The BEST Guide to POLAND
Unanswered  |  Archives [3] 
  
User: Guest

Posts by bullfrog  

Joined: 23 Apr 2009 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - A		 Last Post: 19 Aug 2015
Threads: Total: 6 / Live: 0 / Archived: 6
Posts: Total: 602 / Live: 125 / Archived: 477 		From: istanbul
Speaks Polish?: trochke

Displayed posts: 125 / page 2 of 5
sort: Oldest first   Latest first   |
bullfrog   
2 Oct 2011
Love / What strange/unnerving/funny things do your Polish wives do? [153]

do not take this badly, Seanus (it would upset me to upset you, you seem an eminently reasonable sort of person from your posts), but i do find strange the habit of talking about her money, my money and so on when one is married. My wife stopped working a long time ago, shortly after we married, but I still considers that what I earn is 50pc hers..it is just ours, not hers or mine.. i think this outlook does make things easier..
bullfrog   
4 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

I would like to hear how you all rate Poland and here are my 3 categories:

-Quality of life

-Polish culture and people

-Food

Quality of life: 7/10: OK. I lived in Warsaw, an easy city for moving around, but the lack of "beauty" is a drawback

Polish Culture and People: 8/10 Country's best asset

Food : 3/10. Very plain, little variety
bullfrog   
4 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

Bullfrog, I can tell you that many Poles rate their food 9/10 or even 10/10. It's all in the palate but I agree that it is on the bland and unimaginative side. Tasty nonetheless!

Agreed, Seanus; as posted subsequently by others, it is clear that many Poles give their food a strong rating because it is the only one they ever tasted or simply because it's "mama's food".. One thing that never ceases to amaze me when in Poland is those ads for restaurants saying "kuchnia domowa".. Why on earth would you want to go to a restaurant if it's to eat the same thing than at home (except of course if you're a roving salesman longing for home)? However good what you have at home, part of the purpose of eating out for me is to try something a bit more sophisticated, something that you don't usually eat everyday
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

Poland is equally diverse as France

I don 't think so..From a topography point of view, France is much more diverse than Poland, with lakes, high mountains ranges like the Alps and Pyrenees; middle ones like the Jura, Massif central and Vosges and plenty of regional lower ones (Cevennes, Forez..). Poland is much more monotonous, it is essentially a big plain bordered by low mountains (compared to France's) to the South and lakes to the North East
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

what on earth are you talking about !?!?

poland is loaded with sheer esthetics !!!!!!

Krakow ? Old warszawa ? Gdansk ? Torun ? Poznan ? Zakopane etc.

now those are sheer esthetics !!!!

Yes, but they don't compare with France.

Teffle is right

hahaha, and I'm a little bit of everything too and born in Timbuktu and that's why I live in Poland.

hahah i am actually half swedish and scottish and i have some polish in me too down the line. I was born in scotland.

The 2 quotes above from bberlin62 and Allie show IMHO the chief reason why people (foreigners) stay in Poland: not the countryside, not the beauty, not the food, not the climate but its strong traditions and culture. Don't want to seem to appear practising cheap psychology, but it is sign that both bberlin60 and allie have mixed origins and love a country which is strongly monoethnic and has deep roots. One is always looking for what one hasn't got..
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

What do you mean? I think that Polish traditions are dissapearing

Agreed, but they are still much stronger than in the rest of Europe. Just two examples:

- the importance of family: how many of us with polish wives/girlfriends are confronted to the situation where they want to leave close to their family or at least see them as often as possible? I don't think that this is the attitude most prevalent in the UK or even in the rest of Western Europe

- other example is the way Easter/ Xmas is spent here, whereas the epitome of good Xmas in the Uk seems to be booze + telly (plus a bit of turkey to be fair..); only a slight exaggeration..
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

The only reason why there is no booze on Xmas Eve table is that it's a day of the fast. That means no meat and alcohol.

Nope. When I spend Xmas in my Polish family (who are as religious as any other Polish family), we have wine on the 24th
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

My family thinks there are.

So did mine until 5 years ago, but I did a little bit of research, which I'm willing to provide to you for free:

"The Vigilia is the most important meal of the year therefore the preparation is very careful, although the meal varies for area to area, it is normally without meat and can be 7, 9 or 11 courses. [...]. Desert is usually fruit compote and several versions of cake with poppy seeds, if you have any room left to take it. Traditionally Polish Vodka washes this down. " about-poland/polish-traditions.html

and another one

Abstinence from flesh-meat is obligatory for all who are over 14, and it should be observed on all Fridays (some believers are falsely convinced that it only applies to the Lenten Fridays) and on Ash Wednesday. The Church clearly emphasizes that if someone cannot abstain from flesh-meat on Friday he must do some other form of penance. The official commentary to the fourth commandment of the Church does not mention Christmas Eve but we should follow the deeply rooted Polish tradition (which does not exist in many countries) and treat this day as a day of abstinence. Combining abstinence from flesh-meat with abstinence from alcohol is praiseworthy

sunday.niedziela/artykul.php?dz=wiara&id_art=00082

Note in the 2nd excerpt (from the very serious Tygodnik katolicki) that abstinence from alcohol is praiseworthy and not compulsory.. So i tell them that unlike them I am not a saint but only a poor human.. So now not only am i allowed to drink a couple of glasses of wine but they have also taken it on..
bullfrog   
5 Oct 2011
Life / Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10! [232]

Krakow is beautiful but you cannot compare it to Prague. The latter is in the same league as Paris, not Krakow. Just look at the numbers of tourists visiting each city, and don't tell me its a matter of advertising, the czechs are not better at it than the poles
bullfrog   
6 Oct 2011
Life / What is Poland's fastest growing ethnic group? [57]

According to this link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Vietnam

the top 3 countries outside Vietnam to house Vietnamese are in this order USA (1,6 mios), Cambodia (600k) and France (250k). Poland has a mere 10k, a little more than Switzerland but fewer than Sweden or Norway. But I agree that the source (Wiki) is open to challenge..
bullfrog   
7 Oct 2011
Life / The nature of Polish jokes? [124]

ok, mildly amusing..but you must admit hythorn is right, all your jokes come with a sexual component (not that's an issue..)
bullfrog   
9 Oct 2011
Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]

Yes I love Poland and I feel that people should not be stuck in the past .

Allie, how old are you? When I read your prose, makes me think of a modern version of Trybuna Ludu!!
bullfrog   
26 Nov 2011
Food / British food products in Poland? [334]

will be over to London next week to buy my annual pot of Stilton and the Xmas cake. That's about all the British food i can think of that's worth bringing back...
bullfrog   
26 Nov 2011
Food / British food products in Poland? [334]

weil, Seanus, I have been known to pour a little port into the cheese after digging a hole into it. Once the port has been poured, you fill the hole back with the cheese and you dig a spoon into the lot... Scrumptious!
bullfrog   
23 Dec 2011
Life / Are Polish roads really this bad? [237]

Anyone with half a brain can see the nice new motorways and expressways popping up everywhere. Or was I dreaming when I drove on 2x2 minimum roads to Krakow recently?

Come on Delph, it is true that road connections in South west Poland (ie Wroclaw and Krakow areas) are OK and well connected to the German autobahn system.. But awhat about the rest of the country?? Consider that Warsaw, the capital, is still not connected by full motorway to any part of the country!! There are not many european capitals facing this situation..