Canadian Moving to Poznan, Poland - what to bring over, areas to avoid, school for a child.

Hi Melis,
Just like Majkel said, could you please post more detailed experience.

To be honest I'm not that great at blogging. I it would be best if you could ask specific questions and then I'll answer. I've only been here a month, so I'm still settling in. The biggest issue I've had to deal with is getting my container to be released from Gdynia to Poznan. We ended up shipping our vehicle as well as our home decor, clothes, household items (eg. Mixer, for processor computers) to be honest I regret not bringing my tvs and DVD players. (Canadian and American DVDs don't play on polish DVDs players). The language is obviously an issue, although I've managed to get around the shops fine without being able to speak Polish.

The no air conditioning during the first weeks and Poznan was a bit of a shock for me. It's been extremely hot in Poznan. Another shock for us was how expensive food is!! I was honestly expecting something else. Mind you I'm sure I'll be able to find a happy medium once I have my car and am able to shop around in better places. Lidl so far has been my favourite. (Obviously alma and Piotr & paweł are fantastic but extremely costly for every week shopping). Btw up till I'm waiting for my container to be fully released. Which will hopefully happen today.

Should certainly not come as a shock - apparently Poland has the lowest food prices in the EU. But it depends what you are buying. Buy local v. imports/exotics and in season shop at your local markets, + go veggie - and you cannot go wrong...

What were you expecting, out of curiosity?

And don't go shopping in Germany if you find Poland expensive...!

@Melis: why in the world do you want air conditioning in homes? At most it's hot 2 weeks per summer in Poland. I've been here for ages and it's the best summer I have seen in Poland (elsewhere in Europe it was even much hotter). A 40-year-old client of mine who has spent all her life in Poland told me a few days ago that it was the best summer she has ever experienced in Poland. This year has been exceptional.

Bear it, it's been hot for a couple of weeks but very soon you'll complain that night comes early, that it's grey (lack of light is terrible) and cold (but not as much as it is in Canada).

Don't worry! You won't be very hot in Poland ;).

As to the prices of things, it is sure that with respect to local salaries, they are very high but if you eat like Poles do (pork, chicken, sausage, potatoes, cucumbers, onions ...) you'll make it ;)

Have a nice day!

What would you consider hot? Polish spring and summer are beautiful usually and in my experience it can get uncomfortably hot in summer. Even here in damp and chilly Ireland the thermometer is often between 30 and 35 degrees in direct sunlight on a summer's day and if you're travelling on a tram or waiting in direct sunlight at a bus stop in Warsaw, you will suffer. If it's 25 degrees outdoors it can be 30+ indoors which is not pleasant although I totally agree with you that air conditioning is not necessary in the home. A very unhealthy thing. Also drying washing in driers instead of hanging it outdoors is something I can't abide.

@Atch: I spent 16 summers in Poland so believe me, the weather you had this year is exceptional. Very often it rains a whole month almost every day (for instance August 2014). I understand that you are from Ireland so I get the idea but since I am used to very mild winters (rarely below 0) and very hot summers the Polish climate is difficult.

You are clearly speaking from experience not knowledge.
Nowadays there are climate control units that are so much better and create a more pleasant environment, you can set the temperature and more importantly the humidity.

I can assure you that allthough the weather is what I would concider very warm in Poland right now it is in my experience not unusual during the summer months.

Any fool can sit there and be uncomfortable........I dont intend to!
Even the small portable units reduce the temperature but they are not made for long time frames, a couple of hours in the bedroom before bedtime even allows the kids to get off to sleep in relative comfort.

Yes but it always rains a lot in August, it's a month of intense heat, thunder storms and torrential rain.


Yes we're the same in Ireland. We don't get extremes of cold in winter. Overnight during a cold spell ground temp might drop as low as minus five or six but air temp rarely drops below freezing. Temperatures in December can be fifteen degrees! Then the next day it might be five degrees.....our weather simply defies logic. I actually like the cold Polish winters and the overall predictability of Polish weather.


You're absolutely right, I know nothing about the mechanics of air conditioning. Thank you for the information. In the past they've certainly been linked with health risks and somehow I always associate them with dust and dry air. Your comment about humidity makes sense. That would deal with the dry air issue.

