Work / Cost of Living, Average Salaries and Job sites in Poland [263]

marry her then...but one thing to remember...when you go around making everyone happy...you usually end up making yourself miserable.

have the kid, marry the girl, but dont stick with the marriage if you dont love the girl. suffer two years and then get out.

If you have money, Poland is really great. If you are struggling, you simply resent Poland, Poles, everything Polish.

Travel / What to do in Poznan for 3 days? [21]


Dont listen to aphrodisiac too much. His posts are a bit on the negative side always, as far as I can remember.

Poznan is a great place to visit. Go to the main square. There are a lot of nice cafes there. A nice variety. Italian, Ukranian. Some pizza places, if that's what you like. An outside art gallery.

There is a cinema just outside the square. Lot's of pubs. You will have fun, and the prices are not so bad.

Just have fun. 1000 zloty is fine. More than enough.

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]

Amathyst
Oh well, 12 months isnt too long, personally I think they should make it 10 years :D

That's because you are a pissed off Pole who was refused his visa to the USA. Used to be you could just cross into Slowakia and come back the next day. Schengen is tricky, but it's the answer to USA policies. USA laws are just as bad and really worse, and Canadian Border cops are jerks big time.

I can live in Poland if I wanted, but Mexico is so nice this time of year. And cheaper. I know you love the girl or whatever, and it appears you made it back. I know folks who have overstayed in Poland or some other Schengen Zone drone country, and they just cross into the UK from France, with no formalities at the border, and leave from the UK which gives Candadians and Yanks 6 months.

Don't pay too much attention to the haters. They got refused visas to the USA and now being recognized along with Bulgaria and Moldovia as EU member states, the feel special about it. Like some sort of private club. It is like, well, when you are treated like unwanteds for so many decades, you laugh when someone else is having a hard time. Arrogance. Sorry about your troubles. Getting married to a Pole is a bad idea. Marry an Italian. Citizenship in 6 months and you can live in Poland after that if you want.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

Harry. Schengen is ridiculous and it wont hold and is not strictly inforced. it is up to each country how they inforce it. Im not worried about Schengen. They don't enter your name in the system when you come in. They count the days. If you lose your passport, you get a new start. That will cost you about $75 USD. Poland the USA are great allies. The USA needs to issue a visa waiver to Poles. If they did, the Poles, would come and go as they pleased and wouldnt overstay in the USA. Lots if illegal Poles in the USA anyway. I know some been here for 10 to 15 years.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

I disagree. And anyway it depends. If you have close relations with a country, you should have a bilateral agreement. Obama needs to tell Clinton. Hey, they are in the UE, they are Poles, which means they come running when we need help, they can work anywhere in Europe and dont need or really want USD's. Give them the waiver. That or tender your resignation, honey.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


They didn't need a residency visa. They needed a student visa, and anyway, please. If they are in the university, they just need to go down and apply. You can generally attend any sort of school in Poland and get a student visa. It doesnt even have to be a university. Take Polish classes and stay as long as you like.

If a Polish official came up to me and threatened to throw me out, I'd tell him to get his auntie out of CHicago first, who has been sitting there for 23 years illegal as anything.

Is anyone else out there not completely and utterly amazed at these two sentences!!!!!!!!!!

I am amazed that you are amazed...and that you used exactly 10 exclamation points, probably without even counting.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


I bet you didn't learn it perfectly. You can learn the language, but you can never get it all quite right, not in 20 years.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


And most pretend to be Catholics.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


When the Jews came back to Poland after the war, Poles hung them because they didnt want them to reclaim their property. Poles never liked Jews and still dont like Jews. My former boss in Poland said that the Jews bragged that they owned all the businesses and homes, and the Poles owned the streets and sidewalks.

I dont hate or really feel anything about Jews. They had a bad time, but they were not known for being generous. Their reputation was Jews for Jews. That is why when the Nazis came, most Poles, and I said most not all, just handed them over or turned them in. They felt they owed the Jews nothing, because the Jews didn't care about them and would put them out in the street if they couldn't pay the rent. The thing is, the new class of Poles without Jewish heritage will do the same thing, and really, always would do the same thing. There was and is no difference. It was just that the Jews controlled a great deal of the apartments and commerce. If the Poles did, they would have behaved the same way. Jews were an easy target because they were collected and identifiable.

