Travel / Szczecin from Warsaw Airport by Rail or cab? [10]

If you want to get to Szczecin (I assume you are flying from outside of Europe) by far the most convenient thing to do would be to fly into Berlin, Germany and get to Szczecin from there. Berlin has dozens of intercontinental connections and is only 150 kms from Szczecin - Warsaw is 560 kms from Szczecin and will take you all day by bus or train, thats once you manage to get to the main train station! It will take you 2.15 to 2.30 to get from Tegel airport to Sczecin Glowny train station. Check out bahn.de for an idea of the times and prices. (Indicated at 29EUR from what I can see).

If you've already booked to Warsaw, a connecting flight to Stettin might be straightforward, but its probably reasonably expensive, and you'll probably need to leave a reasonable gap to ensure you make the connection as it will be booked on a different ticket. It might be cheaper to talk to your travel agent and change to a flight to Berlin, or worth it for the convenience.

The only caveat: if you have a visa for Poland but not for Germany, ie you are from a country that doesn't have Schengen visa waiver rights: in this case, sticking to just Poland might be worth it or necessary.

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]

For all those talking about 1st world and 3rd world (which are redundant cold-war definitions), Turkey was a first world nation, being a member of NATO since 1952, while Poland was a second world nation, being a founding member of the Warsaw pact.

For the Original Poster: most of us are (un)lucky enough to fall in love a couple of times in our late teens, and think it is the real deal. 2 things you need to do:

(1) go to Poland for a holiday and have a great time with your girlfriend.

(2) keep being a studious kid, keep dreaming, talk to teachers and your school about career paths and scholarships.

Millions of Turkish people have emigrated to Europe in the last century, and if you are persistent and smart you will also be able to. Nothing is going to shoot down a romance quicker than a guy with no money, no connections, no qualifications and no job prospects. My Polish wife and I started, but the reason I managed to sustain it was not emotions and attraction, but money, jobs, patience and qualifications (same for her, too).

However, you don't have to do all that in Poland or Turkey. I'd suggest looking into studying in Germany - perhaps Berlin. You'd have the benefit of an established community of Turkish people for support and advice, and more extensive and potentially more financially viable exchange arrangements as a student. Check out this page on Deustcher Akademischer Austausch Dienst:

daad.de/stipendien/en/index.en.html?land=14

If she is the one, you may be able to get married and get a visa: however I'd seriously doubt that would be your best option. I reckon studying in Germany is your best option, if you are as good as you say you are. If you think your relationship would grow and flourish while you were a poor-ass non-polish-speaking student living in Poznan, I think it would flourish even more if you showed some initiative and made your own viable plan. She could join you, or you could see eachother every second weekend and thus figure out if its worth it.

And if it doesn't work out, if you study in Germany you're still on the way to a good European career. If it doesn't work out in Poznan, I think you are far more likely to end up with no money and no friends, half way through a qualification you don't really want, having used up all your family favours and exhausted yourself.

Anyway, just my 2 cents!

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]

OECD membership is the basic yardstick of being a developed country. While I agree that Poland is more economically advanced than Turkey, EU accession criteria are not necessarily the best measure of a developed country. Of course, some of them most certainly are, but closure of acquis chapters is a political as well as an economic exercise. Slovenia held up the closure of acquis chapters for Croatia for political purposes, for example.

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]


Your continued discussion of this is off topic: we're talking about options for this guy to be with his polish girlfriend.

However, of 35 acquis chapters, 2 have nothing to adopt, 5 are aligned with acquis, and 17 are further efforts needed. Of the remaining 11, 8 are "considerable effort needed", and three are "alignment at early stage". And yes, negotiations on a number of chapters are frozen essentially by political processes, which while legitimate, are much more a reflection of political disputes rather than economic conditions. Turkey's slow progress through the accession process fundamentally comes down to two factors: its very large population, and its geographic location 90% in Asia Minor.

None of these matters are relevant to the young man's questions about how he might be with his Polish girlfriend. If you have nothing to add but racial generalisations and poorly informed, irrelevant analysis of the relationship of Turkey to the EU, then you should keep out of this discussion and let people who are actually interested in helping and informing others give the guy some advice.

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]


22/33 are in or close to alignment, but your posts are continual off-topic rubbish. You have nothing to add to this guys question

Australia / Prospective Marriage Visa - Australia [2]

Are you applying from Poland?

Check out this thread: Australian Spouse Visa For The Polish

This response in Particular from Moniccca:

"HI ianaus,

all partner visas for AU are processed in Berlin now if you apply in EU. It takes about 6 months. It can take longer if they require more documents - they are very strict (Germans... ;). Make sure you send all required documents together.

