Questions about living in Wroclaw, Poland

I just move from California to Wroclaw for business reasons, and will be here till December. I have some questions for anyone with experience living in Poland.

1. I used to rely on yelp for making decisions on where to eat and google maps to get to those places via public transportation. These two apps are now useless to me. I've found a replacement for Maps but not Yelp. Is there anything like a yellow pages or review site for food/catering businesses in Wroclaw?

2. Are there any good places to pickup a basketball game? I don't have a team but in California a tall guy like myself could just show up with a ball and eventually find some people to run with. An indoor gym would be preferred but any at the moment I'm just for anyplace with hoops and a community of players.

3. Who brainwashed everyone into drinking Pepsi, and where can I find all the sane Coke drinkers?

Thanks in advance!

jakdojade.pl is for your public transport needs.

No place to just pick-up and go, but you should be able to find a community somewhere as there's plenty of foreign students there.

Coke is actually much more common than Pepsi these days. It's quite rare to see Pepsi for sale in a restaurant, for instance.

I find it's OK to look at as long as you're cynical about the advice it gives, especially in a city. It sometimes suggests some pretty weird connections.

1.
Yelp works in Poland just as anywhere else:
yelp.com/search?find_desc=&find_loc=Wroc%C5%82aw&ns=1

For food there's polish language only website with quite a lot of locations:
zomato.com/pl/wroc%C5%82aw/restauracje
You can at least check the average score for each pub/bar/restaurant.

You can use tripadvisor.or foursquare:

As for public transportation the mentioned jakdojade.pl ( there's also an IOS/Android app ). Don't trust it blindly though - buses in Wrocław are often late. Trams are better - but sometimes there are detours ( in this case the display with the tram line number will have colours reversed, [solid background]).

2.
I'm not sure. Maybe in some high rise projects, but that's gonna be mostly really young people. You can ask in your company - corporations have their own sport activities, but in Poland that would mostly be soccer.

3.
I'd say Coke is 70%. I rarely see Pepsi and if I do it's usually in restaurants. It's more difficult to get vanilla or cherry coke ( usually in bigger malls in specialty stores )

I live in Wrocław. So if you have any more questions I can try answering them. Cheers.

I got the jakdojade app first day i got here and its already gotten my drunk ass home plenty of times. Extremely useful, can get just about anywhere in the city within the hour.

Foursquare and zomato were just what I needed. Your right about yelp but its only got reviews for the nicer restaurants in the more tourist frequented parts of town, which doesn't really help me when trying to find food at home (I live by the Ikea). I've pretty much resigned myself to having to bus to the city center to satisfy my ethnic food cravings. California left me spoiled in that regard; chinese on one corner, vietnamese the next, with italian and mexican in between.

We ain't no large corporation (yet), I'm only the second employee out here. We both code for a living so physical activities are not our strong suit. Sports to me have always been a great way to bypass the language barrier though, and basketballs the only one I'm any good at. Perhaps I will start picking up on badminton or table tennis. Squash looks fun.

One more question: Where can I find good shoes that fit me? I'm about size 12 and half or 13, so a 47 out here would be perfect. But all the outlets I've been to only carry 46 and under usually. Theres the occasional 47, but I hate letting the shoe size alone determine my purchase. I can find all the 47 and 48's I need at decathlon but there all athletic shoes, Im looking for casual comfort.

No need to go into town if you want sushi, there isSushi Naka Naka in Partynice if your too knackered to travel far, in fact 3 or 4 different sushi places there last time I drove thru.

Oh a fellow coder. nice.

For squash/table tennis/badminton I could definitely recommend hastalavista: hastalavista.pl/?lang=en

Bear in mind it requires booking a court 4-5 days beforehand. It's quite a busy place. Also I don't think it's easy to find a partner to play there if you're just gonna come by yourself.

