Study / School of Polish for Foreigners at the University of Lodz [43]


I'd imagine they offer classes at convenient times for those who work, unlike the university.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [853]


if they know that she didn't check everyone had their belt fastened then fair enough, but perhaps she did check and then some of the passengers unfastened them afterwards as is common here.

News / Polish final report on Smoleńsk aircrash [853]

the flight attendants even get a ticking off, hardly fair, if passengers don't fasten the seatbelt it's their own fault.

"104) The purser reported the cabin prepared for landing although she had failed to check whether the passengers fastened their seat belts for landing (many victims did not have their seat belts fastened)."

Food / Best Farmer's Market in Warsaw area? [14]

there's also a 'Bio Market' now in Warsaw on weekends at the old Norblin factory between Zelazna/Lucka/Prosta. I'm slightly sceptical about how authentic the produce is but check it out, more info.

Food / Best Farmer's Market in Warsaw area? [14]


Where about is this place ?

Life / Cost of delivering a child in Poland [30]


The quality of maternity care hugely varies per hospital in Poland, I recently became a father with my son born in Świętej Zofii Hospital in Warsaw. We were very lucky and able to get a private recovery room (500zl a night but only 3 available) and generally I couldn't fault the treatment we received from start to finish. We also had to pay 600zl for an epidural but all other costs were covered by the state as we are tax payers here. I've heard horror stories about other hospitals though.

It is routine here (Warsaw, not sure about the rest of Poland) to have a private 'arrangement' with a midwife where you pay her say 800zl - 1000zl to get extra special treatment. You sign a contract with her in case she isn't able to provide the services as there's no guarantee the baby will arrive when she's on her shift etc and that way you get the money back. The midwives even have their own websites to advertise themselves. It's open corruption for me but if I was using a hospital with not so good a reputation I wouldn't hesitate to make such an arrangement.

There was an article in the Warsaw Insider recently about the private options for giving birth and Medicover have a maternity hospital somewhere in south Warsaw now where it costs 12,000zl for a birth. The problem though with the private care is they're not so used to dealing with complications.

Travel / Cheap hotel price in Warsaw? [16]

I've driven past [hotel.bestharctur.pl/php/index.php] - this place a few times and often thought it must be the 'cheapest in Warsaw' , not bad location, no idea what the rooms are like though.

Otherwise one of the Kyriad/Campanille/Premier Classe Hotels at Plac Zawiszy is cheap, can't remember which one though.

Travel / Why so many Indian Restaurants in Poland? Which one is the best? [42]

I'm a regular at Anna Purna on Twarda/Zelazna, seems to be getting better and better.

Real Estate / Warsaw City in 2020 [58]


I've got a grandstand view of the Warsaw Spire site from my apartment and as I said, no construction has started yet, hopefully soon though.

Real Estate / Warsaw City in 2020 [58]


Warsaw Spire? No it's not, plenty of signs up but no construction yet.

Law / Let's see how good is your Polish income tax law knowledge :-) [8]


I managed for a few years, the thing to remember about Poland is that there is little, if any, cross referencing between the tax office, labour office etc.

Law / Let's see how good is your Polish income tax law knowledge :-) [8]


yes as you're resident here and your income arises from activities in Poland. I think you need to submit your taxes on a PIT53 form and you'll need to find an accountant to prepare it for you. I was paid gross into Poland a few years back by a non Polish entity for work in Poland and my taxes were submitted each month on a PIT53 form, I then had to go to the bank and make a transfer for the TAX and ZUS each month and I didn't have to register (NIP etc) to do this.

Law / Where to register a .PL domain name? [33]


I've used active24.pl before, was a good service, based in Warsaw and they speak English.

Travel / Why most taxis in Warsaw cheat foreigners to get more money? [38]


It's the same the world over in my experience, if the taxi driver senses that you're new in town and you don't speak the language then you're more likely to be ripped off. It happened to me a few times in my early days in Warsaw but rarely now.

Life / Getting pretty tired of the postal service here in Poland [58]



If people could start naming which is their local Warsaw post office maybe we can start to get a picture of the reliable/unreliable ones. Mine is on ul. Pereca 13/19 and so far (9 years) I've had very few problems, the staff even smile sometimes.

