Life / Driving test, English speaking driving school in Warsaw? [95]

Wouldn't mind doing CAT A \ Motorbike in Poland - Any suggestions for where to do it in Warsaw would be most welcomed?
(yes, it is taking your life in your hands with some Polish drivers, just always wanted to do it.)

Ref: CAT C - did an intensive driving course in Cardiff, Wales with Big Wheelers and they were excellent, they also do C+E bigwheelerssouthwales.co.uk/?page_id=1232

* Helpful note * If you are changing your license to Polish, you have to be careful as they can remove categories or give you more categories by mistake.

- Lost CAT D (Minibus) from my UK License initially on Polish license as they had an issue with the number of passengers that you can carry and had to copy the EU section for the local government and then they added it onto my new Polish license.

Law / IT department (computer programming) - Opening up an Office/Business in Poland [53]

Interesting thread... so which location did you pick in the end?

Travel / Family Places to visit in Warsaw that would interest a 7 year old.. [7]

Thanks Harry Wieliczka is definitely a must and Zamosc zoo looks really interesting.

Thanks for the Tequila & salt tip, will remember that if there is every an adult trip without kids.. :-)

Law / Signing a contract from Poland Telecommunication (TP) I didn't understand [20]

I took a business mortgage out recently and the bank said at the last minute that as I do not speak Polish, the legal contract was null & void and it would need to signed by a translator to say that he had explained it to me; it took a lot of hassle to get this done, but it worked out and they had a water tight contract.

-> Suspect that if you do not speak Polish, and this was never explained in your own language or translated it is null & void.

# This would need to confirmed legally and you would most likely need to find an EU loophole that supports this.

Something like this for example: the Human Rights Convention allows criminal proceedings to be invalid if they do not abide by Article 5 point 2 of the Human Rights Convention within 6 months of starting legal action against you.

"2. Everyone who is arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he or she understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him."

Real Estate / Buying a freehold house in Poland - legal contract? How does the deposit work - to Lawyer 'in trust' or? [6]

If you sign a "Pre-Agreement" it increases the costs as opposed to just signing & completing, if you decide to just complete you need to ensure that the bank does not back out at the last minute or that the seller does not let you down either. (less likely in Poland for the seller to let you down, but both can happen.)

If you decide to pay the extra Notary costs and do a "pre-agreement" you pay a deposit and then complete later, it is also good as TERRI said to ensure you can get your money back, possibly with a clause for interest and also compensation if the seller backs out, delays or is not able to complete on the specified date. (That is the advantage of the pre-agreement, downside is just the extra cost and hassle of having to visit twice, pay for the interpreters fees twice, travel fees to sign twice, time off work twice and also the notaries fees twice.)

- If you sign a pre-agreement, you MUST be able to complete and you can ensure that it is bullet proof.

# You also need to be very careful with the "Protocol" when completing it should be done be both parties, a very few people (more in the UK) will try and fiddle the protocol - record the metres, and notify all parties of the change over date for bill payment, otherwise you end up paying for things before you took ownership.

Finally, unlike the UK there is not "Fixtures & Fittings list" with a sale of a property, so if you are expecting anything to be included.. you need to make sure it is mentioned in the contract of you might have no light bulbs, lamps, fridge, freezer, washing machine, bath, shower etc etc..

(* This is normal practice outside the UK and if you are not used to it, it can catch you out..)

Hope this is of some use and best of luck..

Life / Vandalism on cars in Poland [64]

Had a car on English plates and it had the window smashed, so I changed it for a Polish car to please all concerned..

Since then the windows have been fine since, but it keeps being hit by crap\blind drivers. (Feeling like a local now - thankfully this is still better than in the UK, thankfully!)

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]


The French attack on Germany was a joke and resulted in a swift withdraw back to the French defensive positions.

By the time the BEF (British Expeditionary force) was in France, it was simply too late..

Churchill was not a saint, but after so many weak leaders he stood out and was in charge when the war ended.
# His first command as Prime Minister was for the boats to leave Calais and the 3,500 men would stand to the last man and they did killed or captured.

He also agreed for the French Navy to be fired on and sunk when the failed to sail to Britain (De Gaulle never forgave Britain for this..), but it was the right thing to do as Germany had plans to use the French flight, although not something you'd wish on your worst enemy, let alone an ally; he also landed in Neutral Iceland to prevent the Germans Occupying it and that was much more questionable, the last notable act was occupying Neutral Iran to allow Russia to be resupplied. (The ramifications of this still has the Middle East in a mess to this day..)

~ Britain had tried to liberate the Greek Islands and the US did not want to do it; this resulted in the last failure that Britain endured during the second world war - lesson learned, do not try something without the US helping.

This also led to all the Jewish population in the Greek Islands being rounded up and being sent to camps, which could have been avoided if the US had listened to Britain. (But the US viewed this as some Empire based quest and was keen not to help Britain maintain any kind of an Empire)

Britain went to war for Poland, lost an Empire (*Better for the world as a whole!) and failed to save an ally.. (Something Britain lives with!)

Britain was humiliated in the end by America and mostly blamed for what the US did.

After all didn't the US recently let Poland down (Again!) after a massive arms deal???

Churchill maintained the air-supply drops to the doomed Warsaw Uprising despite America asking Britain not to do it as it would upset Russia and it was also done from Southern Italy across Occupied Europe without fighter support and with Russian & the German troops shooting at the supply planes.

