Travel / Getting from Krakow to Warsaw [99]


If you check Polish Railways site at the link Harry gave:


and select a train, then you click on "Fares" (at the bottom) to see the price (it works only with certain types of trains at the moment, but the fastest connection, IC train - 2 hrs 49 min - costs 107 PLN in the 2nd class and 141 PLN in the 1st class, with the following remark: "Price contains additional payment IC/EC(1): 25.00 PLN; -in some trains additional payment can differentiate")

History / POLISH MEMORIES OF CHERNOBYL...April 26th 1986 [32]


Płyn Lugola (literally "Lugol's liquid", or more precisely Lugol's solution, Lugol's iodine), in Poland we drank it on May 1st during/after the obligatory Labour's Day parade.

It was like Nathan said, the official news was held secret for a long time (days), until the rumour was wide-spread throughout the country and it was impossible to hide the truth anymore.

Interesting views of professor Zbigniew Jaworowski, a member of some radiation laboratory at that time who suggested using this liquid to prevent toxic assimilation of iodine.

He claims it wasn't necessary (in Polish), but at that time they didn't know the full picture (because the Russians didn't inform about the size of the catastrophe and Polish scientists just assumed the worst case scenario).

And an article from Wprost (in English), where they say that according to UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) report the meltdown at Chernobyl wasn't a big deal.

I don't know, I guess it's hard believe it, when you read what people, who visited those lands, are saying. We all know the UN is a corrupted organization :(

Edit: Rzeczpospolita article (in Polish) from 2008, some interesting points:


Edit time of 15 minutes is too short :)

Other fragments of this last article:



And I remember a song, heard at some concert, probably in 1986 or 1987, with the text "Płyn Lugola to nie Coca-Cola"

Life / Which on the list of Polish girl's names do you like the most? [67]


Most names in Poland aren't Polish, they are either Latin, Greek or Hebrew/Arameic (from Bible), there's a small group of names with old Slavic roots, but mostly for men, I guess.


And in Polish it would be just Aleksandra :)
Quite popular (I think that the male version Aleksander is less common, but I may be wrong). The most common diminuitive for Aleksandra is Ola

Travel / Getting from Krakow to Warsaw [99]


check the timetables in English (also French and German versions available)
rozklad-pkp.pl/?q=en/node/143

just be sure to type in the correct day, because there are many seasonal trains in Poland, but I just checked that date and it seems OK (14:55 is the arrival at Warszawa Centralna station in the city center)


Probably not, Polish Railways aren't happy about reduced prices, so they mostly honour it only where it's appointed by national laws, and as far as I know Intercity trains are NOT subject to such regulations (only the slower trains). Still wait for someone else's opinions, as I'm only guessing.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Correct. The "old" grading system was 2 (fail), 3, 4, 5 (very good)
In the nineties they added 1 (fail) and 6 (excellent), so nowadyas 2 (dwójka) is now longer fail, but for many genrations it sound strange because the old system was in use since before the WWII.


Wrong, in this context it means high school - in cities bigger than about 25 thousands inhabitants you usually have more than one liceum (plus a few technikum and, currently less popular, professional mid-grade school, without matura (Liceum Ogólnokształcące no. 2 and no. 3, although in Polish we use Romanian numbers for high schools so it Liceum Ogólnokształcące II, Liceum Ogólnokształcące III etc.)

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [414]

Oh, they are worth much more. 100 times more!
10,000 old zloty = 1 new zl = (about) 33 US cents, so 30,000 old złoty = 1 US dollar :)

Law / POLISH BEER IMPORT TO UK [37]


Or maybe it's summer holidays time and many people are away?!

Anyway, you want to know how to export to UK, so your main concern is probably UK import laws, not Polish export laws.
So you should search for advice on a forum called "Business in UK", I guess.

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]


"life is brutal and full of zasadzkas" was some stupid saying popularized when I was young (about 20 years ago), but I already forgot how it had origianted :(

zasadzka = ambush; trap (actually "trap" is "pułapka" in Polish, but I guess ambush is a kind of trap anyways)

"kopas w dupas" would be "kopy w dupę" (kop - a kick, dupa - arse/ass) so kicks in the ass (where it's your ass that gets kicked).

plugav - not 100% sure about this one, but my best guess it's for "plugawy", which I'm not sure how to best translate in English, "plugawe życie" would be more or less "squalid/seamy/sleazy life"

Love / Polish Pet Names For Girls. [156]


normally "motylek" in Nominative and "motylku" in Vocative (so when you're saying it to somebody you use "motylku" when saying about somebody you use "motylek"), and it's a masculine gender noun, so it might be a little confusing when used about/to a girl :)

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [243]


Jedziemy na wycieczkę,
bierzemy misia w teczkę,
a misiu fiku-miku
narobił w teczkę siku.

