Rate Poland (Life Quality / Culture and People / Food): 1-10!

[quote=FUZZYWICKETS Alllie wrote:
[/quote]

of course she wants to stay here because she's from here, simple is that.

hahah i am actually half swedish and scottish and i have some polish in me too down the line. I was born in scotland.

when i was 20 i was blessed with the opportunity to travel around practically all of europe and i have to say poland is my favorite ! i was able to stay in krakow and attend university jagielonski and find a very good job :) i am happy and healthy and loving poland and making new friends . The people here are so nice !

what on earth are you talking about !?!?

poland is loaded with sheer esthetics !!!!!!

Krakow ? Old warszawa ? Gdansk ? Torun ? Poznan ? Zakopane etc.

now those are sheer esthetics !!!!

[quote=Alllie hahah i am actually half swedish and scottish and i have some polish in me too down the line. I was born in scotland.[/quote]

hahaha, and I'm a little bit of everything too and born in Timbuktu and that's why I live in Poland.

I don 't think so..From a topography point of view, France is much more diverse than Poland, with lakes, high mountains ranges like the Alps and Pyrenees; middle ones like the Jura, Massif central and Vosges and plenty of regional lower ones (Cevennes, Forez..). Poland is much more monotonous, it is essentially a big plain bordered by low mountains (compared to France's) to the South and lakes to the North East

Yes, but they don't compare with France.

Because Poland is, frankly speaking, completely ******* unable to promote herself. But plenty of German tourists do come to the Baltic Sea and the cities, plenty of Slovaks/Czechs/Hungarians go to the mountains, Americans/Brits to the cities - Poland's not doing too badly.

One problem in Poland is a total lack of coordinated effort to advertise the place.

Teffle is right



The 2 quotes above from bberlin62 and Allie show IMHO the chief reason why people (foreigners) stay in Poland: not the countryside, not the beauty, not the food, not the climate but its strong traditions and culture. Don't want to seem to appear practising cheap psychology, but it is sign that both bberlin60 and allie have mixed origins and love a country which is strongly monoethnic and has deep roots. One is always looking for what one hasn't got..

Seems to be very true.

Amazing that more effort isn't put into this - potentially large income for relatively little investment.

I have hosted a young newly wed couple who are my relatives from Vancouver, Canada this August. They have visited few countries cruising on Mediterranean Sea as part of their honey moon, visiting Italy, Spain and Greece. At the end of their tour they finally have come to Warsaw Poland only for 4 days. The young lady has never been in Poland before; her husband was born here so I can just describe her opinion about the country she has not known.

She managed to visit only Warsaw (city center, Old Town, Mokotów and suburbs) and Radom (granny lives there). The only thing I remember, when she was talking about her experiences in Poland was a shock. She said that she expected to see something different, but she didn`t want to elaborate on the subject ,what exactly it was what she expected, but she said that Warsaw`s Old Town is the most beautiful place she has ever seen in her life. She was totally shocked by the beauty of the cities and Polish people. Even she said Radom was also neat city , she expected some kind of a village, but she admired quite nice secession architecture of a main street of Żeromskiego and was nicely surprised .

I wonder how come a person coming from Canada can have such a distorted view about Poland . But I think by reading Globe and Mail or watching American sitcoms in TV, which are full of anti- polish stereotypes you can`t have a positive view about Poland . There is still lots of anti- polish prejudices formed by Polish Jewish diaspora, who still do so many malicious acts against Poland , spreading false images of Poland and its people . I am sure it happens all over the world ( France or British Jews act the same way ). I don`t need to mention that they are in large numbers in western media too , not only in Canada or US .

So, I am not surprised that too little tourists visit our country as our government does practically nothing to get rid of this detrimental images.

Teffle:


I saw that in Poland too.

I've never been to Paris but judging by pictures of it took by my friends, Paris seems to be dull and overhyped. Grey buildings, pretty much the same type of architecture you can find elsewhere, the only difference is the romantic associations with Paris and that they are not covered with advertisements like let's say Polish cities are.

I also watched recently a documentary about destruction of Ibisa natural enviroment by touristic industry and how developers builds illegally hotels on areas of natural reserve and I was pretty dissapointed because aesthetics of those "natural wonders" wasn't really intresting... actually they were merely fields of yellow grass...

bullfrog:


What do you mean? I think that Polish traditions are dissapearing and are not promoted really while culture is the same like everywhere in Europe. You can see many baroque churches in Poland which are copy of Italian il Gesu.

FUZZYWICKETS:


Why? Simply because Poland is not so hot country and people go to those countries to sunbath and swimm in warm seas. They go to Paris because there is a romantic legend of that city. They go to Alps in winter because there are good skying conditions. Is that suprising you?

Why in America people commonly don't recongnise Norway as a touristic destination? Judging it's beauty it's one of the most worth visit place on the planet. Maybe it's because saying I was in Norway doesn't sound as good as saying I spend my holydays in France?

mainly because the Americans have a couple of such Norways on their doorstep - like Alaska or British Columbia

Well I've seen it in Ireland too as it happens! It was just a singular, random example. The countryside in Provence is full of lavender. The sheer regional variety in French landcape is amazing - it really is like lots of little countries within one sometimes.


Overhyped, probably - but only because of the enormous name & reputation it has to live up to. Doomed to falling short in some ways really.

But dull, no way - and grey buildings??

I don't know where you get that from. To be honest, and no offence, but when anyone says grey buildings, after Russia, Poland would be the first place that most people would think of!

I have been to France a number of times (including Paris) and really it is delusion and fantasy to think that Poland can compare or even come close. Poland is not without charm and beauty but I think you would be very lucky to find any non-Poles who think it is a more beautiful country than France. It's even a bit sad and laughable to hear the suggestion really.