All necessary info you can find on the immigration web site: immi.gov.au/migrants/family/visa-options.htm- it is the best source. Calling embassy in London and in Warsaw will only confuse you as each embassy gives different information... I'm speaking from experience ;)

Good luck! "

Work / How To Study In Poland and stay with my GF? Inability to move to Poland looks stupid. [60]


Correct, held up by EU political processes more than domestic Turkish economic factors. I don't think its likely to move on further, either.


Lots of people told him that he was making wrong assumptions and being idealistic, including me. The difference is that you just think he is a marriage visa scammer, whereas other people were giving him advice other than your "stay in Turkey, you deserve no better and have no hope".

Love / Amount of money for gift (I have a girlfriend in Poland) [56]

Gordo, the replies weren't rude, they were honest. You were the rude one saying *** you.

Gruffi has good advice for you. If she is your girlfriend, you'd spend enough money on her that it actually cost you something. The key is to not give her a gift that makes it look like you only earn $7 an hour. Forget about zlotys: Polish girls aren't third-world wannabees looking for a sugardaddy from the west. If you are wanting advice about how much YOU should spend, ask your friends.

Love / Amount of money for gift (I have a girlfriend in Poland) [56]

Polak generally loses its traditionalness if its used in conjunction with fu<k and bit<h. Just like most derogatory words (such as the spanish word for black person), its offense comes from context and not from origin.

If money isn't important, don't make it about money.

Love / Amount of money for gift (I have a girlfriend in Poland) [56]

100 zl will not buy something spectacular in Poland, but certainly something. Poland isn't that cheap anymore. BTW, 100 zl is $30 USD. Quite a bit of that will be used up when she exchanges it in fees or whatever.

Did you meet her in Poland 10 years ago and she's still your girlfriend (reading your other posts? If so I would imagine our advice is pretty useless.

If you think she's open to receiving money (you would know), I'd say $50 at least. But if she's been your girlfriend by correspondence for 10 years I'd imagine you'd know by now.

Love / Amount of money for gift (I have a girlfriend in Poland) [56]

Gordo
"she really doesn't want to learn English"

When you put information into a public forum you get unsolicited advice ;)

- Her banking career will go nowhere if she is not open to learning foreign languages

- Polish is very difficult. If you want to move to Poland to be with her, you will need very good Polish. My Polish is *good*, but still terrible, so we live in my country. If she doesn't want to learn languages, you have one option: move to Poland.

- Poland is not cheap. Your $7 an hour job will not allow you to save up enough money to live somewhere in Poland. You will likely need at least $1000 per month to live in Poland, and more like $2000 if you want to live in a nice-ish place in Warsaw. Even then, people happily spend over $4000 a month living in Poland You can subtract any net income you might be able to make from that, of course, but good luck with that.

You sound like you are not in the position of having already built a great career: did you meet her when you were a teenager?

Love / Amount of money for gift (I have a girlfriend in Poland) [56]

Gordo, this is the internet.


you did, by posting here.


as above.

Also, facebook is hardly a miracle!

--------------

Regarding the makeup of this forum, it is dominated by Polish-Americans, and anglophone men who are involved in some sort of tortuous relationship with either a Polish woman, a Polish city, or both, with the occasional real pole providing us with some measured perspective now an then.

Work / Hospitality/Tourism Poland Job Seeker [4]

Perhaps a better way of explaining what Delph has said is that the norm among those who get an education in Poland is to complete a master's degree. Therefore everyone graduates in their mid-twenties, or even late twenties, as opposed to early twenties as in the US.

However, if you love Poland so much you should not be perturbed: if you are young, you should consider doing a Magister degree in Poland. Like I said, finishing in your mid-twenties would not set you behind other poles, and you could still try your luck with your associates degree to develop a part-time career. However I have no experience of working in Poland - all I know is that you don't need to be worried about what seems like spending forever at university.

Australia / Getting in Australia? I am English married to an Australian. (working /holiday visa) [6]

I am not an immigration advisor, but. One can apply for a tourist visa for 12 months. Most work visas either require someone who has a skilled occupation (on the skilled occupation list) or to get a job at which the employer will sponsor them for a visa.

immi.gov.au/visawizard/

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Hi all - I've been following the forums a lot but I've been a way for a few months, but recently I've gotten keen again on the idea of living in Warsaw. Are you able to get a decent sense of apartment prices and the market by scanning a few websites? I've looked at gumtree.pl, trovit.pl and tabelaofert.pl quite a lot - has anyone got a recommendation?

