Travel / Wroclaw MPK Travel App For MY Phone [4]

for mobiles: wroclaw.pl/rozklady_jazdy_w_komorce,1.dhtml

not for mobile, but very cool site: wroclaw.jakdojade.pl/?locale=en

errata: they have version for mobile, but I didn't check this out: m.jakdojade.pl

Travel / Is Poland's Wroclaw zoo worth visiting? [17]

/\ /\
Just for the record, it is forbidden to feed animals (including bears) in Wroclaw zoo by visitors. But it is true, that bear standing up is awesome...

Hm... on the second thought, I remember that they recently opened some paddock for goats, sheep, etc. where you can enter, feed them, etc. Children seem to love that.

Travel / Wroclaw MPK Travel App For MY Phone [4]

If you have in mind SkyCash then you will find instructions here:

urbancard.pl/en/article/show/category,1,id,111-.html
skycash.com/en/start.html

Be aware that paying in SkyCash via sms is more costly than making bank transfer to SkyCash account. But on the other hand, if your mobile payment model is standing charge, then you can always use what is left to pay for public transport...

Life / Are Polish roads really this bad? [237]

State of Polish roads according to SCC forumers (as of 12.12.2011)

skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1310317&highlight=stan+polskich+dr%F3g

green - good
red - bad
blue - under construction

State of Polish roads according to State Road Agency (from 2010):

Work / What is a good salary in Wroclaw? (coordinator position for an IT company) [27]

@Hamrickcj, others told it all - 5000 to 8000 net in IT in Wroclaw is kind of median salary.
Taking into to account that you are a foreigner, extra costs like flying home, etc. will probably make 5000 for a couple not enough. but with 7000 - 8000 you should be fine.

Anyway, I agree with LwowskaKrakow, if you plan to live in the city center then forget about a car. Wroclaw is one of the most congested city in Poland and in EU. You will very fast start to hate this city if you plan frequent trips into the city center. Just buy some bicycles and make sure that your new place have easilly accessible place to keep them. There is no better way to explore the city than on bike ;)

PS. there is quite reasonable public transport in the town, at least as long as your place and work are near a tram/bus stop... still in the city center it is as fast as a bicycle...

Law / Online Payment in Poland [13]

try here: empik.com
their english version is like 10% english, but maybe you will get through...

Life / Can many young Poles speak German? [72]



ehh... every know and then, which means since ten years maybe I think it could be not bad idea to recall my long forgotten ability to speak at least basic Russian, but it always turn out that it wouldn't be very useful, at least in my field. Looking at it from wider perspective of international trade it seems it is worth more to learn German, French, Italian, Czech and even Dutch before Russian (well, except those people who are pumping gas from Russia maybe...). Thing is that contrary to popular belief Russia is far far away land from Poland, at least Russian economic core is far away. Poland is mostly regional not global economy so geography matters. So what that Russian is spoken by 250 mil, Spanish is spoken by even more. Maybe Barcelona is a little farther but it is at least turist destination, and there is much more cheap flights there from most Polish airports...

Don't get me wrong, personally i think that Russian is quite nice language. It is just not on the list of first three languages that are expected in CVs in Poland.

Personally I can speak English and I use to know basic Russian, and I regret that instead of Russian I didn't learn German. I could understand a few % of Russian anyway without learning all this endings so it was kind of futile effort ;) Heh, at least I have inprinted in my mind that "trip to Leningrad" is a must, and that after trip one should write a story about it. Though I haven't been ther yet, maybe some day I will do that homework again ;)

UK, Ireland / Irish Times: Irish workers warm to Poland [24]

... or The Irish are going to Ukraine...

Law / Taxation system in Poland? My company is cutting 38%!? [25]

^^
it all depends what kind of work agreement you have. Just to see and compare what typical tax look like for a Polish person on typical work agreement try this:

money.pl/podatki/kalkulatory/plac/

just leave deafult settings, put your salaries gross into box after "brutto", click "Dodaj do miesięcy" button (it will fill monthly boxes automatically), finally click "Oblicz" and there you will see how it is to be a typical Kowalski with your salary. Taxes/pension funds/insurance is mostly everything except "brutto" and "netto" (this is what Kowalski gets).

I don't know how it works with foreigner, and if it works with every kind of agreement, but typically employer has a duty to give employee his monthly taxation breakdown. It is called RMUA. Just ask: where is my RMUA people?

