News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


PO clearly wins - you don't have to go to the polls pawian :) ;)

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


now are you able to name those 'lunar ideologies' after Krasowski boletus?? to me it's just using 'strong language' without much base - if you believe that privatisation in Poland was immaculately pure of course someone who believes Polish industries were sold for a fraction of their actual worth will be an 'idealogue from the moon' - have you ever considere how was it possible to have 'oscylator' and 'FOZZ affair'

FOZZ affair branch-out after wikipedia:
Kontrola wykazuje sfałszowanie bilansu banku, fałszowanie dokumentów bankowych, nielegalne operacje dewizowe etc. Sama kontrolująca szacuje straty poniesione przez polską gospodarkę w wyniku operacji dewizowych Banku Handlowego na 5 do 10 mld dolarów w latach 1991-­1992. Skala strat i stosowane mechanizmy wyraźnie wskazują na ścisły związek z odkrytymi przez świętej pamięci Michała Falzmanna zjawiskami rabunkowego transferu dewiz z Polski

5-10 miliardów dolarów - is now more or less yearly budget deficit of Poland - and back then it was perhaps more like 1/3 of the whole Polish budget I guess (not even from the top of my head)

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

boletus


the thing is the article by Krasowski is clearly written in ill will - it's goal is to discredit Kaczyński and his views - if someone wants a political discourse with Kaczyński he needs to address Kaczyński's diagnosis of the ills of Poland - if someone conveniently hushes over these and writes in critical tone about Kaczyński I tend to believe s/he's of ill will

Life / DOCTORS ( NFZ ) AND - PRESCRIPTIONS in Poland (Krakow) [5]


there is Solpadeine - 500 mg paracetamol + 8mg codeine and Antidol 500 mg paracetamol + 15 mg codeine availabale without prescription

if you are not alergic to paracetamol just take 2 tablets of Antidol to have a similar effect to your own prescriptions

there are other such mixes but I have no idea if any of these contain more than 15 mg of codeine per 500mg of paracetamol - you need to ask around in pharmacies - just use it written down on a piece of paper if you can't speak any Polish (paracetamol + kodeina - and doses per 'tabletka') - though spelled the same as in English the word paracetamol gets to be pronounced differently in Polish

as for codeine - it used to be sold as a separate drug before in Poland but the time's long gone - now only sold in mixtures as far as I know

EDIT: I have just found there is Antidol 20 pro which has 20mg of codeine per 500 mg of paracetamol - but I am not sure if it is available without prescription

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

pawian

so actually it was not a disaster for Poland it was a distress for some of the population (one needs to mention that it was all media-created distress - i.e hype - that Poles as a society are vulnerable to such hype is a different thing to contemplate)

boletus

people without a bias don't use a language like that - btw this is just cheap second-guess psychological analysis most probably by someone who never actually studied psychology

oh well, I now see who wrote it - Robert Krasowski - he's just another 'cyngiel' journalist - 'hitman' - you should have read his articles in the (in)famous times of 'Der Dziennik' - the guy is very biased - he simply detests Kaczyńskis - just another elitist prick

delphiandomine


the SLD may well slumber below 10 per cent - maybe even 8 per cent - that makes them coalition-ready but can hardly be called a success - still if the PO + PSL can gather enough seats SLD will be still left out in the cold - and the leadership is gone then - there is actually a fifth column in the SLD of which Ryszard Kalisz is the most prominent member - they may well defect to PO or make a secession from SLD to join PO in government so that PO does not have to involve with PSL again (it proves costly in the end - you can't make a move with KRUS for example) -

for SLD to become a credible political movement they would have to cut their links with the past even with quite recent past and focus on social things instead of 'gay rights' - maybe it's beyond their capabilities and/or affilliations -