More likely because Norway is more expensive.

They also have couple of such Spains on their doorsteps. Actually why they travel to Europe? Just to see a bit of aschitecture (which is common in Europe but not common in America?)


From pictures. I also didn't associated Paris with grey buildings but it seemed to me they are which was a big suprise to me.

Dear Teffle


I've never said so. I just said I can't understand the phenomenom of Paris.


before you laugh me out or offend me in other sophisticated way care to actually read what I wrote.

to taste the thousands years of living culture and civilization I guess America lacks

...and before you get all offended bear in mind that it was not addressed to you, it was a general comment - look above and on previous pages and you will see a few insanely optimistc patriots ; )

You should ask your friends to buy a new camera, or even better, go visit Paris yourself.

The pictures were taken in November - maybe that's the reason for that impression. Although the weather was good and shiny back then.

I spent a month in Paris and it's not dull nor overhyped at all but it's indeed very romantic and in my opinion a perfect honey moon destination.

As for Poland,Poland being Eastern European country gets a lot of bad rap.I mean we all know that "westerners" (well ok,I can only talk about Americans but I guess same goes for other "westerners) picture Eastern Europe as a muddy cesspool full of poverty stricken creatures.I think when it comes to Americans,part of that image can be attributed to immigrants from Poland from 20's and 30's of XX century who came from some forgotten villages in kresy (Eastern Poland and today's Ukraine) who spread that view and Jews who consider Poland to be nothing but a huge cemetary.

As I was listening the other day to some notable cook in the radio, the problem with Polish food, especially bigos is that to make it right you must make it couple of days.

Thing is, that due to sanitary regulations you cann't keep food that long in restaurants (at least in conditions required to make bigos right). That is the reason why it is hard to get proper bigos and some other Polish food in restaurants - it is just cooked wrongly, and that is the reason that "babcias food" rules and will rule. Babcias don't care about sanitary regulations...


Look at average number of sunny days here and there. Poland does better in that regard than UK but which country doesn't ;) To sum things up, weather in Poland is to unpredictable to regular tourist, and season is to short. Just look at this year, most of July and August were rainy and relatively cold. But September was unusually warm and sunny... One can never tell on the border of atlantic and continental climate.

As for beauty of Polish countryside - probably individual thing. I've been to probably half of European countries on holidays and in many places in Poland. In my opinion Poland has as much to offer as any European country of that size. You just need to know where, when and what for you go.

Agreed, but they are still much stronger than in the rest of Europe. Just two examples:

- the importance of family: how many of us with polish wives/girlfriends are confronted to the situation where they want to leave close to their family or at least see them as often as possible? I don't think that this is the attitude most prevalent in the UK or even in the rest of Western Europe

- other example is the way Easter/ Xmas is spent here, whereas the epitome of good Xmas in the Uk seems to be booze + telly (plus a bit of turkey to be fair..); only a slight exaggeration..

I think it's more regarded as an obligation.


The only reason why there is no booze on Xmas Eve table is that it's a day of the fast. That means no meat and alcohol.

In my family Xmas looks like that: we sit by the table, break the wafer, make wishes, eat untill we feel sick then go unwrap the gifts and go home :)

The rest days of Xmas are about watching tv and gaining some kilos ;)

Have you already heard famous Polish saying: "Święta, święta... i po świętach!" (Christmas, Christmas... and Christmas passed!)

Besides that I doubt that foreigners go to Poland to spend there their Xmas.

Nope. When I spend Xmas in my Polish family (who are as religious as any other Polish family), we have wine on the 24th

must been Sunday then.

No, I wrote spend (ie regularly) not spent (one time event). Traditional pre Xmas fast requires no meat but there are no rules prohibiting alcohol intake.

My family thinks there are.

Teffle admires streets of Paris ,but you forgot to mention about sheer beauty of common dwellers of Paris streets as well as those cozy restaurants like rats .This is something Paris should start advertising .

Any more 50s propaganda you'd like to share oh mad one?

(or whatever the hell this mentally subnormal 3rd rate PiS type stuff you keep posting is)

My wife can, her nurse friends can make it as well. Its easy. The problem is getting Fish of sufficient quality, freshness and variety. pretty impossible here in Krakow.

So did mine until 5 years ago, but I did a little bit of research, which I'm willing to provide to you for free:

"The Vigilia is the most important meal of the year therefore the preparation is very careful, although the meal varies for area to area, it is normally without meat and can be 7, 9 or 11 courses. [...]. Desert is usually fruit compote and several versions of cake with poppy seeds, if you have any room left to take it. Traditionally Polish Vodka washes this down. " about-poland/polish-traditions.html

and another one

Abstinence from flesh-meat is obligatory for all who are over 14, and it should be observed on all Fridays (some believers are falsely convinced that it only applies to the Lenten Fridays) and on Ash Wednesday. The Church clearly emphasizes that if someone cannot abstain from flesh-meat on Friday he must do some other form of penance. The official commentary to the fourth commandment of the Church does not mention Christmas Eve but we should follow the deeply rooted Polish tradition (which does not exist in many countries) and treat this day as a day of abstinence. Combining abstinence from flesh-meat with abstinence from alcohol is praiseworthy

sunday.niedziela/artykul.php?dz=wiara&id_art=00082

Note in the 2nd excerpt (from the very serious Tygodnik katolicki) that abstinence from alcohol is praiseworthy and not compulsory.. So i tell them that unlike them I am not a saint but only a poor human.. So now not only am i allowed to drink a couple of glasses of wine but they have also taken it on..

We don't get proper sushi, just salmon and crab sticks. Forget getting sake, suzuki or toro here in Poland without breaking the bank. Not gonna happen.