I've googled and found that there's a basketball court in Magnolia's Mall Fitness Center ( haven't been there though ), if you are there for shopping you could probably have a free tour around the place to check if it's worth anything: jatomifitness.pl/en/fitness-clubs/wroc%C5%82aw-magnolia

As for the shoes, I have to say that I doubt there's a bigger variety anywhere else in Wrocław than what you already have in Bielany mall.

Dunno any special local shops that sell bigger sizes, only internet stores like this one:
butyxl.pl
Unfortunately it's all in Polish. It's worth remembering as a consumer buying stuff through the internet in Poland such as clothing you have the right to send it back before some set amount of time - so at least you're covered there.

Merged: American student study abroad studying in Wroclaw for a year

I am going to be studying at Wroclaw University this upcoming fall. I am a computer science major here in america but Wroclaw doesn't offer computer science courses in English unfortunately...So I will hopefully be getting all of my general studies done here. I want to know what to expect when I get there and things that I should do while in Poland. How are the classes? Do the students go to class much? What do they do in there free time?

How many people in Wroclaw actually speak english? I am guessing a lot of the students do but what about the middle aged people? I also want to know how I will fit in... I am black with tattoos and dress in the middle of a fashionable white person and fashionable black person... In america I smoke marijuana and drink occasional(although I've slowed down to focus on studies). Do people in Poland smoke? Is weed hard to obtain in general? What about partys and pubs? Are there any house party's or do a lot of the students just go to pubs and drink with their friends? Also if you could recommend any certain clubs to go to that would be great as well.

Girls. How are the girls? I'm not shy about talking to girls I just want to know what to expect when I do talk to them. Will they blow me off because I am american or will they take interest in me? Are they open to having sex or do they wait for marriage? Let me say I am going into this experience fully open minded. If I find my future wife here then I will be happy. If I meet a girl and we just want to hook up for the night I am completely open to that as well. It is just whatever happens happens. Although I will prefer meeting a girl who I could potentially spend a long time with but it doesn't matter. How will guys act towards me? Will they not like me because I am a black guy from america with tattoos?

How much money would be ideal to have for this trip? I am going to be there from September until June. I want to take 3000 USD with me there which is equivalent to around 11k in polish dollars. Will I be able to survive off of that? I tend to buy more things then the usual person but have no problem being cheap for a couple days or weeks. I know that I am going to go to Madrid eventually for a trip to see a Real Madrid game as its a dream of mine. I want to travel a few other places as well. So I am curious if this 3k will be enough to do all of this.

How are Polish people with Sports? Do they love their local football team as much as the fans in the UK love there bpl teams? Do the games usually sell out or do a lot of people go to the games? What about Basketball? Do polish people like basketball any? I am a huge sports fan in general and hope to go to as many sporting events as possible within my budget.

Will people try to manipulate me? I have heard how people in the streets will try to rip you off if you try to exchange local currency with them. I am street smart thought as I spent a year at a school in the ghetto so I know how to handle myself. I have also heard how the girls think just because you are from America that they believe you are rich. The way I dress and some of the stuff I have would portray me as someone with money but I am not rich!

I am expecting a culture shock when I get over there though but I am prepared. Traveling to Poland will be the first time I have ever even been on an airplane. I am doing this study abroad mainly because I need to find a new outlook on life. I have lived in a very small town where everyone is content with living there forever but I need to experience this great world that god has created for us!

I know I asked a lot of questions but any advice would be nice! I can't wait to get to Poland!

Yes I was wondering why the Polish citizens don't use the website warsaw.craigslist.pl ?
It is extremely popular in the U.S.A.
It offers free classified ads for just about everything for the whole country of Poland extending world wide.
The rest of the EU seems to use it yet Poland's use is very limited.
I use it frequently to buy and sell things.
You just have to stay on your toes for scammers leaving your personal contact thru the website only.
Can any of you Polish members answer my question why ?

Probably because other websites like Gumtree and Gratka are popular and established. In other words, there's no niche left for Craigslist to fill.

Thank you for your explanation Dominic
Americans like myself go there to look for flat rentals, local tours, events, services, etc.
I will give the other two that you brought to my attention a try however.
Thanks Again.