History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [429]

What a lovely Christmas treat for the lucky students - most of whom probably can't find Russia on a world map thanks to the woeful American education system. Maybe a lesson in world geography first before you deal with history. But best of luck. Hope it goes well.

Classifieds / Lovely friend has leukaemia - please help! [6]

You're very welcome Hazmat. You probably know about Anthony Nolan but just in case you don't, they also have patient appeals. They're affiliated to DKMS but getting yourself on to as many individual websites and locations as possible would be good. ❤️

Classifieds / Lovely friend has leukaemia - please help! [6]

Hi Hazmat, I am adding an additional link that gives more information on the process. It might be a bit confusing for people because they may not realise that they don't actually need to be living in the UK, where Theo seems to be receiving his treatment. I am linking to Swab The World, their Ireland page, UK, Poland and USA pages as many users of this forum are Polish American. I would suggest that if you haven't already done so, you should also contact the Irish Blood Transfusion Service who have a register of donors. Best of luck to Theo.

swabtheworld.com/en/country/ireland

swabtheworld.com/en/country/united-kingdom

swabtheworld.com/en/country/poland

swabtheworld.com/en/country/united-states

Food / Kolaczki cookies [2]

You could type your g-grandma's recipe into Google Translate:

translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=pl&op=translate

I'm not Polish but I checked the history of the recipe and it seems that centuries ago they were made without cheese. So it's possible that your family recipe is a very old one.

"Originally, Kolaczki were made with a yeasted dough filled with sweet ingredients such as dried fruits, nuts, or honey. Over time, the recipe evolved, and the yeasted dough was replaced with a more tender and delicate pastry dough, similar to a shortbread or cream cheese dough"

The Czech 'kolache' dough is made with yeast and without the cheese.

3 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
▢1 cup milk
▢2 and ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
▢⅔ stick unsalted butter
▢⅓ cup granulated sugar
▢1 egg
▢½ teaspoon salt
▢1 teaspoon vanilla paste optional

Travel / Best way transport Belgium - poland [3]

There is no easy way to do that journey unfortunately but the flight from Eindhoven option would probably be the quickest, about twelve hours. You could always spend a night in Krakow to break the journey :

rome2rio.com/map/Maastricht/Zakopane#trips/transport/Maastricht/Zakopane/r/Train-to-Eindhoven-fly-to-Krakow-train

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Life / Paintings of artists from Poland? [192]

She's talking about the pic of the house in the snow :)

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Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [21]


They're not hidden though. It's quite obvious that they're under the tree.

Presents left on the table in Germany are also wrapped.

In Ireland the pressies go under the tree on Christmas Eve, in the evening. In our house we always used to wrap our presents in the afternoon or early evening and gradually add them. It was lovely to see the spectacle appear over the course of the day. When they were all there, my mother always used to shake her head and say 'God Almighty, aren't we very greedy! All those presents, it's a disgrace!' :)) But a lot of them were just small things, not expensive. We liked to buy each other a lot of little things, rather than one or two big presents.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [21]


The German tradition of putting the crib under the tree and the presents on the Weinachtstisch nearby is nice.

Very frosty, snowy looking - a Snow Queen vibe :)

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Travel / Transport adventures in Poland [50]

When I saw the opening lines of your post on the front page, I thought you were going to tell us you had an accident! Glad you didn't. Nice pics :)) Btw, we don't say 'today afternoon' in English. We say 'this afternoon'. Remember that when you're with your students ;)

Off-Topic / Arts and crafts [123]


Perfect image for a Christmas card :) Not that kitsch really. Quite beautifully rendered.

The Halifax one is really striking and evocative.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [21]


Yes, that's not something I would choose myself. I've never seen that before. But I like the overall appearance of the tree. I like the old-fashioned, retro style with the tinsel and lametta, and I like that kind of shape of tree.

That's very eastern. They certainly sell lovely ones in Poland. I go for a star myself. In Ireland angels are popular too.

Thank you for your tree Lenka :) very feminine.

Off-Topic / A VERY CHRISTMASSY FORUM - IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS THREADS [109]


British English would favour that usage. Happy Holidays is an Americanism.

Off-Topic / THE POLISH FORUMS CHRISTMAS TREE! [21]

Oh yes, I agree. You can get really nice ones nowadays and of course we have a basement! This is a Polish forum. Piwnica musi być!

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Law / Polish Citzenship application - Hexon Poland - any experience with this company? [4]

They've been around years so I don't think they're scammers. But yes, Polish customer service is generally not great and mostly they're not good at communicating via email. If you email Polish companies it's not unusual to be ignored. Why don't you give them a call?

Polonia / Polish bus crash in Croatia. Is there a fate? [142]


In Ireland, the law allows for a lifetime ban but that would be at the discretion of the court. It has been imposed a few times but twenty years is more usual and the lifetime ban can be reduced on appeal - and has been, but only many years after the issuing of the ban.

Ireland and England have a very different legal system to Poland so there's a lot more flexibility in how the law is applied. Ireland has a mixture of case law, common law, constitutional and statutory law.