Poland is horrible and I have to live here - somebody call a whambulance!

You sound like you're new to Poland :) We're not sad, it's just natural "resting face" for Poles. And that's apparently typical not only for Eastern Europe, but also for Central Europe:

spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/redundant-advice-don-t-smile-too-much-german-shop-assistants-warned-a-553186.html

And Scandinavian countries too, apparently. 🤔


Like what? ;D

It's interesting how different people even from the same country (like the US) can have so different opinions about Poland and Poles :)


Please go back to your country as soon as possible:)))

This is a fair comment however Poles are the exemplar of those.

Georg Mikes (who was last in Poland in 1939) wrote about the unhappy expressions on people's faces on trams in Warsaw, people looking as if they wanted to be anywhere else except that.


Miserable buggers too.

@jon357, that's not very tolerant of you - different doesn't mean worse :)))

Poles, Germans, Scandinavians, etc. aren't "miserable" - they are simply nations of introverts.

We all are, however there's a strange kind of gloom among all of them, probably emanating from a whirlpool in the Baltic with Cthuluski at the bottom.

As if British aren't miserable over their own weather! At least night does last so long as some countries during the winter

You simply don't know it, so you are not able to recognize it.
---

You can smile all you want, but don't be surprised if you end up in an asylum with doctors trying to find out what is wrong with you and what kind of psychopath you are.
--

You got a point, it is the EU-enforced nonsense.

What do you mean by "we"?

Yeah I wouldn't recommend smiling all he wants in either Central or Northern Europe. Would definitively create laughter or worry. Possibly forced professional assistance

@Paulina
Must of hit a nerve, but sorry, I don't buy the resting face line. If I was a native in Europe I wouldn't be happy either with all government overreach. Hence why Poles leave Poland. Taxed to death. Especially with the EU's plan for Poles to pay for Africa and Asia to replace them like the rest European countries are doing.

The most upsetting comment of mine for you was the recycling? Have fun paying all those taxes. In America they push the same nonsense but to a way lesser degree than in Europe. Like you won't be fined for not recycling. The reality of recycling is that very little can be recycled. They are unable to sort through everything or recycle everything. That's why they have 10 different waste bins in Europe, but still that won't be enough. Many things cant be recycled. It's more of brainwashing campaign than anything. And who gets that money from all that recycling? It's not the citizens that's for sure.

@Ironside
Polish people are very hospitable, but in Warsaw people in public are mostly rude. They take up the entire side walk. They jump in front of you at the grocery store. And of course they talk over you. That last one is the most annoying. And it's not because I'm foreign. People dont know I'm foreign unless I start trying to speak Polish heh, but this just how people treat each other in Warsaw.

My theory is that the farther east you go the less manners people have.

The smiling comment was funny.

Over foreignization though will strain hospitality even among the most generous of nations,
just think of Ireland having to deal with that boatload of Romanians some years back!
Irish eyes ain't smilin' no more(:-

That's your problem then. It didn't hit a nerve, I simply stated a fact. Do some cultural research, read a bit about it, travel more.


No, Poles don't leave because of taxes lol


No, it's just gave me some idea about your political views, I think :)


And in New York they're polite in comparison to some small town in the US? :)

@Paulina

Why do Poles leave Poland then? Every Pole Ive talked to said it was about money and taxes.

Yes, people in the city are generally not as friendly, but I've lived in the big city, and yeah, still very few manners in Warsaw.

Sweet child of summer... you have no idea how it used to be. It's charm central compared to a couple of decades ago.... (and many Poles in the rest of the country loathe Warsaw not least because of the comparative lack of manners).

As an aside as anyone watched Warszawianka series? Looks pretty apt 😄

Generalizations are stupid.

@mafketis
ah, so was even worse. Congratulations?

Not necessarily, sometimes it is simply better development opportunities, less corruption, better infrastructure, better climate, etc.

