News / Are there interests that Poland share with Russia? [50]

On micro-regional level - all stuff about Krolewiec/Kaliningrad/Königsberg, like:
- free access to Pilawska Strait between Vistula Lagoon and Baltic Sea for Polish vessels
(it would be positive for Kaliningrad too from tourist bussiness point of view)
- faster and easier border passing - new road on Russians side (there is already new one on Polish side)
- broader cooperation regarding bussiness, transport and mediacal issues between Kaliningrad region and northern regions of Poland

unfortunately so far Kaliningrad is a hostage of big politics and Russian centralization of power, dragging down polish city of Elblag.

On macro level Russia and Poland are in first ten to each other in terms of trade.

News / Are there interests that Poland share with Russia? [50]


This type of thinking certainly wouldn't help Kaliningrad Russians dealing with central Moscow gov. Also I don't think they want that. All they need is broader self-goverment maybe even close to autonomy. Right now almost every little detail has to be processed in Moscow which is big obstacle for any real local cooperation.

News / Are there interests that Poland share with Russia? [50]


There is no such question in Poland. There is some autonomy movement in Upper Silesia (what maybe wouldn't be bad for the region - they need some higher level of cooperation inside conurbation in my humble opinion) but there is no question "inside Poland or not". Let put it into perspective, numbers:

- there is about 4650000 people living in Upper Silesia
- about 170000 of them declared themselfs as Silesians not Poles (btw, Silesians are not exactly Germans too), the rest are mostly Poles.
so you see it is minority issue... Similarly in Opolskie region (here is strong German minority). No issue at all in Lower Silesia (population is almost entirely polish).


That is surely interest of Poland, but Russia in recent years did many things to suggest that Russian interest is different. No reason to belive that it changed.

Life / Outdoor Stoves in Poland (Propane?) [9]

Well, for 30 people I suppose you will need more than one of that:
decathlon.com.pl/PL/kuchenka-z-2-palnikami-118667732/

or that:

euro.com.pl/kuchenki-nastawne-i-turystyczne/campingaz-camping-duo-plus-cv.bhtml

Other ideas? I don't know where you are going to camp, but Poland is not Alaska and rarely there is no bar around.

News / Are there interests that Poland share with Russia? [50]


I suppose such coordination would be welcomed by Ukrainians the same way as would Serbs welcome coordination over their situation by Austrians and Turks ;-)


I know what you mean but you must understand some paradox of the current polish geopolitics. In reverse to Stalin's intention the closer Poland is to Germany the safer current border is... As polish (?) saying goes "keep your friends close but your enemies keep even closer" :-). Personally I don't treat modern Germany as an enemy, nevertheless this saying has seed of truth in it... Usual argument about Polish participation in NATO is that Poland is there because USA is great ally who will protect us from all evil, but rarely it is added that second maybe even more important reason is that Poland is in NATO because Germany is in it.

Life / Outdoor Stoves in Poland (Propane?) [9]

hehe, yeah, scarry :-)

News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [395]


Olders: Janek, Szarik and Rudy 102 or maybe just Hans Closs
Medium: Kmicic and Pan Wołodyjowski
Youth: Geralt of Rivia

;-)

Travel / Getting from Krakow to Warsaw [99]


If you are tough enough then go for it. But the cheapest train can be kind of a cultural shock, don't have to be, but can. It is quite random.

Well, you have been warned ;-)

Polonia / Poles and Austrians, do they get along? Vienna districts? [30]

Austrian is a kind of German highlander, so not the most friendly folk under the sun :-)
But they have nice ski resorts though and do the best they can to properly accomodate you. As long as you will not sing drunken songs at night in their ship-shape hotels they will pretend that they love you ;-)

Language / About: w tytę [12]

It my opinion is rather "w pytę" :-)

Travel / Mushroom picking in spring in Poland? [35]

Well it depends for what..
Personally:
- the best ones for scrambled eggs would be "Kurki"
- the best ones for "bigos" or "zalewajka" soup or souce would be "Borowiki", "Stojaki" and "Kurki"