While many Jews did serve in the military and fought to protect the country, during peacetime they were focused only on the ways they could control the economy and become an elite class, and that meant high rents and high prices for goods for which they controlled the supply.

It isn't different now with the rich Poles or with the big money flowing into Poland to buy up properties and make everything too expensive for Poles. (That is why young Poles leave) Now your new foreign resident turn Poles into a service class, while they, the Germans and Dutch, the Brits. control housing, and banking and goods and services and bring ther Euro and the Pound to drive up inflation and make the savings of Poles worth less and less.

Just my opinion based on what I have read and experienced.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


Most, not all. Again, I have lived in several villages and cities throughout Poland. I don't make this up. Poles told me these stories. What is written in the history books is fine, but when I get a first hand accounting of what happened, I tend to go with that.

An ever-increasing proportion of Jews in interwar Poland lived separate lives from the Polish majority. In 1921, 74.2% of Polish Jews listed Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language; the number rose to 87% by 1931, resulting in growing tensions between Jews and Poles. Jews were often not identified as Polish nationals.

Although many Jews were educated, they were excluded from most of the relevant occupations, including the government bureaucracy. A good number therefore turned to the liberal professions, particularly medicine and law. In 1937 the Catholic trade unions of Polish doctors and lawyers restricted their new members to Christian Poles (in a similar manner the Jewish trade unions excluded non-Jewish professionals from their ranks after 1918). A series of professional and trade unions, including those for lawyers and physicians, enacted "Aryan clauses" expelling Polish Jews from their ranks.

Complex and long history shaped Polish attitudes towards the Jews and Jewish attitudes towards the Poles, but the anti-Jewish sentiment in Poland had reached its zenith in the years leading to the Second World War.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


I don't know. Poland was very different than France in that the Germans respected the French, but hung the President of Warsaw. The Germans only wanted Poland for land and labor. They considered the Poles to be inferior.

Overall, according to a detailed count drawn under Serge Klarsfeld, slightly below 77,500 of the Jews residing in France died during the war, overwhelmingly after being deported to death camps. Out of a Jewish population in France in 1940 of 350,000, this means that somewhat less than a quarter died; while horrific, the mortality rate was lower than in other occupied countries (e.g. 75% in the Netherlands).

The number of Jews in Poland on September 1, 1939 amounted to about 3,474,000 people. The Polish Jewish community suffered the most in the Holocaust. About six million Polish citizens perished during the war, half of them (three million) Polish Jews, all but about 300,000 of the Jewish population, who were killed at the German Nazi extermination camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibór, Chełmno or died of starvation in ghettos.

Big difference between Poland and France.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


Did you know about this?

The Jedwabne pogrom (or Jedwabne massacre) was a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the town of Jedwabne in Poland that took place in July 1941 during World War II. The official investigation of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance confirmed that the crime was "committed directly by Poles, but inspired by the Germans." Similar events occurred at Radziłów and Wąsosz.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


Certainly I do. Again though, The Germans didn't seek state support with the Poles. They treated Poland as if Poland had begun a war with Germany with that farce in Gdansk. They dissolved the government.

The Polish underground Army passed many death sentences on Polish collaborators, but denunciation of Jews was never punished. Poles rejoiced when the Warsaw Ghetto was burning. "The Jewish bedbugs are finally torched." In Warsaw there was a saying: "The whole world will throw stones at Hitler's grave, we will send flowers, grateful for removing the Jews from Poland."

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]


No, I don't watch movies. I read books. You do know how to read? A lot of what I read is the Jewish account, the Polish account, and the neutral account. This is more of a neutral account.

One of the meanest of modern historical controversies surrounds the conduct of the non-Jewish population
towards the Nazis’ Final Solution. Some Jewish writers, whether scholars or novelists such as Leon Uris,
have spread the view that the Poles actually rejoiced at the fate of the Jews or at best were indifferent
‘bystanders’… Both sides in the controversy overlook the realities of life under the Nazi Terror, which was
so much fiercer and more protracted in Poland than anywhere in Europe. To ask why the Poles did little to
help the Jews is rather like asking why the Jews did nothing to assist the Poles. Stories of individual
gallantry, though real enough, vastly exaggerated the opportunities for chivalry which actually existed. In a
world where immediate death awaited anyone who contravened Nazi regulations, the Nazis could always
exact a measure of co-operation from the terrified populace.

