Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

I know this is an old thread, but for anyone in the same position, please don,t hold it against the Poles, history is against them and I,m sure that if you come back in 10 years it will be a lot better. Just think of trying to settle into a village in darkest Cornwall back in the 30,s..the mistrust, the resistance? would you even get served in the local shop..'furriner'!!!! I have lived in the Podkarpacie now for 3 years, still struggle to speak Polish and these people don't even trust the people from the next village, sod it they don,t trust anyone who is not immediate family!!! let alone foreigners...I love to shut down the local Biedronka....all I have to do is start speaking English to my wife....Mouths drop, grannies hold on to their crosses and breathe protective curses!! its a good few minutes before life gets back to normal.......My wife who is a Poles but spent 30 years in UK now goes armed with sheets of paper with laws and EU regs on them, resistance is useless, she always asks for the manager who lasts about 3 minutes and then she gets everything she wants...don't let underlings tell you that you have no rights, the bosses know all the rules and regs, they have just been able to bully the peasants for so long...needless to say my wife threatens legal action, EU courts of Justice and the miscreants then go out of their way to help her!!! I,ve seen her get her money back, travel money and money for a plumber to take a bath out that had a crack in it!!!! Living the good life like I couldn,t in UK!!!

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

I just have to add that around here things haven,t changed much since communist days and I have seen local men when the shop manager appeared take off their hats and 'bow' to him.....for real..... all you have to do is mention this word 'kierovnik' and they are on their knees grovelling. Attitudes have got to change somewhat, these kierovniks are just ordinary people doing a job, they work for you, not the other way around is what I try to tell people here......I actually had someone come up to me and ask how I can talk to the local Mayor like he is just some other guy???? Well he is just some other guy!!! he drinks beer and goes to the toilet just like the rest of us...I,ll bet he has a favourite pair of slippers, but they treat him like he is some kind of god. (Now in Spain you have to treat the Mayor like he is god....(he can take your house and land if he feels like it!!!)...but then Spain is a very corrupt country...I mean more corrupt than Poles think Poland is!)

Travel / Driving from UK to Poland in Christmas Time - winter tyres? [46]

I just read the bit about how much £££ a corner this and that tyres are.......I was really wondering how much a corner is the loss of a leg or arms or spinal cord?? I daresay an agonising death in a burning car is a bit expensive, not to say traumatic as well. But enough of this frivolity.....I live in the 'Pod' and drive a UAZ 469b on Russian snow tyres all year round so what do I know? UAZ = no airbags, steering column through your chest....etc etc...madness!!!! (come the to the 'Pod' see men ploughing using horses....see even poorer men ploughing using their sons to pull the plough!!! this is Poland...but Raw and honest.

Life / What is the penalty for driving a car without the annual technical inspection? [17]

I have a 'collector car' (1971 Steyr Pinzgauer 710K) and it had one big thorough test and that was it!!! I now have to maintain it and ensure it is mechanically good (which I always did anyway - which I do to all my vehicles anyway!!) As for the 'test'.....all they test here is lights on a machine, brakes on a machine and track rod ends/swivels...takes 10 minutes. We (my wife and I) always joke that if they brought in a UK style test for cars, trucks and busses here....what do you think? I,d say 90% of the road vehicles would fail on major items.....Poland's road transport system would fold up overnight.....so no chance of things changing for Oh.....I,d say 10 years or maybe more.

Life / What is the penalty for driving a car without the annual technical inspection? [17]

No emissions tests here in this part of the 'Podkarpacie' if there were? then one hell of a lot of cars would fail immediately and almost every bus I,ve ever seen. Half of the trucks on the road are ancient and their engines were not designed to meet any emissions requirements? Or when I take my vehicles for a test, did they do an emissions 'test' in which they just glance at the exhaust end and say....yep no black cloud...he,s OK to go.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

Polish staff??? I assume??? if so must have been from this area.

