Do Poles drink before noon?

This seems to be a purely Anglo-Saxon concept. In Poland there are times when a nalewka or other strong drink is served at a festive company breakfast or (as the caretaker in 'Dom' used to say) 'Małe piwo przed śniadaniem!"'.The Poels I talked to said they had never heard of fetishising pre-noon abstinence, which does not mean they drink alcohol in the morning on a daily basis. Have any of you encountered this is Poland?

I suppose it depends on whether one has anything better to do with one's day than get drunk.

I'd be very interested to know the views of the other members of Polonia here about whether it is acceptable for them to be drunk before noon.

In Belgium we also think that you should not drink alcohol before noon. I do not know why.

Sounds like the usual romantic crap about ruddy-faced yeomen farmers wassailing. As we speak I have a can of Żywiec in front of me. The figures on the can look nothing like the guys I see outside the nightshop at six in the morning in Poland.

There are certainly no such times in my extended family, nor in any of my friends families. Drinking before noon is what one did as a student, and certainly never at festive gatherings.

I really do question what kind of company you keep if they think that nalewka/spirits in general are acceptable before noon.

never drink alcohol, sounds even better to me.

Don't Czechs drink beer with breakfast? I dunno if its a Anglo-Saxon concept but drinking in the morning makes one feel a bit ill.

Not really just Anglo-Saxon. In Saudi Arabia they tend not to drink beer for breakfast either. Mind you, the Anglo Saxons lived over a thousand years ago so who knows what they thought.

Here in Poland, daytime drunkenness is frowned upon nowadays - tramps, dole chavs and people on PGRs might do it but woe betide anyone who comes to work drunk.

Yes, even in the furthest flung regions of Poland B, being hammered before the time of the end of the working day is simply not the done thing any more. Perhaps Polonia will catch up with that attitude in a couple of decades or so.

And it's not only being drunk at work, it's drinking at all. Just last week while waiting for lunch I heard a couple of guys who looked very much like labourers employed on digging the Warsaw metro and were complaining that there was no alcohol-free beer left so they would have to drink Sprite instead of a pint!

When I used to teach Colonels here they used to have a toast (without a popitka) at 9am, but no more than a 50-ka. Mind you, by Friday lunchtime some of them could hardly stand - it would probably have been a good time for a foreign army to invade.

All that's gone, hopefully.

I used to do it on occasion as a student, but well - those days are behind me!


Likewise - even turning up with a hangover is quite frowned upon where I work.

I somehow distinctly remember early morning habit of (some) Mediterranean farmers: pastis drinking on the way to work. A shot of Ricard (merged with Pernod in 1970s). A magic of water (5:1), turning your amber coloured Ricard into milky-greenish liquid.

Daytime drunkennes and getting hammered was not what this was about. I know many PolAms visting Poland the first time couldn't get over the high-powered gościnność at i.a. festive breakfasts at the hzomes of their Old World relatives. There were plenty of cold meats, sausage, pasztet, things in aspic, pickled mushrooms and plums, ćwikła, jaja w majonezie, , maybe herring and naturally a ruby-red nalewka in a crystal decanter poured into crytsal shot glasses. But nobody got drunk. With all that food, 2 or 3 nips didn't send anyone under the table. People used to Frosted Sugar Gloopies and other crunchy-munchy cereals, toast and doughnuts for breakfast found this to be elabroate and overpowering.

Miners in England were lobbying for pubs in pit villages to open in the morning for people who came of shift work. Their requests were mostly denied due to a gear the town drinks would show up.

What kind of people are you associating with that would pour nalewka for breakfast?!

This has to be another aspect of your Polonianist sect.

A quick correction. The final few words of my last post should read ''due to a fear the town drinks would come''.

Swype does that sometimes.

I really don't like Swype, am I the only one?

My buddy is working in the UK on a three month contract and he says the Brits regularly have a beer at lunch. Especially on a Friday. Judging by his recent facebook posts, he seems to be integrating just fine in this regard.


Czechs drink beer like I drink tapwater. Even the women. Rarely see them drunk, mind.

Yes. When I know I don`t need to drive, I drink all day since the morning. First beer (from 8-12), then wine (12-4), next vodka/whisky(4-8) and eventually undiluted spirit (8-10).

That's dedication.

Rev, I am known for that - at home, at work - everything what I fekking do, I do with fekking dedication. You can see it in the PF. Have I ever failed? No, because I am as I am. .

Keep drinking. Keeps the hangover away.

I could never drink alcohol before 12:00. There is some psychological barrier in between that. I remember when I still lived in Belgium, I went to work to Antwerp by bus. And around Antwerp Central Station there were a lot of pubs where at 08:00 in the morning people were having their beers....

And I thought...what is the joy into that...downing a few in the morning? I prefer coffee at that time.

If you feel like getting hammered in the day get hammered in the day, who gives a crap what people may think.

They may have been finishing their work. Barmen, fishermen and what not.

Well they most probably did. Nearby was the central sorting office of the national mail.

Pimps.

Bear in mind that śniadanie at 10 or 11 might be called brunch in the US. This is not a daiily breafast before gong to work, It is when Polonian relatives are coming from America, everybody takes a day off from work to make them feel welcome, contemted, feted and at home. Thy recall old times round the tbale, chat, joke, socialise and raise a toast or two becuase...chluśniem bo uśniem!

I really do wonder what kind of circles you move in if you think people take a day off work just because of some relatives visiting. And still, drinking hard spirits at 10 or 11 is nothing less than alcoholism.