The truth is simple. Some Poles hated Jews and helped the Germans kill them. Some helped the Jews. And some were indifferent and just wanted to survive the war in seclusion if possible.

Overall, I have to say that Jews do not seem to get along well with anybody. For whatever reason, Jews are persecuted eventually just about everywhere they go. Now, as an individual, I have to say that if I made the same claim, that I am persecuted wherever I go, then maybe it is my problem. Maybe there is something about me I need to change.

With that, I leave the subject.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


I studied and studied and studied and read and practiced and watched TV and read newspapers, and I got a lot better, until I took a break, and then it all went away again.

It is nice though, to not understand everything people say. For example, on the bus or the train, it is more peaceful not to understand what everyone is jabbering about.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

Well, considering that I am in Poland only once every 5 years, I dont think I care. The Polish government can buy me a ticket back to the good ol USA. So you Brits can sit around in pubs and brag about how Poland is all yours. One catch, permanent residence for me is but a document away as I am married to a Pole and have been for 14 years. Poland is the sort of place where Brits run to have a life they could not possibly have back in Blighty. You can be popular with all the ignorant village girls. I know you think you are special because you can travel around and blow your pounds and not worry about dates, but really, you just go running back to Blighty whyen thye pounds run low, doing odd jobs until you can manage to escape again.

Thanks to the cordial invitation of your government, I can stay in the UK for 6 months solid and I have friends in the UK. You? Limited to 3 months in the USA. Who wants who? I can travel back and forth from the UK and Poland or wherever and live like that indefinitely, if that were the issue. You do the same anyway, so I really dont see where you have the advantage. Poland is not some gorgeous vacation resort, afterall. And the rest of Europe is just an expensive ****hole clowntown.

Britain is not in Schengen, it is in the EU. The UK doesnt give a hoot about Schengen. So I can use both the EU and Schengen

for as long as I like as long as I have the funds, and you guys, you cannot do **** about it. So, no, Americans dont worry about Schengen. It is a ridiculous idea. The EU is a ridiculous idea. Look at it. Every bleeding country needs a bailout.


No. If I were ever deported from Poland, Id laugh all the way home on the free ticket. There are several ways to stay in Poland.

1. university
2. business
3. marriage
4. finance
5. illness
6. job
7. pretend to be Polish, just dont tell them where you are from
8. bribe somebody
9. tell them you are from the UK. Polish cops cannot tell the difference if you feign the accent.
10. get some chick pregnant
11. buy citizenship for 100k
12. buy the cops pierogi and knedle until they burst


Maybe you. Man, Ive had the US Border Patrol gestapo give me the same treatment. I tried to enter New York from Canada and the US Border Patrol kept me for nearly 3 hours. They mess with everybody. Come on, JFK? They let a few Arabs into New York and what happened? BOOM!!!

Poles dont fly into NYC, They fly into Chicago. You know it, I know it.

What is this all about anyway? Is this a pride issue? Is this a "I deserve better treatment" issue? When I lived in Poland I got treated like crap. Poles wouldn't give you the chance to do anything but teach English. They let you in easily enough, but they only ever wanted the revenue. They knew you couldnt do anything once admitted. What? Poland has welfare? No. Poland has homeless benefits? No. Poland has oh so many jobs for Americans? No. So why would an American stay on Poland? Cipa? The life is oh so good? Please. For most Americans, Poland has nothing at all to offer. For Poles, the USA offers a chance to make cash and to live a big life that your cousins cannot have.

That is really why you are pissed and why you are oh so proud of Schengen and all that. "OH! We are getting back at those Americans for refusing us a visa!!" pssst!! As if Americans really give a damnnnnn.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


Yeah, I agree with that.

Life / I got beaten and kicks in my face just cuz i dont look polish [205]


Holland is overrun with violent Africans. In the best interest of Europe, deport them all.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

delphiandomine

OH, did you complain and have them remove mu post? But it was so well written.

English wa""nkerz. I swear. How sensitive you can be.


Scottie, please stop being an apologist. These English think they are conquering Europe and defeating the USA through political exclusion. The English are arrogant, not Americans. In fact, I do not really understand why the English have that opinion about Americans. Perhaps because some Americans think they should receive preferential treatment based on nationality.

I think some Americans have that opinion, as many are related to someone who died in battle in Europe. We feel that we liberated Europe and that Europe owes us. It is true, but Europeans have been through so many wars over so many centuries. They always forget, and are rarely loyal for more than a few decades.

