Travel / US visa free "extension" while on a Poland travel visit? [6]

You mean like any European citizen (including the visa-free ones like we Belgian) treated like *** by the Gestapos at any given US border crossing?
You mean you Yanks deserve a red-carpet treatment?

You know each time I am at Długa 5,heading for the hassle-free EU section, and I see some Americans between all these Vietnamese..waiting...and waiting...and waiting... I later have a cold beer on that and it makes my day.

Travel / Nice restaurants in Warsaw [30]

Arsenał at Plac Bankowy has a playground inside and outside. It is Italian.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]

The cross will be gone when the government gets it act together. It only needs 15 minutes of decisive action. The cross loonies are now telling that the Polish episcopate are traitors.

Nice evolution :)


They represent a sizeable part of Polish catholicism = PIS electorate.

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]

All the cross loonies are voting PIS.
I did not say all Polish catholics are voting PIS - but the fanatic "Polska B" kind for sure are.

What surprises me is the absence of Rydzyk here. You would think that if anybody would represent the loonies in would be him. Although compared to them he is slowly moving to the centre I would say :). Or perhaps he is on holidays?

Travel / Fish and Chips in Warsaw [53]

For me 25 PLN is expensive for Polish standards. I am sure for the Brits here this is good value for money. But you can get good food in Warsaw for the same price.

Still I will give it a try. Speaking as a Belgian you Brits can never equal our Belgian fries :)

Travel / Fish and Chips in Warsaw [53]

Jazz Bistro - my favourite place in the city - has a good offer around that price, and nor hearty Polish fare I would say :)

Travel / Fish and Chips in Warsaw [53]


Do you mean that place on Foksal?
Actually in Jazz Bistro in the 25-30 PLN range you can eat decently, they have never let me down in all these years.

By the way why to deep fry Mars bars, where I come from you eat them straight from the shop?

Still I was planning since some time to head for the Brit place. I heard from other people as well it is really good.

News / Polish, language of future - Post-apocalyptic [45]


Polish is a West Slavonian language, as Sorbian, Czech and Slovak.
Serb is a South Slavonian language mixed with Turkish.

It is like saying Danish is the same as Dutch.
Or Portuguese being the same as Romanian.

Life / Polish authors, books & literature. [94]

Back home one a few Polish authors translated into Dutch in my young years was Lem (who I really like), Miłosz and Kapuczyński. Equally adored by me.

Humanist = guy who realized that bits and bytes are not everything in life :)

Adam Zamoyski - being blue-blooded magnat offspring - he writes very good books about Polish history.

Travel / Poland wildlife and similar wild life where you live. [240]

Ducks seem to be more sympathetic at home somehow.

News / Polish, language of future - Post-apocalyptic [45]

Hmmm that would be difficult because my family can go back 300 years in the parish registers in the Brabant village they still live in.

Life / what is with the blasphemy laws in Poland? [9]


For the cross loonies it is. They are just waiting for Torquemada to arrive in Okęcie :)

News / New cross war in Warsaw [530]


This is something all Polska A knows since ages. The breathtaking arrogance of putting LK between the kings and true heroes of Poland (not that all royalty belonged to the category of true heroes, they never do in any country).

Anybody who wants to win elections over his dead brother...disgusting.

Walked today on K.P. Looks like BOR forced things apparently and finally.
OK tomorrow is Army Day and so K.P. has to be cordoned off anyway for the festivities. But this morning the police finally moved in, arrested part of the cross loonies (one women had an arrest warrant on her since a long time) on request of BOR.

The area is empty of cross loonies now. In the afternoon city workmen with Kaerchers were cleaning up the mess.
They forgot to bring a good sharp axe though.
This afternoon I heard the last joke. Seems King Zygmuny will loose his observation point. He will be replaced by a duck.

Work / Opus Dei opens school in Warsaw [21]

Yes, I heard that the first school excursion will go to interview the cross loonies.
You have to stay in your habitat as it is :)

Life / Why Aren't The Shops in Poland Open on Sundays? [82]

Coming from Belgium, I was (and) am still astonished why the shops are open on a Sunday.
Where I come from you can buy on a Sunday morning untill 13:00 bread, meat and the local shops will be open - maybe.
Why shops have to be open 24/24 - 7/7? Soooo American.
It is not difficult to do your shopping on Saturday. Shop assistants have also the right to a normal life.