Work / 3500 Euro Gross in Poland for a family of 2 Adults and a kid, any good? [28]


here's one in Wilanow (Warsaw) with prices.

Law / Shipping a non-EU car to PL by a non PL citizen (but PL Resident) [13]


The best thing to do is to ask an expert, I imported a car to Poland a few years back through Blue Sky Auto and can't speak highly enough of them. My understanding is that if you're buying a car abroad with the sole purpose of importing to Poland then you get hit with all the taxes and duty, but if you've owned the car abroad for a while and can prove it ( insurance docs etc) then it's almost like importing a piece of furniture and is far cheaper. But as I say, ask an expert.

Work / 3500 Euro Gross in Poland for a family of 2 Adults and a kid, any good? [28]


I think you would struggle, life's not cheap in Poland anymore, I'm paying 6-7 EUR for a mall foodcourt lunch each day in Warsaw. Have you thought about where you would send your kid to school ? International school fees in Warsaw are in the range of 20k USD per annum. Who are you going to be working for - Wipro?

Law / Does Poland have the most prehistorical and strictest banking system in the world? [57]


it is true and is a legal standard for Direct debits/Polecenia Zapłaty in Poland for example. The initiating bank sends the request for payment in the morning, the paying bank has to debit/reject by around noon and get the responses back to the initiating bank by the end of business that day. Other types of transfer follow exactly the same path so the functionality does exist. It does vary though per bank how often throughout the day they apply these incoming transfers to accounts, the bigger banks ( Pekao, PKO, HSBC etc) are doing it multiple times per day. So maybe your bank is not utilising the full capability of the Polish ElIXIR retail payments system or perhaps they are only doing it for high value clients/transfers.

If you're sending a transfer late on a Friday then yes it wont hit the other bank until Monday so in that case it could take longer but that's due to the weekend when there are no Elixir sessions after Saturday morning.

Law / Does Poland have the most prehistorical and strictest banking system in the world? [57]


I'd say that still being paid by cheque was rather out of date rather than the Polish banking systems. Customer Service in banks here may be poor at times but the functionality provided by the banks is reasonably advanced. Take for example transferring funds from one bank to another within Poland. You can initiate a transfer in the morning and it will be credited to the account in the other bank by the afternoon, that's been standard here for years.

You might be quickest posting your cheque back to the US to be deposited there and then wiring the funds back over here.

Law / Healthcare for British Citizens living in Poland [30]


is that true? have been googling around but can only see articles relating to expats residing outside the EEA area where such restictions apply ?


are we talking NI contributions or Inland Revenue taxes here ? I've just applied to start paying NI class 2 contributions to keep my UK state pension ticking over, not sure if that counts towards the NHS too ?

Being at the mercy of Polish healthcare is my biggest fear of living here.......

Law / Healthcare for British Citizens living in Poland [30]


Private health insurers (BUPA, AXA etc) won't cover you for already known medical conditions.

UK, Ireland / Scottish people in Poland [14]

I've moved here for 3 months from Edinburgh 9 years ago now :)

You'll find a few more Scots on the FB Polska TA page [facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=108947232459649] - here.


I was wondering too, probably burn out, looks like the baton has been passed to delphiandomine....

Law / Online Polish banking (in English) [27]

HSBC Poland: business.hsbc.pl/pl-pl/

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


you missed the point, if you don't see it then you're left in doubt - did you miss it or was the sign not there meaning you don't have priority? Priority should be explicitly clear. It may work in other countries but it doesn't work well here.

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

I don’t like that there are very few speed limit signs, I’m often driving in Poland and have no idea what the speed limit is supposed to be. You seem to be expected to know by the type of road.

Also, the give way to the right at junctions is ambiguous in many situations because of this yellow sign you're supposed to have seen or not seen prior to the junction. The driver should be left with no doubt when they should stop and give way.

Love / ARE POLISH WOMEN CATTY...? [75]

The original source article in Polska Times.

News / Decoded talks inside Poland's president's plane are released in Internet [337]


This is the bit I don't get, they were on autopilot until 6 seconds before the crash, why had the autopilot taken them so low ? Had the altitude been programmed incorrectly ?