Travel / Poland one of the best places to see golden Autumn colours [11]

That's a nice piece. Autumn is the most beautiful season in Poland. Sometimes I just have to stop the car and gaze for a while. I just hope the folk wisdom that a bumper mushroom harvest presages a hard winter won't be true this year.

UK, Ireland / Can anyone recommend private transport/courier for deliveries from UK to Poland? [25]

I've used catrinatrans and was happy with their service. They took a box from darkest Cornwall to darkest Podlasie for me. They were fast and cheap.

Food / Origin of the pierogi [127]

Yes, I've had pierogi in Russia and in Poland innumerable times. They are the same, except the Russians garnish them (and everything else) with dill.

Food / Origin of the pierogi [127]

I'd say much inferior. Polish soups are great but this one is meh.
Please stick to the topic

Food / Origin of the pierogi [127]


Turkish mantI, Chinese won ton, Italian ravioli, Polish pirogi. All variants on a theme. Yes, Polish pirogi are Polish, but they don't differ much from many other dishes.

Food / Origin of the pierogi [127]

jon, next you'll be telling us Rosół is chicken soup.

USA, Canada / What Airline do you take to Poland from Chicago? [105]


You're going back a bit. Airline travel became deeply unpleasant after 9/11, but it was hardly fun for years before that, unless, of course, you turned left on boarding. For me, aiports rather than planes are the nightmare. I still get a buzz from being in a $300m vehicle, but airport design, while superficially more ergonomic, is like pergatory.

Life / Tap Water quality in Poland [44]


My mother-in-law lives around the corner from a Hoop soft drinks factory. The water in her well is the same as in Hoop Arctic bottled water. Very nice, too.

Life / Tap Water quality in Poland [44]

Don't worry about water quality in Poland. In some areas it's not particularly tasty, and in some old residences the pipes might contaminate it to some extent, but it is all safe to cook with and wash in. Drink bottled water and enjoy the country.

Life / Tap Water quality in Poland [44]

It won't kill you, but bottled water is cheap.

Travel / Why do you visit Poland? [223]

Wieliczka is a must-see.

Work / Amway Poland - work - salary [18]

Perhaps things have changed, but about thirty years ago some friends who were Amway suckers invited my partner and I to a home demonstration/recruitment party. They showed us Amway's cleaning products, which I must say were very good, then explained their sales structure. I could smell something about it that just didn't add up. After the presentation I started talking to a guy who had been quietly sitting there. He turned out to be the next one up the chain from our friends. When I pointed out the obvious flaws in the stragtegy, he leaned in and said that the way to make money was not by selling their detergents, but by recruiting lots of gullible people to do so and raking off a percentage of their sales. We declined, and later our friends stopped doing it, citing loads of paperwork and tiny rewards.

UK, Ireland / Polish lorry driver arrested for smuggling 9 million cigarettes [64]


I could write a long article on Russian cops' abuses, having lived there for three (academic) years. The mentality is different there. There is no conception of 'to protect and serve', or being of the people. The soviet model remains. The function of the police is to keep the people controlled, intimidated and frightened. As for OMON, don't get me started.

UK, Ireland / Polish lorry driver arrested for smuggling 9 million cigarettes [64]


Where I live, near the border with Belarus, they used to be more or less openly sold in the market "Vutka, papirossi, vutka, papirossi", but that was before Poland joined the EU. Since then it has all changed. Belarussians used to come over in LPG cars with full petrol tanks and sell that, too. No doubt moody cigs can still be found if you know where to go but, no, they're not sold openly anymore.

UK, Ireland / Polish lorry driver arrested for smuggling 9 million cigarettes [64]

Twice the limit and stopped in lane one for twelve minutes. This guy won't touch a steering wheel again for a long time. Whoops, wrong lorry driver thread.

UK, Ireland / Polish lorry driver arrested for smuggling 9 million cigarettes [64]


Wouldn't that just encourage more smuggling? People buy under-the-counter cigs in the UK because they can't afford full price ones. If cigs were 30PLN in PL, the rate of smuggling from the east and south would explode. I'd be tempted myself.

Work / Business ideas for Poland [63]


Auchan in B.Stok has a section like this, although just for foodstuffs. It's very cheap and very popular.


I guess he had plenty of leads to choose from. Sorry 'bout that.