btw boletus - didn't you know that Polityka is even more 'gazetowyborcza' than Gazeta Wyborcza itself? that there are a couple of inteligent people there does not mean they are not biased or don't have their ties and affiliations - if you really seek an open media in Poland it's Rzeczpospolita - you can read plenty of views there even if most of the publicists (including the editor-in-chief) there are 'antysalonowy' (and thus mostly supportive of PiS - but the stress is on mostly) - you can read articles by Waldemar Kuczyński in Rzeczpospolita - have you ever seen an article by Rafał Ziemkiewicz in Gazeta Wyborcza or Polityka - you will only hear dissing and disparaging of Ziemkiewicz in Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Radio TOK or TVN (Polsat conveniently does not ever mention Ziemkiewicz - but then even Polsat News don't have a thing like newspaper's review - they don't want you to know too diverse views or to actually read newspapers - to be honest I don't read newspapers just the internet)

catsoldier


3rd Republic (Trzecia Rzeczpospolita) is an political entity that is corrupt to the core and corruption is at its roots (corruption was and mainly remains the essence of the system) - hence some people in Poland wanted 4th Republic - a new beginning - the term was coined by Paweł Śpiewak - a political scientist and then a PO figure (cut out by Donald Tusk and various coterias along the way) - there was a time some circles in PO used a very similar language PiS did then and often still does - the problem is PO nascence and history is also a history of corruption and mischief (PO is held to be former secret-services-created political outlet by many political observers in Poland - from what I can gather (and I read a lot about politics for years now) it can't be far from true)


well - I don't know about Kaczyński family history too much - but consider for example the history of Stanisław Skalski - sentenced to death during Stalinist times - spent a couple of years in prison after the trial (and also a couple before - then tortured as well) awaiting execution - released and rehabilatated during the 'thaw' of 1956 - eventually allowed to follow a career in the commie military force - rose to the rank of pułkownik in the PRL - sure he must have made compromises (most probably agreed not to divulge on his treatment by the communists during the 50's or to ever criticize the regime)

delphiandomine


yes - so you actually have found one case - btw how much would it have cost the tax payer if it succeded- was it a blatant attempt at extracting money from the state as PO does (ever heard how much money so called 'social campaigns' for the TV cost and who gets the money?)

where is the plenty other cases delphi???

btw could you possibly enlighten our readers what were the circumstances of PiS offer to Renata Begier? I mean the general political circumstances not what was the weather these days

Law / Why is US $ getting so high or Polish zloty falling? [60]

declaring personal bankruptcy in Poland is nigh on impossible - there is a law on this but the restrictions and financial cost of a court bankruptcy case are prohibitive

Travel / Cheapest eating places in Warsaw? [27]

when I was studying (middle till late 90's) in Wrocław one could actually eat a modest but filling dinner/lunch for lower than 1,0 PLN at a milky bar - but if you wanted to be on the healthier side you needed to spend closer to 2 złote / 2 PLN (no vegs for the cheapest meals)

I think you can bet that lunch+dinner in a milky bar will cost you between 15 to 20 PLN on avarage

aa - but there is one thing: these places tend to be crowded in certain times of the day - I remember sometimes queuing for half an hour or more to eventually get the meal and then it wasn't always easy to find a sitting place on the premises to eat it :P

Travel / Cheapest eating places in Warsaw? [27]

some 500-600 PLN max (excluding alcohol) - and that is having what you wish for for dinner and lunch and not economizing on everything

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

do you know that Abraham Lincoln even as a president was actually originally opposed to giving the voting rights to the blacks - but he changed his mind - give people the right to change their minds or to amend their fathers' mistakes

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

delphiandomine


name plenty opf examples then please, or I hold that you make up things


SLD just prays that PO can't form a viable coalition with PSL this time or that PSL won't make it to the Sejm - otherwise the leadership's gone (gay marriage won't give them more than some 8 per cent of vote anytime)


if your father was a drug dealer would it be all right for you to be sentenced 20 years in prison even though you are campaigning against drugs yourself ???

btw we are in the sphere of conclusions here not hard facts - have you seen documents to support your view that Kaczyński senior was some sort of commie agent

pawian


disastrous? - in what ways - did the foreing invesment in Poland suffer/plummet??? - as far as I can tell it was the time of the most intensive foreign investment in Poland - so where was the disaster - was economy failing - it was actually booming - have we lost EU financing? no we have negotiated a very good deal from the EU (Marcinkiewicz's 'yes, yes, yes' - this is the money PO is financing their 'successes') - there is still good chance that we will still have some solid money from the EU to use thanks to Lech Kaczyński's negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty (thanks to the negotiation Nice style of voting in the EU which gives Poland a veto power on many issues is preserved till 2014 beyond the new EU budget negotiantions)

so where did you see the disaster?

