Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]

Except the Polish economy is healthier than most, the property market is healthy and if it seems like a bubble (it isn't) that's due to being undervalued before.

Also, Poles are returning from the UK etc with spouses and savings, plus Krakow attracts expats. Easy language, nice country, decent people. I can see prices in Krakow rising.

Love / Sexual diseases! Please tell me how I go about getting tested in Poland? [103]

The owners aren't usually known for their high standards in life ;-)

News / First Polish ambassador to Seychelles accredited [5]


My thoughts entirely. Do they really need a whole embassy there? There must be all of three tourists a year visiting and the entire export revenue is probably less than the Ferrero Rocher budget for the Ambassador's Christmas party.

edit

Unless they're getting money from other countries, maybe Czech or the Baltics, for sharing. In any case, it's probably a nicer diplomatic posting than Guyana or Somalia.

Love / Sexual diseases! Please tell me how I go about getting tested in Poland? [103]

And if you go to a brothel or a sauna you can wear as many rubbers as you like, but they're no use if the jacuzzi is seething with chlamydia. They don't change the water ever, just put chemicals in once a week to make the water go clear again.

Study / An electrical engineering student from Turkey wants to study in Poland [17]


Golabki, with cabbage leaves. That surprised me,


Ask the chef! Maybe he was Polish...


I liked the lemon with everything, and agree that the food is tastier. Wonderful soup - I remember one very similar to bogracz and another a bit like zurek. Plenty of white cheese too.

I was doing some business there for just a month and had to buy new clothes, a size bigger!

Study / An electrical engineering student from Turkey wants to study in Poland [17]

Golabki, grilled meat, lots of gerkhins, a dislike of heavily spiced food, kopytki, plenty of cakes, lots of black tea, but above all surowka with nearly every main meal.

Study / An electrical engineering student from Turkey wants to study in Poland [17]

Pride, a love of debating/arguing, hospitality, pragmatism, politeness. And I was surprised how similar the food can be!

Study / An electrical engineering student from Turkey wants to study in Poland [17]


As someone who's worked in both Warsaw and Istanbul, I noticed plenty of similarities between Poles and Turks, most of them positive.

Study / An electrical engineering student from Turkey wants to study in Poland [17]


speak for yourself

News / Lech Kaczyński statue in Warsaw? [66]

As they announced it on the news:

Life / Winter in Poland? [160]

Same here. A good coat (but not as heavy as ski stuff). Hat and gloves only for the coldest few weeks.

Real Estate / information about Bialoleka Warszawa (Warsaw area) [8]

Leafy and safe, popular with families, quite a way from the centre. Very family oriented, not exactly buzzing with things to do. The far end of Białołęka is semi-rural with quite a few working farms.

The part of Białołęka nearest to the river is Tarchomin, much of which is a concrete jungle of apartments - with a few dodgy streets, especially at night; the bulk of it, to the east of ul. Modlinska is the opposite - quieter with mostly houses. Plenty of forests round about, and at the weekends there are always people riding bikes or walking. Although the Borough of Białołęka includes Tarchomin, when people talk about Białołęka this is the part they usually mean. Some parts (Płudy, Choszczówka are quite nice, posh even)

It is considered one of the cheaper places to buy. Part of this is due to having poor transport links to Warsaw. When the new Most Polnocny (Northern Bridge) is finished this will improve. But only slightly. Owing to the number of young families, there is some pressure on schools but this is slowly changing. There are plenty of supermarkets etc, but no real shopping mall.

What might happen to property prices over the next year is anybody's guess, but since they are quite high in Warsaw anyway, and mortgages are harder to get than a couple of years ago, they probably won't go up much.

News / Lech Kaczyński statue in Warsaw? [66]


Exactly. Better to do a good one than a quick one.

But statue or monument? A monument would be better. Marszal Pilsudski looks great in his uniform astride a horse, but LK in a lounge suit? No.

And statues representing someone are much harder to make - there are so many bad ones like the statue of JPII in the rynek at Lowicz, which if you see it from a particular angle looks like he's been surprised while tiptoe-ing out of somewhere.

Better maybe a different type of memorial.

History / If Poland didn't exist, how did citizens become Polish? [57]

True enough. Mind you, I remember a poster here once saying that 17th century Poles should have emigrated to the US, so I suppose anything can happen. Maybe the same guy who posted the other day, about the 'English economy'.

History / If Poland didn't exist, how did citizens become Polish? [57]


In 1920? 28 years before Israel was founded?

