WC's are pay-to-play? (Except McD's) And they have a real person to collect the groszys?
Only sometimes, it used to be more common.
I would find members of my family in Poland and try to have a conversation about family history.
You'd need to be quite fluent to do that without resorting to dictionary and phrase book. Remember that apart from being able to speak you need to understand what they say to you in response! You would really need good intermediate level Polish and that takes some time and effort to acquire. Now having said all that, many years ago when I hardly spoke a word of Polish I had to spend the day alone with my husband's granny who was over eighty and didn't speak any English. I managed to communicate with phrase book and dictionary to a level where I found out which of her son-in-laws she didn't like (pretty much all of them!) and which members of the family were lazy and 'VERY lazy' :D, also that prices were very hign, especially clothes. So there you go, it can be done!
I am leaving myself wide open here and you all can have a great laugh at my naivety
There's quite a variety of people on this forum who present themselves as all kinds of everyone and can be quite misleading. Some are nice enough people with good intentions but can be a bit misleading because they are not as well informed as they think, some are just trolls. Here's the background on posters who've answered you so far:
Me: Irish, live in Warsaw, married to a Polish man, speak basic Polish. Off to weekly lessons from next week, have to improve a bit!
Lenka: Polish, lives in Poland, has lived in the UK so speaks very good English.
Rich Mazur: claims he was born in Warsaw and emigrated to the USA, claims to have visited a couple of years ago, generally considered a big old troll on this forum. Take everything he says with a spoon rather than a grain of salt.
Mafketis: American, has lived in Poland for years, speaks very good Polish, very knowledgeable, genuine guy.
Milo: claims to be a Londoner of Polish descent, doesn't appear to have visited Poland recently.
Lyzko: American, was in Poland for a few weeks back in the 90's. Don't know what his other Polish connections are. Doesn't intentionally lead anyone astray or mess with their heads :)
Joker: Chicago Polish-American, harmless enough but a bit of a spoofer, don't pay too much attention to him.
Other Polish posters who are a reliable source of information are Kaprys and Ziemowit, if you should come across them on the forum.