Poland is unsafe for visiting British Citizens ! - so I've been told ...

After all the kindness and advice that I have recieved here on your Polish site, I find it hard to believe that UK nationals are anything less than welcomed with open arms into Poland.

Yet I have been told to be very careful if I ever choose to visit Poland, apparently foreigners are not as welcome there as I would have hoped and expected.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please give me your views and please tell me that I have been badly informed and that UK nationals are most welcome as visitors to/in your country.

I am keen to see Poland and even perhaps meet a pleasant lady there - especially if fate dares to promote the co-incidence and such a chance meeting comes about there ???

Your opinions, views and thoughts please ...

IvorSmall faucet

Who ever told you that tell them that if it was the truth, Poland would have never been a host for the Football Euro Cup like it happened in 2012.


Just make sure that this time she speaks Polish instead of Russian ;-)

You

I've never had any issue when I've gone to Poland, either to visit family or go on holiday with the missus (I was born and raised in the UK but with Polish roots). The only time that I have ever seen a Pole look at a British person with disdain is when you have a group of gobby British guys on a stag do in Krakow or somewhere similar. In that instance I shared the look of disdain!

only if one happens to be British citizen and extreme Muslim in the same time. That`s what i heard

It's safer for British citizens than Britain is.

However, with that said, on my walk to work this morning I saw some fellow Varsovians throwing rocks at a troll which had dared to come out from under a bridge; but I'm pretty sure that they hadn't asked about its nationality before reaching for rubble.

szenk88uk:The only time that I have ever seen a Pole look at a British person with disdain is when you have a group of gobby British guys on a stag do in Krakow or somewhere similar. In that instance I shared the look of disdain!

Quite a few times, I've seen and heard some fairly inhospitable comments made to visitors wearing unconventional clothes or with dark skin. Also to Brits who aren't tourists, visitors or guests in the country, but live there.

Personally, living for many years in Warsaw, I've never seen anything unacceptable from either stag parties from abroad or Warsaw locals - just people enjoying themselves but I've seen plenty of unsavoury behaviour from out of towners from the villages.

I don't know why people are so negative about Poland. Seriously, this Poland bashing is doing my head in. It's just not right.

Well in fairness, Poland is still incredibly conservative. Gays have no rights basically and the religious still sent the agenda.
if you aren't racist and/or homophobic then you're very much in the minority.

Women are treated like slaves, who once married must immediately spend her time focusing her energies on keeping her husband happy and/or producing sprogs for overzealous grandparents.

Imagine a country where artificial insemination divides opinion. For western countries it's a human right, in Poland it's a can of worms coz some religious clowns cannot understand its actual workings.

Politicians are too scared to hold a referendum for abortion , they are happy to allow women cross borders to have it done instead.

The roads are dangerous, as we've seen in other threads, Poland has one of the worst ratios of roads deaths in the EU. That's a fact and cannot be argued against.

Drink driving is an accepted norm.

Political corruption is rife, there's nothing that cash cannot get you here.
You can even get an operation in a hospital faster if you're willing to hand over a cash-filled envelope.

Tourists are welcome in Poland, white-skinned Western immigrants are too, others not so much.

That's why there's so much Poland bashing, there's so many things that it needs to improve on. From my years of living here things are improving........but not nearly fast enough.

I feel like I've moved to Poland 20 years too early, there's plenty of potential, but until the older generation and their (old Communistic) mentality disappears I doubt things will improve vastly.

Since moving here I've found everyone friendly and helpful. If the neighbours see us on the street, they'll cross the street just to shake hands. Everyone tries to help.

nonsense


lol, another nonsense

I agree with some of Smurf's views, I am not sure about all of them.

In this city, there is a marked increase in people living here from other parts of the world. From what I can see, they do OK, no issues except perhaps if they went out somewhere late at night near some boozy pub. As for the homosexual community, I know one or two religious types who (because of their religion, presumably) speak in terms that make me cringe. On the whole, however, I see an increasing number of gay men and women in public than a few years ago and have not observed their receiving any harassment.

Some of the older people here view any foreigner, including English speakers, with suspicion, and I've encountered the odd nasty look and (via a friend) the odd vicious remark in Polish. However, the nice ones outweigh this and one even gave me a keepsake after talking with him (although I returned it to his mailbox some months later with a gift in case he missed it as he was a pensioner).

One thing I do notice is that people who work in some companies or work as estate agents here are far less 'human' than in the UK -- what I mean is if they can see you're not going to be putting money in their pocket they just cut you off like you never existed, in a way that suggests they might lack basic courtesy and the human touch. They don't seem to have any qualms about your knowing that you're just a sales lead and nothing more and to be abandoned if you don't buy there and then. You can call that being unpushy, straightforward and not false, or you could call it mercenary, impatient, resentful and backward. I am not sure which I'd call it. I certainly rarely saw it in the UK but see it here all the time and all it does is seem to hammer home the message that they smile only while they think you're reaching for your greenbacks. I can only assume the hunger (and perhaps struggle) for cash here is much fiercer than in my part of Britain, else why behave in that way? It doesn't win any goodwill for next time.

To Ivorsmallfaucet, I am from Canada and visited Poland a couple of times. I had no problem whatsoever for being an English speaker. I had visited a small town roughly 79 kms east of Warsaw and walked around the town. Even went to smaller community where another cousin of mine moved to of which within 15 or so kms from the border of Belarus and definitely had no problems there despite having dual citizenship with Germany.

Indeed, the danger is, they will enjoy it too much.

Absolutely untrue. I visited Poland last year (I'm Canadian though) and had a wonderful experience. I went with my husband, I speak EXTREMELY limited Polish (at the time, only 3-4 phrases) and everyone was very nice to me, even when I just said thank you in Polish. I would recommend learning a few phrases, like "Excuse me, do you speak English?" before going, just to show a bit of effort. I found even those who spoke limited English enjoyed trying to practice with me.

All in all it is a beautiful country, I liked my time there very much and can't wait to go back. I spent my time in Krakow and can't recommend it enough; it's my favourite city in the world!

As for wives being treated like slaves, maybe I got lucky because my husband is the opposite of this, and my in laws were warm and welcoming.

Wow, some people here are extremely racist like that character Wulkan. I hope most Poles are not that insecure about themselves.

Merged:

Come to Poland its delightful

youtube.com/watch?v=V0WhdcGadHQ

it's delightful indeed