Life / Attending my first Polish Wedding and Celebrations [18]


water melon was used in the same manner in south easter Kresy (Podole, Ukraina) as well as in some Russian lands - there are mentions of this custom in Polish literature (I guess I remember it from Fredro)

sorry - it was 'Nad Niemnem' by Emilia Orzeszkowa

Love / Help - evil Polish girl after my partner. [39]

you can't help her if she doesn't stop drinking - also think for a while if she cares more about clothes than about her child why should she end up having custody over her son -sometimes you can't do anything, just let them hit the bottom

Food / POLISH RECIPES! [287]

what is Marwit's coleslaw - is Marwit a company/brand ?

Food / POLISH RECIPES! [287]


you may be more lucky with French and Italian delis - celery seeds are not a traditional Polish ingredient, I have actually never seen them in shop - just read about them and maybe the coleslaw you had made use of them because there seems to be some trade in them in Poland

Food / POLISH RECIPES! [287]


I heard Polish people call it Kolesław :)

Food / POLISH RECIPES! [287]

the thing is there may be countless variations of these recipe with differing dressings and ingredients - the other things is it's nothing traditional - why don't you just experiment with the ingredients - one recipe I have found goes like this: a quarter of a white cabbage, 2 apples, 1 onion, 1 carrot, some green parsley, mayo, sugar, salt, pepper - I'm pretty sure the ingredients were a bit different with the salad you had (including the dressing) - there may have been some vinegar in the dressing - I don't actually know what you mean by celery seeds - I have never heard of celery seeds as a herb/seasoning - were the seeds dry or green? - I guess dill must have been part of the dressing (it gives a nice aroma)

USA, Canada / Do many Polish people in America hate Americans? [592]

to be honest i don't know too much about Obama's policies - the ones that I know of is further increasing deficit and also initially trying to 'win' the war in Afghanistan which costs zillions - I don't think withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan on a short notice was and is a reasonable and right thing to do (though one would be tempted to do so) - still if it was planned a couple of years ago and measures taken to strengthen the moderate political forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (by the means of helping the populace more than waging a war) America would perhaps be now out of there and/or the financial burden of the campaings would be significantly reduced

as for Republicans - yes theri credibility is very much limited as long as they don't admit the Bush policies were all wrong and often cynically partisan - I have read an interview with a sort-of ideologue of the neo-con good couple of years a go (before Bush junior) - and what he said is they were going to indebt the state as much as possible among others by hand-outs to technology sector (I think we should read 'military industry') that the Democrats and whoever who would like to do that do not have money to develope any social programmes (like the medical) - in hindsight I think the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are a means to do that - I guess some of these people are simply idealogically blinded - it's enough to believe the state should not have any social programmes to be idealogically blinded

USA, Canada / Do many Polish people in America hate Americans? [592]

i'm not sure he's doing the right thing - there are extremely rich people in America - I can't see Obama making them to make more contribution to the country

Language / Difference between bratowa and szwajgierka [10]


bratowa - your brother's wife

szwagierka is your wife's sister or the wife of your wife's brother (because your wife's brother is szwagier) - perhaps some people also call sisters of your sister's husband szwagierki

btw its always szwagier szwagierka and not szwajgier szwajgierka - it doesn't come from schweigen but from Schwager

