Law / Benefit entitlement in Poland for foreigners [37]


people in glass houses....

History / Do you regard the Polish Communist Partizans as heroes? [36]


indeed this may be the case although you would be surprised at the appalling spelling of a lot of English people

just ran an eye over my previous line and it looks reasonably ok :-)

History / Did British public protest against the sell out of Poland to the Soviets? [286]


could you rewrite this statement please in an intelligable form?

History / Did British public protest against the sell out of Poland to the Soviets? [286]

two friends of mine were officers in WWII and were accosted along with me by an old Polish guy in Warsaw who was disgusted with the way that the Brits had sold out Poland in Yalta. Just what was Britain expected to do? take on the might of the Soviet Union single handed?

They I have to say just laughed in his face.

Churchill tried to get the Yanks to see sense as he could see Stalin for what he was. The yanks accused Churchill of empire building and as a whole did not fancy America being dragged into a war in Europe started in some place that no one could find on a map in any case. they felt that if Stalin wanted it so bad, fu(k him, him could sort out the mess.

Such was the cult of personality with Stalin, that he was referred to as uncle Joe by the British press and he had suckered in just about everyone at the time

my Polish step father wept upon hearing the news of Stalin's death and he was a grown man at the time

another Polish friend was an old dude in his 80s who used to make chemical weapons
he would get drunk as a monkey and tell me all about the different nerve gases he knew (nothing which is not already published in the public domain, in case any government dweebs are monitoring this site)

we were talking about Yalta and all he could say was Churchill was to blame. He was an aristocrat and he used to puff on big cigars and he was responsible.

I believe that the documents are now available in the public domain which confirm that Roosevelt washed his hands with the whole of central europe as he was sick of conflicts in some pissant part of the world dragging in the mighty US.

I have to say it is funny that the people who seem to be the most vocal are US and Australian whose parents ran with their tails firmly tucked between their legs at the first opportunity the first chance that they got.

Law / Benefit entitlement in Poland for foreigners [37]


If your idea of a good time is spending hours inside a government office filling in forms then Poland is the place for you
I hope your Polish is up to scratch

Are you currently on welfare in Australia? It might help your case if you are

History / What are Poland's pagan roots? [62]

The means of pagan worship and even the types of gods can vary within a country.
Just because people in the North worship an oak tree, it does not mean that the people in the South do

there was no universal pagan church with a pagan archbishop at its head
so it is by and large irrelevent how pagans in the UK worshipped
and the reason that we know so much about UK pagans is that the Romans wrote about
them before slaughtering them

Although the Lithuanians were still pagan in the 15th century this does not mean that Polish pagans
worshipped the same gods

The greatest influence that paganism has on Poland today, is that cremation is still unpopular

History / Effects of Living under Communism in Poland [58]

what an excellent post

History / Are Poles grateful to the Russians for winning the war? [120]

The ex-pat community in any country is usually always the most patriotic.
It is partly down to cultural insecurity and a sense of wanting to belong

I am sure that if you went to a Polish club in Australia and tried to raise
a toast to Stalin you would get an almighty kicking

The irony amuses me

Food / Polish name for cut of beef [29]

the quality of Polish beef is rather nasty.
Aberdeen Angus it ain't

The pork is good, the chicken is tasteless as it is usually battery raised

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]

thanks for the tip about the film, a friend has just told me he can get me a copy. I will check it out.

many of the Warsaw money changers change profession in the late nineties and used to hang outside the big cinema (I think it was Kino Luna)

near the Tandoor Palace on Marszalkowska. They used to tout cinema tickets. So rather than queue, you
could turn up late and buy a cinema ticket at twice the normal price from the same surly men.

News / 300 art treasures found in Polish garden shed! [11]


not necessarily. He was living in a house formerly owned by an art dealer and you could argue that he bought the house along with the contents, so technically he may be the legal owner.

It is not as though the bricklayer was stealing art treasures and raiding museums himself.
As he has suffered from strokes, it is unlikely that he will be able to shed any light on how the art treasures happened to get there and would be too frail to stand trial, even if charged with something

The authorities should confiscate the lot as he has clearly demonstrated that he has not been a worthy custodian of the art

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]

when I posted my earlier post about female university students putting out for a dollar in the 1980s, I expected to get absolutely chastised by dozens of readers accusing me of spouting nonsense. I am not an Arab gentleman, neither was I studying in Poland in the 1980s so I have to rely on my friend telling me the truth, having said that he was not the sort to bu11sh1t.

Instead the only response came from our portly friend with regards to whether Pewex took Silas Greenbacks or not

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]

I will let you think about that statement for a while
perhaps you would like to sleep on it and come back with a reasoned response after the benefit of good night's rest

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


I thank you for the validation Sir. One had to be on ones toes as certain money exchange johnnies were not adverse to slipping you currencies which were even less valuable than the humble zlot. I believe you could buy a million zlots for 38 quid in 1993 whereas you could buy a million Turkish lira for far less, which could cause some of the thievin' bast@rds to slip you a few kebab notes

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


in that case might I be forgiven in thinking that your knowledge of global exchange rates, might have been a bit shakey (no Shakin Stevens pun intended)

I can see that you and me are really developing our online friendship.