- the best fried ones with butter and salt would be "Rydze"
- the best pickled ones, hm, again "Kurki" and "Podgrzybki"

anyway, the best thing with mushrooms is the process of finding them

News / Nuclear Power in Poland? Yes, please! Absolutely nobody disagrees! [73]

I'm in favour of it... considering France example the risk seems to be not very high. Besides, everybody has to die sooner or later... Don't we use planes on massive scale? Some of them crashes... I suppose probability of major breakdown of modern nuclear plant is far less than explosion of asleep vulcano for thousand of years. Does milions of people don't live in such areas anyway? Does milions of people don't live in the city of Los Angeles which can be destroyed by earthquake in any minute? We risk our lives everyday just by going out, some even by staing in ;-)

Green energy looks fine in some papers, but there are other papers where after counting all of the energy cost of producing those pretty and modern windmills it looks like many of them don't give enough energy to cover even that... like this modern ecological cars which you need to change every two years, nobody is counting the ecological cost of building that stuff.

To sum things up, green energy is not enough to cover northern Poland needs, there is no coal there, nuclear plant seems to be the obvious choice...

Real Estate / Buying/Building a house in Poland/Wroclaw metro area [12]

Hm... If I were you I would first rent a flat and look around for couple of months before purchasing anything, and for sure I wouldn't start bulding a house at once. Unfortunately all valid sources I know are in Polish. Before I'll post links some warnings:

1. Wrocław lately was choosen as third most congested city in Europe
(59 biggest cities was examined)

thenews.pl/international/artykul130207.html

it will probably change when highway ring will be finished (about two years to go), but till then buying property outside of the city and work in the center will kill your spirit ;-) All traffic national/international goes through city center...

2. There is huge road building program around and in the city, so be carefull where you choose property to buy. You will think that it will be quiet and calm, but there can be some main road next to it in couple of years, example = 9 maja street (it actually wan't be that bad because there are high noice standards so noice barriers are builded, but still).

Here some links to start with (in Polish):

- overall housing investments in the area: investmap.pl/galeria/mieszkania-i-domy/
- forums and opinions about it: forum.investmap.pl

- similar stuff (probably you will need to register):

skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=292321&page=122
skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=349592&page=834

Some useful maps:

- current and future roads (when there is no road on google maps and is here, then probably it will be in future)
- future road map of Dolnoslaskie Province
[hm.. sorry those two above are to big to attach..]
- fload range (1997) - next one probably in 2997, but you never know ;-) :

• 
  fload map
  

Real Estate / Buying/Building a house in Poland/Wroclaw metro area [12]

I wan't help much with those precise questions, but:
1. house is not historic monument just because it is old. It depends. There is conservator office where there is list of such objects.
2. I'm not sure, but I think that for major renovations you will need some official permits and plans
3. as for cost I have no idea, I guess it could be easilly 100 000. My family is planning roof changing in different and cheaper location than Wroclaw area, and first estimates are that it would be at least 30 000. So if you add painting, windows, electricians, plumbing... what about heating system?

Well you will need some professional advice! Good luck :-)

Travel / What to do in Wroclaw! [49]

Try to use this (unfortunately for you in Polish... events searcher tool)
mobiwroclaw.nazwa.pl/kultura/wyszukiwarka_wydarzen.html

maybe this would be more helpful for english speaker:
radiowroclove.com

anyway, May is Juwenalia month = student parties and festivals, I suppose as usual a lot of concerts is taking place right now (I'm off the town for some time so don't know what is on the posters...)