Life / American moving to Poland. How do I get/What is the cost of a cell phone, cable, etc...? [16]

well actually it possibly depends on your location - I guess in Warsaw Mac and HP service may be readily available (but the cost will still be high as with car service with main brand dealers) - the other thing with Mac in most cases you receive equipment and software with from your internet provider and these may well not have Mac support

as for other makes of laptops - it's not that there are cheap brand approved service outlets - it's the cost of privately run independant service that often makes use of canibalized parts (but will occasionally order original parts for you if you insist or they can't find anything of the type) - you won't find tons of canibalizede parts of HP laptops here because it is not a popular brand - Poles buy cheap

having said that - I don't suggest you go cheap - if you think HP is much more reliable equipment than the Chinese makes go for it - I just presented you with the service caveat

btw my bro bought a Samsung laptop half a year back - quite nice and no problems so far - I wouldn't go for Sony - presumably they have built in copyright and DVD-zone checkers and you may not be able to watch DVD's in Poland as a result (this was the case a couple of years back - as I said before I'm not really up to date with the computer news)

from the upper end makes Toshiba was once pretty popular in Poland (in the times were laptops were not your average computers)

here's the list of services that are partners of HP in Poland: hp.com/pl/pl/pdf/punkty_serwsowe_hp_tcm_169_960537.pdf - not many as you can see mostly major cities (and still not all of them no Kraków on the list for example - you have to go to Katowice or Bielsko Biała)

Life / American moving to Poland. How do I get/What is the cost of a cell phone, cable, etc...? [16]


go for HP (actually go for some Chinese make - like Asus or Acer or maybe Lenovo - I guess they are cheaper and actually HP is on the same level of serviceability as MAC in Poland) (if it's gonna be Windows or Linux powered) - there is very little in terms of Mac presence in Poland which will definitely be reflected in the cost and availability of service in case anything happens

cell phone is easy if you just need it to talk - or just surf occasionally (you need to have a set with a built in modem or by a modem unit for your laptop) - you just go to any shop that sells phones - you can then buy a pre-paid card in a newsagents ('kiosk') - this is also where you top up - if you have an American handset check if it works with the European GSM (frequency mismatch - most new phones sold here in Europe are said to be designed to operate both in Europe and the US but have no idea if it's the same on your side of the pond)

as for internet - I guess you wouldn't settle for a GPRS speeds of transfer so you need a contract - in order to have a contract you have to be established here - have a residency etc (e.g. some papers to confirm that you live here legally, have and adress etc) , then you can apply for a contract with either cable internet companies (main telecom companies (Telekomunikacja Polska, Netia, Dialog) or cable TV networks) or if in a bigger city a GSM (or rather its younger brother LPT) internet providers (LPT is provided by Polsat only, lower speed GSM internet is provided by the main cellular operators (Orange, Plus GSM, TMobile) - the GSM in the cities can have some 500 kbps transfers (at least they say so - I am not completely up to date with that information cause I don't live in a city an such things as EDGE, HSDC are not present where I live) - the cable telecoms and cable TV networks in the cities provide very high speed transfer internet including fiber optic connections (but the latter must be quite costly) - an avarage internet contract will set you back some 40-60 PLN (our currency)

EDIT: a 25 Megabit internet is not your average internet in Poland (more like 4 Mbit)

Language / Difference between bratowa and szwajgierka [10]


szwagier is also a husband of your sister as far as I can tell

Real Estate / What area to live in Wroclaw? I prefer to spend about 1600-1900 per month on renting. [19]


yes - you're right - Wrocław Kuźniki station is just next to Nowy Dwór - the thing is the trains are nothing as frequent in Kuźniki as it is with the SKM in Trójmiasto/Tricity - I guess there is maximum one train per hour stopping there - I will look it up if you insist - still nothing beats trams in Wrocław in the field of communication and connectivity and reliability for the most part too - in most parts of Wrocław trams don't sit in traffic jams (Legnicka line, the line that goes to Krzyki and the Grabiszyńska line) - a couple of Trams from Gądów and general Legnicka area will take you directly into the city centre in just a quarter max (10, 22?) while the main railway station is actually a 15 minutes walk from the city centre (well the very centre, the historical one you know)


there used to be huge traffic jams in Pomorska street and vicitnity in the times I lived and studied in Wrocław - Bruecknera too - these are the two main ways from Karłowice to Strzegomska - is it any better now? - if going from Karłowice to Gądów (osiedle lotników) it is worthwhile to go round the city ringway I guess - but is it the same with Strzegomska - not the beginning section from Plac Orląt Lwowskich I guess

also I have read even here that there is so much road works going on in Wrocław now - what roads are they doing now???

