Life / How to carry your groceries if you travel by tram in Poland? [12]

I think you could ask your fav store do deliver your starter kit right to your home....they might do it for free if you buy quantity. Taxi would cost less then 5eur and you may load it up the roof....Wroclaw has also cheap bikes to rent! Now, you can write your options down,too as summer 2016 is almost 400 days and nights away and you could forget.

News / US slaps Poland in the face (Comey Poland) [92]


Yet, child rearing had much to do with that average German following that nationalistic rubbish - not hunger, poverty ( which was/is present elsewhere ) Agree, it is off topic.

News / US slaps Poland in the face (Comey Poland) [92]

They swallowed that rubbish for they, as children were raised in violence and beaten into obedience in accordance with infamous, poisonous pedagogy - so we already KNOW why.

naturalchild.org/alice_miller/adolf_hitler.html

Life / Anyone living in Szczecin? What's the city like? [69]

About that Laguna Gryfino Aqua park: quite scenic, with less traffic and a bit shorter (!) road from Szczecin to Gryfino would be when driving through Germany - crossing to Germany via Rosowek and back to Poland via Gryfino - Mescherin bridge.

Only weekends there are crowded and midweek occasionally you'd have a bus of school kids

Life / Anyone living in Szczecin? What's the city like? [69]

according to Internet there is one place in Szczecin where you can do loundry yourself:

perfektpralnia.pl/index.php

Pralnia "PERFEKT"
ul. Witkiewicza 58/U10
Szczecin
Telefon: 730 095 294
Email: perfektpralnia@gmail

other options would be using students dormitories where they have coin operated facilities

Life / Anyone living in Szczecin? What's the city like? [69]


Palac Mlodzierzy in Szczecin has several dancing groups your daughter might enjoy (not sure how she'd handle it linguistically) - it's a youth center with all kind of other activities like painting, ceramics, musical instruments etc

palac.szczecin.pl/pracownia-tanca-etnicznego

Szczecin is good if you like hiking or being on bike - lots of green areas inside and outside of town google perhaps and have a look at: Puszcza Bukowa , Jezioro Szmaragdowe , Lasek Arkonski, Park Kasprowicza, Jezioro Głebokie

If you like sport entertainment Szczecin has basketball, handball and volleyball league games in safe environment, on AZOTY ARENA where lots of families would come with kids

For swimming: ARKONKA KAPIELISKO or some 40 km away aqua park GRYFINO LAGUNA
Hope this helps

Love / Wedding in Szczecin recommendations. How long before must the documents be provided to the registry office? [18]

Hi KevinUK,

I am from Szczecin so am inclined to answer yet have not attended any wedding as of recently so kind of am also not familiar with the whole wedding issues. I did check with google "where wedding Szczecin" (in polish :) and the very fist entry would provide the following information:

price per guest is 180 to 300 pln , free red carpet............here you go, it is in English (some 40 km from Szczecin)

dworekhetmanski.pl/en/wesela/oferta.html

and more offers at:
gdziewesele.pl/Szczecin

Law / Marrriage with my best friend (a girl from Poland) for papers. What are the chances of getting caught? [10]

I think your chances of getting caught are minimal providing you are going to share a flat/apartment with her. If you are middle class and white Canadian it would help. Interview would often include so called personal questions so this is where you could possibly fail - example: your wife and you would answer if you you are wearing boxers or briefs when in bed.

Your neighbors would also be asked to answer few questions but only to verify that you are being seen under the address.
So over all , with some preparations and reading you could pull it off.

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]

You can check on current train delays on the website below (type in your destination) . When it snows delays are more likely, still Pendolinos are PKP new stars, so would rather be on time.

infopasazer.intercity.pl

News / Turkey abolished visas for Poles. [80]


I'm ready. It's Istanbul. Been in Turkey before in summer. Great people, food. This time flying from Berlin and happy to avoid tourist hostile and arrogant UK as transfer point.

News / Turkey abolished visas for Poles. [80]


agree, and they'd rather go Sochi then Crimea which depends so much on summer tourism. Russian rubel may be cheap yet decrease in travels to Russia since Ukraine crisis is significant -not to mention hassle one has to go through obtaining Russian visa....and I'm in Turkey in end of December :) (not much of Oligarch myself though.)