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]

not in 1993 they weren't. there were lots of money changers. all wore black leather jackets, all were surly

clearly I am stupid, I am trying to educate you about the difference in exchange rate results in you getting more Shakin Stevens tapes for your hard earned zlots

I am clearly wasting my time.

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


were the exchange rates the same? no, they were not.
the black market rate on a dollar was higher. certain kantors offered better rates.
Just because you could pay in zloty it does not mean you were getting the best rate.
you probably did not shop around for the best rate and now you are just sore.

Had you exchanged your money more wisely you might have been able to buy additional Matchbox models.
Perhaps you feel emotionally scarred as a result.
There is no need to feel this way. You are still the same person irrespective of which Matchbox model you bought.

Perhaps owning another Smokie tape or the latest offering from the Rolling Stones would have made you a hit with the ladies,
who knows? we will never now but you just need to be brave and move on...

if only I could turn back time, but I can't.

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


the banks had one rate, the kantors had another and the surly men in black leather jackets had yet another rate
not all kantors charged the same rate and some of the surly chaps were not adverse to slipping monopoly money into the wodge
that they gave you.

honestly chubs, please do not argue about things you have no idea about

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


on the contrary, I have been inside a Pewex store, my chubby friend
in fairness I have never bought anything from Pewex as I considered it to be overpriced when I was able to buy the same items for

far less in the UK. Having never bought anything in Pewex it means that my knowledge of the currencies that were accepted
and the means of payment is perhaps a bit shakey. Did they accept Greek Drachma for example?
Polish friends used to point at the store and tell me that they took US dollars. I visited the store, window shopped, but no money changed

hands, so you may indeed be right.
Had I known that the payment terms would be of such importance I would have paid much more attention 18 years ago

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]


indeed you could however I seem to remember you got a much better rate paying in yankee greenbacks which you could obtain from surly middle aged men wearing black leather jackets and who hung outside the Pewex stores

Real Estate / How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago. [59]

let's put things in perspective for all you young whippersnappers whose parents bailed to Canada and the States in the 1980s
but still consider yourself to be on the same telepathic wavelength as the rest of Poland

In 1993 I was talking to a friend who had studied at a Polish university in the 80s.
He told me that there were Arab students studying there and they would offer a dollar to fellow Polish female students to
sleep with them for the night and would get takers

I do not mean that all the female students would jump at the opportunity but some of them would.

Now bear in mind that these were female university students not prostitutes

such is the value of the dollar at the time.
Pewex was still running in 1993 where you could buy luxury items but they would only accept US dollars

UK, Ireland / Culture shock (my neighbours in the UK are Polish and Slovak) [88]

what might work would be getting your children to play with their children.
or offer to look after their children if they need to go out

as for your Slovakian neighbours, avoid them like the plague. they appear to be scum

don't worry about the Poles and the Slovakians ganging up on you as Poles generally think that Slovakians
are a bunch of village idiots whereas Slovakians dislike Poles

Czechs generally do not like Poles. Poles think Czechs are a bunch of cowards as they openly collaborated during the war

Poles like Hungarians, Hungarian like Poles
Hungarians hate Slovakians

a bit of a generalisation but not all Central Europeans are the same

UK, Ireland / Culture shock (my neighbours in the UK are Polish and Slovak) [88]

when I first went to Poland I thought everyone was argueing with each other.
they were just talking
one interesting cultural thing is that Poles tend to talk over each other in conversations
they do not wait until one person has stopped talking, they just butt in

UK, Ireland / Culture shock (my neighbours in the UK are Polish and Slovak) [88]

forgive me, the gender symbol thingy should have given me a hint that you are a lady

Poles are abrupt but they are not being rude.
It is their language
In English you would say 'might I trouble you for a piece of paper', whereas in Polish you would say 'give me a piece of paper'

they are not being aggressive it is just the way they roll

By and large, they are decent people and you could have far worse nations as neighbours

UK, Ireland / Culture shock (my neighbours in the UK are Polish and Slovak) [88]

I believe that the gentleman in question has moved from a village in the UK to a city in the UK.

My advice would be to smile and to generally leave them to themselves.

I would not expect them to rob you blind.

As you are clearly well qualified and have opportunities to be successful might I presume that your neighbours also live in a
decent house? if so, they are even less likely to be blaggers and might be professional people such as yourself

UK, Ireland / Culture shock (my neighbours in the UK are Polish and Slovak) [88]

would I be right in thinking that you are attending university for the first time?

Travel / Social Culture - Confused - good place in Warsaw to make new friends [19]

just hang out at the British Council library

Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

not only the corporate clients. In most schools, the director will have a chat with the 7 year olds and ask whether you sang songs and played games with them.

your fate will be in the hands of your clients. having said that it is much easier to blag a primary class than a CAE class

Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

I found them friendly.

especially when compared to people from Warsaw

Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]


find a Polish student who is willing to look at the classified section of Gazeta Wyborcza and who will advise on finding a good location.

your student would be able to call the landlord and arrange a viewing. Although a good test of how good your school would be is to ask the

director if the school secretary would be willing to help with this matter

does your school have a clause in the contract preventing you from offering private lessons? some of them do but them enforcing it
is a bit tricky.

make a fuss of your private students. meet them socially, meet their friends and the private work will come rolling in

Pszczyna and Bielsko Biala are a train ride away and are good venues for a day trip from Katowice

the town is OK, the people are friendly but it is not the most attractive place in Poland.