News / The US sends troops to Poland for drills [83]


Including these "terrible Germans", who JK claimed could not operate in Poland for the next seven generations.


It seems the Russians are rewriting Sudetenland allover. First you invent a minority being "oppressed". Then you "encourage" that minority to stage an "independent" rebellion.

Then you tell you have to send in your troops to support your ethnic minority.
In the meantime other countries stand by helplessly and ask the big bear to be moderate.
Goebbels would have been proud of it all.

Life / International newspaper availability in Gdansk? [21]

Sat in the metro back home from work...The chap opposite me had a Kindle (or Kundel as the Poles call it), and me an oldfashioned real book, the kind (for the people who are born like 20 years ago) which is printed on paper. I am convinced he was the poorer guy. After all when his batteries run out (soon I hope) he will have to stare at the ceiling, and I still will have my book...

Life / International newspaper availability in Gdansk? [21]

Couldn't you try the airport? I know it is not exactly in the city centre, but still...

Travel / 9-Day Poland Trip Itinerary: Warsaw-Krakow-Wroclaw-Poznan-Gdansk-Torun-Warsaw [27]

No idea what kind of budget the OP has...maybe domestic flights could help out.

UK, Ireland / Buying mobile from UK - will the warranty be valid in Poland? [8]

If you want to use in your telephone a local (Polish) SIM card, it would be good to check in your phone would not be simblocked.

Life / Amazon stops super saver delivery on orders to Poland [40]


I am afraid I am one of these oldfashioned people who want to read a real book :). Anyway, thanks for the tip. Is there an alternative here in Poland for American Bookstore btw?

Language / Correct way of saying "Again please"? [7]

I would use "słucham" mostly in a situation where the other person tells something which you find hard to believe or doubt...and then only with a person you know well

Life / Amazon stops super saver delivery on orders to Poland [40]

A real pity. I used to order English-language books from them...but with the old prohibitive sending costs returning...I might have to return to American Bookstore in Arcadia :(

I guess I will have to revert to reading the books I already have and go more often to the public library at Meissnera 5... I refuse to pay transport costs amounting to 25 % of the goods. But then, Amazon is treating its employees like ****. Customers follow.

Love / I'm getting married to a Polish guy and need advice before visit his family; gifts, topics, customs [82]

Polish mothers-in-law are battleaxes anyhow. In my experience they find fault with the partner, whatever and whenever.

Law / Poland's Karta stalego pobytu - how long does the procedure take? [23]


Exactly, for this you are entitled after having lived here for 5 years. And you have to have meldunek na stale as well.

Love / Help me plan my wedding - in church in Poland, with a 2 day wedding party - Zabrze [24]

My friends are not that kind of people and I can live with that perfectly :)

Love / Help me plan my wedding - in church in Poland, with a 2 day wedding party - Zabrze [24]


I meant the same, one hour into the party. Never experienced a wedding party where guests already were drunk one hour into it.


I heard that the Górale sometimes have 3-day parties. Anybody has been to one of these?

Love / Help me plan my wedding - in church in Poland, with a 2 day wedding party - Zabrze [24]


I am not an expert into canonical law, but wouldn't you have to do also First Communion and Confirmation?
Anyway good luck with your wedding, I hope it will be a great day :)

From my experience these 2-day weddings are getting out of fashion - maybe on the countryside they linger on. The ones we went to during the past years always were one evening.

Love / Help me plan my wedding - in church in Poland, with a 2 day wedding party - Zabrze [24]

Very peculiar wedding you had Fuzzy. Ours years ago, but I cannot recall anybody being drunk one hour into the whole ceremony.

Love / Help me plan my wedding - in church in Poland, with a 2 day wedding party - Zabrze [24]


Exactly, we for example got married in Krzeszów and not in Wałbrzych. Wałbrzych in the olden times comparable to Zabrze. There is no church law stating you have to marry in the local parish. It might require a "koperta" of sorts though...As does everything in the Polish Church... I don't know if you are RC...If you are, go to your local parish wherever you live now and start the procedure.

We married way back in a civilian ceremony in Belgium, and 3 months later in church in Poland.
The church part started with documents to be completed (in Latin) in my local Flemish parish. Our local priest sent everything to the bishop...and then it went to the archbishop...and in the end it all ended up in my wife's parish in Poland.

The local Polish priest will foremost think of the money he will not get. So pay him and get a referal to the parish you want to marry.

Real Estate / Rental prices in Warsaw - article; it gives a useful idea of how the different "gminas" are positioned. [6]

Well for me they also look very high to be honest. The source szybko.pl is a real estate portal, so on the other hand they are supposed to be informed?

I have a friend who lives on Miodowa and rents a 44 m2 flat for 1700 per month - which is I think cheap.
From what I know (we have never rented in Warsaw, we own our place), the closer to the metro the more expensive. Rental prices here in Bielany have for sure risen since the metro arrived here.

