Life / How can I change 100 PLN bank notes for smaller currency? [17]

Your best bet is in discounters - Lidl, Biedronka, or Netto or places like Macs, KFC - their models rely on using capacity as much as possible and processing people quickly at the till so they train staff not to waste time by asking for change.

What is really getting on my nerves is that when I stop at a paystation on a motorway they are asking for change ! Surely the whole point is to make your journey as quick as possible.

Real Estate / How the Poland property market became a HUGE bubble [35]

Yes i understand compound growth very well and i was looking at base gdp per capita not ppp which would make no sense in the context of the rest of my mail. On that basis the starting figure for poland is 13k usd and for france 39k. So it would in fact take more than 30'years.

Towns that are stabilizing - well i had a brief look at reas report and thought poznan and lodz were, but maybe my memorymis failing me.

Law / Landlord in Poland entitled to break in, change locks after non payment of final month's rent? [19]

Its very difficult legally for the landlord to evict, break in or change the locks. I know because I have been in the landlords position before.

Doesn't mean to say he won't do it though - some of these guys can be quite arrogant.

Work / Job at HP in Wroclaw, what salary should I expect and Is It negotiable? [29]

It would be a short discussion. The only reason these guys are in Poland is so they can pay less than in paris.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Causin might be a corruption of Koscin or Koscian. Neither would be notably Jewish however

Life / Tips on tipping in Poland [45]

Restaurants - i leave 15 percent but only for good service. If its a place where i eat often i will try and make sure server gets at least 10 zloty.

Taxis - about 3 zloty for a short trip. 5 or 10 for a longer trip

Hotels - 2 zloty for a bellboy, 5 zlots if its heavy. Leave your small change for the cleaner. I never tip people that are just opening doors.

Poles dont always tip, but its mainly because they are hard up rather than being mean. If you can afford it, spread a few zloty to your servers - most of them work 40 hours a week for 100 dollars take home

Law / U.S. Citizen Moving to Poland - opening business? [36]

I really miss american style travel inns and think there might be a market for that - the quality of roadside hotels in poland is appalling and getting better only at a slow rate.

I think the main problem you will have is that in the US cheap land and cheap, good quality food allows you to provide a lot of value for the customer. Spacious rooms here will be more expensive to build.

But you could definitely win if you get your catering right - hot, relatively healthy and filling, and if you have sports on.

Food / Hot food in Warsaw - where to buy hot sauce? [7]

went to Rain a few days ago and it is good food (only problem is the Kingfisher was not cold enough). The Chilli fish is properly hot.

Problem with Spoco Loco is that its too far to make a journey there and back if you have other commitments in town. But will try and get there on a more relaxed visit. Warsaw is getting like New York - never cross a bridge unless you really have to !

Life / Halloween vs All Saints' Day in Poland [48]

Some base anti-Americanism here dressed up as moralizing about "commercial" halloween v pure All Saints Day. Remarkably Des is one of the few people talking sense !

All Saints day is very commercial in Poland - go to your families rural graveyard and you will see competition for the most tasteless candles including musical ones. I do like the tradition though and the sight of them at dusk.

In the US, Halloween is not just commercial - its a genuine time to have fun with your brothers and sisters and the other kids around. Its good to sit with the family and make your costumes and I dont see whats harmful about that. Trick or treating can be fun but I dont think it makes sense in Poland where all the adults dont know whats going on.

UK, Ireland / Finding ingredients for traditional British Xmas dinner in Poland? [21]

Er...tesco or carrefour. Those are the big square things plonked on the edge of inowroclaw. They definitely have whole turkeys in bigger towns, but not sure about inowroclaw.

You might need to bring your gravy powder from home but there are plenty of local sustitutes - sos pieczony.

Check the size of your mother in laws oven before you embark on this ! Or you could deep fry your turkey alabama style !

Life / Is 10500 monthly is enough for a family to live in Warsaw Poland [136]


But in this case they are providing a skill we don't appear to have, and would hopefully transfer some of that knowledge to Poles. They are paying 4.000 tax a month and the number of people will be hundreds rather than millions - surely this is the "good" kind of immigration.

What is weird is that I have been able to find Polish developers for less - about 10.000 but not in SAP. Is the premium for SAP people really so high ?

Law / Advice needed on access rights and alimony payments regarding my Polish daughter [28]

I think you are getting too much sympathy. You walked out on your family. 10 percent of your income is reasonable - when my kids were small i spent a lot more than that. You have not been there to wipe its butt and get up in the night or stand in queues at the doctor. Living in switzerland without her mum to help her might not be as appealing as you think ? Would she be entitled to healthcare in switzerland for example.

If you are not going to participate then accept the alimony and try and get some access rights. But no court in any country will force her parents to let you into their home, so make a plan B.

And yeah she slept with someone, but she was lonely, stressed and hormonal.

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]

Possibly you need to increase the pay for these - what i find with interns is that you have to pay more than they would get in Pizza Hut or Tesco ?

News / Emigration from Poland (2.1m Poles are living abroad, most within Europe) [37]

Yes he should - because in that case how is he going to want to work for you ? They might want experience but they also need cash to live on and pay off college debts.

Real Estate / Poland House Price Index [4]

Go to the website of Reas consulting and click reports. Its not great but its as reliable as you will get in poland.

It focuses on new build, reluable secondary data is tough to find. It also excludes garages (which is kinda good to have) and incentives like cars, holidays etc that lots of developers throw in.