News / Turkey abolished visas for Poles. [80]

We are compensating for Russian tourists who wouldn't come to Turkey for their currency meltdown. Off topic: Russian tourist from Kaliningrad (visa free to Poland) don't come here anymore for same reason. Anyway it is a good news. Turkish visa was quickly issued at the airport, now we'd save time and $

Life / Swimming in Kalisz [5]

Most Kaliszians I'd say would swim in the pools...crowded in summer

Life / Swimming in Kalisz [5]

Prosna isn't deep enough for swimming, kayaking is popular, can catch a pike,t, too..... and also ...running ......

News / Local elections - anyone care to comment? [52]

To vote for Sejmik one had to choose one candidate, the booklet for Sejmiki had several pages - many marked one candidate on each page....not bothering to read or educate before voting.

Any irregularities anyway should and would be dealt by local courts. If elections would be repeated then only locally. Again no need to new elections countrywide some argue for (PiS SLD)

Very disappointed with SLD....I understand and expect not much from Kaczynski who would call the elected president "ten Pan" but SLD?? ... questioning election and calling for making them again, nationwide is a big surprise to me and first of all disgusting, political antidemocratic maneuver. Bag of scumbags they are along with PiS now. Miller who could pride himself of getting us into EU now is questioning our young democracy.

Elections were local - for those not understanding - there is no assembly of all elected, no such institution -only locally, where protests are examined by court we could have elections done again.

News / Local elections - anyone care to comment? [52]

Technical failure resulted with counting votes late and announcing results later then usual. People voted already and their votes could be counted - even manually. No need for new election. Any complains as for the results/procedure etc can be dealt by court locally as it was done in previous elections.

Life / New home gift - Is there a Polish tradition for this situation? [4]

Buy something practical if you feel you are close to them, think wedding .....ironing desk, expresso maker or similar. If you are not that close flowers would be fine. ...I'm thinking flowers in a vase would make it something in between. Good luck.

News / What are notable differences between Poland's National Security Strategy 2007 and 2014? [9]

One notable difference would be we are not going for free anywhere far like Iraq, Syria etc, priority in spendings is for whatever is needed to upgrade ourselves. Also as priority more focusing on energy security - within EU. Military budget has been increased to 2% GDP, they'd probably use it all up unlike in previous years.

Life / Vandalism in Poland: Has it always been this way? [80]

You don't see graffiti being done as most of it is a 5 second **** on the wall. As for fast clean up hardly any building has a maintenance guy present at the property and cleaning ladies don't have graffiti clean up on their contracts; tenants could call but property management would be deaf on much more important issues.

The real vandals are drivers - on sidewalks and also green areas. Shoes here wear out much faster...on sharp sidewalks elements, loose stones, glass, you name it.

Life / Vandalism in Poland: Has it always been this way? [80]

stadiums are hooligans free these days......almost free.
Streets aren't the same as in PRL, we are much louder and we swear a lot, out loud, too. Nobody would flee from Police either. In PRL Police would round up anybody near vandalized property, beat them up on the way to Police station and force some to admit a crime....Now they can't establish who did what fast enough.

TV, Internet would take any news and now everybody has camera, so would post any incident up somewhere for others to see.
Society tends to raise children better, I would like to believe. At least beating children is now punishable and less frequent.
Still, Poland is a very safe place to be overall and all the hype is indeed media theme.

UK, Ireland / Advice needed on a Polish funeral/customs in the UK [11]

We need to get some Polish soil for the burial (does anyone know how we can do this in the UK?

- You need just a handful of soil. It is thrown into grave first, by close member of a family

Wear a black ribbon to mourn the dead, sometimes for a whole year
- 6 months for grandpa, 1 year for mother/father, other relatives 3 months:

dressingmrsl.blogspot.com/2010/04/zaloba-w-polsce-zaloba-wsrod-polonii.html

For funeral notices (and graves?) we should use the phrase, S+P before his name, meaning Swietej Pamieci, and sometimes an hourglass too
- it is Ś P with a cross in between. Like in the photograph here:

Mourning in Poland , mourning among the Polish community

In the face of this tragedy, I feel more a Pole than when our athletes have won gold medals at international sporting events.