Work / This agent in Poland promised me a job, is he real [15]

actually it seems this guy really exists, you can find all the data about him here using just REGON:
stat.gov.pl/regon
it is state run public database of registered companies in Poland
(use: "Wyszukiwanie wg numeru REGON", put 142283077 in first box, code from the picture into second one, and click "szukaj" button)

it says that main activity of this company is gastronomy...

anyway, as far as I know it is illegal to get pay from person seeking job (only some money to cover some specific operational costs are legal).

Mind you that the fact this company is registered doesn't automatically give much credence. But it proves that this company is not fake, though it doesn't mean your guy isn't...

erratum:
it says that main activity of this company is gastronomy (since 2010-11-24) and education (since 2011-01-15)

History / History behind Poland and Turkey's Relationship [118]

Fortunately it seems that now we can put aside this:



(Bitwa pod Wiedniem, Józef Brandt, 1863)

and focus on this: polandturkey.com

:-)

It seems that amount of trade between Poland and Turkey is below potential...

^^
From economic point of view both countries are of lower importance to each other - about 1 - 1,5% of foreign trade (for Poland and for Turkey similarly).

Real Estate / Banks in Poland selling fewer mortgages in 2011, down 49% [285]



Not possible with that rate. It would mean that almost every houshold would pay at least those 20K which is far more than current income tax. Effectively it would mean multiplication of current income tax. Beside the fact that there is absolutely no need for that it sounds absolutely crazy.

Anyway, property tax already exists, but it is not state tax but local gov. tax. Maximum rate of it is set in state law (if wiki don't lie currenty max is 0,62 PLN / 1 m^2).

It is up to the city council you live in if you pay max of it or less.

The question is if foreigner4 friend was talking about tax in his city or in Poland...

PS. wiki lied, in 2010 max was 0,67 PLN/1m^2. And it was rate in Warsaw or Gdansk. In Wroclaw city decided to set property tax at 0,54 PLN/1 m^2.

Oh, important, I was posting about flats. For land this rate is different...

Food / Tylko gęsina (only goose)!? [5]

Aren't you living in US? Turkey is by no means popular on Polish tables. You are using some false analogies. The king is the chicken and that is because it is cheap compared to other birds due to mass production and due to perfect size for a dinner...

As for goose the problem with it as with a duck is that it is not so easy as a chicken to cook it properly. Anyway, I know you like to look for signs of swallowing Poland by evil western civilization but in this case the reasons are much simpler and practical.

Besides as far as I can remember gooses were running equally with turkeys on small Polish farms long before communism ended. Just because turkey is kind of symbol of some holiday in US doesn't mean it is US invention ;) Well, it came from Central America, but it was started to breed in Poland already in XVII century. So why now goose suppose to be a tradition and turkey not?

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Oh delphiandomine, your are so wrong... ;) :

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]


What I meant was:
- significant financial and psychological support to opposition
- I count Polish goverment on exile in London as Polonia - they've done a lot
- "Culture" and Jerzy Gedroyc - very significant part of Polonia till 2000
- radio "Free Europe", Jerzy Nowak Jeziorański and his group
- Poland and NATO - backing by American Polonia was one of maybe not so important but still some factor
- many others that I didn't list...

still, I believe that voting rights in Polish elections are for citizens of Poland whose life is in Poland. More or less it means they pay taxes in Poland. Current state resemble situation when someone cousins can vote what colour of flat should someones wall be painted. I like my cousins, but regarding colour of my wall they cann't do more than advice me something.

News / POLAND TO BECOME THE NEXT GREECE? [28]


I think it has nothing to do with justice but rather with choosing lesser evil. But if you are looking for justice I can tell you that defaulting on debt by a country is not a peanuts for this country either. Technically speaking Poland defaulted in 80' and was crawling out of a dip hole till mid 90'. Greeks would pay one way or another. I think the faster way would be through default. Besides not only Greeks should pay for mismanagement but banks who lent money without proper risk assessment... As for money flowing to Greece now, those money are going immediately back to big western banks as interest payments...

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Well, I wouldn't be so harsh on Polonia. They've done a lot in times of communist regime. They've done a lot after that. But it is all the past now. All I want is that Platonic love for Poland should go without a voting right - that is all.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Sure, and "Polonia" don't pay for this... yet they are "patriots" and can influence where Poland will send its troops... funny

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

The thing is that those living abroad:
- don't pay taxes here
- don't use public utilities/public funds/public transport/public schools/public whatever here
- their daily life has nothing to do with daily life in Poland
- they don't serve in Polish army
- they do not do many other things in Poland
- basically they have no business here other than sentimental

I don't deny anyone to be patriotic, frankly speaking that is great that there are people all over the world who do care about Poland. So, please buy a recent edition of Adam Mickewicz poems, or make some lecture about great victory of Chodkiewicz near Kircholm to your foreign neighbours, or solve some mathematic problems designed by Stefan Banach. But for goodness sake don't try to influence where we Poles in Poland should build next highway or how we should finance higher education, etc. etc. Because that is what this elections are mostly about... And again, I don't care if some Polish American voted for PIS, or Polish Londoner voted for PO.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

So? it is not about numbers but about principles.

USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

Agreed, I don't care if 80% of Polish-Americans voted for PIS or 80% of Polish Londoners voted for PO. It should be a threshold. Let say - five years no tax paid in Poland - no vote.

It is beyond me that someone who haven't even been in Poland has a right to decide where my money should go... Some of expats on this forum should have more rights to vote in Polish elections than so called "Polonia".

News / The chances for Warsaw to become capital of eventual Slavic confederation? [183]

Crow, I think you will find this interesting ;) :

hvylya.org/analytics/4-2009-04-12-12-01-18/3481-2010-02-06-18-59-03.html

News / Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans [182]

Well, rama, in Polish PIIGS would go like that: PIWGH. This abbreviation means nothing in Polish and don't resemble any word (except piwo maybe...), so as you see there is no reason to panic ;-)

On more serious note though, Poles maybe are a little shocked when they learn about some mismanagement cases in Greece, which are unimaginable even in Poland ;-)

Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]


Not really, in that way those 58,3 milions are counted. Those 12,5 milion are visits with at least one night in Poland. It goes the same for other countries - short weekends trips are quite popular in Europe.


Well, you underestimate Baltic coast... The trick is that it is not the coast for lying on the beach but for biking. With that concept in mind 20 degree instaed of 30 is advantage. I told you, with Poland you must know where, when and what for ;)


I understand that, still the number seems to be small - probably all this security issues at US airports don't help tourism, I remember sometime ago I watched on msnbc some tourism industry representant in US who was complaing a lot about that.

Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]


Fuzzy I understand you have some initial thesis you are trying to defend but don't exaggerate. There are milions of foreign tourists in Poland every year:

nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tou_arr-economy-tourist-arrivals

In 2010 there was about 12,5 milion of visits of foreign tourists (number of total foreign visits in 2010 was 58,3 mln). Sure, colder and more cloudy Poland hardly can compete with France. But don't forget that typical holiday calendar in Europe for regular folks consists of couple of different holidays in the year. So, yes two weeks in some hot place, but also one week or couple of days somewhere else - Europe is small... By the way, have you ever been at the French Mediterranean coast in August? It is pure nightmare, it is terribly hot, there is no place at hotels or campsites, and on the beaches there is not one metre of free space... Baltic sea and white sand at Polish coastline is heaven compared to that (obviously if you are lucky enough to hit the sunny days ;) ).

Btw. there is about three times more visits of foreign tourist in Poland than it is in USA... I understand though that internal movement in USA is big enough.

Genealogy / ORP Błyskawica Crew Records? [46]

@sushka, try here:

zpwb.org.uk/index.php/default

or here:

londononline.co.uk/profiles/129174

Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

Well, Prague don't have a Dragon, but they do have Knedliki - I'm torn ;-)

News / "Shale Gas Revolution" will make Poland a Leading Country in Europe! [202]

Germans are in Gasprom pocket. They didn't build this costly pipe under the Baltic just for fun... What is more, if I remember corectly a few big players on German energy market has some financial connections with Gasprom... It is funny and scary at the same time to observe like Greens are used by gas lobby to close energy market there (ie. closing perfectly fine nuclear plants).

Life / Are Polish people so chaotic and disorganized like Germans say? [89]


That picture with Zdzichu is great but old... Now we have also EU funds manager on site ;)

Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]


As I was listening the other day to some notable cook in the radio, the problem with Polish food, especially bigos is that to make it right you must make it couple of days.

Thing is, that due to sanitary regulations you cann't keep food that long in restaurants (at least in conditions required to make bigos right). That is the reason why it is hard to get proper bigos and some other Polish food in restaurants - it is just cooked wrongly, and that is the reason that "babcias food" rules and will rule. Babcias don't care about sanitary regulations...


Look at average number of sunny days here and there. Poland does better in that regard than UK but which country doesn't ;) To sum things up, weather in Poland is to unpredictable to regular tourist, and season is to short. Just look at this year, most of July and August were rainy and relatively cold. But September was unusually warm and sunny... One can never tell on the border of atlantic and continental climate.

As for beauty of Polish countryside - probably individual thing. I've been to probably half of European countries on holidays and in many places in Poland. In my opinion Poland has as much to offer as any European country of that size. You just need to know where, when and what for you go.