Travel / My holiday, Gdansk or Kaunus, Lithuania? Help me decide! [23]


yes, Vilnius Gatve, and the whole area is just a 30 min walk.


I talked to a nice young priest who was there selling brochures and collecting donations for the renovation of the place. A huge task. The cathedral used to be in good condition still in the 1920s, but in the Soviet times it was turned into a storage place for some chemicals I think, which completely destroyed the interior, plus there was some war destruction. A pitiful sight, all the stained glass windows broken and covered with wire mesh, the walls in a very bad state, and so on. It's going to take loads of money to restore it. A powerful remnant of the communist times, but at least the building survived - many others had no such luck.


I hope you won't be going there with Legia fans ;)

Travel / My holiday, Gdansk or Kaunus, Lithuania? Help me decide! [23]


Actually, it's one central pedestrianized street and just the front part of it that has been renovated. Last year we had rooms in one of the buildings in that street and the front was nicely painted, but the back, with the entrance to the studio, looked like a favela. The inside was good though, nice and clean, with all brand-new equipment.

And there are not many places around Kaunas to go to, either.
So Pam, Gdańsk with Sopot, Gdynia and Malbork seems to be your best bet. Even if the weather is not great, there are things like the amber museum and Malbork castle or the Gdynia Aquarium:

aquarium.gdynia.pl
mhmg.gda.pl/international/?lang=eng&oddzial=4

Travel / My holiday, Gdansk or Kaunus, Lithuania? Help me decide! [23]

Pam, I'm not sure what exactly you want to do and see, but I think you realise Kaunas is not big and seeing all the tourist attractions will take you 2-3 days at the most. If the 5 days include the journey there and back, it should be all right but 5 days in Kaunas itself could be a bit too much.

It's certainly an interesting experience if you haven't been to Lithuania before.
Did it occur to you to go to Vilnius instead? It's more beautiful, there's more to see and you can also visit the Gedyminas castle and the Troki castle on the lake very close to the city. Vilnius is good for 5 days.

Comparing Gdańsk with Kaunas, well, Gdańsk is much better :) but you've been to Poland before and if you want to experience a new country, it's a good enough reason to go to Lithuania.


oh come on, if you're lucky, October can be one of the best months here :)

Life / Individualism in Polish culture...Is it almost Nonexistant? [170]

NATASA: Sadly, people do equate those two.
Yeah, the land of plenty stands for the land of freedom.

NATASA: I just wanted to tell you that you are quotable ;)
Thank you ;)

Life / Individualism in Polish culture...Is it almost Nonexistant? [170]

FUZZYWICKETS: yeah, that's all I needed to read. surely you lived in the land of freedom, after all, you had meat on the table once every two weeks when the "peasant woman" stopped by from the "illegal home butchery." haha.....oh man.

well, if freedom and individualism for you is just about avilability of meat, or whatever goods, in shops, then I frankly don't know what to say.

BTW, what's with the quote function? It disappeared a few days ago. Am I the only one having this problem?

Life / Individualism in Polish culture...Is it almost Nonexistant? [170]

Magdalena: I was in secondary school in the eighties and most of my friends had English at school, I did as well. This was in Warsaw though so the percentages might be a bit skewed.

I was growing up in a 30 000 town in eastern Poland, where there were two general secondary schools (liceum) and both had English in the curriculum. True, not all students had it - some groups had German, some French and everybody was having the obligatory Russian. But there were also afternoon English courses - not so many as nowadays, but still available. The thing was most students considered English a bit superfluous - "you'll never use it" was the common approach.

As for travelling, it was like Grubas and Boletus say. In the sticks where I lived I knew lots of people who travelled to USA, Canada, Italy, England, France, West Germany and other places. True, it was bothersome and expensive, but possible unless you were a public enemy meaning engaged with the political opposition. If people say you couldn't travel back then they mean that you couldn't just grab your passport, buy a last minute ticket and go wherever you wanted - every journey abroad took some serious planning. But people did travel.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


The flashlight not good for the pigments, or something of the sort?


She's framing a scene for a cowboy movie she wants to make.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

You took a picture of them in working clothes and with no make up?

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


In Szydłów :) Brama Krakowska

Life / The name "Mitchell" in Polish [13]


There are lots of theories but none of them proven or even convincing enough. Another popular one derives the name from the bear, niedźwiedź (miś). Other possibilities are a purse (miech, mieszek) or a diminutive from two-part names like Kazimierz or Włodzimierz. Nobody really knows and there's a lot of discussion on it as it was the name of the first historical ruler of Poland.

