Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]


What I love most of all is that it's often those who are the least racially pure that go on about it the most ;)

Real Estate / Cost to build in Eastern Poland - Ideally per m2 [71]


Poland is an utter disaster in this respect. Between the utter lack of planning (not laws, there's plenty of them) and the reklama plague, Poland is destroying her countryside. All these morons with half finished houses - I mean, come on!

The UK system of making you either finish the house or demolishing it (and charging you for it) is far more sensible.


Quite normal here, I guess - people are utterly naive and expect things to work in exactly the same way.

I wouldn't build a house here, I simply haven't been here long enough.

Food / Bary mleczne/milk bars in Poland [31]


I've lost count of the amount here - I think there's about 10, but...could be more ;)

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1090]


Uh, they called it "Österreich", meaning "Eastern borderlands"

Food / Polish Pizza !! The best in the world? [330]


Nah, people from countries with a more...sophisticated pallet prefer that their pizza doesn't need ketchup added.

Anyway, what would you know, seeing as you've never been to Poland?

Please don't start this in every thread.

Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]

She was Russian, then.

Wow, even worse.

Life / Poland: worst teeth in the world? [98]


Still an option in private places if you really want to save some money - though the cost is minimal, as far as I know...

As much as you want is free if you're under the public system, though.


You think I visit such places? ;)

Though I reckon you could easily go down to 50zl or less in a really crap dentist in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn't fancy it though!

Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]


Do you have any better suggestions?

It was never found in any Polish dictionary, so - where could it come from? Most of those that went to America were poor peasants from Eastern Poland - where the language was heavily mixed with Ukrainian. It's quite logical to assume that such poor people wouldn't know or care that the proper word is babcia.

Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]


The question is why so many allegedly Polish (but we all know that they're of uncertain peasant origin) people are using a word which is unknown in Poland.


You're welcome to try and find the origin. My best hypothesis is that it comes from the Ukrainian "babusha" - certainly many Ukrainians were more likely to identify as Polish than Ukrainian in those times. Nothing wrong with that, as such - but it's my theory that many "Polish" people in America were actually a mix of ethnicities, but identified as Polish as they weren't German, Hungarian or Russian.

It's certainly not a word found in any Polish dictionary at any time.

Life / Babcia or Busha - any social class difference? [359]

Wrong. Babcia is the word for both.

People may have their own words, but "Busha" is very much an American invention.

Life / Poland: worst teeth in the world? [98]


A tooth removed (without fuss, but with painkillers) is about 80-100zl privately in a normal, clean dentist.


The nice thing here is that if you have a mix of public and private treatment - there's no cap at all on the public treatment, unlike the shambles that is the NHS system.

History / What do Poles owe to Germans? [451]


The vast majority of signs are in both languages - I can only think of one sign near the border which only uses the German name, and that's possibly because it refers to the German part of the town.

(as for Poland - where German cities are signed, you always see Polish names too)

Law / Is it possible to change visit visa to student or work permit in Poland? [16]

No, it must be done from your home country. I'm pretty certain you cannot 'upgrade' a visa within the country - except to go from a work/student visa to a residence permit.

Law / Getting Married in Poland without a visa? [23]


No. You need to be legally resident in Poland in order to get married here - they can and will check.

Real Estate / How do I rent a flat in Poland? [44]

otodom.pl is in English - I used to teach the director of the site :)

Travel / Best places to visit in Poland [91]


In Warsaw, you could make a killing if you have all the professional papers from the UK - an English nanny is seen as very posh right now.

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]


Oh yes. Babcia isn't afraid to shake you out of your sleep because she wants the seat. Or worse, like the old misery guts who shoved my injured knee out of the way because his wife wanted my seat.


Old people are dreadful for this - I find that they've got an utter lack of manners here. Still, it can be amusing to get in their way and refuse to let them do it.


I blame the idiotic right turn on red for this - what kind of moron thought it was a good idea IN POLAND to give cars and pedestrians a green light?


What's fun with this is to stare out kids when you want their seat on the tram/bus - sometimes works ;)


Ah, it's a way of life, come on ;) What I don't understand is where they get the money from to be chavs - social welfare here is absolutely minimal.


Try my favourite trick - spend about 10 minutes looking for the ticket. Always amuses me to watch them get madder and madder while you deliberately search every single pocket about ten times :D They're paid on commission, so if they're being dicks, the best way is to waste their time ;)


...I hate to say it, but I think it's better than the UK :(

Law / Buying a USED CAR in Poland, my personal experiences and TRAPS to avoid !! [133]

Stay well clear of driving in Poznan, things are an utter disaster at the minute and they're going to get a hell of a lot worse in a few weeks.

If you want to buy a car - the best bet is going to Germany. Cars here are just wrecks in general - for less than 10,000PLN, you won't get anything worthwhile.

Love / Polish women are the most beautiful in the world! [1718]


Her parents were called Władysław and Bronisława Sklodowski - not exactly French names, are they?