After that, they resent whoever came to help. They feel that they failed by not being to defend themselves alone.

The chance of another war of any sort in United Europe is zero. Everyone is just as happy as a crotch cricket between granny's legs.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


Thanks for that. Yes, the Soviets suffered as well, but they abandoned Poland when they could have made a huge difference. They encouraged an uprising in Warsaw, only to witness the Germans destroy the city without doing anything about it.

The Soviets murdered 1000's of Polish officers at Katyn. They did no service to Europe. They only fought because they were attacked. Before that the Russians had a pact with the Germans.

It worked hand in hand. The Americans, the British and the Russians defeated Germany. Take away any one of us and it could have been very different. I do have to respect the British for sinking the Bismark. God bless the HMS Hood.

What Patton said was correct. "While we are here, lets take what is left of the German Army and beat the crap out of the Russians." Too bad the idea wasn't well received. We collectively could have prevented decades of Soviet occupation of Poland.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


Perhaps, but I do not believe it was right to use Poland as a tool of exchange or for consideration of the Russians efforts in the war.


You cannot take the heat, huh? I'd rather be a redneck than a Góraly.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

We do not like being referred to as a superpower, not when we are in debt forever without hope of paying any of it down and people are just getting poorer and more ignorant and going bankrupt.

We feel like slaves to the world with this whole world police concept some US political buffoon came up with 30 or more years ago.

We would prefer the world takes care of its own problems wherever those people with those problems may be, and that we negotiate for oil the way the rest of the world does. It would costs us less in real terms.

Near $15 trillion in debt. Incredible.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]

I don't think Ron Paul can fix these montrous issues. He has the right idea as a Constitutionalist, but I just don't see how the honorable Ron Paul could turn any of this around for the USA, not in one term. And, unfortunately, Representative Paul is 75 years old, so I doubt there would be a second term of office if elected to a first term.

I like what he has to say. Perhaps his son could run once Mr. Paul left office.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


Yeah, been through that. Marry an Italian. It is easier. Poland excludes through bureaucracy. They make it difficult because Poland is a protectionist society.

When I got married, I paid this one and that one to get a stamp and got sent across the city to another office, then they wanted me to come to court and then they said the paperwork wasnt correct. It went on for a year. Finally, we went to Copenhagen and got married in 3 days.

It is a shame because my wife wanted a church wedding.

Poles do not hate foreigners, but they do resent them. I remember I applied for a job in a bank, and they said, to my face, "Maybe you are a spy." No one is more paranoid than a Pole. I swear they keep records of every conversation you have with them. And they keep them for years. I went out with a Polish guy once and we had some beers. Two weeks later he called me and he said, "You owe me a beer because I bought one more than you did." Now, that would be funny if he wasnt serious. I laughed and he asked me why I was laughing. He also went on to say that I owed him 15 PLN for using his mobile for an incomplete call only because my battery was dead. I never spoke with him again.

I lived in an apartment building with about 8 apartments. In the adjacent apartment was a Scottish girl and an American girl. One day she came to me, the American girl, and said, "You know, the landlord came to me and said that I was causing a problem with one of the neighbors. I asked what I had done, and the landlord said, 'Well, you owe her a piece of coal.'" It seem the American girl was trying to start her heating and the lady gave her piece of coal to prime the system. Well, after a few day she wanted it or a similar piece returned. But I guess any crazy old lady can be like that.

I do remember going into a bank once and trying to cash an American Express travelers check. One small tiny bit of the corner came off in the book. I mean it was as small as it could be and still be noticeable. The cashier called an associate, and the associate called the manager. They all examined it for a few minutes and they looked at me several times and at the check and at me, and finally they said, "We can accept this, it is damaged." I called them all idiots in Polish as best I could at the time and stormed out. I regret that. I was just being a frustrated foreigner. They really didn't understand what I said. My Polish was really bad.

Living in Poland can be frustrating if you are accustomed to fast service. The customer is hardly ever right in Poland. But Europe is like that in general. Shops and banks have been sitting there for years and they know that if you live in the neighborhood, you probably have to come there. They do not consider it a favor that you shop with them. They consider it a favor that they are there for you.

Love it or leave it.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


It really simply is not worth it to live in Poland to go through that. It is not. Go 3 leave 3 if that is what you have to do. Poland is OK if you have family or lots of friends, but alone it can be terrible.