Law / European Law in Poland to register UK cars [6]

I am English and I personally think it is in Polands best interest not to allow RHD cars here in Poland. Firstly and you might not like this, is that it will add to the appaling death/carnage/maiming rate on the roads......combinations of bad driving/drunk/psycho/both and RHD will only add to the carnage. Plus it will destroy what small amount of new car sales that there are. UK cars are relatively cheap and why pay an excessive price for a new car here when you could import an almost new luxury UK car for a huge amount less.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

Just a small personal view (not really valid now becaue I intend to stay in Poland for the est of my life unless there is some huge political upheval that makes it impossible) For UK I would happily lose all the Pakistanis and Africans and replace them with Poles....No lets say I would happily lose all the people who do not and will not integrate and replace them with Poles who are a. culturally closer to us and b. will probably, mostly integrate eventually.

Love / Polish Catholic girl - do you have the same relationship problem as me? [28]

I have to say that speaking from a viewpoint based way out here in civilisation, your parents are living in the dark ages. Back here where the hills have eyes the parents all want their little daughters to grow up marrying their 1st cousin. Yep those of you who are educated will realise that the local surgery is full of children with their internal organs all over the place and worse, just because mom and dad and both grandmas and grandads wanted to keep the wealth in the family and only marry cousins. Well what I see in your parents is just as bad, I,m willing to bet that if they could find you a 1st cousin they would marry you off to him. Girl...you need to get out of Polish inbred society and out of crazy Catholicism...marry a guy who you can love and who will Love you and always treat you like his own personal princess..but not too close in the family. Run away now and as fast and as far as you can...you are being abused, but have been brain washed so you can,t see it.

News / Poland is the source of horsemeat in burgers? [169]

Meat is meat, I,ll eat it.....(though I don,t think I would eat my faithful dogs 'Szarik' and 'Freya' (unless I was starving)) don,t know what all the fuss is about, people from UK need to travel more.....on second thoughts they do...but they never ask what the meat is that they are being served in restaurants......eek they ate someones dog without realising.

Law / European Law in Poland to register UK cars [6]

No No No Wroclaw Boy........all I ever hear from Poles is 'its not their fault...the roads are bad'!!!!!!! did you Poles never hear of 'driving with regard to the conditions of the road' ?? In simple terms that means if the road is bad...you slow down....Poles just don,t know how to do that and so...the carnage continues. Eventually the EU will force policing measures on you that will have your cars taken away from you and crushed if you are caught speeding.....how many times will that have to happen before you learn to drive carefully. (Please take this to heart...Poland is lovely...I drive slowly and am able to look around and see more of this beautiful place.....I want you all to enjoy it as much as I do!)

News / Poland is the source of horsemeat in burgers? [169]

Ha ha..so many people who have never been really hungry.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

Electricity...in bathrooms???? need I say more.......much like all this driving at high speed on ice and snow etc???

Love / Polish Catholic girl - do you have the same relationship problem as me? [28]

I do realise that this part or Poland that I live in is not quite as advanced as other parts of Poland, and that old customs die hard....but around here they often speak proudly that their family is inter related on both sides. I do not blame them that much though, real roads around here came late......hell the road I live on was just a mud track 5 years ago, part of it still is. Communism didn,t help, they didn,t encourage you to travel..... even if a young guy had time to go wandering to another village, the locals would treat him as an enemy who was out to steal their girls/sisters......all in all it was best to just play in the barn with sister or cousins....and around here you married who daddy told you to, still do on the farms. Maybe Poland needs it,s own film on a theme like 'Deliverance' to make people wake up and join civilisation...that film certainly focused America which had similar problems in the Ozarks and which until then, it had swept under the carpet as a huge embarrassement.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

When I had this house built the electrician did ask how many electrical sockets we wanted in the bathroom? He had told us that he had worked in UK and Germany.....so I tested him.....I said what do you think...with a big smile......he said " No plugs, no switches, and the lights have to be special sealed type lights Yes???? correct said I......and he did a good job. But some of our Polish friends houses we visit...water everywhere, washing machines..electric plugs hanging off the wall???? Disaster waiting to happen.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

Electricity in bathrooms....one day 'Building regulations' will come to Poland and electricity in bathrooms will be a thing of history.....and now just a quick note: Poles do have a sense of humour......TVPL1 today wiadomoschi Yaaayyy 'Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster' go for it guys...welcome to humour.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

Hey Oxon.........I,m from Banbury Oxon......and I bought a Farm in The Podkarpacie......does that mean that the old saying Banbury born and Banbury bred..strong in the arm but thick in the head?? is mostly true. (note: I,m just a tractor perv........... honestly).