Britain had planned Operation Unthinkable that would see Britain continue into Russia and restore Polish independence... (America Vetoed this plan.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable

As the saying goes.. the victor writes the history books and so, please remind me, who is the new Western Superpower since 1945..???

Classifieds / Warsaw nightlife guide needed (girls only) [5]

Dougpol - Did you get your dog back ok or are they still both roaming the parks of Warsaw?

News / US air base to be in Poland [193]

Russia is stationing troops & planes in Belarus to avoid an uprising when the fair elections fail to happen again; the EU & NATO have signed an agreement that no troops can be stationed permanently in any of the former eastern bloc countries and the only way round this is to rotate troops on "Exercise" which by-passes the rule.

Travel / Family Places to visit in Warsaw that would interest a 7 year old.. [7]

Thanks DominicB - That sounds perfect.

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]

Didn't Romania support Germany and when it broke neutrality, Romania turned over Polish assets - people & possession's to Germany..?

Germany did not want war with Britain and Britain was split between going to war for Poland and keeping her Empire; as it happened she went to war for Poland, lost her Empire in the end and conceded Superpower status to America (who promptly gave Poland to uncle Stalin..)

In the Battle of Warsaw 1920, didn't Churchill send aid to support Poland; otherwise wouldn't Poland have already been over-run in 1920.?

News / US air base to be in Poland [193]

Most people in Poland do not speak German, I will grant you that.

But how many of the older generation had to learn Russian after the Americans sold Poland out to Stalin at YALTA and what about Lwów?

Thanks for that and with friends like that, who needs enemies..

Trusting the US to save Poland is Stupid!

News / US air base to be in Poland [193]

Exactly Dolnoslask,

Currently in this region Turkey is NO.1 and Poland is No.2; That is Despite what the last terrible government in Poland supposedly did, Poland is the 2nd Strongest growing economy within the region.

Turkey is in NATO the same as Poland (Turkey has the 2nd Largest force in NATO after the US) and keeps itself friends with the US and Russia; although Turkey is on the brink of a civil war between the Turkish Muslim extremists and The Turkish Muslim Reformists...

Poland could surpass Turkey and should learn lessons from what they have been doing there.

If you support US bases in Poland - Interesting point to note is that the US does not and will not be allow it's soldier to be held accountable to foreign laws when serving.. i.e. when a US solider commits a crime overseas the foreign government cannot prosecute them, this was a massive problem in Kosovo when the Americans were involved in the sex trade and it will be in Poland.

They try and cover up any instances of this happening, but the soldiers know about it and it just encourages rapes, drunk driving, stealing and crimes on all levels.

Life / Do Polish people like Turkish people? [66]

I was in Antep recently (15 minutes to the Syrian Border) and can say that Turkey is incredibly racist.

In Poland you can walk without any problems at all; however in Istanbul every time I go near Taksim, there are problems..

If you must use the word racist, then you need to start with Turkey as it is the worst I have ever seen.

Turkey is amazing, the food, the people and of course the Government propaganda & control of the internet.

The Mirror newspaper was quoted -> a paper that supported Stalin
The Daily Mail News paper openly supported Adolf Hitler.

oh and did you know that the UK does not have just one fascist party, but a lot of parties.
* They also nearly made peace with Germany in 1939, instead of going to War for Poland and liberating Poland from Fascism, to leave Poland in the safety of (*mass slaughter*) Communism.

News / US air base to be in Poland [193]

dolnoslask - Remember Yalta? America+ Britain+Russia = Poland was sold into slavery... Agree totally..
Just look at Turkey working with Obama & Putin and the 2nd Strongest army in Nato for it's own defence.

Johnny reb - I would suggest you look-up US army criminal cases and see how many have been blocked by the US government.
One instance was a pilot blue on blue with an unconfirmed target, cheering even after hearing it was a friendly.
(It is truly shocking and I did not believe it myself.)

News / US air base to be in Poland [193]

ok, so Poland is America's ally... ok, so how come Polish citizens still need Visa's for the US???
* Not exactly a close relationship after all, unless your talking about shale gas, US companies rapping Poland (watch your pensions disappear!) and of course using Poland as a buffer against Russia.

Isn't the US just "Allies" or "best friends" with however they want to use & abuse, same as Russia, but with a smile and a "have a nice day" after you have been left with nothing at the end of it.

Is NATO really ready for Turkey v Russia and if it happened worst case scenario, when everyone is looking at the oil in the middle east, who will watch Poland's borders... interesting.

The best defence is self-defence with allies on all sides, do NOT rely on people too much as they will use you for the own interests and sell you out. After all history repeats itself.

- August 1944 and when the British commonwealth & Polish free forces flew re-supply drops for the uprising, where exactly were the two great super powers Russia & the US.. both are to blame!

Polson - Poland needs to do business with Russia (even if she holds a gun behind her back), the relationship needs to be too valuable to compromise for all sides.

The US will implode when it stops looting the worlds assets via enron style shoddy accounting and vast amounts of national debt, the methods of it's international investment companies are unbelievable.

It is amazing that all the US investment companies always making a profit and never turn a loss.. incredible investing or amazing artistic accounting.

Law / English-speaking bank in Warsaw ? [33]

Slinner - depends if they are doing it "on the side", self employed or a registered company; you could use something like escrow.com as it protects both sides if you are not sure.

If they are a company or self employed it should be listed with a VAT number and searchable on company registration website.

Life / Blood donation in Poland [21]

Just in case you are from the UK; interest fact is that if you lived in the UK during the mad cow outbreak, they will NOT accept blood donations from you..