I discovered Poland - a nice country

I agree, my sugar addiction is off the charts I need help. When I need a sugar fix I get a headache that's worse than caffeine withdrawal & that's saying something! I eat some chocolate it goes.

Next time you get the headache, have just a small piece of chocolate, if you still have the headache, have a second piece etc. That would be a start at cutting down.

I suggest natural sugar like an apple.
Apples are loaded with natural sugar.
Stay away from the "refined sugar" like what is in chocolate and bread.
Your metabolism is bouncing like a yo yo from one extreme to the other.
Your body is going through withdrawals which causes the headaches because of
your blood vessels constricting when you come down off that sugar buzz.

Yes but it's only refined sugar that hits the spot unfortunately.

...and pesticides. Apples, peaches and pears are the worst.

ewg.org/release/most-us-apples-coated-chemical-banned-europe-0

As the lady sang:

"Hey farmer farmer put away that DDT
Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees"

It's mind over matter with your habits or "self discipline".
If you don't want to chance your habits to be healthier then don't even try.
Stay over weight and limit yourself to so many joys of a long healthy life not to mention diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure.
It's your choice and no one else's.
How bad do you want it is the question.

Everyone, please back to the topic..

And here we come to the conclusion that Poland is just different, like each country is different from each other.

But really, there are aspects in which Poland is more similar to Italy than to Germany. Of course not in terms of savoir-vivre, culture in general and climate.

What do you mean as "civilisation" or "westerness"?

Exactly. That's a good thing, although globalization seems to chip away on each country's unique character. Poland is not an isolated island and will change significantly over time. There's no way to prevent this from happening unless you want to build a wall.

Yes but it's mainly being eroded because east is east, west is west & never the twain shall meet. You get me.....

How about infrastructure? Can urban centers in Poland, e.g. Wrocław, Poznań, Warszawa, Kraków or Gdańsk compare, say, with Berlin, Paris, Stockholm or Milan??

I only know Szczecin and, while I'm sure things have changed, when I was there many years back (ca. '95-'96), having just come from Germany, Szczecin had pretty much a sort of backwater look and feel to it.

Again, first impressions aren't always correct:-)

@Lyszko: in Poland only Warsaw has a (most limited) metro system whereas the western cities you mention have a wide spread of metro system with a lot of lines and hundreds of stations. A lot of Western provincial cities have metro whereas none in Poland does. Western European capitals and main cities have circular roads built around them so possible to drive without entering the city. I know that in Moscow they even have 3 such circular roads but of course Moscow is a huge city and I would not dare comparing Warsaw (a big village) and Moscow.

Of course, thanks to EU funds (;)) things have improved a lot but it's still far behind Western Europe and travelling around towns and cities in Poland is often a nightmare (according to recent EU studies, Warsaw is the worst EU). I live in Warsaw, travel alot by public transportation all over the city and it's a pain in the as... It is difficult, time consuming, exhausting and as a consequence, there are places I now refuse to go to because I don't want to waste my time.

Of course, travelling from one sh]]]hole to another by public transportation is at best an ordeal when not impossible. There are for instance small places in Mazowiecki several hours away by train from Warsaw

Still a long way to go! ;)

No InPolska, that has to be Dublin and Ireland as a whole. Abysmal public transport, Warsaw is superb compared to it.

Ah yes, the fine Luas Red Line at night.

@Atch: there was a study issued not long ago by the EU. The 3 worst cities in the EU in terms of driving were respectively: Warsaw, Marseille and Krakow.

I don't know Dublin (was there over 25 years ago for 3 weeks) but believe me, in Warsaw, till last year (I have decided to stop) I spent between 3 and 4 hours per day traveling throughout the town just for work as everything is spread out and badly organized (not to mention overcrowding all the time) and I was exhausted, I no longer want to do it.... I suppose Dublin is small but Warsaw although a big village is very spread out (a lot of Warsaw neighborhoods would be considered "suburbs" in the West).

One problem too in Warsaw (and in Poland) is that car sharing does not exist. People want to show that they own cars and as a result almost all cars only have the drivers and no passengers at time when people go to and return from work. If car sharing was encouraged, it would make things easier...

PS: today at my neighborhood shop, they offer a free bag of Vegeta style crap for the purchase of 1 bottle of coca cola ;)

@Atch: do you have metro in Dublin (I suppose you don't in other Irish towns ;))? Not to be off topic, I shall add, if you do, is it less or more developped than in Warsaw?

Oh InPolska you poor innocent darling.....may God be good to you, metro my dear? No, the nearest we ever got to that was a free newspaper handed out on the streets called the Metro Herald! We have a commuter train called the Dart that only runs along the coastline from north to south but takes you to the city centre somehow or other. We also have a tram which again operates a very limited route and an appalling bus service. It's truly mirth provoking watching tourists earnestly studying the timetables to see when the next bus is due - basically it's due whenever it happens to turn up. It's quite common to wait half an hour for a bus. Twenty minutes is average.

@Atch: "lol". Is it a problem with money or with construction (for instance soil is too hard, too soft..)? You know, I take public transportation within Warsaw between 6 and 10 times every day and here too, I can say that schedules are rather unreliable and often purely symbolic (for instance no bus at time indicated and then 3 or 4 together going the same route). Of course, when taking public transportation once in a while, it can be "ok" but when it's everyday and several times a day, it's a rather different matter. On top of that, most often buses, trams and metro are overcrowded. Of course a lot of improvements were made thanks to EU (we used to have old vehicles breaking down all the time and it was great when a tram before ours broke down ;)) but it's not enough.