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

OK this is all about old style culture......I do not blame anyone for doing what their parents and grandparents did.....but two things will happen, 'building regulations' and safety will start to get into bed together in Poland, then there will be no plugs in bathrooms. Newer houses will be like mine and will have a laundry room built on, maybe next to the kitchen on the way to the storage room and then the garage. As well as 'regulations' driving this, young wealthy or progressive Poles who have travelled, will not want to live in communist style apartments, they will build their houses in a Polish style but with the things added that they have seen on their travels. Like mine they will even have a dressing room, yes Lenka you or maybe your children? will have a dressing room off your bedroom where you store all of your clothes and get dressed and undressed, in the opposite corner to the big dressing mirror (two if you have a partner), you will have a basket that can be easily carried to the laundry room.......the future is here in my house, I hope it comes to yours sooner rather than later. Ps. I,m going to start a thread about balconies without safey rails???? another Polish thing.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

For Ironside...lets say I bought the farm with my wife (who is Polish born but has lived in UK for 30 years) and I am now legally registered as joint owner. I am assured by lawyers that should she die the farm will be mine alone. Anyway isn,t it this year that a law comes into place in Poland allowing any member of an EU country to freely buy land? Isn,t this why the government are frantically trying to get farmers to buy government owned land before The Germans buy it all? I do know that the usual paper obstascles will have to be overcome, but at the first sign of obstruction a German or two will take it to the EU courts and then it will quickly become easy for them to buy. If I could afford or needed much more I would be buying frantically now.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

Yep middle of nowhere, this is the Podkarpacie, where they plough using horses and sometimes men!!!!!.....maybe Lenka is right and Western style regulations will be a long time coming. But in my house I do it my way. I remember way back in the 60,s in England we had a couple of big USAF bases near to my town and the airforce people would sometimes rent properties. But there were american regulations to be met.....the house would have to have aircon in the bedrooms....a huge freezer or fridge freezer, seperate laundry room with a tumble dryer (and these all had to be of what we thought of as industrical capacity) Oh...and it also had to have a garage big enough for an American car (or a driveway/ offroad parking area that was big enough for two American cars (aircraft carriers). These regulations seemed crazy then, but eventually they have all been adopted by most houses in UK now being built.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

Ah....Zetigrek I think you misunderstand.The truth is the truth, I do live in a backwater....the locals hereabouts call this place Koniecswiata ??? end of the world?? I,m not one for all this PC nonsence....when I look in the mirror I see a white european......I,m not Black or Asian...I face reality. I actually like it here, I,ve done the big cities London, Frankfurt etc etc.......I,ve come here to retire and farm in a small way at the end of the world, life is slow here, I have time for off roading in My Unimog, a little farm work and seeing the countryside hereabouts. One day when you are old like me, maybe you will retire to Koniecswiata?? But then I took early retirement at 50 not sure you can do that here? Locals say it can not be done, but then this is a backwater, big city may be different? Edit: We wish we had chosen land further up into the hills with even more trees all around......perhaps nearer to Jaslo.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

Ha ha......My dear chap, you clearly do not understand these people or have lived in a village. There is a severe pecking order here and I could never sneer at them as much as they sneer at each other.....even the drunks behind the Straz, have a pecking order!!!!! village life is mostly dull and nothing happens so they invent this pecking order and sneering at each other. You know what? I,ll bet it goes on in English villages too!!!!! (I never lived in an English Village...I couldn,t afford to) Because I am obviously foreign I cannot sneer or be sneered at, I am outside the 'chain of command'. (plus I count among my friends several businessmen, a doctor, a teacher, a professor etc etc.....and I make a point to stop and chat with the drunks...they just don,t know what to make of me?)