Weird.... you very rarely hear Polish people talk much about taxes.... a little griping but it's just not an issue the way it is in some countries.

Whoresore did not take you up on your kind invitation...... maybe her sores are playing up......

Why not. Borys Syc is brilliant.

youtube.com/embed/u9RvfKLB2-s&t=65

Do you experience different states of awareness?

Nigg* please. Its the warsaw creative class.

Sort of, though parts of the north west and north are populated by people a generation or two from further east. Far more abrupt with strangers than, say, Upper Silesia.

I'm uncertain about the situation. Paulina is our resident person who often voices her concerns; she tends to argue persistently and identifies as a feminist. Despite this, she has a good heart (maybe) and has only traveled outside of Poland for holidays. As a result, her interactions with people from other countries have been limited to experiences in Poland or through social media.
--

Isn't that true for most larger cities? In my experience, residents of big cities often become indifferent to their fellow human beings because they feel overwhelmed by crowds. If that's the case, you'll need to accept it because they are unlikely to change for you. Tada!
--

Well, you have been had kaffir! It is a con.

Especially capital cities... one reason they are often disliked by most in the country.

One of many reasons.

Of course people from a country tend to stay in the centre when they're visiting their own capital, unless they've friends or family in the suburbs. I did some work in London a couple of years ago, sort of northwest London between the centre and where Milo is. Spending time on Wembley and Kilburn High Streets sort of restored my faith in the place. Shopkeepers were as friendly as in the north and prices weren't Londoney.

Re. The east, I have to say, last time I was in Lublin I was struck by how much cleaner and how much less football graffiti (and graffiti of any kind) there was there. Ok, the city gets very sparse (and green!) once you leave the immediate centre (so, less walls to write on apart from tower blocks) but still, I was shocked. "Is this the clean Poland that all the Poles are talking about online?" Even the few Motor Lublin murals I saw were much more artful than the Legia barbarians' works - I noticed they sometimes used heavy metal band logo-style typefaces, which I really liked. I also noticed far fewer menele than I've seen in Warsaw or in fact most Polish cities. Could "Poland B" really be the real "Poland A"?

After over a decade of Warsaw experience (less actually living there), I have to reluctantly concede that it is a hole. I see what the rest of the country are talking about. The Legia scum just write sh*te everywhere and nobody ever paints over it. There's malpki and other alcohol containers everywhere. Some friends came down from Lodz for the day a while ago and one cut her foot on broken glass in the street - and that was in the centre, which is actually the CLEANEST part. I saw what looked like human sh*t in one of the ashtray bits of a street bin once (you can tell), have seen many pairs of abandoned soiled boxers, and I saw a man taking a dump once in the archway near our apartment building. There is more dog sh*t per square metre here than anywhere else I've ever been, and I've been to developing countries. It's a f*cking grim place at times.

@jon357 You should see south London. Especially the southern parts of Lambeth, northern parts of Croydon, etc. People there are much friendlier and more down-to-earth than the rest of the city IMO. although they're gentrifying fast with yuppies. These are the kinds of places people know all their neighbours, give them Christmas cards, take in each other's post, remind each other when it's a particular bin day, etc. It gets a bad press, though. And yeah, sh*tloads of knife crime...

Two exceptions....

Americans don't hate Washington DC (except as a stand-in for the federal government) but most are neutral to vaguely positive about it as a city. The real hatred is reserved for NYC.

I had a group of Chinese students and asked them about Beijing.... they love Beijing as a city... it's Shanghai they hate (very open and unabashed about it too).

Maybe Malta too... Valletta is tiny just a blip in a big Katowice-style conurbation... Birkirkara seems less popular (part of the same conurbation).

@mafketis
Perhaps it depends on whether the capital is either a purpose build one like Washington or Canberra (which Aussies sometimes describe as a waste of good fields) and/or a historical one like The Hague or on the other hand, the country's biggest city; those are always hated unless you're North Korean and have to pretend to like them.


A bit like Manila