News / Poland - Third World Country?? [300]


Certainly more miserable if you're a smoker. Too bad for you and your lungs.Certainly more miserable if you're a smoker. Too bad for you and your lungs.

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

When you have to pay your gas bill, you might appreciate American made houses made of 2x4s, albeit with excellent insulation. Cheap and characterless, perhaps, but it's better than sleeping in the kitchen.

Real Estate / Poland Housing prices in July 2010 [129]


Man, that makes a visa and/or a forged marriage in the U.S. look awfully cheap. I have a lesbian sister if anybody is interested.

My wife wants to move back to the heimatland, but I keep looking at those prices and it makes me think of puking and annulment all at the same moment. I swear, I never was a rah-rah go America until I started having a job and paying for my own ****. So yes, I guess, go America.

News / Poland sees its past in Belarus's present [12]


J.C., the author has my last name! Along with the head of the U.S. Abortion Rights Council, I'm in good company.
On a serious note, I've now chosen to change my name - I got to the point where she compares the openness of western elections to that of Belarus, and I knew she's just looking for reasons to push her agenda. A beaver is brown and it also goes to the bathroom, but that doesn't mean it's brown because it goes to the bathroom, and so forth.

And Joe Pisudki, did you get your history degree from Sumyunguy University? I'm surprised they didn't tell you that the Slovaks and Czechs were puppets of the Nazi regime. Oh well, what are facts when you've already made up your mind about being right and need to prove it? As far as the comparison to '39 goes, I think a better one would be when Tom Cruise tried to recruit Nicole to the Church or Scientology and now he's doing the same with Katie. Like dude, teeth whitening won't work forever.

Life / Anybody from Sanok? Good, bads, uglies? [10]

Thanks for the perspective Delphia... did you actually live there? or close by?

I can't imagine it's a place that attracts many foreigners, but I could be wrong. As far as healthcare, I was in jest... of course it's not free, but if it weren't for healthcare costs in the U.S. I probably would have left my corporate gig long ago to work on my own. There exists a strong possibility that I would choose to work independently in Poland too, and for one, lower healthcare costs make it much more likely.

Concerning Sanok, I really don't know much about it other than being there one day. To be honest, I don't know of many nice Polish mountain towns, but this seemed to fit the bill. I love the mountains, outdoors, all that stuff... it's a lot more affordable than say my wife's town of Wroclaw.

Life / Anybody from Sanok? Good, bads, uglies? [10]


Looks good. We'll be passing through in July, this time with my wife and kid. We'll ring you in advance.
Not much of an entrepeneur, though I do make money on the side in the U.S doing translations. In Poland, it would be my primary income as I'll obviously be quitting my day job. Always thought that I'd like to open a car wash though... Poland seems to be short on those. A coin operated do-it-yourself, and just wait for the grosze to start piling up :)

Dull? I guess it depends on your expectations. I was bored stiff this winter in Wroclaw - I'd be happy closer to nature near the mountains. I saw 50 or so thousand people in the square watching some lame ass pop concert on new year's and that to me is really dull.


Not a big fan on a lot of "civilization". Though my wife is a big fan of her family and she's pretty reluctant to look so far from Wroclaw. If I lose the battle, I may have to start looking at those places. As far as distance is concerned, your perspective is way different growing up in the Midwest, also your sense of space..., I don't like population density... the east fits that bill :)

Work / is 2500zl a fair enough wage for on average 50 hours a week (Poland)? [22]

Sounds alright if your "other" works too - can't be too expensive living there. Looks like not a half bad place either.

On the other hand, if BBman is living there, I'd say forget it. Sounds like his great education and qualifications hasn't taught him not to be a jerk.

Work / Does google voice work correctly in Poland? [22]

el_easy
Like your suggestions. They seem simple enough. So, how does your OBi202 get around the firewall for google voice outside of the U.S.?
Another option I read about was forwarding your calls to a skype number, which will definitely work abroad.
But in yours or this case, you still cannot call without a wi-fi connection.
As for having an option that uses cell towers, I know I could get an international sim, but its imperative I keep my phone number. Ideas? (without having to pay T-mobiles 2.50 a minute roaming fee)

Ok, this looks like a good option: telestial.com/view_product.php?ID=LSIM-PL01

Just forward calls to this US number that is based on Poland, right?

Work / Does google voice work correctly in Poland? [22]

el_easy
Okay thanks for all this, I figured you knew what you're talking about ...
*Tried the grooVe app and it worked well. Just curious though, how is this different than calling with my google voice number when I have a wifi connection?