History / 15 August 1920 - the battle of Poland with the Red Army [24]

IS, are you not disappointed that your beloved Dmowski was not there?
The Old Marshal despised that warped antisemitic.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

In this discussion I have another question.
I got stopped by the police for speeding as well (+ crossing a white line) - in February.
Big black, unmarked Opel Insignia made me stop... and these days you get your own private movie seance...they showed my criminal act :) on TV.

Of course they were right to fine me, no question about that.

But although I have a Karta Pobytuna na stale they made me pay in cash on the spot.
Luckily I had 200 PLN with me. I got an official receipt afterwards :)
And the kind of receipt I got was one without points - like the one they would use for tourists. Also strange.
But isn't it so that in this case (when you have a permanent residence permit) you should be allowed to pay later on by transfer / or in the post office?

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

That is only the case when you are not a EU-citizen.

Travel / Holiday in Poland - do I need to learn Polish? [26]


I guess that goes for any country :). Buy a phrase book, try to pronounce the basic lines and people will like you for that :)

History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]

I have all his books...but I do not like him all too much. He is not objective and tends to "forget" things... If you read him, you would think Poland has never experienced antisemitism at all for example.

Also his book about the Uprising is very irritating in the way that he anglicized all the Polish names - and in the end devotes a very small part of a big book on the uprising itself.

His best book for me is Europe - A History.

I prefer Adam Zamoyski and Roger Moorhouse.


Yes Microcosm is very good - written together with Roger Moorhouse (who was his chief researcher)

History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]

Just checked it at Amazon. It could be a good addition to Anthony Beevor.

About Polish history, I can also recommend:
Bitter Glory - Poland and its faith 1918-1939 by Richard M. Watt.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]


Hmmm.. But it was not a bribe..It was an official fine and I got nice official receipt for it :)

It was the first time though I saw the Thin Blue Line on the hightech side... and I was impressed. I was a bit less impressed by my road antics :)

History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]


MG, Zamoyski write primarily in English. I have most of his books. His latest one - Warsaw 1920 - is written as a thriller. The same goes for Moscow 1812.

He is - as his name shows - a scion of the great magnate family of the same name.

I hugely prefer his books over Norman Davies.

Life / 55 minutes to write a ticket ("mandat karny")? [28]

Aha, now I understand why one of the policemen told me it was my "lucky day".
On that moment I did not see it that way :)
I am driving on my Belgian licence, by the way.

Travel / Looking for a good map of Poland on the Net [16]

mapa.targeo.pl

Life / Reliable Weather Service In Poland? [25]

Thread attached on merging:
Weather forecasts

I checked this morning the weather forecast for Warsaw on 2 websites:
pogoda.onet.pl and pogodynka.pl.
And as always they show really big dfferences. Which weather site do you find the most reliable?
Pogodynka ought to be, they are run by the IMGW (Polish Meteorological Institute).
Still...

History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]

Maybe we could go back to a discussion about Norman Davies (and perhaps other historians) ? Before we know somebody will claim Norman Davies was a Serb :)

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

Thread attached on merging:
Allegro experiences

What are your experiences with Allegro. I have already ordered a few times on E-bay (German and UK one). But is Allegro OK ?

History / Norman Davies - the Brit who loves Poland and becomes one of Us [250]

What irritates me in Norman Davies - and other posters already have mentioned this - is that he is highly selective in his books on Polish history (by the way I did not have this feeling in his book on Europe).

He tends to paint Poland as the martyr number one in European history (First Ally). Deletes anything remotely controversial in his narratives or drowns it in meaningless statistics or unreadable graphics.

In Poland he might be a hero (PIS for sure loves him) but there are other and better historians.

News / Poland's elite more pro-US than society? [29]

I never understood the Polish slavish (sorry, no pun intended) admiration for the yanks. The way you support them everywhere in the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Missile shield, CIA prisons and torture). Without any critical noise.

And for what? Still you need some measly US embassy official to approve your visa application.
You get outdated retired C-130's. F-16's which on the way to Poland break down.
So why are you doing it?
It is time some people in Poland - PIS - accept that Poland is a part of Europe historically, culturally, socially and economically...
Part of the EU.