but take into account that we are entering the most depressing time of a year..
Poland is not the only country with rain and winter, Canada comes to mind with -20 C and with the windshield up to -30 C depending on the day. Norway is way up north and has one of the darkest winters, so if Poles complain about the depressing times, it makes me laugh to be honest.
Anyway, everyone who complain that Poles complain is not any better ;)
I am not complaining, I am making an observation. I already learnt that I cannot criticize Poles, they just like to be miserable on their own;), since it is their national sport. You have noticed in my post that I also saw a good side to complaining.
Paper, documents, signaturesWell, I shipped lots of my personal stuff by ship and boy or boy, it was difficult to prove to the customs that I resided in Canada so I would be exempted from paying the duty. So they paper trail has started about two weeks ago since I had to prove that I actually lived there, since owning a Canadian passport was NOT enough, among other things. I engaged 2 people in Canada and 4 people in Poland to help me sort things out and finally after sending all kinds of strange documents (rental invoices, uni records) the custom officers in Poland (had to do a translation of some of the documents since their English was "useless") I finally got OK.
Observations:- everything has to be hard copy and Poland is far behind with that
- I should have gotten a letter from the Polish consulate stating that I indeed resided in Canada since the Canadian government is not to be trusted
- I know WHY Poland is developing so slowly: they LOVE paper documents and think that every citizen is a potential criminal trying to cheat the Polish government, while the truth is that it is the Polish government which robs Polish people of too much taxes and does not provide them with enough reliable services.
- I made so many phone calls to the Custom agency that I actually made a friend in Gdynia Port by now and even though he put me through HELL, he was nice about it lol
Anyways, I got tired of the whole affair and I would never set up export- import business in Poland - so my hats off to those who actually have;).
Tonight I am attending an art show opening. Will mix with the artsy part of Polish society;). I hope they have some wine and cheese for an always hungry art lover like me;)