*Is there any benefit to having this, OBi202 Adapter, when I have a google nexus phone?
*Finally, even if I have a local sim card, I can just use it as a back-up when a wifi is either bad or non-existant. It's not so important for my job, but my wife needs to schedule trucking shipments and gets calls at odd hours when we may not be in reach of wifi.

Work / Does google voice work correctly in Poland? [22]

Finally in Poland and working...
So far, great use of google voice over computer with no U.S. firewall hindering calls received from or made to U.S, have not tried my groove app yet, but imagine it will be fine as long as wireless connection is good...

which is a sticking point... my inlaws have Polsat satelite internet and when it's working it's great, but breaks connection on average every hour. I am pretty sure it's the satelite, and not the wireless modem, but will double check today and use a cable connected to modem. It may be that that Polsat is just a bad service, what's reliable internet service here anyways? Are there cable companies, or anybody doing fiberoptic connections?

Might have to change this if I can't figure out the connectivity problems.
Address is in Klecina just outside Wroclaw.

Work / Does google voice work correctly in Poland? [22]


I did finally try the Groove IP app, and it's actually extremely good quality on my phone, so when I don't want to talk through the computer and I use the phone, it works great. When talking to the U.S. it is very clear with no lag.


I have had two conversations cut off. The quality of the call is consistently good, and then there must be some glitch in the wireless internet because it gets cut off immediately without a progressive deterioration in sound. Finding a new internet carrier for my in-laws is probably out of the question though, so I'll just deal with it.


Google seems to run a lot leaner, and integrates well with your email and contacts. I have had the same cell number for years, and about a year ago ported it to google voice, and that way, I don't have to port each time I have a new cell plan, which isn't a huge deal, but it's just one less thing to do. You should read their site, but in short, you can put any number you want under your google voice number, and that way will only have to remember one number for any multiple of phones you have, and you can set when you pick up or when it goes to voicemail, (like for a business phone for off hours), etc. I'm sure there are more ways to do this, probably even through skype, it just happens that I have everything under google and so far, it's been very reliable.

Finally, want to have an opinion on using my phone when traveling away from a WIFI signal; I was considering buying this SIM:
telestial.com/view_product.php?ID=LSIM-PL01

OR was going to see if I could get a cheap data only plan in Poland and just run the Groove IP application off of that.

So it turns out that here in Klecina Wroclaw there's not many internet options, and polsat may be the best option. Probably a business opportunity for somebody who wants to lay cable... because even after some troubleshooting, this satellite internet is pretty awful. Slightly better than radio, maybe not better than DSL. I'm running 11.5 mbps when it's good.

Another thing I found that might interest some people traveling, or living abroad, is hidemyass.com, which allows you to locate your ip address any where you like, and in my case, would allow me to use google voice. Turns out, google voice works fine with a Polish IP as well and actually doesn't charge you per minute when calling the U.S. from Poland. But it turns out that the site has some other benefits I didn't think about, such as access to a lot of the sites that are blocked out if your ip is in Europe, such as: tigerdirect.com, ebay.com (doesn't flag auctions with no ship to Europe), nhl.com replays, and netflix.com to name a few.

Work / Is it possible for a street musician to make a living in Warsaw? [6]

Last time I was there in downtown Wroclaw a year ago, up until that time there had been a guy singing show tunes for at least three years. He was awful, but well groomed, so I imagine he made some cash.

You can find cheaper lodging than what is advertised, i.e. word-of-mouth. If you find someone with a private residence that rents out some rooms in a partition of the house out back, you can get something nice for cheap. My in-laws charge about $300 a month, and in St. Louis where I live, that level of quality would go for $600 a month, in LA probably an additional third or more.

I saw your youtube, and you sing pretty well... well enough imo to make your idea seem like it's not half-bad practically, and then you can get out of that LA grind, right.

Work / Does google voice work correctly in Poland? [22]

In other words all third party programs will stop working like OBi202 VoIP Phone Adapter,GrooVe IP and Spare Phone Android apps...

I'll be back in Poland next winter though, and supposedly, "google hangouts" will be the thing to use to make calls. Haven't used it on my nexus yet, but been using it pretty regularly on my laptop.

One thing I was unable to do with google voice (and even Skype for that matter) while in Europe was to call when on a public wifi, like McDonalds, or in some of the towns I visited in France (Angers). The best thing to do in this case, is just to get a SIM with some phone data in my opinion. Which some people might find obvious, but when I came to France on a Saturday night, nothing was open in the town, so I had to bum a cell phone call from stranger.

USA, Canada / Polish TV in the USA? [43]

Roku box, then EU live subscription, about a dozen of the main channels.