News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]


No. That doesn't ring true. Some pubs in holiday resorts used to have a cheaper price for the town's regulars but that was never done openly and has gone out of fashion. Discriminating on the basis of different EU nationality just wouldn't happen.


As usual you've got the wrong end of the stick. If you read my post you'll see that I'm talking about the holiday centre's dual pricing.

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]


On what basis?


Agreed 100%.

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]

Czech used to be notorious for it, but as far as I know it tailed off after EU entry. Russia and Turkey don't surprise me, however in the EU trying any kind of discrimination on the grounds of nationality is a legal minefield.

They probably think they're getting around it by doing it on the basis of residence rather than nationality, but they're wandering into a legal minefield unless they have a tangible reason affecting cost of service delivery. A foreigner with Polish residency could get a very nice payout from the courts if they were told in front of witnesses that they have to pay a different rate to a Pole.

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]


In which countries?

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]

This hotel however would charge a Czech many times more than a Pole. Here's the relevant EU statement:

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]


An overwhelming majority of people who leave comments on internet sites can support whoever or whatever they want. Poland however has laws. I look forward to the proprietors being prosecuted.

News / Does Polish hotel have right to turn down Americans and Israelis? [79]

I notice that they charge 60 pln for guests from inside Poland and 60 euro for guests from abroad. Tawdry and almost certainly illegal. I wonder if they've heard of the Single European Market?

Does anyone know what the holiday centre's called, so we can name and shame, making sure people don't unwittingly fall for their offer? After all, if they get up to these sorts of tricks it's probably a ghastly place to stay with service that makes Fawlty Towers look like the Ritz.

Language / Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus - a religious greeting? [39]

When the Paetz scandal broke people were suggesting it should be changed to 'pochylony'...

Travel / Why most taxis in Warsaw cheat foreigners to get more money? [38]

They do. At the moment taxi drivers in Warsaw are terrified that they'll be reported by a passenger due to the control process that follows and as well as that, the bureaucracy involved in keeping a taxi licence is increasing all the time.

Travel / Bent trees in Gryfino Poland.. (Any answers) [18]

Quietly. Most were farmers living in fairly cut off villages so political issues went on without them. Those who lived in cities didnt have it so easy, as Gunther Grass (himself Kaszubian) said, they were ''too Polish for the Germans and too German for the Poles''. Nevertheless national and political identity wasnt always clear cut. The population was a mix of different identities, with many mixed families. German was themdominant language in public life, whatever tha language used at home.

One sad story is about the expulsion of some of the Prussian locals after the war. They weren't Gernams at all, nor were they Kashubians, Polonised Grmans or Germanised Poles. They were just the original inhabitants of the region who weren't supporters of the 1948 Polish government and didn't have the language skills to pretend they were Polish enough to avoid expulsion.

Travel / Bent trees in Gryfino Poland.. (Any answers) [18]

The same thing is also done in Poland, sometimes even now, but the trees are usually felled young.

Travel / Bent trees in Gryfino Poland.. (Any answers) [18]


Not that early since they were planted in 1934 and not Polish either, since Gryfino was Greifenhagen, Germany in those days.

The trees were trained that way as saplings for use in carpentry. It takes about 10 years and is easy. Not unusual at all. the only curiosity is that due to the war and the loss of those territories by the forest's owner there was nobody who understood what they were for and therefore they were never harvested and the pines grew to full size.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

They're quite likely to have got it from various sources, however this is irrelevant -you are trying to muddy the water by bringing in DNA when you were earlier talking about culture. There is no link between culture and DNA just as there is no link between the Khazars of 1000 years ago and anyone alive today.

I don't know what you mean about engineering degrees. As far as I know an M Eng is pretty demanding, however I've only had contact with very good universities. My own bachelors and masters were the old fashioned rigorous kind from such places. Looks good on the CV!

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

Thanks, but my reasoning is more than up to par and I don't exactly lack academic qualifications either.

Your theory is all very interesting, but unfortunately you don't back it up with anything solid. I don't have to, since I'm not making any wild assertions. Hair colour and partial family trees (with a 700 year gap) prove nothing.

