History / What do Poles owe to Czechs? [89]


What about them? Did every single soldier (including the female ones) do that? Did all of them (or even most of them) stay alive long enough to do that.

Put your brain in gear before you open your mouth.


It makes a difference?

Genealogy / Mongolian the Golden Horde - do Poles have Mongolian ancestry? [256]


Indeed. DNA isn't heritage - it's biology. I'd even go further and say it doesn't tell the whole story about ancestry.

History / What do Poles owe to Czechs? [89]


I second that. They were not politicians, they were ordinary men and women who were drafted into the army.

Genealogy / Mongolian the Golden Horde - do Poles have Mongolian ancestry? [256]

There are perhaps as many Scots and English with Mongol ancestry as Poles. Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, whose daughter married the Kings of both Scotland and England was a descendant of the Mongols. She has millions of descendants.

USA, Canada / Grace Pianka case - Injustice to Polish Citizen [66]

Is it normal in your country for jurors to discuss trials?

UK, Ireland / Hitler gagdets in Britain and Poland? [24]

More a case of it not happening enough to be much of an issue.That and freedom of political opinion.There obviously are people who favour things like that, however the expression of their views would need to generate widespread offence before anything happened.

Love / Are Polish girls open to foreigners? [78]

Harenda? It's never been a particularly classy place and since EU entry I've never needed to go near the foreigners' office. Try Platinum, Kom or the still urbane Panorama Bar.

Love / Are Polish girls open to foreigners? [78]

You're hanging out in the wrong dives

Life / West-East life in Poland? [45]


More or less, however the real divide is between urban and rural with plenty of exceptions.

Love / Native Polish Muslims.... how do they get into relationships? [32]


The Muslims in Kruszyniany are as Polish as it gets. A rather remote place but worth visiting.Not many people live there but judging by new graves in the cemetery (a Polish style rather than Islamic one) there's still a small community.

News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [493]


It's part of the EU and NATO so that won't happen.


In the PRL and until very recently, their army was larger than many European countries with larger populations.

Food / Are there any Polish wines worth purchasing? [65]

Yes.

I was told that the established distributors oppose the sale.

I was quite impressed by it. Very much in the German tradition which isn't to everyone's taste but it was very drinkable.

There's also one grower who makes a red wine near Krakow (within the city limits even) but again he can't sell it.

Food / Are there any Polish wines worth purchasing? [65]

Stalowawola? Must be something new. Try the wine in Zielona Gora. It's been made there ever since the town was Grunberg. Very German in style and not bad for white. They have the problems selling it though so the best time to try some is during the annual wine festival.

Food / Are there any Polish wines worth purchasing? [65]


In Zielona Gora?

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


It's normal in Poland and this part of Europe generally. Anything else is a novelty.

Love / Cheating from spouses. Is cheating very common in Poland ? [116]

When I first arrived, I was told that getting engaged is the appropriate time to take a mistress. The guy was certainly exaggerating, however there are a LOT of brothels and tirowki in Poland.

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

Exactly. As for alienating customers, it's the basic rule of hospitality that they shouldn't at all cost. A bigger issue is maybe alienating potential customers. If they bother to put such a nasty bit of text in their advert about Americans and Israelis as well as openly advertising that they charge three times as much to people who don't live in Poland then it's a huge red flag to anyone either Polish or foreign.

What the holiday centre's proprietor is essentially saying is that they are an awkward prickly individual - an arsehole even - and the advert is giving potential paying customers a warning that there is probably all sorts of other unpleasantness in store for anyone daft enough to stay there.

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!