Her grandfather was also called "Józef Skłodowski" - again - not particularly French.

Love / Polish women are the most beautiful in the world! [1718]


Perhaps if you spent more time trying to find a job and less time checking out Polish women, you'd get somewhere?

Life / 3 reasons why you hate Poland. [1049]

Actually, the ignorant person is you. The way that the Polish (in fact, the way that most civil law systems work) is that the family court is merely the first court. If the decision goes against you, you can go to a higher court. And so on. Quite normal in Europe.

Incidentally, it's pretty unlikely that a divorce case would go to the High Court in the first instance.


Really? But you don't speak Polish, so how do you know?

Gotta love armchair council estate Poland experts...

Language / Is this true about Polish pronunciation of English (that some words sound identical?) [34]


The street in Edinburgh is pronounced that way...could be the same?

Work / How much is the average living cost in Poland for foreign student? [46]


There are no part-time jobs for foreign students in Warsaw.

Life / For all the black people living in Warsaw, where do you get your hair cut? [39]

Dry your eyes.

Work / How much is the average living cost in Poland for foreign student? [46]


To be honest, on public transport, there's not much difference - all the major cities are around 80-90zl a month for a ticket. And interestingly - while Warsaw is more expensive for a monthly ticket, it's much cheaper for a 3 month ticket than Poznan.

(although - I see they've put the prices up recently, bastards - the previous day ticket price was a great deal)

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


Emulate Norway? You mean - pay almost a billion Euro each year to the EU for the privilege of taking part in EU agreements, yet have no voice in the European institutions? That doesn't seem particularly sensible...

Emulate Switzerland? You mean - accept vast amounts of EU law, not have to pay - but still have to sign up to lots of treaties and agreements that makes them almost an EU member anyway? Don't forget what happened with Schengen and Dublin - failure to ratify both meant the door being slammed in their face and all the other treaties being cancelled.

Emulate Iceland? You mean - suffer huge financial instability without anyone to help you out - and have to resort to the Russians to help?


The EU doesn't work that way. Ultimately, countries can repeal the Act of Accession at any time they want - in fact, Lisbon has a formal exit mechanism for the first time.


Yay, we can go back to the era of 4-6 hour waits on the border, work permits needed, limits on imports and more!


4 out of every 5 voted for the EU, then.


What's exceptionally funny is watching Americans discuss the EU - most of them haven't got a clue about how it actually works in practice.

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]

Where would they be, then? No such thing in Poland exists.

The former "Reichsautobahn" were in no state for planes landing there, and the Autostrada's that did get built during Communism weren't particularly good either.

I'm pretty sure that it's just a myth arising from the common myth that the American Interstates were to be used for such a purpose.

Language / Is the term 'Polak' derogatory?? [254]


That's okay, no-one cares less about you either. I mean, you're just a faceless internet troll.


I know plenty of Poles who ridicule those in America who know **** all about Poland and yet claim to do so. Most of them either find it funny or annoying - especially when those POLISH PATRIOTS decide to insult the head of state without knowing anything, except what they've read in their racist Polonia rag.


I think you need to sort your hat out - clearly the Jews are getting through.

The vast majority of Poles couldn't care less about the American media, nor could they care about what is said there. I don't know one person here that actually sits around and thinks 'omg, the evil Jews in America are criticising Poland!' - they're thinking more like "hmm, I need to pay the mortgage, I need a pay rise, I need a holiday" - you know, normal things. In fact, in Poland, it would seem that the only people thinking about Jews are the ones who have nothing else in their lives.

The biggest threat to Poland is Poles themselves, no-one else.

USA, Canada / What do Poles think about drinking raw milk? In America, unpasteurized milk is PROHIBITED. [49]

Ugh, why did she stop?

(I pity you :/)

News / Should Poland leave the EU institution? [147]


Not much difference?

No, only quite a lot of new motorway and expressway. Not much difference, really.

Let's see - 200km of A2 (soon to be 300km), the Wroclaw-Katowice section of A4 along with the Zgorzelec-A18 junction section, about 120km of A1 along with the bits south of Gliwice, the A8 Wroclaw ring (almost finished, and a bit is open), the A18 got the second carriageway, the A6 has been totally reconstructed.

As for expressway, where do we start? There's a huge bit of S3 open from Gorzow to Szczecin, the S1 in the south has seen some extra bits added, the S5 will have about 60km open soon, the S11 Poznan ring is about to open soon, the S7 has quite a bit built now...the list is endless.

In fact - motorway building has been good regardless of what political party held power. the SLD, PiS and PO have all been building away - it's one of the few things that seems to have broad party consensus.


Take a look at the history before making such statements. You'll see that the rise of the pro-independence movement is nothing new - in fact, it was arguably stronger during the 1970's than it is now. It is *everything* to do with inept leadership of the UK and nothing to do with the EU.