Potential move to Poland

Hi, I have been living in Prague now for roughly three years however now it has become even more materialistic than the West and I am getting fed up with it and want to move somewhere further East. Poland seems like a natural choice because my Mother's parents are Polish. My Grandmother is from Krakow and grandfather from Warsaw. This has made me interested in exploring my roots.

I am now in a position where I am 50/50 on whether to move to Poland or to Ostrava in the Eastern part of the Czech Republic near the Polish border. Within Poland I would not want to live in Warsaw as I have heard that it is not the most beautiful city. Krakow sounds interesting, but it seems popular with English teachers and I do not have a TEFL so am not sure on my chances of finding work even with my experiance. Right now the main places of interest are Lodz, Poznan, Lublin and Katowice (inc Chorzow, Zabrze, Gliwice etc...)

I want to ask those with experiance of living in Poland a few questions in order to help me make a decision on what to do before I begin to apply for positions....

Firstly I want to know what type of salary an English teacher can earn and what the cost of living is in terms of both essential items such as rent, food, public transport etc... as well as non-essentials such as beer, gym membership, clothes etc....

Prague is probably the safest city I have ever lived in. I have heard that Poland is pretty much the opposite. I tend to hang out in working man type bars a lot and also enjoy going to watch football. Are these relatively safe things to do? I know about Poland's football hooligan problem and have seen them first hand when Katowice fans come to Ostrava games, but are there problems with violence in day to day life also? Also would Polish fans have a problem with me being at games in their ultras end? In the Czech Republic I've never had problems with this.

While on the subject of sport, what is Poland like for cycling? Here we have an excellent sign-posted cycle network, but I know nothing about the cycling culture of Poland. It is quite important to me as it is my main interest and form of exercise, especially during the summer.

What is the country like for young people culturally? When I first came to Prague three years ago life was about having fun, but now it has become about buying things rather than doing things you enjoy without caring about being judged. This has really put me off living here. Is Poland the same or is it less obsessed with brands and perceptions of wealth?

Finally out of the cities I listed previously, which do you find to be the nicest? Also which would be easiest to adjust to for an English person? Reading this site I can understand quite a lot of what is written in Polish because it is similar to Czech, but my language skills will be really bad at first. This is a slight worry if I am living outside of the capital.

Would also appreciate any advice on top of my questions if you think there's anything important I missed!

Thanks,

Ed

Hi dude

Prague is a beautiful city and as much as I love Warsaw, I think Krakow will make you feel more at home. It has similarities in architecture and culture!

There's loads of threads on her about teaching in poland - just do a search.

I find that problems only follow those who are looking for them! Warsaw has been a safe place for me to live in.

Poland is cycling heaven - well Warsaw is anyway! Cycle paths everywhere.

My GF's daughter is 26 yrs old and she has loads of fun in Warsaw as do I at 46!

Poland is cool dude - check it out!

Well, I beg to differ with warsawmole. Poland is definitely not a "cycling heaven", especially Warsaw isn't. If I'm not mistaken there is no city in Poland with coherent bicycle path network. If you are a bicycle addict then you sure would know what a pain in the ass that could be... From the bigger towns I would say, that at least the highest awarness of this problem is in Gdansk and Wroclaw. For sure I can talk about Wroclaw, where there is at least plan for coherent network, but we are still light years, well, maybe 5 to 10 before basic coherent network will be in place.

But apart from big towns there is plentiful of cool places to cycle into the wild :-)

About salaries, well, I'm local, but I think those dudes knows the answer:


Well, everywhere you can find that, it is individual thing. But one sentence says it all about Poland: Warsaw is our financial center, so the biggest rat race is there. But on the other hand there is about 3 mln people there, so not everyone is taking part in that race...

About football, if you like it, the best team this year is from Poznan, for the next two years they would have the best stadium also. Others locations with good stadiums in next couple of years would be Wroclaw, Gdansk, Warsaw, Cracow and Chorzow (near Katowice). There is also decent but small stadium in Kielce, and maybe we can add Lubin to that list (not mistake it with Lublin :-) )

Well, my advice is, go on vacation to polish seaside with bicycle. You can start in Świnoujście or Kołobrzeg and go all the way to Hel and from there to Gdansk. If there will be a little rain you will love it, otherwise you will hate me ;-). Anyway, when in Gdansk, choose you way back via either Torun/Poznan/Wroclaw or Warsaw/Cracow/Katowice or some others towns from your list and look what those town look like...

PS. if you will follow my seaside tour advice, be sure you are heading from west toward east...

Suppose I am just comparing it to the UK! To me, there seems to be many cycle paths. there again, I'm not a bike person, I prefer to dig tunnels!

I just have to go to Warsaw again, I've never seen a mole riding a bicycle.

Well ...........want to move to Poland is not a bad deal...as i think....Its really great idea...Its so beautiful and natural place to live....I just like it.....!!!!! Thats Great in every way...!!