Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]


Mmmmm, delicious.

If there had been green flecks of herbs and a little visible oil on the surface, I'd have said that.

My first thought was kompot however there were no berries floating in it and the colour really does suggest pigwa.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


How many people? Poland has 38 million

It's a good thing to do, but no longer any need to keep bottle tops. There's plenty of other plastic items however that are available to be saved for recycling by charities or other groups.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Who said they were?

The fact that the bottle caps were hanging around and not being disposed of is the issue. Did you think that most people used such containers? I've never seen one.

Now that has been solved to the satisfaction of the majority.

Real Estate / Kalisz Slums [11]

One of the first things a neighbour said to me in PL all those years ago (an old lady who spoke English reasonably well) was that the flats we lived in were "slums". They weren't. The only problem is that the residents hadn't looked after the common areas well however this is (or was then) fairly normal in PL.

I've heard there are quite poor conditions in some older buildings in Silesia and of course even an adequate home can become a slum if there's overcrowding.

Real Estate / Kalisz Slums [11]

I think in the hallways, either one per floor or on half landings. Fortunately getting rarer now.

Food / Polish Potatoes [48]


Normal style.

The best bit is the skin and the flesh just below it.

With new potatoes, almost nobody peels them anyway since the skin is so scant. Some people scrub them a little however I can't see any point in that.

Real Estate / Kalisz Slums [11]


I was surprise to learn that there are still a few flats in Warsaw (across the river) that don't have their own toilet.

Work / Certified TEFL Teacher jobs in Poland [6]


Generally up to B1, however there are good ones who can do B2.

With language teaching, it isn't so much your command of the languages as your ability to teach, plan lessons, follow a syllabus and prepare people for exams.


One issue is that there aren't always enough to go around who have the right skill set and sometimes the best candidate for the job is someone who has made the same journey as the learners.

I'm hiring now, two posts. For one of the posts, the best candidate is a Pole. He's lived in the U.K., is well qualified and has good teaching experience. Incidentally, in terms of salary (very high) and terms (rotational in Africa, direct hire, public sector) the job is probably in the top 5% or less of EFL posts worldwide. I didn't advertise it since the last time I did, there were around 600 replies of which about 550 didn't match the basic requirements mentioned in the ad and of the remaining 50, around half were known to me and had a poor reputation and the others had either the wrong type of experience or other warning bells rang. So I asked a trusted source for a recommendation.

Sadly, he's currently blowing a bit hot and cold since he doesn't quite believe it and thinks it's too good to be true!

Incidentally some universities too have Poles, Czechs and Italians lecturing in their English Departments.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


I'm sure they'll find other activities. And of course their very existence confirms that there was an issue.


Hopefully not for long.


They actually require only minuscule amounts of crude oil to make, however the problem is that people weren't recycling them and they take centuries to biodegrade.

Several people here just looking to moan about change.

Work / Certified TEFL Teacher jobs in Poland [6]


There's still a reasonable market for language training however it isn't the hothouse it was 20 years ago.

Interestingly, there are increasing numbers of well-educated Poles who are teaching English in other countries.

Worth mentioning that most of Dominic B's posts were about discouraging non-white people from coming to work in Poland.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Somehow achievable partial outcomes are more relevant than irrelevances introduced for the sake of rhetoric.

Hard to know why you're moaning about bottle tops. Do you have a phobia about them or do you just inherently fear change?

Food / Polish Potatoes [48]

I never peel them, even for chips or roasties and of course eat the lot.

Real Estate / Kalisz Slums [11]


Now or historically?

Personally, I only know the bits around the railway station (big and old, due to it once being almost a border town though the current main building is from the PRL era) and the Cathedral. I'd guess the poorest part of town is one of the housing estates.

Just an idea, there are buy/sell websites in Poland. Olx.pl is a well known one, assuming it's still going. That should give an idea of the prices of flats in Kalisz. The cheapest will be in the worst area.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


It does. The issue of the tops littering the streets and going down drains was what prompted the move.


A few molecules maybe.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]

It's hardly a burden...

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


That or changed the course of humanity.


Ripping money and assets off from ordinary people and common infrastructure is more normal yet for them.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]

You can always twist them off. That or pour the drink into a nice glass.

They really do make a positive difference.

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [540]


Not many countries could have coped easily with the costs and radical changes of reunification.

Give it time, plan things carefully, and don't let capitalists suck all the money away.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Nothing sad about that.


