Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]

Only a person who is 17 yrs (the exact birthday date decides) or older may bring alcohol and tobacco products to/from Poland.

if you want to bring something from Poland to another EU country, you must check this country's regulations.

strazgraniczna.pl/faq#q16
If coming TO Poland from an EU country, you can bring with you:
800 cigarettes;

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]

This discussion so reminds me of the one in Seksmisja ("Marie Curie-Sklodowska was a man!").
But seriously, "famous" is such a misleading word, you can be famous by doing something really bad (Hitler, Stalin) or nothing worthy (Britney Spears), and remain virtually unknown to the wide masses despite of doing some great things in your area of expertise, it's all up to the (in the widest meaning of the word) "pubblicity" you get, and Poland usually didn't get much exposure.

for me an "unknown soldier" is more famous than Michael Jackson, for the world it's viceversa

Food / Polish head cheese [46]

1/ what the heck is "head cheese" ? I thought cheese is made from milk :)


- maybe czernina (pronounced like "charnina" - but it's a duck blood soup,
other yucky food - vegetarian here :) - I can think of is "salceson" made of pigs head

btw, pigs head meat is Głowizna like Osiedle_Ruda said

Food / Polish head cheese [46]

damn, I'm really not into discussing such disgusting things, so it's my last post on the topic :)

but it looks like you got several Polish dishes mixed up in your memory, because there's actually another dish made of frozen pigs leg meat in gelatin, it has different names, in my area (between Warsaw and £ódź) it's usually called "zimne nóżki" or sometimes "nóżki w galarecie", but in the western parts of Poland I heard a different name, I just forgot it.

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [231]

Yeah, I didn't like my post, but I can't edit it now, I realized after a while I had posted something not quite relevant to the discussion. Sorry for that.

Anyway, I wasn't referring only to the real soldiers, as "unknown soldier" I meant anyone who had some great achievements that created the necessary basis for the future but remained close to anonymous, because someone else had the "finishing touch" (for example like those Enigma crackers, whose work was overtaken by the British when the war in Poland was inevitable).

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [253]


that's not quite right, it's a diminuitive of "nieborak"

from PWN lexicon:
nieborak «ze współczuciem o człowieku lub zwierzęciu»
so it's someone/something poor, unhappy, unlcky
poor soul/thing

Genealogy / Popular Polish First Names? [152]

I don't think so, but there was a Polish actress with that name, so it wouldn't shock anybody
I heard it a few times (one Daria was my teacher at university and another is my relative's naighbour little daughter), so it happens.

Food / What exactly is Polish Bread? [90]

First of all Polish bread isn't any specific kind of bread, it rather refers to the quality, taste and methods of bread making in Poland (more traditional, of course, the bakeries they have been using machines for a long time, but it's all those chemical raising agents that make "western bread" so bad, it only looks nice)

And the most selled today is probably the standard white bread (wheat flour) on yeast, but if it's made in a natural way, it still tastes a lot better than wheat bread abroad. Other types are wheat-rye, pure rye isn't very popular.

But it's the best IMHO, integral rye bread without chemical additives, it's heavy and it has a little acid taste, indeed, because that's how you make it, you don't use yeast or anything similar, but "zakwas (zaczyn) chlebowy"

here's a Polish wiki site (very short) for zakwas:


pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakwas_chlebowy

and the English one, which mentions yeast, so it's not exactly how it's supposed to be, but I don't bake at home, I'm lucky to have a few good bakeries in my city

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough

most online recipes are with yeast, but I found some that may be OK:
kuchnia.bytow.pl/index.php?menu=czytaj&nr=7034

serwisy.gazeta.pl/tokfm/1,58941,3157626.html

and if you want some more traditional recipes, here's one:

lewandowka.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemi d=30

(it's from 1889 vademecum "Perfect housewife")

Food / Where to buy napisco Oreo Biscuits in Warsaw [15]

otherwise try some Polish "markizy" (those Oreo biscuits look totally like "markizy" on the picture) from a good manufacturer (I'm not sure who makes good ones, but a higher price might be a small indicator sometimes, just don't buy those really cheap ones)

Genealogy / Popular Polish First Names? [152]

btw, Bartek in Polish can mean Bartłomiej, indeed, but it's also used for Bartosz, I'm not sure which name is more popular (Bartłomiej or Bartosz).

Genealogy / Popular Polish First Names? [152]


it's a big mistake, I tell you.
this site displays Polish words correctly (even in Interner Explorer 6.0),
the problem you are talking about is rather connected to poor HTML-coding, this site seem to support the fonts well, it's like with Chinese - on some sites all you can see is a "bunch of question marks", but on other you can actually see the text correctly

Classifieds / Asian community in Poland [113]

there's a quite big Vietnamese community in Warsaw, probably also Chinese, but I'm not sure.

Language / Polish slang phrases - most popular. [606]

maybe rather as*h*le?