There is Hel and Gdansk (which isnt that great) the Mazurian Lakes, the Tetras Mountains, Zakopane in the winter, Warsaw which isnt that great except for one or two streets, Naleczow (which isnt that great) but it is a nice quiet little community, lots of villages across Poland like it, Ojcow, Krakow (which is really spectacular), Florianska is my favorite street, Wieliczka, which you have to see once in this life. The list goes on. But there is nothing like living there. As have I stated ad nauseum, as one poster likes to say, I lived in Poland for 6 years. I loved my life there, but it was not sustainable. You really need to go with about a years worth of cash, and try to start a business or something to stay legally. Or go as a student and do your best.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


On this one I am definitely not trying to start an argument. Everybody understands that legitimate rules need to be followed, and that they apply to everyone, and not just these or those.

Having said that, any idea how many people live in the USA illegally?

11 million to 12 million illegals.

How many from Europe? Around 600,000 to 700,000.

How many from Poland? 70,000 to 80,000

How many Poles in Chicago alone? 185,000 Poles. There are other very large populations of Poles living in various major cities throughout the United States. We have been accepting Polish immigrants for decades and they are everywhere.

How many Polish decendants in the United States? 10 million.

How many US born, non-Polish decent American citizens live in Poland?

How many live there illegally? The answers to these two questions would be nice to know. I searched for info and found none immediately.

As you said, what makes Poles angry is when people ignore the rules. I dislike saying it just like this, but if Poles don't want Americans in Poland, then let`s revoke some Polish American citizenships and all Polish immigrants and first generation Polish Americans can go back home and they can stay there and we will stay here. Or they can forfeit their Polish citizenship and quit using the USA like an ATM and running home when they want free education and medical care.

If single citizenship Americans cannot have the best of both worlds, then Poles shouldn`t either.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


No, it isnt a free market, baby. Not in Poland. Not for me. Look, be a Pole or be an American. I dont believe in this multiple citizenship thing. Be dedicated to one nation and stick with it.

I pay a lot of taxes in the USA and I have paid a lot in Poland. I don`t get a free education. I just feel that if a Pole wants to be an American, then be one and suffer along with the rest of us. For better or worse and so on. It should be a requirement in the USA that you have to surrender your foreign citizenship when you swear in. If you want it so much it shouldn`t be a problem.

Like you said, its expensive to get an education in the USA. Why should a Pole be my boss because he could run home and get a free education? I mean, my people have been in the US territories since around 1790. The USA needs to protect its own, and a Pole coming here as a kid or winning citizenship in the lottery or being one generation removed from immigration has given nothing to the USA, has made very little in contributions.

I dont believe in dual citizenship. There is no loyalty in it.

And it is not fair to Poland. If you are not there contributing to Poland, why should Poland educate you just to see you come back to the USA to make a better wage?

Are you not pushing someone else in Poland out a seat? What if that person has no options but to stay in Poland and try to make his life there? But you come with better marks and push him out of a free spot and he has to pay or just become a mechanic. Meanwhile, you take the education and head West for the bucks!

I dont see how any of that is fair to Poland or the USA.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


No. Nothing contradicting here, but try again. I will explain once, as you are obviously thick. The USA is the ATM, Poland is the home.

News / For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it. [142]


We Europeans. That`s a laugh. For decades Europe wouldn`t claim Poland, and in fact, rarely permitted Polish People to cross the border even into Germany. I remember travelling with some Polish friends in 1996 to Germany and I mean we there just a few km in and we got stopped by the German police.

They made us get out and sit on the highway. They went through the car for 30 minutes. They used to joke about Poland and all the car thieves. And they would only let you come to clean houses.

Now Poland is European and all is forgotten. "Oh, we were always European." Well, there is European and there is "You`re a Peon." I think we know which one Poland was for about 60 years.

Why would you come to the USA? Good question. Get on Skype and call your 1o million cousins and ask them to leave the USA, that it embarrasses you.

ATM? Look, The USA has always been a source of funds for Poland. I mean jobs, cash, working, whatever. And when it was time for free education and medical care, you ran back home. For those of you who don't seem or dont want to understand what I said, an ATM dispenses cash. You can make the argument that Poland with its free education is also some sort of ATM, but not really. If you cannot see the difference, then just overlook the post.

You are simply purposely contentious.