He just wouldn't listen, eh?
Another disaster I remember was a women's boutique, again in my local town (27000 souls). If a woman wants a dress, she'll go to the nearest city and spend all day in the malls.

Work / Business ideas for Poland [63]

I have seen so many small businesses fail because they had stupid ideas or located in unsuitable places. I could provide a long list, but one I'll never forget was a shop selling packet teas. This was a business that might have done well in places like Bath, Harrogate, Covent Garden or Oxbridge, but it was in a small town in eastern Poland, where people could find fifty kinds of tea in the local Kaufland. It lasted three months.

One idea that I would explore if I were thinking of investing in a small business is catering to students. Young people nowadays, especially girls, do not want the schabowy, mash and pickled beetroot to be found in milkbars, and restaurants are too dear. Near my uni there's a vegan place, and students speak very highly of it. A good sandwich and salad bar near a uni would do well, I'm sure.

I'd avoid the van shop idea. These exist in villages, including mine, but what kind of margin is there on a loaf of bread?

Study / Question about studing Polish history and culture [20]


Daddy brings a book upstairs for his child's bedtime story, but he brings the wrong one.
"Daddy, why did you bring that book I don't want to be read to out of up for?

Oops, should be "What did...

Life / What is Poland's view on obesity? How healthy, fit are Poles? [166]

Every year I see more obese first years in the university intake. Most of these teenagers are of healthy weight, far more than in the rest of Europe, but the numbers are visibly growing. There are even morbidly obese students, something you just didn't see even five years ago. Why is this happening?

Changes in family life, where people don't sit down together as often for a home-cooked meal is one reason. Late last semester I asked a class of first year students if they ate dinner with their families as the everyday norm. One student put her hand up out of twenty-five.

The ubiquity of fast food outlets, of course. For me, though, the main reason is that as Poland becomes richer as a society young children have more money in their pockets. It is not at all unusual to see unaccompanied youngsters in pizzerias and burger joints. Ten or fifteen years ago kids simply didn't have the money to do this.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

I live near the forest, Polonius, and I have been following events closely here. If I had to choose between listening to the scientists who spend their careers here, or PiS, or ignorant locals in Hajnowka (where the hell did the Polish letters go?) with vested short term interests, I'd choose the scientists.

Food / Poles have a more loving attitude to food than here in the UK [169]

I've seen honesty boxes in England from the Fens to Cumbria. Good to know everyone is honest in Wales.

Food / Poles have a more loving attitude to food than here in the UK [169]


There are fewer than normal but the quality is great. Very sweet.
As for provenance, you city slickers have to wonder, but we villagers know what we are buying because we can see the damn things growing behind the farmhouses.

Food / Poles have a more loving attitude to food than here in the UK [169]

Sounds like faworki.

Food / Poles have a more loving attitude to food than here in the UK [169]


Ours in the east are fine. Yesterday I bought a couple of kilos as I was driving through a village on my way to the city. 5PLN/kilo. Delicious.

Food / What Polish foods do foreigners generally not take to? [139]

What is the point of borsch? It's essentially red water. Without a good dollop of cream it wouldn't taste of anything.
Why are Poles so mean when they make chicken soup? Rosol (what happened to Polish letters?) is too thin.

Food / What Polish foods do foreigners generally not take to? [139]


Indeed, or Irish or French, but needs must when the devil drives. I just wish someone would make kaszanka that doesn't fall apart in the pan.

I have to admit that it took me about fifteen years before I tried żurek. Now I'm hooked. Never seen soup in a loaf outside of former Czeko.

Travel / Need advice on trip to Poland [21]


Tell me where it is and I might be able to help.


Very much so.


Not really, unless you get a tourist special, which is very occasional. You could get a train to Hajnówka and a bus or taxi from there.

PM me if you're coming. I live in the area.

Real Estate / Building a house in Poland need advice from anyone that has built [100]


Register the land as your own in the land registry.
Apply for planning permission.
Submit architect's plans.
Wait.
Wait some more.
Find a qualified building manager who can sign off on every stage of the build.


This is not Burkina Faso.

News / Poland to return to Catholic tradition? [177]


That surprises me. I once accompanied a brother to have it done at a Marie Stopes clinic in Newcastle. It took about twenty minutes. I'd have thought that Polish doctors would relish such a cash cow.


There is if you've had all the kids you want or can afford, and don't want your wife to poison herself with contraceptive pills. It's called being a gentleman.