Love / Looking for a Polish love song [78]


from your description it looks like Supermenka [=Superwoman] by Kayah

Gdybym mogła być mężczyzną jeden dzień,
pewnie byłabym
supermenem, tyle o kobietach wiem
jestem jedną z nich

[Boguś Li = Bogusław Linda, a Polish actor]

Law / How do I verify a Polish company's existence? [240]

S.A. (Spółka Akcyjna), s.j. (spółka jawna), sp. z o.o. (Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością):
- rejestr przedsiębiorców Krajowego Rejestru Sądowego (entrepreneurs registry of the National Court Register) or court registers (economic divisions) in the town where they have their head office.

s.c. (spółka cywilna):
- ewidencja działalności gospodarczej Urzędu Miasta - Town Hall's economic activity division

Every company has a REGON number given by GUS (Główny Urząd Statystyczny - Main Statistical Office) and NIP given by US (Urząd Skarbowy - Tax Office), maybe it's the way you can verify their existance, contacting the Urząd Statystyczny for Województwo £ódzkie, I'm not sure if this information is free of charge though :(

Life / Polish films... where to find them? [51]


I guess you mean her daughter, not son.
That's Three Colours: Blue (osioł meant Three Colours: White, which is actually, in parts, a comedy, unlike Blue and Red)

Life / Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints Day) // Dzien Zaduszny (All Souls day) [93]


things like that don't fall over easily:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znicz
images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=znicz&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

unfortunatelly, the older types (thick glass or ceramic, open at the top) are replaced with modern ones (thin glass or even plastic all over, instead of glass and metal),

I really loved the old type, when I was a kid - we were all putting our fingers in it, so the stearin was sticking to the fingers and when it cooled down we had colourful artificial "fingernails")

History / 1612 new russian epic movie. Polish troops in Moscow. [25]

Like Kain and Abel, I guess?

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [253]

well, I don't know this text, but with the help of your translation, I'd say it's (properly spelled in Polish):
Gdzie jedziesz?
Do Warszawy.
Po co?
Po buty.
yez un ye shiz te (no idea what it is)
Patrz do góry (Look up - i.e. in the direction upwards)

Travel / Fishing in Poland - where to go, what to catch? [79]

as a vegetarian I shouldn't be posting any advice for you ugly hunters/fishermen, but I don't want you to go in jail or risk a fine, so make sure you're allowed to be fishing in Poland, because (in theory) you'd need to buy a licence for that, if I'm not mistaken

Genealogy / Polish surname Gil. My ancestors were from the town of Widelka. [74]

I can't help with genealogy, but here are the Polish versions of the names you mentioned (just in case you need them when searching Polish archives records):

Peter - Piotr
Mary Ann - Marianna (but 100 years ago different spellings were possible, I guess, like Maryjanna, or she simply had two given names Maria Anna)
Agate - Agata
Rose - Róża
Lukas - £ukasz
Sophia - Zofia

the surname Gil exists in Poland not only in Widełka


it's Kolbuszowa

Work / Poland Work Permit / Study Visa Processing Times [191]


that's the price for keeping the nasty visa system for Poles in the USA (many rejections, 100$ fee not refundable even if your application gets rejected by th US embassy, many other annoying things during the processing of your application).

Work / Poland Work Permit / Study Visa Processing Times [191]

No need to be sorry, I never even considered going to US because of this bureaucracy, but I heard/read lots of complaints from normal people who wanted to go (in Polish we say they "had to prove that they are not camels"). And I think the problem had existed long before 9/11.

But it's quite offtopic, so I stop here, because I have no helpful information to offer :(

History / Whom do the people in Poland hate more: Germans or Russians? [869]


trolling again or being serious?

I sincerely hope you're trolling around, because if you think you can buy someone so easily, you really need a reality check.


we don't eat poison, thank you.

History / Whom do the people in Poland hate more: Germans or Russians? [869]

Polish hatred to Germans:
some basic info:
killed millions of Poles (mostly civilians), destroyed and stole as much of the country as they were able to. I guess everyone knows that and it's an old story, I can hear the replies: "get over it", these were fathers/grandfathers of the current Germans, so they can't be responsable" etc.

I agree, but I can't overlook the imminent consequences of that 1939 assault:
It CHANGED our 20th century history, indirectly throwing us in the arms of the post-war Soviet Union, thus indirectly deprived us of 50 years of free market economy (not to mention citizen rights, like freedom of speech etc. or other non measurable consequences).

So the EU gave us millions or billions of Euro, to build a highway or two, and you think it's ok?
Without that war, with normal economic growth (no communism), Poland would have those highways built by now with its own money, like all western European countries did.

So yeah, I don't blame today's Germans for the war, I don't hate Germany or its people, and I'm, to a certain degree, thankful for the "alms" we receive, but asking me to love the country that had caused my country to be in a beggar's shoes is a little overboard.

Law / HELP: ALLEGRO... Do most Polish buyers at allegro.pl use PayPal? [33]

confirming: bank transfers, the reason PayPal is not popular in Poland: they waited too long, they started their services here only about 3 years ago (and it was only one-way traffic first - you could pay someone, but you weren't allowed to receive cash). I think they missed the opportunity and won't conquer Polish market too soon.

Life / The Polish Wedding - What is it Like in Poland? [338]

google fro "Góralu, czy ci nie żal" (I'm assmuing that's the song you mean, I'm not going to read aPole's whole post now)

Love / What are the best love poems in Polish to receive? [77]

why? should he pretend he wrote them? without knowing Polish at all?

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


that's the official one you find in a dictionary,

babunia, babusia are diminutives, while busia is a shorter form of babusia (and I don't hear it in Poland, but I read on these forums that "busia" is common among American Poles or Polish Americans, if you prefer)

and when kids start talking they rather use "baba", as they can't pronounce more difficult words for some time :)

for pronounciation, copy and paste the words into:
ivosoftware.com/
(try both female and male voice)

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]


oh, I should've have said that too, sorry for being rude, mypips33 :)