is 2006. I had more hair then, I don't have it now...

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]


Jon357
The link you supplied was 2006. I know all about those. I'm talking about now.

The letter would appear to be dated 2011. See radiomaryja.pl/artykuly.php?id=1140628

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

Wasn't that the old days some years back. Now, wasn't there some Vatican support letter recently? I saw it somewhere unless it was just me getting confused,,,not impossible I admit, I'll see if I can find a link, too tired tonight.

I think this was the new pope's blessing of RM, or so the report suggests. Any comments? Be interested in reading your response to this.

mercurius.myslpolska.pl/2011/12/benedykt-xvi-blogoslawi-radio-maryja-i-o-t-rydzyka/

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

Wasn't there some letter from The Vatican or Pope congratulating either Trwam or Radio Maria on their anniversary, on some website in Polish and English if my memory serves me correctly. I might've been dreaming of course, but I think I saw it somewhere. I hope I'm not going senile already.

Travel / Watch out for airport personnel stealing stuff on regional Polish airports. [64]


I can't stand LHR, thankfully only use it on average once every 5 years!

Travel / Watch out for airport personnel stealing stuff on regional Polish airports. [64]

I was always told locks mean nothing to baggage handler thieves - and thieving goes on in airports all over the world. Thankfully never happened to me - yet. In the UK, your luggage goes through a sophisticated automated system of conveyors and channels at high speed, with barcodes on the label reading your destination. There is CCTV covering the areas. It is highly automated for the most part, your luggage whizzes past at considerable speeds. Where the thefts occur I don't know, but having been in and out of Poland and the UK dozens of times I have not as yet been a victim. Airlines do advise people to not put any valuables or breakables into checked-in bags anyway!

Love / Beauty and physical apperance - Is it so important to Polish boys? [26]


Poetically put - and they say romance is dead.

Love / help needed to warn off troublesome pole [25]

If you're not trolling, it is a police matter now - speak with them a.s.a.p. for advice.

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]


Yes, a lot of their output graphics etc are in good taste. I've been unable to find out so far where the music's from, but will keep trying. It is a really nice bit of music, hard to grow tired of. If anyone who can write Polish properly wants to email them and ask...?

Travel / Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all? [149]


Yes, it's amazing!

Someone even stopped to let me use a pedestrian crossing yesterday, I think it's only about the third time in 6 months.

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

Funnily enough, I like the music they repeatedly use when they list the next 24 hours' programming. The fact they repeatedly use it in short bursts suggests it's a sampling from another composition. I guess they could have composed their own jingle but I'd expect that to have been tailored and longer in length, so I reckon it's from another commercially available track.

I think in the past it was Richard Clayderman's (Ballad pour Adeline.

Anyone know what the current melody they use is called - or if it's somewhere to be downloaded?

(I'm talking about the music they play over the scrolling "Program Dnia" segments.)

Thanks.

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]


Probably because English has the most words of any language, as far as I know. Polish has far fewer words than English - I can't remember the figures but something like 250K words in the Polish language, versus about 750K in the English language

oxforddictionaries.com/words/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language

This site says there are over a million English words!

languagemonitor.com/no-of-words/

Law / ARE POLISH PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS INEFFICIENT? [6]


- Sounds like the person is saying there are long queues at their local post office.

Same in England - long queues as so many smaller post offices were closed. Can anyone recall which British politician once said people enjoy being in post office queues as it is a social thing for them ...!

UK postage prices up 30% in a few weeks time, and the queues are long. In my UK home-town, you can take a number and come back later, it's that bad.

Real Estate / Real Estate Agencies in Poland (they are greedy for money) [18]

Someone who works in the finance industry recently advised me against buying in Poland for the time being so I am thinking of renting somewhere if the 4700 zł /m2 apartment I was thinking of buying is now sold. So, anybody here on PF who could help me assess a tenancy/rental contract or translate it into English, please PM me. I prefer not to go through rental agents as they charge fees to tenants but if you're an agent whose fee is very low (by that I mean under 200zł) or who doesn't charge then I would be interested in hearing from you if you have a good value 2-rooom in Wrocław or Bielany.

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]

Lyzko, thanks, I do try my best to speak a few words but it's unfair on the Poles I speak to as they try to fight off their laughter when I'm heard pronouncing words hilariously badly, like the Englishman pretending to be the French policeman in the BBC sitcom (situation comedy show) " 'Allo 'Allo! "

I could tell you anecdotes which would I hope reassure you that thinking/intelligent Brits have the utmost respect and gratitude to Poland and Poles, but it would probably be off topic :o)

Love / Do Irish / British guys like Polish girls? [138]

My impression of the UK was that in some age groups, there's a shortage of single females or a surplus of single males. I think in the big cities, it's quite easy for women to meet men whether in the usual places or at dating activities such as speed dating or internet dating. My female friends tell me there are a lot of players and creeps in the UK and it's not so easy - but I think a lot of them are just very fussy or only want the Brad Pitt level of attractiveness in their partner. I think for realistic women, there are plenty of decent British men still available if you choose carefully and take your time

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]

As an Englishman, I find Polish exceptionally difficult. The way sentences are constructed and the way words change are completely different to what I am used to and I am 99.9% sure I will not ever be even remotely fluent. However, some lucky people have a knack with language learning, and can gain any number of them easily. I think it's probably the case that if you have experience of learning other languages, particularly of the same family, you'll be fine. (The last hope for me is Polish For Dummies which I will pick up when I'm back in London soon. he said naively...)

Real Estate / Real Estate Agencies in Poland (they are greedy for money) [18]

Unfortunately, in the UK letting agents (agents that act as middleman between a landlord and a tenant) have for many years been charging fees to the tenant when the contract is commenced and sometimes at renewal and at the end. These fees range from GBP100 to the more usual GBP200 and in some agencies GBP500. They also charge a fee to the landlord.

The cost of checking a tenant with a credit checking agency is usually GBP25 or less (it can be as low as GBP10) so the agents make a lot of profit.

The UK government allows this fee, despite many complaints.

______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________


You really do have an unfortunate way of communicating your points. Are you about 15 years old?

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

Thank you Midas.

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


Thank you Midas, that's what I thought too.
So what does the new law say, in basic terms? I am not sure.

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

Is a new law coming in shortly adding greater security to the deposits potential buyers have when purchasing off-plan apartments? What security is there for deposits currently?

If I see prices continue to fall I will dip my toe in, want to be prepared

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


I think that's a silly remark about Indian call centres, and anyway the thread's about residential property - apartments in particular.

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]


It means that in the UK too.

In Poland a multiplex is I think the term for digital television, rather than the old analogue (analog) broadcasting system