News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


As it happens, this last few weeks has seen the loss of somewhere in the region of 15 lives - most of them young.

A lot for a nation of only 4 million.

Food / Polish Eating Habits [87]

I quite like Polish food but I think many Poles are in denial as to the relative health of their diet. Pickled/preserved food features highly as does heavily salted stuff - both of which are not healthy.

Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]


They probably are but I'm not sure what your point is? You don't see very many people displaying them either in cars or outside their houses - that's all I'm saying.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


LOL!


Yep. Or BMW. Usually with blacked out windows. Some things transcend all borders!

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


Oh don't worry about that ; )


I would say morally obliged - but no, it won't happen again either.


Didn't know what to expect to be honest.

Don't see where intolerance comes into it ?!

I've enjoyed - to a greater or lesser degree - all countries I have visited but because I didn't enjoy Poland I am intolerant and childish.

Right.

OK.

There is quite a prickly element in here isn't there?


Well Dziękuję!

And apologies if I have offended you or anyone else...

Oh sorry, something I did quite enjoy and should have mentioned more was the food. So, there you go.

Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]


Ah OK, but the diaspora is a different thing and I'm not surprised.

Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]


Not really?! It would be the same thing if he lived in a Polish enclave in Australia or an Australian enclave in Poland.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]


And In Ireland. In fact I'm pretty sure this is the case in most countries - it's just not that widely known sometimes, or taken seriously maybe.

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


No, you are not. I wanted to know if my experiences were accurate, half accurate or completely unusual, i.e. bad luck.

From the mixture of responses it seems, on balance, that they weren't completely unusual anyway that's for sure.


For the record, I didn't notice I had a PM - I'm used to receiving pop-ups.

You reckon it's polite to remind me how to behave politely then? and to proceed to reproduce part of the "private" message ?!

I dunno...


Well it's rude, but logical. I would never say it but I can see the reasoning.
It's not the same thing though - for a start I don't live in Poland.

BTW, you said that there "is no macismo in Poland"

In black and white.

Do you still stand by this statement?

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


...is what you said Zetigrek.

This whole manners/chivalry thing has got out of hand totally. I mentioned old fashioned manners/chivalry - not a problem with that - that "spilled over into... there's where the problem started for me.

And yes, old fashioned definitely by most standards e.g. kissing women's hands? Again, not a problem with it though.

I have re-read your post#28. Fair enough, you have been more open/receptive than I may have assumed a few posts back.

I'll probably leave this because it's all been said and there is too much misinterpretation and defensiveness I think.

Again, apologies if I have offended anyone as it was not my intention. I was just trying to be as honest as possible.

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


Er...No ???!!!

Are you actually a real poster tow_stalin or just some piece of code written to generate non sequiturs throughout the site?

Life / POLISH YOUTH compared to the youth in other Western countries? [57]

I don't have a lot of experience of Polish youth but from what I have seen, and from descriptions and anecdotes from Polish friends, I get the impression that on the whole, Polish young people are fairly well behaved - relatively speaking.

Certainly better behaved than Irish, British, German, French, Spanish for example anyway.

Work / Black English Teacher going to Wroclaw [247]


What's this all about? I don't really get this - or is it a perception based on black GIs in Vietnam or something? If so, racist with a back handed compliment at the same time - kind of.

Wierd anyway.

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


Beats me. Zetigrek said it originally. A reference to the assumption that I thought that good manners was a bad thing. A misunderstanding really.

Thanks for taking the time to post Sean - some of it makes sense. Culture shock cannot be underestimated, but there are certain attitudes, behavioural aspects that are just rude or offensive in almost any culture or language.

I am indifferent to Ireland - it is my nationality and I live here, that's all. I don't have any romantic view of the place nor do I feel a need to defend or praise the country. I recognise that there are plenty of things wrong here as there are in most countries.

Considering the Polish friends I have I cannot really totally rule out going back to Poland and if so, maybe I will have a better experience next time.

(I'm from rural Cavan by the way)

Travel / My (short) Poland experiences - bad luck? [142]


Yeah, as Northmanc says underclass would be a common enough equivalent by the looks of it. Don't speak Polish really but marginalised would be a polite way of putting it and margines looks pretty close.

Underclass would be fairly derogatory but as you can imagine, there are plenty of much worse terms too!


Don't worry, most countries have a similar problem. Britain and Ireland definitely. France is pretty bad for this too.

For what it's worth I didn't see much evidence of this when I was in Poland - so there you are: a positive! ; )

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


I would guess it is only those who do not have a tradition of blood sausage in their own countries e.g. the US for a start. Ireland, Britain, France & Spain for example all have a version of this - I think the Polish one is the nicest.

For those who haven't tasted it, imagine an authentic 'farm' type recipe black pudding combined with a really good haggis ...

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]

Yeah a +1 for humour.

From what I can see Polish humour seems to be quite dry, observational and a bit surreal. Also teasing plays a big part. TBH, it's not unlike Irish humour and my Polish friends here have commented on this.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

It's the opening scene to latest religious themed prn movie.