Traveling in bad conditions is a source of stress, of fatigue... Authorities have their chauffeurs so they don't give a da.. about the common folk...

3 or 4 hours per day commuting to work could mean that you live in one end of the city and work at the oopposite. Just tell me approximately those two points and I will tell if that is true or it is just your usual ranting about how bad the life in Poland is. Too much salt in Polish food and too much time spent on the public transport in Warsaw seem to me too much of a biased opinion on this country, so let me verify your transportation routes first.


Could you please provide the link to that source?

Ziem: No, I live close to Center but since I travel to clientèle all day long and go to a lot of places (Warsaw is very spread out). Until last year, I had 3 or 4 hours per day but now, I limit to max 2 hours because I was exhausted and it was time consuming.

Well InPolska, I don't think there's any engineering issues, but I suppose money is always a problem although Ireland seems to be able to find money whenever she really needs it. We're just pretty terrible at long-term planning and that sort of thing. And then there's always the unexpected things that arise because Ireland is such a truly strange little country.

Back in the 1990s when we were building our first motorways there was a major hoo-ha and construction was brought to a halt because of a 'fairy tree' which would have to be chopped down. In Irish folklore a tree reputed to be connected to the fairies cannot be disturbed in any way or terrible consequences and death will follow. There are still many people in rural Ireland who strongly believe in the fairy lore and have great respect for it. I would certainly never do anything to upset the fairies myself. Some professor or other from one of the universities was alerted about the existence of the tree, hot-footed it down to the construction site and convinced them to down tools. There was great public debate and a genuine concern that the area could become an accident blackspot. Anyway the long and the short of it was that at considerable expense, the motorway was re-routed!

Found a link to the story!
irelandinpicture.net/2010/04/fairy-tree-that-delayed-motorway-ennis.html

Do any people, including officials talk in favor of a metro? I don't remember very well but I think that Dublin is very small so do you think a metro would be great help? The problem now is that if they even decide to build a metro, it'll take quite a few years before having one single line opened.

In Warsaw, the metro, although very limited, has been like a miracle ;)

Thanks for link:)

I remember while in Ireland that country roads were so narrow that it was impossible to have 2 cars in opposite direction at the same time so one car had to let the other car go first... Is it still the way now? Nevertheless people were used to it and very cooperative with each other.

The only person who's interested in it is the Minister for Transport and after doing the figures he announced that it would take no less than one hundred years to pay for it.


Oh yes, still the same. We'll never get rid of our beloved 'boreens'. But yes, the etiquette is that one of you reverses back to the nearest 'pull in'.

@InPolska,

Thanks for the reply. Didn't realize that things still had a ways to go there:-)
Enlightening to hear.

Appreciate it!

It's no wonder. So you need roughly half an hour for a single trip including the waiting time.
If it is in the vicinity, I'd prefer to walk rather than take the bus or tram.

@Ziem: I live in Stara Ochota but I have to travel not only to Centrum and Al Jerozolimskie (no big deal from home) but also to ul. Domianewska, Arkadia, Gocławek (over 17 km from Centrum), Wilanów (taking the bus from Centrum to Wilanów is most often a nighmare as sometimes the bus takes 10 mn to travel from one stop to another, it's pure he...ll in front and behind (2 bus lines) the Russian embassy and now close to Piacezno and if I add up (normal ;)) transportation time (I don't count waiting time), it means several hours per day.

My situation is not that unusual; anybody travelling a lot throughout the town can say the same.

To have an extented metro network would be the answer ;)

It's me posting above (I was logged out). I know like all things, theory looks great but when we experience things on a daily basis, it's a different matter ;)

InPolska do you mean all three added together makes 17km. Gocławek certainly isn't 17km from the city centre.

@Atch: I don't go to all places every day but I remember well that one day I had to go to Gocławek (once a week) and that is was exactly 17 km away but nevertheless, I (now) easily spend over 2 (more ?) hours per day (it used to be much more but I have stopped). Only from my home, it takes 20 mn to go to Centrum so no big deal to have to travel for 1 hour to go somewhere else.

That's the reason people in Poland still tend to possess a car if only they can afford it and to use it in every-day journeys to the work. Which creates a vicious circle - the more cars on the streets, the more obstacles for the public transport. The more obstacles for the public transport, the slower and less reliable it is. The slower and less reliable public transport, the more cars on the streets. And the transportation within the city gets slower and slower.

An isuue which doesn't help here is also a tendency of people to move out from the city to the suburbs. Which is also a result of increasing road traffic in the city, and resulting noise and pollution. They start to have to far away to the job, it's often not affordable for the city to provide good public transport to places where not so many people live, so they need to use a car - and increase the congestion in the city.

Ah yes that accounts for it. You're about the same distance from the centre as Gocławek so the two added together gives you the 17km. When I was teaching English in Warsaw years ago I turned down a job offer because it meant travelling to clients around Warsaw. Although the rate of pay was double what I charged for private lessons, I worked out that when you added in the travelling time, I would only earn the same hourly rate as I did teaching in the comfort and convenience of my own home.