3 reasons why you hate Poland.

[quote=pgtx
Try to stay on topic. Thanks.[/quote]
Sorry, will try harder.

Good evening all

Once ,i decided to make a trip through some european countries, so i started my adventure from Marseille in France , Rome ,a long way by train to Austria,and an endless road on bus to slovakia ,czech and finally i ended up in the pole land .

it was a rainy dark day of october when i arrived krakow, who seemed as melancolic as tim burton has shown london in " sweeney todd movie". the most underrated city in europe,beautiful architecture with different coulours , different "european" people than i used to meet in italy or france,with their huge attachement to religion and church . maybe i havnt appreciated food so much like in the french gastronomy,but i enjoyed the simplicity and modesty of people .i was also mesmerized by a magic spell of the old Polish monarchy in the Wawel Royale Castle.it was a pleasent experience full of emotion and respect for people who have suffered a lot through the history.

i am not european,but i wish this part of europe will remain for her native people,because saddly ,some countires are destroyed by the flow of some ignorant and lazy immigrants who instead of giving a plus to this culture ,they rather fade her brightness into a black picture.

Thank u

seriously? How funny is that! Door slamming in my day was considered the height of rudeness - along with picking your nose and taliking with your mouth full. Very interesting.

delph, seriously, do you have a beef with that person, or this is just the way you engage in conversations? You make a lot of good points, but your style sucks.


Jeez, another great debater.

The guy is getting screwed in a divorce, what on earth is the matter with you people?

ego?

First of all, I don't hate anything, and certainly not entire countries. Some things I dislike about Poland are:

1) the combination of victim complex and overly romantic conception of history (Christ among nations). Makes rational discussions about history almost impossible. Although the younger generation is already much different.

2) the ruination of the "recovered territories". Mostly thanks to the Commies. Thank god the younger people, teens and twens, get interested in their home now. Often too late.

3) the lack of rules in the public sphere. Big and small adverts everywhere, tasteless buildings full of turrets and battlements, no settlement plans and so on. Sometimes Poland looks like a big mess.

Three things:

1) Service

2) Staring

3) Unrealistic jingoism/narrow mindedness/black & white thinking (it's all linked)

But as mentioned, "hate" is pretty strong. More like "very annoying aspects"

Arrbol,

Three reasons why you hate Poland.

1) The bureaucracy.

2) Service you get, ( or don't get, because it doesn't exist.)

3) The cheats. who rip everybody off.

I have a much bigger list of things that I like about Poland. That should be the next topic at some future date. This would be more positive than the hate subjects.

Wow all three of those were in spades today.

The staring is something that really is ridiculous. If you meet their gaze with a smile they act all p*ssed off like they're looking for a fight. I'm starting to smile and say hello more, it seems to scare them away. Seriously, you stare at people back home and it won't take more than half a day and you'll either get a lecture or you'll get in a fight- one or the other.

Here's one I was reminded of today: people who look for confrontation in mundane aspects of life. I held a door open for someone and they seemed to take it as my way of insulting their mother- WTF is wrong with this society when holding a door for someone doesn't warrant a kind response?

Most don't seem to see it as sth done for them. They seem to expect you to open the door and then not say thank you. That's been my experience anyway. People are not to be thanked but suspected.

suspected of what ? You lost me here, you mean that if you hold a door for someone they suspect you ?


I would classify it as a gaping.

The look would suggest so, yes.

Not to thank sb for holding the door open, for most Brits, is a lack of basic manners. Let's just say the approach is different.

They have no manners, Polish elite were eradicated and the People's Republic did not care much for bourgeois trivia.
Educate them Sean.

The thing is, some do say thanks so you can't put all Poles into one bracket. In Britain, it's not a class thing. Most do it.

I hate when bikers don`t have any lights on their bikes at night. It is against the rules.

^Rules only apply to everyone else but not you if you're Polish...

Please elaborate, For4. I've seen this often but any specific examples?

yours are as good as mine but parking has got to be high on my list.
Lines are supplied in order to aid in this process yet a large minority simply can't be bothered to help make that a smooth process for everyone else.