This time, featuring "flower action".

Travel / Hospitality, Scenery, Food, Clean Streets: My POSITIVE experiences in Poland (!) [39]


Exactly!

I'm sorry I know this is supposed to be a positive thread but I cannot understand anyone preferring Polish meat over e.g. British or Irish - it's the best in the world, simple as. Irish and British beef and lamb is prized all over the world where, incidentally it is exported. Only Argentina are serious contenders. US beef can be good but you have to be careful as it is wildly inconsistent.

Didn't have a problem with Polish beef at all as it happens but it was as unremarkable as e.g. Dutch or French IMO.

Red meat I'm talking about only - open verdict on pork or chicken ; )

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]

I've had Lech, Zywieć & Tyskie. Er... a good few times...

I think I preferred Zywieć out of the three. Thought they were all pretty good though really. Drinking Tyskie right now as it happens ; )

(Special offer in Lidl)

Maybe someone can answer this - I ahd a strong beer in Poland and the bottle featured a goats head (I think) with red eyes and the word for strong (begins with M?) in that kind of shattered lettering. It was like a Polish special brew or something - does anyone know what it is?

(As he hopes to fcuk it isn't a cliché alcoholic's beer or something...)

Life / Poland, maybe the world's last bastion of faith [67]


Deliberate pun? ; )

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


At the risk of agreeing with AS, this was my experience too.

In Poland when you say "meat" it seems to generally refer to processed/preserved sliced meats or sausage.

In Britain/Ireland meat means meat - fresh slabs of animal flesh, not processed not cured.

Also, high proportion of pickled stuff in Poland which isn't healthy either.


You sir, are having one almighty laugh surely?


I've never once heard this said about Polish food. Sure, I've heard people say they like it, they love it (or sometimes that they don't like it) but it's so-called "naturalness" was never a reason. Maybe to someone who exists almost only on junk food.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Hmmm...something wrong with this statement.

; )


In what sense?

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]

So the "cured" stuff referred to is purely cured and is not processed?

If so, I take it back but I doubt it.

Look, I'm not complaining - I like Polish food generally but I just don't know where this mad myth that Polish food is natural and healthy comes from.

And as for this statement:


C'mon. Please. It's mostly chemicals but still appears more natural to the poor synthetic mouthed westerners ?!


Probably. And even more research that shows it's bad for you in large quantities I'll warrant.


Well, I didn't say that.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Can you explain - or give examples?


Er no?! not unless you eat all your "meals" for €3.99 in a pub or something.

"Side salad" is basically garnish anyway - it should not really be regarded as a component of the meal as such. If you want salad you need to order salad - not X with side salad.

In a proper restaurant you will get any and all varieties of salad and salad ingredients you can think of.

But I think it's fair to say that Poles do take their salads more seriously though - a few seem to come out at every meal which wouldn't necessarily be the case in the UK or Ireland.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Yes believe me, I know all about this - they are my customers (!)

Having said that I am fairly confident as to the organic or natural credentials of mush of the food I consume whether it is meat veg or dairy. It's not hard.

But the point is that you said that food in "western Europe" was more likely to be processed than in Poland - did you not?

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Are you reading this Wroclawboy? ; )

Well therefore, again I ask you - are you saying that your cured meat has not been processed? at all?

I doubt it very much.


So why is it so hilarious?

If someone says they are having "meat" for dinner you will expect slaughtered animal flesh from a butcher to be on your plate - not smoked, coloured, salted, preserved, water injected pinkish purplish sliced stuff. That's what I mean.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]


Er. You are wrong there Olaf. Slavic, Germanic and Scandinavain countries maybe - but not many other places in Europe.

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]

OK, a few things.

Firstly I don't live in the UK.

Secondly, yes, I can (if I wish - which I don't) get a pub lunch for €3.99 - so please don't accuse me of exaggerating.

I can and do buy excellent meat/veg that was grown/picked/slaughtered locally (within 10 miles or so) and it's not ususual to be able to do so where I live.

In your post above Wroclawboy you are referring to supermarket meat - which is awful, yes. But isn't supermarket meat everywhere awful? Anyone who relies on supermarkets for quality meat needs their head examined.

Look, the point of thread is that Polish food is still (still if you don't mind, as if it were never any other way) "more natural" than in the west. It's just a ridiculous smug and naive assertion.

McDonalds in £ódz was packed all the time when I passed it. Pizza seems incredibly popular in Poland. I cannot BBQ the average Polish sausage as the water and fat content turns it into a firework and yes, there seems to be a large quantity of sliced processed hams and pickled/salted/smoked stuff on the average Polish table as far as I can see.

And yes, not much in the way of actual lumps of animal flesh.

Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about Polish food - I like it, but just don't be under this illusion that it's all so healthy. And to claim as one poster did that something (a Polish foodstuff) was 'almost all chemicals' but probably still tastes natural to westerners compared to what they usually eat is just silly and insulting.