I bought a black ribbon , I wear it in the lapel in the period of national mourning . Flag lowered to half- mast . Friends call of condolence .

Strange to me , sad and terribly together.

There is a memorial mass on the first anniversary of the death
- yes. And dinner after the funeral for all ceremony participants

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]


The rage suppressed in childhood is transformed into hate.

Work / How does a person join the Poland's army? [39]

I'm not sure how it is this year but few years back Polish Army would take 2000 soldiers onto some contracts and there were 20000 willing to join in. So, over all it is not easy to get into the army. The usual process is as follows: at certain age you are called to do your 9 months regular service for the army - you may take it or refuse. After 9 months you'd have a chance to apply for professional contract. As you said you'd be having polish nationality and would be going to school in Poland. This would be a good time and place to visit any army office (WKU) and probably volunteer with regular service.

Love / Turkish girl & Polish guy marriage. Will his parents ever accept me as a non Christian female? [42]


Good chances are they would. Family ties in Poland are loosening in general so perhaps you'd be less dependent and in less contact with your in laws - assuming you end up living in Poland. Being from Turkey and not form some other non-Christian country would definitely help, too - considering over all good perception of Turks in Poland and some history with Polish-Turkish intermarriage.

Law / Laws in Poland regarding ownership of found valuables/treasure using a metal detector? [3]

For now any treasure you would dig out belongs to the state, even something on your own property. Basicly what is under belongs to the state. Low remains unenforced most of the time but sometimes authorities would claim something offered for sale on ebay, allegro etc.

Some work is done to regulate it differently though - treasure hunters would get half of the value while the other half would be owned by the land owner.

In recent years there has been lots of people hunting and finding all kinds of things and media would sometimes inform on what was found and where if worthy their attention.

Law / Banks in Poland are rip off - western union charges [4]

Strange. I used WU outlets few times, also in PKO bank and never had any extra fees. Perhaps you were using regular bank (no WU outlet) with request to transfer to WU. Rip off.

Travel / Has anyone ever stayed at the Guest House Wytchnienie in Lublin? [6]


Place has positive reviews with some complains on some small size rooms( too small) ; most compliment the hosts as friendly and helpful; good parking, easy access to the city center, fine kitchen .

Life / Are there Russian speakers living in Poland? [10]


Not all of them. Ukrainians who identified themselves as ethnic Russians constituted less then 20 % of the population
The simple truth is that the majority of Ukrainians speak both Russian and Ukrainian. Most of them speak Russian at work, and use Ukrainian at home. Citizens living in urban areas primarily speak Russian and those in the rural areas speak primarily Ukrainian or mixed Russian-Ukrainian

History / Ordinary Polish people who collaborated with the Communist authorities? [28]


It was not necessary but would definitely enhance your chances by large. Say, as a regular party member you'd wait 3-7 years for your flat being on the list among single mothers and without PZPR card your waiting time was 15-20 years. The same goes for holiday package, getting a phone line and advancing at your job - surely you could get things done yet things were much easier to get through party channels.

History / Ordinary Polish people who collaborated with the Communist authorities? [28]

All PZPR party members - about 3 000 0000 members at its peak - to some degree were collaborating with SB. You may argue they were not ordinary people but I think they were. Almost all polish families had some relative in PZPR as the membership would be required to get and hold ANY supervisor type job position, sometimes to get a flat or a coupon for a car or other benefits, would help get passport or holiday package in Bulgaria.

They had contact with SB officer on monthly basis, on party members meetings and depending on their position, milieu, relatives would inform or answer questions or be left alone. Some to avoid PZPR membership would join PZPR coalition partners like United People Party or Democratic Party and this was considered less shameful. Many would go to party meetings hiding and would never tell anyone they were the members.

It would be fair to say that many PZPR members would try to say as little as possible when in contact with SB, often claiming they knew absolutely nothing and PZPR membership actually would protect them - any member of PZPR was treated by SB with degree of respect and given a benefit of doubt.