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Thanks - good advice into the mentality of sellers. The reason I'm asking about websites is I'm going to be in Poland for a couple of months in about 9 months and I want to have narrowed down to what we want - currently thinking Warsaw, reasonably central (Wola/Mokotow), 3 rooms / around 70 metres.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

@cms - where was that and what did you pay per metre? I've heard the average for Warsaw is 8000/m - I'm wondering whether that is finished or unfinished, and how far that is off more desirable locations.

I'd be looking to be a cash buyer by further leveraging my existing mortgage (outside of poland). I'm probably not so keen on buying a place that hasn't been built yet - is that where you got your discount?

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

@pip im looking for 2 bedrooms livingroom bathroom walking distance to metro or on a tramline and within about 5 kms of the centre - nice neighborhood, some parks and trees. and probably 8000m once cost of tasteful but not flash fitout is included (or secondary market)

Food / Does anyone know where to find Weetabix or similar in Warsaw/Poland? [11]

Thanks all for the replies. I'm not keen to pay the allegro price, but I'll check out M&S and Kuchnia Swiat.

Food / Does anyone know where to find Weetabix or similar in Warsaw/Poland? [11]

Hehe - lets not start on the finer points of English "cuisine".

I'm pleased to report that I've acquired some M&S weetabix clones and they are good substitute for the weetbix my son used to eat. Though I have to say, they are far from the universal value food that they are back home. At 10zl a box, they are twice the price.

Life / Polish shop assistants boorish? [6]

I have been amazed that it is such a chore to give change. I was at a store at bought 420 zloty worth of clothes: they were rude to me about paying 500, and I ended up with a pocket full of 2 zloty coins. Yesterday i bought some shoes for 315 zloty, and they left me a few groszy short when they had to empty the cash register to give me change from 320 zl. While I admit I was accustomed to paying almost exclusively electronically back home, this seems ridiculous: always "prosze, masz drobny?". Of course I realize this is probably a management failure, but I'm talking about international chain stores in big malls.

Food / Does anyone know where to find Weetabix or similar in Warsaw/Poland? [11]

Tempted but I won't be around long enough this time to take you up on your offer.

Life / Is it common for Polish people to speak English in Poland? [122]


I'm not going to disagree with your anecdote, but reading literature is a poor indicator of aptitude / level in speaking English as others have noted. From people I know, a lot of them learn English through movies, TV shows, magazines, written and tv news, reading non-fiction. Educated Poles who live in Poland that I know read great works of literature in translation: for example, my wife is fluent in English, but reads novels by English authors in Polish. I have a feeling that this would be the case with a lot of people.

My take on the OP's question about *speaking* Polish is that people who I have met (I've spent about six months in Poland, in Warsaw and Krakow as well as smaller cities and towns) tend to be good speakers of English. Most of those aged around 30 generally tend to speak polish reasonably well, especially if they have a university education, though don't necessarily have an extensive vocabulary. Those aged 17-25 tend to have very good English (I imagine this is due to strong curriculum improvements in the later years of secondary education), and that includes outside of Warsaw, Krakow. I've spent a decent amount of time in Germany and with Germans, and the level of 17-25 year olds is pretty similar to 17-35 year olds in Germany.

Travel / Upgrade of Warsaw - Zielonka - Bialystok train line (linia nr 6) [8]

Thanks, that is really useful.

Do you know when they are planning to reopen zielonka-wolomin?

Travel / Upgrade of Warsaw - Zielonka - Bialystok train line (linia nr 6) [8]

I know what you are saying kpc but if anyone knows what the official schedule is, and where that is published, please let me know.

Travel / Upgrade of Warsaw - Zielonka - Bialystok train line (linia nr 6) [8]

Great, thanks for that.

KPC, do you (or does anyone else) know what the schedule and timings are supposed to be for the InterCity trains (bialystok - malkinia - warszawa centralna) once the work between Zielonka and Tluszcz is finished? Also, are Koleje Mazowieckie trains from Tluszcz, Wolowin, Zielonka going to travel to Wwa Centralna or are they going to continue to go only to Wwa Wilenska?

Love / Classic Car Rental in Sopot - for wedding [2]

Try this place in Gdynia (10 kms from Sopot)

classicargarage.pl/wypozyczalnia-aut/

They say at the link (in Polish) that they have classic Daimlers to rent.

Because it is probably a Polish-only company you might want to get a trusted relative of your fiancee to help arrange it - a good way to bond with one of her brothers / male cousins?

Also for what its worth my wife was offended when I suggested we hire a classic jag for our wedding ("why do you want to get an uncomfortable old car! You dont want to hire a new one for me?!") ;)

Classifieds / Random Classifieds Ads Poland [261]

Cut your losses surely? How is some random joe turning up going to help?