As probably mentioned before, 'hate' is a strong word.. If I hated Poland I wouldn't be here, love and responsibility or not.
But there are definitely things that 'irk' me so to speak. Some of them include:

- Rudeness on trams/public transport
- Jumping queues in a way that's so damn rude and idiotic it makes my blood boil (I'll write a story after the list)

- Cars going through zebras when there's a green, got knocked over once and almost knocked countless times
- Does the language count? No? Jaki szkoda
- People staring incessantly. Back in the UK you'd have your chops smashed if you stared like they do here.
- Not to generalise, but "chav-ness" (to invent a word there) seems to end at around 22/23 in the U.K, it seems to continue until death here.

- Ticket inspectors on trams/busses, bunch of arrogant window lickers
- Beaurocracy, but I tend to avoid that avenue where possible.

Ah so the story.

So me and my partner were at McDonalds, waiting to get something to eat - we hadn't ate for over 12 hours and it was late so little time to cook.

We enter McDonalds and there's a bloody big queue. There were 3 cashplaces but only one queue. When a cashier called, the next in line moved over to it.

We'd been waiting something close to 15 minutes, and we were now 4th in line. Some old hag crawled her way up from hell for a BigMac, entered McDonalds, went in front of the queue to check the "menu". Then went straight to the cashier and stood there, looking behind her with a snobbish smirk at the long queue. Cashier comes along and starts taking her order. At least 10 people aurally voiced their displeasure. Me and my girlfriend had had enough and went to the cashier and said "Excuse me, but this woman just came in and skipped the entire queue, we have been waiting 15 minutes and you start serving her.. What the *****" Cashier looked gobsmacked, and the old bat said "Theres 3 cash places, why 1 queue, I didn't know", but got her food anyway and as she walked past the queue with her grub in hand, we heard at least 3 "stary k's"' and other obscenities along the way.

Bloody hell, the audacity of some people here never ceases to amaze me ;) In the UK never experienced anything like it, to jump in front of a queue is to the English is a crime equivalent to murder.

She's old, she can do that ;) ;) She couldn't have been in the wrong, could she have? ;)

She was about 50 ;) So not senile enough to let off

1. The roads, the highways, and roads SUCK

2. Dresiarzy. I never got into trouble in one, but Ive seen them on the street in there 10 sizes bigger track suits thinking there so cool

3. And that many elderly women here think there everyones grandma and think they can tell every young looking person what to do.

Oh yes. Babcia isn't afraid to shake you out of your sleep because she wants the seat. Or worse, like the old misery guts who shoved my injured knee out of the way because his wife wanted my seat.


Old people are dreadful for this - I find that they've got an utter lack of manners here. Still, it can be amusing to get in their way and refuse to let them do it.


I blame the idiotic right turn on red for this - what kind of moron thought it was a good idea IN POLAND to give cars and pedestrians a green light?


What's fun with this is to stare out kids when you want their seat on the tram/bus - sometimes works ;)


Ah, it's a way of life, come on ;) What I don't understand is where they get the money from to be chavs - social welfare here is absolutely minimal.


Try my favourite trick - spend about 10 minutes looking for the ticket. Always amuses me to watch them get madder and madder while you deliberately search every single pocket about ten times :D They're paid on commission, so if they're being dicks, the best way is to waste their time ;)


...I hate to say it, but I think it's better than the UK :(

theft? drug dealing? muging people (it is presumably common in the schools)?

Well, not sure I agree.. In fact, I found people in Poland much more educated and polite than in Britain or most western countries, especially as far as men's attitude toward women:

- help ladies put on coats
- hold car doors for ladies
- ...

It is however true that this is less and less prevalent among the younger generation

i always ignore it but my boyfriend hates it. staring them up and down usually helps


ha ha yeah I didn't notice a queue at the post office once, thought it was just a bunch of oldies hanging around, I did get put back in my place pretty quick ;)


errr not really! there are GENERATIONS of chavs living in UK, the younger, the chavvier and more gormless (exposed to chav-ness for longer ;)

this sort of thing happens when one has a function to attend. not the weekend shopping. i've seen it as much in the uk as Poland.

I haven't seen it at all here in 7 years, Wrocław. I saw it in the nicer parts of my home city.

I know I'm probably a little older than most on PF, but I see it happening quite often in Warsaw in restaurants etc.. It's true that it's more frequent among.. lets' say.. middle aged people. But I suppose you can't have it all : Wroclaw has a large student population, which is part of its attractivity (it is in fact my preferred polish city) but this means that old school good manners tend to be less practised..