Law / Advice needed on how to recover money not transferred via Google Pay to a Polish bank [5]

If you were a willing participant it will be difficult to get any redress from Millenium - they have done nothing wrong. You could try the polish police

Life / Cigarette prices in Poland [27]

The govts income from the excise tax is about 3x the healthcare cost.

Real Estate / Looking for an apartment to buy in Wielkopolska [3]

You will struggle at that price range - in poznan i would think 250k would be more realistic if its a place you dont want to do any work on. Even then you will need to find some developer who is is distress.

Outside poznan it will still be tough and you should think about less desirable towns like inowroclaw or gorzow. Pleasant enough to live and visit but you wont have much to do there.

A few years ago you could buy in east germany for those prices but not any more - however push it up to 50-60k euro and you might find something in frankfurt oder or furstenwalde which are within 2 hours of poznan.

Real Estate / Prices of agricultural land in Poland [39]


And if the exchange rate had moved the other way they no doubt would be congratulating themselves on their genius.

There were plenty of people at the time saying that this was foolish and regular commentary in Gazeta W, Rz etc. What really surprised me were that I knew plenty of people working as accountants and bankers who took swiss franc mortgages.

Real Estate / Prices of agricultural land in Poland [39]


Or did it give millions of Poles access to their own housing for the first time ever. A place they could turn on the heating when they wanted, didn't have to smell everyone else's kapusta on the stairwell and could decorate how they wanted. How many of these people have lost their homes since 2008 ? Very few. Without banks then there would be no way to make this advance in the standard of living here.

Of course there are huge flaws in the system but the result of the failure of capitalism has at worst been a 5-10% fall in living standards. The results of the failures of socialism range from 1980s Poland with its queues and failing society to North Korea where people are eating grass to survive.

Life / Agnieszka holland compares life in Poland to 'sniffing farts': [97]

Not sure what is neo-con about it. Came from PiS. Surely Neo-cons would want something that would maximize profit - what this does to businesses is close them for a day but they still have to pay staff.

I don't mind an extra days holiday but the timing of this one is nuts - basically the first day of work after 2 weeks of eating and drinking and its a public holiday !

Life / Agnieszka holland compares life in Poland to 'sniffing farts': [97]

I'm catholic :) like the other 38 million here and the 70 or 80 million back in the US, I got along fine with working on this day for many years

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

When a Polish official says a couple of years he means ten.

At least they have started and are testing the trains but dont expect any y shaped fast link before 2020.

the warsaw-berlin motorway opened its first section in 2004 and took 8 years to finish. this fast rail project is much more complicated.

History / Communism, was it the best form of government Poland ever had? [68]

Of course you should judge communism by its crimes. There is not a single communist regime that has not descended into murder and repression. even the ones that eased up in the 80s like Hungary went through purges, hangings and personality cults in the 50s.

As for people begging to have it back, then communist parties have only once won a national election - in Czechoslovakia in 1948. every electorate is wise to the fact that it is an unworkable system that can only be sustained by terrorising the workers it pretends to represent.

there are plenty of clear cut comparisons - east v west germany, north v south korea, austria v hungary. And no capitalist country has ever had to build a wall to keep people in.

Nobody starved in 1980s Poland but they sure didnt send back the food parcels we used to send them. if 1979 poland had been left for another 10 years with no foreign currency and no products to export then people would have been eating grass.

i know plenty of Poles who say some elements of life were better but i have honestly never met one who would like to go back to the old system lock stock and barrel.

News / Y Shaped high speed rail line Poland [78]

The difference between 2,30 and 3 hours is that it gives you an advantage over the plane and the car, especially if you want to travel there and back in a day.

Work / Virtual offices in Poland. Anything similar to AllDayPa (All Day PA)? [9]

Regus have a virtual office service where they pick up your calls, open mail etc. But its quite expensive. I have not used them in Poland but I did in Czech and was something like 20 euro a day.

Work / What is the average accounting/auditing salary in Poland? [42]

If you are not qualified then I guess 3-4k. More if you can get accepted by a Big 4 firm, which is very difficult in Poland as they have the pick of graduates, but if you interview well, speak Polish and are commercially minded then you might have a shot.

If you are qualified then can be good money - start at PLN 10k + bonus, but could be more if you have a specialty.

Law / Laws on walking a dog in Polska [67]

The forester I think does have a right to kill your dog if it is endangering the ecology - not the case here.

But its also clear that you have to keep your dog under control at all times as Peter states - you have no leg to stand on and actually I have a lot of sympathy with the jogger.

One of my kids has a bad phobia of dogs (his own fault - once he wound one up and got bitten !) so I have this situation with "he wouldn't hurt a fly" dog owners several times a month.

I am fine with people letting there dogs off the leash if there is nobody around. What disgusts me about Polish dog owners is that they so openly let their dogs foul the pavements and parks. Much worse than other countries I have lived in and I think exacerbated by the fact they often don't have gardens. I seem to have to scrape their faeces off my kids shoes two or three times a week.

Travel / Sightseeing suggestions within 2 hours travel from Rzeszow required [10]

How long would Warsaw-Zamosc drive be (assuming no snow) ?

Study / Vistula University in Poland. Any experience? Any student? [57]

Maybe its not the best univesity in Poland but i thought these private places are accredited and so is it right to say its fake. I have taken a few grads from private unis in the past and some have been ok, some very good. the quality of grads from polands public universities is very patchy.

Not sure why you are always so hostile to newcomers Dom ? The guy is only asking a question. I have no idea what your alma mater is but i'm sure there are people who could also ***** about it and say its a bad school.