@Atch: I don't know if it is in August but I have noticed that every year, there is a whole month (between May and August) when it rains every day and all day. As I am very sensitive about weather (I hate rain, cold (but for me rain is worse), snow, and when it's grey), I do notice for sure ;). It seems that all the Poles I know say that this year, the summer has been "not normal" for Poland (their very words). If the weather was nice this summer in Poland, it was so everywhere in Europe so nothing particular about Poland.

The summer is normally so short in Poland that I have taken the habit of not buying a lot of summer clothes since I don't wear them often.

For me, the ideal: 25-30 the whole year, by a warm clean and blue sea ;)

Now, do you know it's very interesting but our perception is often not quite as accurate as we think. In school when teaching the infant classes (four and five years old) we always keep a weather chart with pics of the sun, rain etc. At the end of the school year when we spread them out on the floor and look back over them, there's a good deal more sun/dry weather than I would have thought. You should try it next summer!


Do as we do in Ireland. Buy them anyway, shiver defiantly in them and adapt them for winter with nice colourful woollies and thermal undies!

Now that I have had a little more time to read over the comments, I'd just like to clarify a few of the points I had made earlier on. I have to state that I have never visited Poland or any other European country. I come from Ontario Canada where the summers are hot and the winters are freezing cold. In most of the homes we do use Air conditioning and in the winters we use obviously Central Heating; which I have now learned is different from what Polish people call central heating. (In Canada we have ducts that blow heat and cool air throughout the house using vents in each room.) With all that being said I had no idea that in Poland it wasn't very common to have A.C. in homes or flats. If I would have known that ahead of time, I would have been mentally prepared for it lol. But since my loved ones forgot to mention that to me, it was a shock to arrive in Poznan and realize that I would have to eat the heat and by a fan asap. Now once the first week went by, we were able to adapt just fine and I can see how much of a waste it would be to even have one. The dryer thing I got use to as well. I just hate how long it takes to dry the linen and I wonder how crappy it'll be during the winter.

With in regards to my comment of food being expensive. If you compare prices with Canada, food in Poland is cheaper. If you compare it with Peru, Poland is more expensive. I was shocked bc I was told food in Poland was "sooo cheap". If you are coming to Poland with canadian currency and are getting paid in such monthly, then yes I agree food and living is super cheap. But my husband and I are not coming with such. He is a student now and im currently unemployed and looking for a job. So i will have to say i was shocked at how not so cheap food was the first week I arrived, specially since the first supermarket I visited was a Piotr & paweł. As the weeks have passed I have finally figured out where to shop etc etc.

If you guys have any suggestions as to where to look for employment it would be greatly appreciated.

There are call centers. The work $ucks big time and the pay is very low, but if you're desperate and can take doing cold-call sales, silly marketing surveys or low-level debt collection, you can try that. If you're lucky, you might get to do customer support for a little more money.

There's also English teaching. Problem is you'll need a certificate, or end up working for a lousy school for lousy pay something like Callan, direct method, Avalon or Berlitz, who pay peanuts. You'll need that certificate before the beginning of October, so you'll have to find a course and get moving on it soon. It's not cheap, about 4000 PLN, and it doesn't guarantee you a job. And getting a job doesn't mean you will get enough hours to earn what you'd like to earn. Plus it's almost exclusively split shift, from 8 to 10 in the morning and from 4 to 9 in the evening. There is little demand for lessons in the middle of the day. You won't see much of your husband. You are going to have to decide for yourself whether investing 4000 PLN in a CELTA course is worth it. It might not be if you're only going to be working a few hours a week.

You could try private lessons, but it will take you a considerable amount of time and some pretty aggressive and effective marketing to build up a good clientele that is willing to pay what you want and that doesn't flake on every other lesson. Plus not speaking Polish is definitely going to cramp your ability to advertise yourself. Being able to talk to students' parents in their own language is a very big plus.

As a Canadian, employers are unlikely to go through the hassle of applying for a work permit for you and to offer you a full-time job. Schools strongly prefer that you work as an independent contractor for whatever hours they feel like throwing your way. Which could be a lot if they like you or practically nothing if they don't. The demand for native English speakers from outside of the EU has dropped drastically in recent years.

