History / Life in communism vs democracy in Poland [234]


As some old mathematicians say, socialism is like complex numbers. There are two kinds: real and imaginary. People like you talk about imaginary socialism. As long as it stays in people's imagination it is OK. As soon as they start to implement it on a larger scale it becomes real. Sometimes it only means humiliation (like shortage of toilet paper, see the last black and white picture above). Sometimes 1/5 of population die as a result.

Real Estate / Polish mortgage providers - overview of offers? [10]

I think maxmoney.pl might be what you are looking for.
Do tell us your experience if you decide to use them, that would be a very useful information.

Food / Bread Baking in Poland [65]


I am a big fan of Real Bread so when I lived in Tennessee I learned to bake it. But later in San Francisco Bay area I found two places where I could buy bread better than what they make in Poland nowdays: Andersen's bakery (they may be called Grain Do'Or now) and Trader Joe's.

I live in Poland now and I still bake bread sometimes. It is easy and fun. Here is my recipy:

1 Mix 3 cups of wheat, 1 cup of rye flour, water, 1 spoon of salt and sourdough culture. I use a Kitchen Aid mixer for that.
2. Let it rise for 12 hours, then mix again and put in an oven safe bowl.
3. Let it rise again, put it in the oven and bake at 220 degrees C for 30 minutes, then at 200 for 30 minutes.

I have tried and I don't believe you can bake a good rye bread in a bread machine. They don't reach the needed temperature. They are good for mixing though.

The trickiest part is to get the sourdough starter. Regular baking yeast is OK, but not as tasty. One can try the procedure at thefreshloaf.com/node/233, or ask friedly guys from carlsfriends.org to ship you some.

Law / Let's see how good is your Polish income tax law knowledge :-) [8]

I will take a shoot. Since you reside in Poland (for more than 180 days a year) you are a tax resident here. That means that you have "unlimited tax duty" (nieograniczony obowiązek podatkowy) and you should report all your income (including money you earned elsewhere, bank interest, dividends etc) to Polish tax authorities and pay income tax on it. Now how this can be done technically I don't know. Since your employer does not have a legal entity in Poland it can not issue a PIT-11 to you (kind of like W-2 in the US). I guess from the Polish tax authorities point of view you can not be recognized legally as an employee of a company if that company does not have a legal presence in Poland.

Life / Help with US appliances in Poland - Power converters? [3]

I am using two Seven Star TC 1500 W converters that I bought on Amazon similar to the one at: 110220volts.com/TC-1500.html. One is used often with a 10 Amps vacuum cleaner (makes it 1100 W I guess) with no problems. I think it is better to buy two 1500 W than one 3000 W. The appliances will be in different rooms and if one breaks you can still use the other one.

Life / Moving to Poland - Wrocław/Gdańsk? [11]

If you decide for Wrocław, you may want to consider sending you CV to DEVnet. They do financial software and they are hiring.

USA, Canada / Moving back to Poland after 7 years in Canada [22]


The way I did that was to send out resumes about two months before a trip to Poland that I was planning anyway and stating in the cover letter that I currently live in the US, but am planning to move to Poland and will be available for an interview in the specified time.

Travel / Weekend getaways around Wroclaw? [6]

I recommend Stawy Milickie and forests between Skoroszów and Milicz. You can get to Milicz by train I believe or go to Trzebnica by train (a very scenic ride by itself) and then take a bus to Milicz.

Also, Jodłowice near Brzeg Dolny.

wikimapia.org/#lang=pl&lat=51.509597&lon=17.304668&z=13&m=b&show=/17858682/pl/Stawy-Milickie
wikimapia.org/#lang=pl&lat=51.284467&lon=16.797452&z=15&m=b

USA, Canada / If you moved from US to Poland, could you please share your experience? [16]

I moved to Poland after 15 years in the US 4 years ago. I had maintained contact visiting about every two years so it was not much of a culture shock. Of course lots of things are different here and there are things that annoy me (like smoke everywhere, burning plastics in fireplaces, customer service), but overall I consider the move a success and a right decision. I think the right motivation is the key. The main problem of course is that Poland is a much poorer country. If you want to move because you think life in the US is financially hard for you and you expect to improve your standard of living, then you will very likely to be disappointed. If you move because you value closer contact with family, you know you have means to support yourself in Poland and the material standard of living is not that important for you, then you are more likely to succeed.