Real Estate / What area to live in Wroclaw? I prefer to spend about 1600-1900 per month on renting. [19]


it's a plain Wygwizdowo, isn't it - and think about winter there - been only a couple of times in winter there and it was mostly bad - but I think it's a matter of getting used to that - back in the 90's Wrocław simply ended with the last blocks of Nowy Dwór (whoever though then that Strachowice was still Wrocław?) - from what I know there is some shopping centre there now on the way to Strachowice (or even a couple of these) - I wasn't there in some 5-6 years now


yes - but the trouble begins when there are traffic jams - I used to live in Złotniki and travel through Nowy Dwór to the Central Railway Station and sometimes it took oven an hour to get there - I don't have to mention that the Złotniki-Nowy Dwór part was not the one that had traffic jams? - it takes some 10 minutes to get from Złotniki to Nowy Dwór by bus

Real Estate / What area to live in Wroclaw? I prefer to spend about 1600-1900 per month on renting. [19]

yes Karłowice is a nice place but not really convenient commuter-wise if you're gonna work in the middle of Strzegomska street (if you happen to work at this section of Strzegomska that is close to the city centre then Karłowice is an option though)

Real Estate / What area to live in Wroclaw? I prefer to spend about 1600-1900 per month on renting. [19]

scolari_ire

the south Krzyki a Borek area - but this is just a suggestion of a nice place to live (which is also quite subjective - I personally love the smaller Krzyki and Borek area )

the thing is you may not actually be able to find anything affordable and decent enough to rent there and you could end up looking around in other vicinities too - perhaps including the commmunist blocks for a time (if you settle for an appartment in those commie blocks (which aren't unlivable nightmare anyway) you can go for Szczepin or Gądów area which are very convenient commuting wise if you're gonna work on Strzegomska - also Nowy Dwór is an option though I don't like it personally cause it's just a big estate with hardly any green area around and it's not well connected to the city centre (no trams as far as I know only buses - it can be dreary in the winter)

Language / Difference between bratowa and szwajgierka [10]


to be honest I had to look it up - I didn't know myself - siblings of your spouse are szwagier or szwagierka (so are their spouses) - bratowa is a wife of your brother - but it can become complicated

-

Travel / Train Routes - from Poland to Slovakia [12]

TimJones

historically in communist times there were no such services - and actually there is only one such railroad line that links Eastern Slovakia with that southeasterly corner of Poland - I have no idea if because being not used it's fallen in complete disrepair but I doubt there is any service between the two countries on the line -

- the areas in question are only sparsely inhabited so appart so no everyday traffic makes sense - I have looked the line up and it seems there are passenger trains on the line crossing the international borders only in July and August (school vacation time) - still the Zagórz-£upków-Medzilaborce line can be put out of service altogether when a bridge over Poprad river that was destroyed in the flood of 2010 is finally repaired (now all of the cargo traffic from Poland to eastern Slovakia is directed through Zagórz-£upków-Medzilaborce)

unfortunately the wikipedia entry on the railroad line in question is only in Polish pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linia_kolejowa_nr_107

Law / Why is US $ getting so high or Polish zloty falling? [60]

the euro is a good idea and would work just fine provided the euro-land countries don't spend like mad and live a huge budget deficit - I think Poland should join eventually when the situation clears and currency rates stabilize so we can decide at what price should we exchange euro to złoty

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]

it looks like the 2nd world is not gone just the notions need to be shifted