I'd forgotten that Marx, Engels and Liebknecht were Eskimos.


They aren't though, are they. To describe litter-free bottle caps as "fighting the majority" is just bizarre.

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [540]

I've not noticed a change. Sometimes I travel from Belgium or the Netherlands to Poland via Germany, with a few tight changes in the early part of the journey and it always works. You even get phone notifications telling you the percentage likelihood of making your connection.

However yes, people do say, as you have, that things have deteriorated.

As a Brit, I do see some irony. DeutscheBahn invested heavily in privatised rail and bus franchises in the U.K., never carried out the infrastructure investment that they'd agreed to as part of that, increased the fares, failed to meet the minimum service level agreements, took 'profits' out to subsidise their core activities in Germany and whined like pussies when they lost the franchises due to their poor behaviour.

On the whole though, I've had good experiences with public transport in Germany. The railway line has been down for a while between Berlin and the Polish border, however they have to do maintainance, and you can still get the S Bahn to Erkner then a regional train to Frankfurt if you don't want (as I don't) to get on a coach from behind Hauptbahnhof that they lay on to get people to the Warsaw Express.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Don't worry, we had 14 years of fúcking Tory grifters. So we voted them into oblivion.

Green issues are important. Yes they go too far sometimes in appealing to the emotions of people who don't understand the issues, and I sometimes think I'd happily watch certain green activists being fed head first into a mincing machine however the bottle cap thing is a genuinely good move.

Nobody's forced to like the policies of every single political party in their country, however those who moan the most are generally the least likely to engage politically and actually do something about it in the run up to elections when political parties need activists to help. Many of those who moan don't even vote; and they are in no position to complain about positive things achieved by those who do.

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [540]


I've always found the trains quite good in Germany. More efficient than most places except maybe the Netherlands and Britain.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Are they?

If anyone is angry about something that doesn't inconvenience them in any way, perhaps they should look for something else to get all hot and bothered about.

Like the fact that there are so-called 'investors' who are making more money from their jobs than they are themselves.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


That depends where you are.The UK, Germany, Poland, fine (though bottled water is very big in Poland). In many places, tap water isn't what it ought to be.


I very rarely drink them for that reason (plus they're generally quite nasty except for one or two old favourites, however the attached bottle caps are an inconvenience to nobody.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Are attached bottle caps a 'nuisance' to you?

For me, they're neither here nor there.


Worldwide, plastic bottles are a bigger nuisance.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


Has Poland left then?

Anyway, I'm defending their sensible rule about plastic bottle caps.


And yes, PL benefits from this too.

Whining about attached bottle caps, an inconvenience to nobody, is just durny, and strangely fits his unfortunate user name.

History / 20 years of Poland in the EU. [317]


No, they are litter. Do try to pay attention.


Who is that? Given that Poland is a full member of the EU. That term 'overlords' just sounds like a trashy comment from a tabloid newspaper's comment field made by someone with an IQ of 90.

Why are you against a practical anti-littering measure? As Lenka says, in what way do you "suffer"?

Off-Topic / Stock Market and Trading Talk [1011]


WIG investments used to be a land of opportunity. There are still of course companies close to what Americans call 'junk bonds' and Brits call Penny Shares however there was money to be made with some of the bigger ones.

Plus of course there's sometimes money to be made with Penny Shares providing your blood pressure levels can handle it and you can afford to take a loss when it doesn't pay off.

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [540]


Yes, and I'd even say they'd lose it all.

Intelligence services in Europe and elsewhere no longer share information with Germany since their government and military are so thoroughly riddled with r*SSian assets. That's a huge reputational blow and a sign of instability that it's important for Germany to mitigate.


Expensive, however it it has to be done sooner or later, preferably sooner.


Yes. Germany is a friend of Germany. They tried to use a dodgy hydrocarbons deal with a pariah state in order to undercut and steal a march on other European countries who actually are supposed to be their friends. It didn't work, and now they're licking their wounds.

We forget that until relatively recently, it was legal in Germany for firms doing business abroad to put the bribes through their accounts. Usually however, common sense is a better long term approach than greed and naked self-interest.

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]


The texture, The effect is really different.

@Milo

They are really good and simple. Really moreish. BTW, I said chopped dried chilli but actually meant chilli flakes. Only a bit though. And it helps if you don't handle the dough any more than needed,