Travel / A good kebab place in Warsaw? [45]


Nothing wrong with that! What do you think sausages are made of?


This however is a problem. Better to go to the ones you can trust, like the one at Dworzec Gdański, or on ul. Hoźa.

News / POLES FEEL LIKE JEWS HAVE TOO MUCH CONTROL IN POLAND - TRUE? [209]

Who cares?

Travel / A good kebab place in Warsaw? [45]


Just go to Biedronka and find out. Better stick with kebabs!

Travel / A good kebab place in Warsaw? [45]


No shortage of Poles working in kebab shops. But are you surprised that Turks are making Turkish food, Arabs are making Arab food, Indians are making Indian food etc? If I wanted pierogi, I would go to a Pole, if I want a kebab, I'll go to a Turk.

But there's nothing to stop Poles opening kebab shops - it's just that when they do, the food tends to be bland, greasy and generally awful.

History / Polish pirates [58]

I think the great heyday of piracy, from the Sixteenth to the late Eighteenth Centuries is a bit more relevant. Poles didn't exist in the period Gibbon was writing about.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


I don't see much "good social welfare" in countries with years of right-wing misery.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]

To redistribute wealth effectively, there must be several factors in place. A centrist or centre-left government and huge public commitment to the program.

The political scene in Poland has been poisoned by years of pretend communism followed by some of the nuttiest rigt-wing politicians outside (and from time-to-time inside) an assylum.

History / Polish pirates [58]


You're quite wrong here. They consolidated as a nation from various existing groups from that period onwards with the process perhaps having started before. The Tenth Century group you mention was (very arguably) the beginning of this, and part of a non-linear process that continued until a few years into the Second Republic. The process took centuries.


Centuries prior to the heyday of piracy. Of course you can say piracy started with the Sea Peoples (not Polish either, LOL), or before, but the term 'piracy' has very different meanings in different periods. BTW, I did know the period Gibbon's D&F covers. I wouldn't be so quick to rely on it, either.


Don't bother.


Yes it does, rather.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


I'm sure we can all find a few examples. Without even having to look outside this forum.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]

Such logic and reason, as the world has come to expect, with baited breath and bright shiny eyes, from the right-wing.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


Lefist thief. Hmm, I've probably paid more in income taxes that you could every hope to be liable for...

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


I don't. No offence intended, and pointless having a who's richer than whom willy-waggling contest, but my tax bill in certain years may well have exceeded your income. But I don't begrudge the money. High taxes are the entry fee to a civilised society.

Interesting that the name calling and aggression tends to come from one direction.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


It's the whole 'Randroid' thing - people believing that altruism is somehow bad, and that just because they aren't hungry they don't have to give a **** about those who are. Against the wisdom of all science, philosophy and plain common sense.


I'm not so sure, but let's agree that we're both doing nicely :-)


Yet even right-wing governments practise it to a certain extent.

I remember some idiot, in PL as it happened, who said that taxation could be compared to there only being two men in the world. One hard-working and one bone-idle. His point was that the hard-working guy shouldn't have to subsidise the bone-idle one. My (rather obvious) response was that this hard-working guy presumably has kids, so who's his privately educated well brought up daughter going to marry?

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


Likewise, and it shows that one should never take material wealth for granted or judge others by their condition in life, which is essentially a lottery. It's just that some people are good at buying the right tickets.

History / Polish pirates [58]


I wonder how many of those were buccaneers on the Spanish Main...

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


In effect, a country declaring wars on its own people. With dreadful destructive results.

I was doing a consultancy recently in a foreign country. The other person I was with was a (very right-wing) old Etonian. I mentioned before we left the hotel (after a month's stay) about the tip for the chambermaid, and how much one ought to leave after a month, His answer was: "if people want more money they should get a better job"!

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


A 55 year old mother of six with an unemployed husband doesn't have too many options in that respect.


Which Thatcher and her ilk wanted to reduce to Nineteenth Century levels.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


There'll be a bloody long queue for that. Personally I think she should be given to Gunther Von Hagen for plastination.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


Whe it looked like she might die last year, the press were already hinting about all the stuff they can't print when she was alive. Like spitting on people from upstairs windows when they were on their way to doing voluntary work. She hated the idea of people helping others without material reward.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]

Apparently she used to do it when she was a young woman, according to 'unnamed neighbours'.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


She was a follower of Ayn Rand and Objectivism - believing it was actually wrong to care about anyone else unless you personally like them.

News / Poland needs a left wing govt. [111]


Emotionally rejected by her mother and pretty well brought up by the parents of schoolfriends.

Love / In 2009 nearly 4000 Poles married a foreigner [170]


And Belgian, 36

;-)

Life / Has anyone in Poland that you know been affected by H1N1? (swine flu) [44]

Trust me, the vaccination is better...

Life / Strange laws in Poland [39]

In the city of Ziobro, anything can happen...

Language / Polish nationality insults in Polish? [67]

And Polnischer Fruhstuck, a complete mess.

Language / Polish Language classes - what do your lessons look like? [21]

There are quite a few language schools that do Polish courses in Krakow - 'Glossa' isn't necessarily one of the better ones (though it advertises rather aggressively), and homestay is not at all a good idea. Why not have a look on the internet for a list of schools? Or try one of these, which all have a decent reputation.

Instytut Studiow Polonijnych

Poliglota

International School of Polish Language and Culture in Cracow

Accent School of Polish

Prolog

History / Polish pirates [58]


It does however make them uninteresting and relatively undocumented compared to the swashbuckling water pikeys of fifteen hundred years later.

History / How much Poles trust to France? [93]


Marie Curie is Marie Curie. The Skłodowska bit is not in general use outside PL.


Pretty popular in PL back in the day, and has a couple of hundred members now.

History / Polish pirates [58]

Except there isn't really very much to say about them - and neither the ethnicity nor the geography correspond to anything recognisably Polish.