One thing you have to bear in mind is that you require a work permit - and in addition, you need to check as to whether your residence permit will actually allow you to work in the first place as a partner of a full time student.

Actually, call centres have more or less vanished from Poznań. The work now is in SSC's/BPO's, where the starting salary is around 3000zl/month with additional benefits. Totalled up, the usual package is closer to 4k than 3k a month.

Melis, do you have a degree, and do you speak any other languages to at least upper-intermediate level?

Thanks for the responses. To be honest I'd prefer not to teach English anyways. Unfortunately I do not have a degree. I am fluent in English as well as Spanish.

I'm not sure if this makes a difference but my husband is applying for his Polish citizenship. I'm not 100% sure if that will make a difference with my residency papers.

@Melis: the problem is that you do need a work permit to work in Poland and unless you have exceptional skills no employer will go through the hassle to apply for one.

In order to teach, all the serious schools demand diplomas (a lot of them demand Master's) (teaching is a real job, it's not because you are a native speaker of a said language that you can teach it and also a lot of natives make mistakes in their language ;) and there are (too) many qualified natives of English and also of Spanish who come from EU countries and may work without work permit. Same goes with call centers, a lot of natives from EU countries.

Unfortunately your only chance to grab a few ZL. is to get private lessons but here again don't expect more than peanuts: a lot of natives already and private lessons are normally not reliable (people cancelling all the time for whatever reason).

Sorry but I don't understand why before coming to Poland you did not look into conditions. The lack of air conditioning is no big deal since this summer is exceptional but the work issue is important so I am surprised that you did not get informed.....

And yes, life in Poland (as per local salaries) is very expensive. I am sure that for instance clothes, shoes... are cheaper in Canada.

Good luck!

But Peru is pretty much a third world country and Poland isn't.

Czesc Melis !
How is it going for you ? I moved to Poznan three weeks ago and I'm curious to know about your experience.
Did you find a job ?
And how is your polish language going ?

Hi Monicamonica welcome to Poland , this guy can help you settle in david-polanddavid.blogspot.co.uk/, I don't think there is anything he doesn't know about moving to poznan

Life i expensive in Poland? Its a joke.
I am from Ireland and I have small business in Poland. I visit Poland every two months for 3 days each and even I have a two bed flat in Kutno that I pay rent even I dont live in.

Buying food is like getting it free. A big mac is like 2 dollar they even give you a drink with it.
Having a meal in a mid restaurant is about 15 dollar.
Every thing is half a price in Poland if you compare with Canada. Although some headcase will try to convince you that Poland is expensive and **** because they dont want to see you in here. In clear word, they are resist.

Where in Ireland, Karachi?

No you're not

In Ireland we have euros and no self-respecting Irishman would come to Poland and eat AMerican trash

Also I believe the education available in Ireland is of a high quality and therefore Irish people tend not to construct sentences like


Just saying.

let's back to Poland

Well alot has gone on here since I was last on this post lol.
Welcome Monica, I hope you are enjoying your stay here in Poznan. I'm really sorry it took me a bit to respond to you. To be honest I stopped receiving notifications from this blog, so I randomly go on and check. I've sent a private message.

I still haven't found a job but to be honest I have slowed down the search. My son just started preschool, so right now i'm focusing on going to school with him to help with the transition.

@Styd I disagree with you! I find Poland not to be cheap at all! Your experience doesn't count because you are going back and forth from Ireland so you are earning in different coins than what people earn here. Even with your business here you can't compare. Obviously you will find it way cheaper here than in Ireland.

Once again....like I said before, if I were to receive what I was making in Canada and live here of course everything would be super affordable. But that's not the case.

My post clearly said that if you are living in Poland and earning a typical polish wage or even above your average. Life here is still expensive for what you are earning. Even locals that make decent money find it expensive here and trust me they are not being racist.

McDonald's is cheaper in Canada than it is here so don't come at me with that.
I find restaurants stupid expensive here, the quality of food and variety of food isn't the greatest and let's not talk customer service.

I can't blame the waiters completely considering I've heard and seen that alot of people don't tip here. Which was completely shocking to me.