Language / Etymology of samochod and other related automotive words [12]

@clifborder4fm try search in google like that:
<word> etymologia

you will get at the top various dictionaries, sometimes with etymology of the <word>.
For example for:
samochód etymologia
you will get this:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoch%C3%B3d

Funny, but I don't know if reliable:


Słowo "samochód" was choosen in the contest before WWII. The name "samojedź" which would be more appropriate instead of "samochód", wasn't choosen because it supposedly means(or is close to) "cannibal" in ancient polish :-)

Cool, isn't it? :-)

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1080]

As Mao would put it: Poland lies on this small Asian peninsula called Europe :-)
From that perspective eastern or central is a smaller issue :-)

History / What do Polish people think about Belorussians? [38]

I think for most of Poles Belarus is kind of 'terra incognita'. There is many probably shallow stereotypes like 'Belarus is a post USSR heritage park' or 'Belarus is just a bigger version of kolchoz'. For my part I hope that some day it would be possible during canoeing trip by Czarna Hancza instead of turning right on Augustowski canal, turning left toward PL-BY border and crossing it without trouble the same way I can cross border in Sudety or Tatra mountains. It would be also nice to walking freely into Belarusian part of Białowieża Forest.

I would drink for that becasue it would mean normality both in PL and in BY and between PL and BY. Long way to go I suppose...

Life / Potential move to Poland [6]

Well, I beg to differ with warsawmole. Poland is definitely not a "cycling heaven", especially Warsaw isn't. If I'm not mistaken there is no city in Poland with coherent bicycle path network. If you are a bicycle addict then you sure would know what a pain in the ass that could be... From the bigger towns I would say, that at least the highest awarness of this problem is in Gdansk and Wroclaw. For sure I can talk about Wroclaw, where there is at least plan for coherent network, but we are still light years, well, maybe 5 to 10 before basic coherent network will be in place.

But apart from big towns there is plentiful of cool places to cycle into the wild :-)

About salaries, well, I'm local, but I think those dudes knows the answer:


Well, everywhere you can find that, it is individual thing. But one sentence says it all about Poland: Warsaw is our financial center, so the biggest rat race is there. But on the other hand there is about 3 mln people there, so not everyone is taking part in that race...

About football, if you like it, the best team this year is from Poznan, for the next two years they would have the best stadium also. Others locations with good stadiums in next couple of years would be Wroclaw, Gdansk, Warsaw, Cracow and Chorzow (near Katowice). There is also decent but small stadium in Kielce, and maybe we can add Lubin to that list (not mistake it with Lublin :-) )

Well, my advice is, go on vacation to polish seaside with bicycle. You can start in Świnoujście or Kołobrzeg and go all the way to Hel and from there to Gdansk. If there will be a little rain you will love it, otherwise you will hate me ;-). Anyway, when in Gdansk, choose you way back via either Torun/Poznan/Wroclaw or Warsaw/Cracow/Katowice or some others towns from your list and look what those town look like...

PS. if you will follow my seaside tour advice, be sure you are heading from west toward east...

Work / Where to study: Krakow or Wroclaw? [5]


Well, in 2010 Krakow Jagiellonian University got better marks than Wroclaw University, but on the other hand Wroclaw University of Technology got better marks than both technical universities in Krakow... :

grafik.rp.pl/grafika2/490249

but all this rankings uni vs uni aren't very informative, because the better thing is to compare department vs deparment...


That is debatable also, it depends where you want to travel, for example there is much closer from Wroclaw to Berlin or Prague...


That is true.

To sum things up, my opinion is:
Krakow:
- better public transport
- better university
- it is bigger city
- it is tourist destination (so friendlier for foreigners but more expensive)

Wroclaw:
- slightly better technical university
- it is smaller city
- it is much smaller tourist destination (well, there is no medieval castle here...)
- it has worse public transport and at least for another two years there will be problems with city jams
- it is a little but only a little cheaper here

Overall, both cities are fine students cities in positive way (there is easily above 100000 students in both cities every year), so I suggest you better focus on what kind of studies you want take and then try to compare departments

Good luck! :-)

History / Poles and Russians -- love-hate relationship? [209]


Well, lets put some definitions first:
1. "rusek" is term wich means something between: "dude from east of the border" to "dude selling socks and old soviet uniforms on flea market". So it is really not so offensive

2. "kacap" is slightly worse, but it could be offensive or humorous, anyway this word has some interesting etymology:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacap


No, those are at least centuries old informal names for people east of the border in Poland, sometimes negative sometimes not. Those are quite capacious words. You can't expect that such old words disappear after just twenty years of normal relationship. I bet they will not vanish, but if things will be ok between us, negative association will vanish. That is the way usually language evolution works.