I remember reading that some of the Jewish people were less than impressed at finding themselves citizens of a newly formed state that many of them didn't feel the same affinity as their neigbours, and also that a significant number of Poles, particularly peasants in villages, weren't especially enthusiastic either.

News / Lech Kaczyński statue in Warsaw? [66]

As far as I remember this was proposed by Premier Tusk, some time ago. Given that LK was a president who died in office, it would be a surprise if they didn't build something.

A dog bites man story.

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


Very true. Though bragging nouveau riche or not, few of us decline invitations from multi-millionaires.

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


Bizarrely, the one about Formula1.


The guy who told me (a marketing bod) said that they suspected it was to do with the fact that some of their richest clients were farmers who'd got into businesses like making breezeblocks and cement rendering etc, and were the type of people who were naturally frugal, very family orientated, not particularly inquisitive about life outside their immediate sphere of interest and not ones for holidays or frivolous spending etc.

Perhaps not a very scientific analysis, but an interesting thought.

Love / Sexual diseases! Please tell me how I go about getting tested in Poland? [103]


Good for you! Just watch out for scabs and pus.

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


Yes. Check out the Amish/Plain People stuff on another thread. They get by without all that crap and are probably happier and much richer in themselves for it.


I was talking to the teenage son of a diplomat in Warsaw not long ago. He'd attended posh private schools around the world. He said the rich kids in Warsaw were by far the most materialistic he'd ever come across, talking only about what they or their parents owned.

Nevertheless, a bank in Poland (a well known one) did a very private survey of their richest 10% of clients a few years ago and were surprised that over half of them hadn't been abroad, even for a holiday, in the past 10 years and tended to drive mid-range cars.

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


And what do you think his attitude to some of the racist stuff that appears on PF would be?

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


Remember we've been talking about bureaucracy prior to conducting business. Nevertheless, going on Schedule D as you mention above is pretty easy. As is bureaucracy in the UK compared to Poland, where dealings with GUS etc are like something from a Kafka novel. Why they require two visits in person is surreal.


The same in Poland, and pretty sound advice anywhere.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


Why indeed. What do you mean by "register my business". Do you mean form a limited company? Or are you just self-employed, which isn't the same as "register my business". You can carry out economic activity in the UK without registering anything beforehand. Unlike in Poland.


Yes, you can come to the UK and start being self-employed from day one. Providing it isn't in a field (i.e. a doctor) that requires special registration, which in any case isn't a matter of tax/NI. If you're paying yourself, you'll need to apply for an NI number, but unlike in Poland (which is what we're talking about) you don't need to do it prior to starting economic activity. Same with tax.


I'd heard about that, but they never asked me. Maybe they thought you look like Carlos the Jackal.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


Does anyone not have a postcode for a UK address?

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


Really? Mine just came through the post when I was 15.


It took me a few minutes last week, at the Halifax, and a few hours in Poland. Why 6 months?

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]

You evidently don't understand the concept of residency and how that differs from immigration. NI is raised on the basis of personal earned income, as your links confirm. Not profits or turnover, but on drawings or wages.

It seems you also don't like to acknowledge that your 'advice' was bullsh1t. On every point.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


In business? No. You don't nor ever have done. It is a personal thing for social insurance, and non-residents don't need one. Nor do you need one before issuing invoices, which is what we're talking about.


Have you ever seen one in a village, "miles away from anywhere"


Again no. A bank account for business isn't nor ever has been obligatory. Unlike in Poland. Many tradespeople deal only in cash.


I'm glad you agree that you were wrong. In the UK you don't need to register with the tax prior to conducting business.


Again, I'm glad you agree that you were wrong, and that an invoice in the UK is perfectly legal without a tax reference number. Most small businesspeople wouldn't even know theirs without looking.


Yes. You are wrong on every point.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]

NIN? No you don't! You can conduct business without one. Nevertheless, people get the NI number automatically when they're 15, or as a migrant just send off for it.

You don't need a separate business account. Same in Poland, though the old bags at the tax office don't always know that and will often insist that the unwary get one.

You don't have to register at the tax office prior to issuing an invoice in the UK, nor do you need to include a tax reference number on your invoice.

So you are disingenuously wrong. On every point


Maybe split the second part of the thread into another, about doing business in PL?

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


Cheap to make and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Kind of bread and circuses.

I used to grumble about how bad Polish TV was compared to the UK, then ten years later, I go back to the UK for a couple of months and see that it's declined there even further.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]


The same thought occurred to me too.