Spanish engineering student is moving to Bialystok - cost of life and information about the city.

Actually, it's the least foggy area in Poland, as it is the area that receives the least inflow of warm, moist air from the Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic, as opposed to Szczecin.


Warsaw is on the extreme Western limit of this range, and gets some occasional winter protection from warm maritime land masses. Białystok, though only two hours way, doesn't.

Also, Arctic air masses coming from the North are somewhat tempered as they flow over the Baltic before they hit Warsaw. Not so much with Białystok.

Yes, Białystok is the coldest city in Poland in winter, and sometimes gets cold snaps that do not penetrate into the rest of the country, even nearby Warsaw.

That said, no, the difference between Białystok and Warsaw is usually not extreme, and the stories about polar bears and penguins and five meters of snow are, of course, silly. The difference between Białystok and Wrocław, the warmest city in Poland, on the other hand, can be quite large.

Also, about the "two hours from Warsaw" bit, you have to view geography through they eyes of people from Polska A, who consider places like Białystok, Lublin and Rzeszów are very distant from the rest of the country, regardless of actual travel times. A lot would be surprised to find out that Białystok and Lublin are actually closer to Warsaw that Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław and Kraków are. Also, in their mind, they place Warsaw a lot more to the west than it actually is, about where £ódź is, and Kraków somewhat more to the West, where Katowice is. And Białystok where Suwałki is, or even Sejny, right on the border, not far from Minsk.

We had a doctoral student from Białystok in our department in Skierniewice, and the other students used to tease him about being from Vladivostok and saying hello to the Tsar, Putin or £ukaszenka when he went home for Christmas (by horse-drawn sled, of course).


Very true.

Not in the winter. Call it what you will, I've once lived through entire winter further north not too far from the Lithuanian border, so the climate is definitely same and I can't remember seeing the sun shine more than for several minutes on a couple of occasions between November and March when it wasn't freezing in the sub teens.... even the locals told me about this phenomenon... most days (if not really cold) in the AM it is hazy, humid, milky, overcast... add to that the awful smell of coal and what else the people burn in the furnaces to heat their homes - a true travel back several decades and a real health concern... truly depressing, drinking weather... would not want to repeat that one any time in the future, I will tell you that much.

Not Białystok, then.


Wrong.

@Jardinero: my, it sounds "great"! ;) Yes, a weather to turn into an alcoholic in order to try to avoid depression... The lack of light is very difficult to put up with (including for me) much more than the cold per se. If properly dressed, heated, fed, we can put up with cold but nothing to do against lack of light other than to do like birds do and migrate to nicer climates ;).

True, it was some 120km north of B-, closer to the POlish North Pole (which - for those interested - is located some 40km north of Suwałki in Wiżajny (near where the Polish/Russian/Lithuanian borders converge), but it would be in the same climatic influence zone as B- with the latter being marginally warmer.... but we seem have gone off the topic. It certainly was not my intention to discourage the OP, merely to make him aware.

You're from Seville? Seville and Białystok are two different places and climates! Winters are really depressing there. Cold and cloudy. Don't be surprised when it will get dark at about 3pm in December (the sky is navy blue at about 3:40pm, for comparison in Seville during December it gets dark at 6pm). Though Białystok has brighter mornings. xD That's the only plus.

Cześć, Manuel!

I am also Spanish and I will go to Bialystok in three days. I'll be there for one year working in a school for disabled children. I know other people from different countries who also goes there. I am also a little bit afraid in meeting other people but I am sure we are going to nail it! Don't doubt in contact, is always good to share experiences!

Hey, Manuel

I'm moving to Bialystok within some months for the same internship opportunity. I was looking for info about cost of living there and found your post. Could you get in touch so that we could talk a little bit about the company and the city?

Regards,

Renan Melo