You are making a bizarre claim - that a culture extinct for 1000 years has somehow continued - perhaps you can cite some anthropologists who think the same.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

Quite interesting that you start to insult people when you're called out on this, however the claim youre making is still very bizarre with not one, single anthropologist ever alluding to it. Were there really a tangible continuation of the Khazar culture which died out over a thousand years ago there would be at least a PhD in it for somebody and probably a flurry of books.

There are none.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

That still leaves a 400 year gap, therefore your argument still falls down. Lithuania (I know it well) has its own traditions. Not those of another group from far away and a thousand years before.

Really, you're making an incredibly wild claim without supplying anything to back it up except your own beliefs and one irrelevant tourist show.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

Yes. 800 years ago, without any link to today.

By the way, it doesn't 'offend my senses'! If however you're making an absolutely wild statement about an extinct culture having continued, you really ought to provide some proof. That someone had written about them 800 years ago is no proof of any continuity today. Just the realms of fantasy.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

Your first three points are hearsay and supposition, and of your three quotes, the first was written 40 generations ago about a now extinct group, the second was written over two centuries after the Khazars fell, and tthey hired tells us nothing about the groups of people who lived over a thousand years ago called the Khazars

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

The things you say in the above post are interesting, but none of those things are unique or even specific to the 10th century Khazars or people in a hundred places then or now. They are common human traits. They are not even specific to Belarus or anywhere else in the region.

If you want to claim an actual cultural link to the Khazars, rather just saying that you think they were 'ranchers', farmers and were tough, and so are you a thousand years later you need to be a bit more specific. I'd be really interesting to hear of any real Khazar specific traditions rather than just general human behaviour shaped by landscape and economics however all respectable sources say that none have survived.

What did you think of that article, by the way?

Life / What's wrong with Poland? I don't see anything. [121]

There was a Europe-wide survey done about people's willingness to do unpaid and voluntary work in the community. Poland came fairly near the bottom. There was quite a lot of publicity about it at the time. I don't know about 'returning' Polonia, but I do know that some of the things I've been involved with would be glad of input from them or anyone else and given the American tradition of community work I would have thought that plenty are willing.

eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2011/02/en/1/EF1102EN.pdf

Life / What's wrong with Poland? I don't see anything. [121]


Exactly. There are plenty of opportunities do do voluntary work. I sometimes help out with a Catholic organisation which runs social events, parties and other activities for people who for various reasons receive 24 hour care from often elderly parents. The attendees get a rare chance to get out of their 4 walls and also gives their careers a much needed break from physically demanding and intensive personal care. They are always very glad of hands-on volunteers. Speaking Polish helps, but isn't necessary since most of the people who come to the events don't communicate by speech. PM me for details.

There are also many other opportunities to do unpaid work in Warsaw.

People can easily talk about what's wrong with Poland, but most visitors, expats (and even returning Polonia) don't always scratch the surface.

History / Khazar migrations to Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine [106]

This article is one of the most intelligent I've read on the matter.

en.mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2009/05/10/the-khazars-fact-and-legend

He mentions the urban legend about red hair. Amazing that some people try to find concrete cultural links with a culture which ended over 40 generations ago and left no surnames, no traditions and no heritage.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]

Because the issue is straightforward. There is only one pronunciation of the name and it is not difficult. A simple short sound that occurs in several languages. And by the way, I do know what I'm talking about.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]


Some of us however do both. And Ola is a very easy name to pronounce.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]

No need. It's very straightforward really. It's one of the most common sounds in the language and very easy to reproduce correctly. I, and every other Polish speaker, use that sound thousands of times a day.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]

And it is not the sound in 'Ola'.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]

'Allofon', you are wrong. /ɔ:/ is not a short vowel. It is (in standard British English) the 'or' sound in 'horse' and the 'aw' sound in 'law'. It does not exist in Polish.

You might like to use your normal username/s.

Language / The shame! I can't pronounce my Polish wife's name (Ola) [69]


No. There is no /ɔ/ in Polish. The O in Ola is a short O.

Life / What's wrong with Poland? I don't see anything. [121]


I thought you lived in Canada, not Poland?

Life / What's wrong with Poland? I don't see anything. [121]


When and why did you leave originally?