UK, Ireland / British products in Warsaw [32]


For sure it does Harry. Thanks for the tip. Just that I never associated Amazon with corned beef :)

UK, Ireland / British products in Warsaw [32]


I am at a complete loss why to buy toilet paper on Amazon??? We buy it in our local Lidl. Also, our cats eat pet food bought in Poland since we have them - more as 10 years - and untill now they have not grown two heads. The only thing I miss is corned beef for a decent price. Paying 26 PLN for a tin (as Marks & Sparks) charges is indecent for me.

Classifieds / D&D Group for Expats in Warsaw needs one more player... [69]


Do you have a real everyday life besides of this weird one? I mean...going to the movies, walking in £azienki, to the pub with your mates (real ones, not robotic), shopping with your wife, washing your car...cooking... The world as it is....

Law / Any advantage to citizenship of Poland if already have EU residency? [20]

If you are a EU citizen, it actually does not matter. The only thing you as a EU citizen in Poland cannot do (if you have permanent residency) is vote in presidential and parliamentary elections.

Voting in local and European elections you can do (I use this right).
All other rights are the same as Poles would have.

The OP is American so EU regulations do not apply.

europa.eu/eu-life/index_en.htm

Travel / Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of [98]

Whenever I go home - I usually fly to Eindhoven - I prefer Wizzair. Though their hand luggage regulations are confusing. But the checked-in luggage of 32 kg is really great.

I think they are vastly superior to Ryanair which are basically just thieves with wings. I never heard of Wizzair planes maydaying a control tower in Spain because they were flying on fumes.

Travel / Best places to view Warsaw from above? [5]

I found this one. Very helpful site.
warsawtour.pl/zabytki-i-inne-atrakcje/punkty-widokowe-1868.html

You have to be mad to pay 150 PLN to swim on top of the Intercontinental. Give me the viewing terrace on top of Św Anny any time.

Life / Jack Strong ( Film about Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski ) [48]


Harry, I wonder if you have relatives who suffered and died in NKVD camps after the war. My wife has.


Easy to tell from a Cambridge 5 Very Lofty position.
I honestly think George O. would laugh in your face.

Life / Jack Strong ( Film about Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski ) [48]

Jon, where would you place Von Stauffenberg in this case? According to your view...he is a full-blooded traitor.
The Cambridge Five, as fondly quoted by you, were spying for one of the most brutal political systems in the world. George Orwell did not do this, indeed his opinion of the Stalinist were suppressed by the same crowd.

Kukliński is a heroe.

And let me tell you another story. My father-in-law (since long deceased) was in Auschwitz in the war, and after the war again tortured in soviet prisons. My wife's grandmother was in Ravensbrueck and later in Mauthausen, and then in a Soviet prison in Warsaw. She and I regard Kukliński as a genuine heroe.

Easy it is.. to spy for Beria from a lofty place in Cambridge....Close your eyes for what happened in the USSR. Easy to sabotage Orwell's books.

Munich 38 all over.

Can EVERYONE stay on topic please, we are discussing Kukliński.

News / Poland shall dominate Europe. Ongoing process [30]


Maybe we should ask JK for advice? After all he is always moaning about Poland's declining birthrate....

Work / What salary can I expect for a job in finance in Lodz? [18]

That won't help at all. These BPO's have a very high job rotation (I think Infosys has 25-30%) so there are always new candidates.

Work / What salary can I expect for a job in finance in Lodz? [18]


I have to be careful what to tell here, before being suspended again.... But why all these third-world workers claim (and there is an avalanche of them on this forum) they get hired for salaries which are completely unreal?

Real Estate / About to move to Warsaw. Any advice on where to live? [31]


On this I can agree...although I would not include Przy Agorze...The tenement blocks and spaces between them have a bad reputation.
That said and done, I like to live in Stare Bielany. It is very green, safe (I have never experienced anything bad here, the worst was that somebody stole 3 wheel covers from our VW Touran. Still don't know why he left the fourth one?), I have the shops nearby which I need. And we meet with friends in the weekend, we have 350 mtrs to the metro.

But I think it is a family neighborhood, not something for the OP.
I have never ventured beyond Huta Młocina...I heard Młociny is a nice place to live.


That is correct. If I see the annual breakdown of the exploitation costs of our "kamiennica". It is like 60% private / 40% gmina.
But that doesn't tell anything about the people living there. We are lucky that we have a quiet housing estate. The 40% gmina are mostly pensioners.

Work / What salary can I expect for a job in finance in Lodz? [18]

If £ódż, Infosys springs to my mind. Or Nordea (and because you talk about a finance job, it would be Nordea).
That would mean a BPO job, and so salary expectations would have to be low anyway.