Well, that explains a lot, because if nothing more happened then you are overreacting...
You don't joke about others nationalities? It is hard to believe that, but if so be aware that you are missing big chunk of human knowledege. Jokes about other nationalities are just another version of La Fontaine fairy tales... Of course in every country versions locals are the brightest and neighbours are not ;-)

History / Poles and Russians -- love-hate relationship? [209]

Awesome video :-) At 1:28 you have used both together "Ruskie kacapy"! Well, that was meant offensive for sure ;-)

Travel / Floods and Lodz [6]


Contrary to the name of the city (Lodz = Boat), Lodz is far from any big river, and those small ones aren't much of a threat either. I believe you have nothing to worry about.

News / Unbelievable but, its truth. Poland is finally happy to share border with Russia [57]

Poles are indeed happy, because this border is so much shorter that it used to be before 89' ;-) Thanks to that, this "brotherly smile" cann't change so easily into "brotherly bite" ;-)

Poland much more prefers to have a few slavic brothers in the east instead of one :-) After all the bigger family the better...

Life / Sci-fi / Fantasy books in Polish? [12]

Try here: empik.com, merlin.pl and kind of polish ebay: allegro.pl

PS. For 16 years old Wiedźmin Saga by Sapkowski would be great...
Lem of course is the best polish sci-fi writer of all times but some of his books could be intellectually challenging (but it is good thing, isn't it? :-) )

Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Well, it is not first time I see that foreigners have this "small change" problem. And frankly I don't get it. In my case 100% of time it goes like this:

- "Don't you have some grosze"
- me: "Let me see"
a)
- me: "yes, I have" -> no problem
b)
- me: "no, sorry I've not" -> in which case it is always ends that somehow salesclerk finds some change...

You guys are shopping in strange places or just have some bad luck...

Language / Why x.xx$ in Poland? [20]


I strongly disagree with that :-) The best and most logical way of writing the date is:
year_month_day
because of very simple reason: when you start your folders names with such string (ie with photos from vacations) then you can sort it by date :-) Otherwise it is a mess :-)

Travel / Why do people say that Poland is so unsafe? [60]

Some cool numbers for you people :-) :
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Urban_rankings#Crime_rate
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Crime_trends_in_detail
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Crime_statistics

PS. looks like robbery is kind of national sport in countries like Spain, Italy and especially France, anybody knows why? For example in 2007 there were supposedly 22766 robberies in Poland vs 112885 in France, well France is not five times bigger than Poland...

Hm.. it seems than England is wild place to...
Of course we can start to argue that all those statistics are lies, but are they?

Law / What is the quickest and cheapest way to send money to a bank account in Poland? [37]

Within EU (plus few outsiders) the best way is SEPA:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

It cost 5 Złoty to make such transfer from Poland elsewhere in mbank. I suppose it is also quite cheap in opposite direction.

PS. Be aware, and if it is possible transfer from for example EUR account to EUR account in Polish bank, otherwise you can get some unfavourable exchange rates

Life / Babcia klozetowa alive & well? [35]

Babcia klozetowa is fine, and even in some ways she modernized. She has mobile phone now and in some places she can even give you a receipt :-)

As for dubbing guy he is still there, and I personally would fight for him to stay :-) I hate all those multivoiced dubbed movies except maybe Shrek and a few others... They are usually completely cleaned from emotions. With dubbed guy you can usually hear original voices in the background and somehow "feel the moment"... I suppose it is kind of ability that Poles where forced to gain to mix automatically this background with sober dubbing guy voice. You foreigners just don't get it ;-) It is kind of a movie with subtitles except subtitles are given by voice... The ultimate goal, as Yoda would put it is:

understand the dubbing guy you should, not hear ;-)

I suppose some of you are still in the moment when Luke Skywalker is trying to lift his spaceship from the swamp. I tell you, it can be done ;-)