A sample discussion on a historical forum - unfortunately, only in Polish:
historycy.org/index.php?showtopic=33985&st=45

Law / Where to find a postcode map of Poland? [4]

Try this: kodypocztowe.dojazd.org

you can either find the postcode by typing in the address in the box on the right or find out the address by typing the postcode into the box on the left.

Also:

kody-pocztowe.info/kody-pocztowe.php
kodypocztowe.com
poczta-polska.pl/spispna/spispna.pdf
kody.poczta-polska.pl

and for single cities:

mmwroclaw.pl
mapa.nocowanie.pl/warszawa/kod-pocztowy/
mmwarszawa.pl
mapa.nocowanie.pl/gdansk/kod-pocztowy/

for other cities, google the name of the city and "kody pocztowe". HTH

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


As time goes on, good things can only get better:

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

A bit like this one:

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

It's in Kałków-Godów near Ostrowiec Swiętokrzyski.


starachowice-net

Even better than the Swiebodzin Christ.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


No idea, but as there are tanks, probably something from WWII!


Because it looks a bit like the Capitol?

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Kościół Mariacki of course. You can even see the altar in the middle of the picture.


Ah yes, Swiątynia Opatrzności. But why is it there? As far as icons are concerned, the Swiebodzin Christ would be more recognizable.

Language / Jas Fasola = Mr. Bean, why? [12]




Yes. GT is based on translations provided by the users and in this instance, the programme recognises the whole phrase, not just single words.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


why hasn't anybody answered it yet - too easy? :)


Cat's are devil's creatures so if a priest wants to have one, he must exorcise it first.


I think it's Warsaw castle, Mazury and Morskie Oko.
The "Auschwitz" looks like Biskupin.
Also there's some juhas herding sheep, the upside-down house and something like a football match inside the letter g.
But what's the building next to the Pałac Kultury?

Law / IMPORTANT: LUBLIN has no internet cafes ? WHERE can I find an INTERNET CAFE in Lublin ? [17]

Or a smartphone for 1 PLN and a 2-year contract with unlimited data transfer, for PLN 45 a month. Internet cafes were a big business some 10 years ago. Most of them have disappeared since, but a few are still there.

Life / Multimedia vs dialog internet near Lodz. Opinions wanted [5]

Oh, and one more thing, the Multimedia helpdesk is easily available (and competent too), I'm with the UPC now and it can be a pain to get through to them.

Life / Multimedia vs dialog internet near Lodz. Opinions wanted [5]


Multimedia is ok, I was with them for about 10 years and never had any technical issues bar 2 or 3 breakdowns lasting for a couple of hours each. I've no experience with Dialog but they're a smaller provider so I'm not sure about their technical capabilities.

Life / Which services is Poland still waiting for? [218]

They're mostly recycled, that's what trash segregation is for.

Language / Help with the Polish plurals and describing of objects? [22]

Dwaj panowie/Niemcy, dwóch panów/Niemców, pięciu panów/Niemców is only for the male.
Dwoje Niemców, pięcioro Niemców - mixed
Dwie Niemki, pięć Niemek - female

Dwoje, pięcioro etc. is always for mixed/neuter gender. Dwaj, dwóch, pięciu is male.

Language / The English 'To Get' & Dostać vs Otrzymać [15]


A very good point.


I don't think the analogy is valid. In the contexts where they can both be used (dostałem/otrzymałem list) they're perfectly interchangeable semantically. The register differs though, so it's dostałem zaproszenie na przyjęcie w ambasadzie in everyday speech but otrzymałem Pańskie zaproszenie in a formal letter.

Language / Help with the Polish plurals and describing of objects? [22]


Dwóch is for masculine. Dwoje Niemców przyjechało would be mixed.

Food / Your favourite Polish foods! [180]

P3, if you're interested in desserts, check out this blog. Some of the recipes are translated into English. You'll find there both traditional Polish and international ones.

mojewypieki.blox.pl/html

Food / Your favourite Polish foods! [180]


schab ze śliwką - pork loin with prunes

Love / "Marian" complex of Polish women [16]


oh she's fine... but she's been spending too much time on PF :)

Love / "Marian" complex of Polish women [16]


Yeah I could... but do you really think any off-topic could make this thread more stupid than it already is?


Having visited this forum on and off for a few years now, I kind of got used to the thought that I can be accused of anything by anybody, no matter how bizarre the accusation.

Love / "Marian" complex of Polish women [16]


Thanks for the tip, I've cleaned the table top with a damp cloth to make sure, so it should be all right :)