Some other rhymes (maybe already posted, I'm not sure, don't feel like reading the whole thread again):

My jesteśmy krasnoludki,
Hopsa sa! Hopsa sa!
Pod grzybkami nasze budki,
Hopsa sa! Hopsa sa!
------------------------------------
Ślimak, ślimak pokaż rogi
Dam ci sera na pierogi
------------------------------------
Siała baba mak,
Nie wiedziała jak
Dziadek wiedział, nie powiedział,
A to było tak...
------------------------------------
Wlazł kotek na płotek i mruga,
£adna to piosenka nie długa,
Nie długa, nie krótka a w sam raz,
Zaśpiewaj koteczku jeszcze raz
------------------------------------
W pokoiku na stoliku
stało mleczko i jajeczko.
Przyszedł kotek wypił mleczko
a ogonkiem stłukł jajeczko.
Przyszła mama kotka zbiła
a skorupki wyrzuciła.

------------------------------------
And a bonus - „Stary niedźwiedź mocno śpi” game/play

1. Children go around a center point.
2. In the center there lies/sits one child - „The Bear”.
3. The other children walk around him and sing:

Stary niedźwiedź mocno śpi,
stary niedźwiedź mocno śpi.
My się go boimy, na palcach chodzimy,
jak się zbudzi to nas zje,
jak się zbudzi to nas zje.

4. And then they say, not sing:

Pierwsza godzina - niedźwiedź sapie.

5. Nothing happens, „the bear” is still resting, making a little noise while breathing.

Druga godzina - niedźwiedź chrapie.

6. Nothing happens, „the bear” is still resting, but now making a louder noise - snoring.

Trzecia godzina - niedźwiedź łapie!

7. „The bear” catches one of the children.
8. The child who got caught becomes „the bear”.
9. And they start all over again, until every child has been „the bear” or until they are tired:)

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [243]


Most people know the version with sroka (magpie) not wrona (crow), but there are regional differences, so maybe where you father lived they used wrona instead of sroka :)

Read my post from Mar 10, 15:34 hours and you'll find more info.

Food / Cream of Tartar (Warsaw) [7]

There's something called "sos tatarski" (dressing for salads etc.), but I'm not sure if that's what you need (the product names seem to match, but it may be something completely different).

Food / Cream of Tartar (Warsaw) [7]


I see.
Here's an older thread about the same thing, but it seems it's hard to find in Poland.

And here are two other threads about possible substitutes (I'm not sure you can use them in your recipe)

Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

Baking soda and baking powder

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [414]


The only money in circulation in Poland is made in the 90's and 00's (since 1994), here you can see them:
nbp.pl/home.aspx?f=/banknoty_i_monety/monety_obiegowe/opisy.html


That's really their fault, because the "denomination" was made 15 years ago, so they had lots of time to introduce the changes in their system.

Life / Where can I play volleyball in Warsaw? [10]

Do you understand Polish (at least in written form)? Because I don't have addresses/phone numbers to all the clubs, so you might have to search more information online.

I liga clubs (in reality second division, because the highest is called "ekstraklasa"):
LTS Legionovia Legionowo (small city just outside Warsaw)

II liga clubs (in reality third division):
AZS Politechnika Warszawska
00-325 Warszawa; Krakowskie Przedmieście 24;
tel./fax 0/22 552 04 53; 552 26 00

AZS AWF Warszawa
01-813 Warszawa; ul. Marymoncka 34;
tel./fax 0/22 834 77 04; 864 09 58

MUKS Sparta Warszawa

SL Salos Legionowo (again the same city outside Warsaw)

If none of these is good, then try the regional branch of the Polish Volleyball Association:
Mazowiecki Związek Piłki Siatkowej
00-429 WARSZAWA; ul. Rozbrat 26;
tel. 0/22 628 11 74
fax 0/22 628 11 74

Life / Where can I play volleyball in Warsaw? [10]

It should be useful if you tell me in which areas you'd like to play, Warsaw is a big city :)
Are you going to pay for it (amateur leagues usually charge the participating team, sometimes quite a lot of money) or you want to play for free (eventually only paying costs of the rent for the place where you play)?

Most universities probably have some organized games, I remember when I was at university (in Poznań, not Warsaw), we could play soccer or basketball with other students, all we needed was just to find a group of person who liked that sport, and then someone was arranging the details.

So this would probably be the best way - talk to some people in Warsaw, as I don't think you can find many informations online, if someone is playing only for pleasure, they don't start with a website :)

Or just ask in a professional club if they could recommend you a place/team, because those coaches/players would probably know (a little more than me) what's going on in their sport in Warsaw.