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

I suspect that the reason not many people from the West will come to Poland, is that we will never understand you and you will never understand us....let us agree to differ.

Life / Washing machine in the bathroom of Poles [78]

As I said....you live in your Poland and I,ll live in mine.

UK, Ireland / Poles robbing Poles in the UK [12]

Just a small reaction to the heading.....I was recently told a story by a Polish guy who lives near me that when he lived in the USA ( 10 years) he was ashamed of his fellow Poles, all they did was spend all their time cheating and robbing each other, he was more ashamed when he found that even the Russians were better at looking after their own people. (I have no position on this, I don,t care one jot to be honest....I just thought this might help deliberations?)

News / Polish people's criticism of European Union [104]

Just taking a simplistic view.....I have been here almost 3 years and in almost every village I travel to/through there is a little bit of asphalt, sometimes just going to one house (Wojts relative perhaps???) and a nice big white signpost proclaiming that the EU paid for this. Sometimes these little roads just end in a muddy track???(whats that all about??) I am no expert but if you want industry, you need good 'A' roads and it seems little has been spent on them......who the hell gave money to Wojts to spend on their pet projects? The money should all have gone into building a better road system so that at least you could say to industry, we have good road links to the main arteries which lead to the rest of Europe. Industry might then come and with the wealth that brings the Wojt should build a road to his favourite nephews house!!! (I live in the Podkarpacie) To me it look like so much money has been wasted on these little village projects.....people got by before and these little bits of road are doing nothing to bring work to the area.....now they have some roads but either there is no work for the people to use the roads for or the children have all gone away to the rest of EU to find work.

News / New uniforms for Polish Army [30]

Ah the usual thing, cheap governments buying cheap nasty uniforms for the troops. British Army now compared to the 1980s look like a 'sack of **** tied in the middle' I put this argument to a British Army website, who retorted with...."our soldiers are fighting a war they don,t have time to look tidy" I replied with "during the late 60,s I lived near to a US Airforce base and saw many soldiers transiting from Vietnam......they looked immaculate...were they not fighting a war also"? No answer was the reply.

News / New uniforms for Polish Army [30]

Check your history the American military won every engagement with the Vietcong....never lost a battle, it was the politicians who kept giving up the ground they had won......if not for politicians they could have taken all of Vietnam. And yes I served in the British Army from 1972 until 1988. (West Germany, N.Africa, Falklands, Med,..... etc etc.....still got some of my uniform from back then including a combat jacket I wore in the Falklands....still fits me.)

News / New uniforms for Polish Army [30]

The new camouflage is a horse with two heads, yes it is considered better than the old DPM, but it is also a money saver, one uniform does the work for many different terrains, Temperate, jungle and desert. So saving the government money. I just wish that some of the money saved would be spent on quality.....the people look to their soldiers to seem smart and efficient, if the uniform is made so that no matter how hard you try you will still look 'scruffy' then the people can lose trust. Same for the new helmet, it seems to be pretty good at stopping 7.62 rounds and has saved several lives so far.....maybe some of the money has been wisely spent? I just remember what one guy who was in Northern Ireland (one place I missed) told me.......nothing but nothing, no body armour ever made is going to stop a sniper with a Barratt Light 50...so good camouflage is the thing eh? so that damn sniper can,t see you.

News / Polish people's criticism of European Union [104]

Hmmm I,m looking out of my window and here in the Podkarpacie it is snowing, so I think Pawian can call me what he likes (it costs me not one grosz, even my internet is free (deprived area so EU pays!!!)) I could jump into my UAZ and find one of these Nice EU notices I know where there is one in a village called Bystrzyce and there are too many to count out Jaslo way.....but I will stay in the warm and be a liar ha ha ha ha ha.