Smoking vs. Grilling on Balconies / High Rises in Poland

man, they won't let you have an open fire on the balcony of an apartment. Smoking a cigarette is a different story, but a "bonfire"? Come on, who would let you do that here?

I agree, I would hate to be the person living just upstairs with all the smoke flying in. I used to have one on the balcony but I was at the top of the block. No one would try to ban smoking on the balcony though, its just daft.

Exactly. In some very new blocks they allow (or tolerate) it if you have a kind of a flexible pipe connected to the cooker hood to suck the smoke away.

Well if you have good neighbours you could ask them if it's alright - they could close their balcony doors for the time of grilling and it'd be all ok and friendly ; o

But I dunno if you're talking about those posh expensive apartament buildings or - post-soviet good - old polish panel blocks?

I guess both types, but you're right, its always better to ask the neighbours, they might even join ya! :)

Ask the neighbours for the permission to do something in your own home?? How retarded is that?
Not going to happen in Poland. Here, we do have the old saying "Wolnoć Tomku w swoim domku"

Read this thread again. It's about having a bbq on your balcony. Try doing that, with smoke and smell moving to your neighbours balcony/window area and you'll have Police in your place in no time. It's good to have your neighbours consent if grilling could disturb them in any way - it's a decent thing to do, and it's always good to be on good terms with the other tenants.

"Ryby sobie łowię"
Police on my head, because I dared to do something on my own balcony? If it is not the police state, I dont know what is.

One can live on good terms with one's neighbours, or not. It's everyone's own choice. Suck up to your neighbours or pyss them off and live on with conequences. Police has no place in it. In a free country, that is.

However ridiciolous it sounds I've seen and heard of countless situation when a nosy, old neighbour ( who isn't working hence has got too much free time ) can seriously disturb ones life, and calling the police or city guards for no reason is just a mild case of the extreme such people might head for. So whether you like it or not it is good to ask neighbours beforehand.

Im grilling every saturday on balcony and only reaction of neighbours is that they makin their own too sometimes xd

frd, do you live in Poland?
I ask, because I cannot imagine a Pole with such a atitude. One just not call for the police on one's neighbour. Cops are the common enemies of the simple, law abiding folks. I'd rather try to beat up (or even kill ;-) )the neighbour then to put some cops on his head. Some things just too vicious to be even considered.

I would say grill some kiebasa and some chicken, and stock up on pivo and vodka or whiskey...Then, you go ahead and grill and invite neighbors over...Make a party of it.

Yes I do. Cops are only enemies for no reason of stupid uneducated underage punks of the jp100% and hwdp kind who with age hopefully will understand certain things about society. As for law abiding citizens, they are exactly using their liberties to call cops or city guards whenever they can - if they can do some misconduct. I can't believe you haven't met or at least heard about those older ladies who live by themselves, on the pension, and do everything they can to spoil life of their neighbours - calling various services workers being one of them. : o

Your attitude towards the police shows me that you don't trust them. Come on, you would rather beat up your neighbor than call cops when he/she does something potentially harmful to himself or others?

Poland did not change at all…

Policemen are like Firemen, they have to be polite, can't take bribes and need to serve and protect you. You call them when you see a problem. If you can't trust your own Police in Poland, then again, you’re about 15 years behind the cure with the rest of the world.

They're civil servants, if you're law abiding citizen you can flip them off and they can't do anything to you. There is this guy who actually does that to make a point about the right to free speech. He flips the police off anytime he sees one. Of course he was interviewed on TV because,,, he is a total idiot but I admit,the whole thing was kind of funny.

Anyway,

The point I'm trying to make is that your Police should be there serve and protect you, making sure people in your neighborhood are safe. You pay their salary, that’s their job.

Barbecuing on the first-third floor balcony in Poland is dangerous. Grease is flammable. If you continue to grill for several years this siht will be everywhere and eventually it will catch on F-ing fire.

I take it you've never been to OZ. BBQ heaven, more that anywhere else

Not where I come from....in Dallas/Ft. Worth where I lived the apartments were made of brick...and they are not like the apartments here in Chicago where alot of people are co-habitating.. It's a little more spreadout, but you could get a good fine for grilling on the balcony. You have to be at least 100 feet away from the building to grill. Many apartment complexes have grills outside away from the building for you to grill on.

I had a f*ck off massive inflatable paddling pool on my balcony last year and the neigbours hated it, You know those ones where you inflate the ring at the top, I was told off by the administration people as they explained it could make the building fall over. The spoil sport neigbours even complained when i emptied it.

As for having a BBQ's We had one on Sunday and nobody complained.

It's the lack of houses that cause the problem. Flats don't allow for a lot of maneuvering. Some of the houses in my home city would be ideal for BBQ's as they have huge gardens and are very green.

What about in parks? Do lots of people grill near lakes?

Related answers:

BBQ-Grilling near Poland's High Rises?


No. Unless there's a space specifically for that. Poles love to complain about perceived infractions of good behaviour by others, just for the sake of it and you will probably find that this happens.

Often there are bbq areas in parks where you can do this freely.

Hundreds of people grill near lakes in city parks. The smoke is sometimes so dense that others who came for a breathe of fresh air must quikcly return home to fetch a gas mask. People usually grill the swans which they caught in the lake.

What is this obsession for BBQ/grilling everything and everywhere? And on balconies if you live in a block of flats - that's desperate and not really thoughtful.


Easy catch, hah! ;)

Yes. Another bad one is plastic carrier bags tied to the balcony (usually by the elderly) to deter pigeons. Enough to keep a neighbour awake on a windy night.

In one flat I had in Warsaw my neigbour had metal scaffolding pipes on her balcony for whatever arcane reason. It was on the 9th floor and when the wind blew through them it was like trying to sleep next to a cathedral organ. She was stone deaf so didn't care.

A grill now and again is small beer compared to that every night.

I grilled on my balcony with gas. As long as you don't grill the stuff that's been marinated in tomato based sauces, it's ok. Smells just like someone leaving their window open when cooking. Neighbors never complained. Just ordered an electric smoker for phase2....

A friend has a kind of bendy chimney that she connects to her cooker hood - a good idea.


Yes. I grill on the terrace from time to time, but usually wait until people on the ground floor with gardens do it - a bit less noticeable and OK if there isn't too much smoke.

Jeez...
This works only for a while, nothing works permanently on pigeons except a net and special chemical sprayed after every rain (works in about 90 % cases).

Also, I noticed pigeons were prone to lead poisoning (completly differnet topic).


- That must've been hard!
No mediation was possible?

At least a dozen neighbours with nearby bedrooms had spoken to her. She just became more insistent that she wouldn't get rid of them. A bit of a nutter - she used to keep old furniture in the corridor and leave religious pamphlets everywhere.

Thats not so bad... a friend i stayed with in Moscow had a neighbour who had hauled his Lada car up to his balcony with a crane , knocked out the window and shoved the car halfway into his flat so he could work on the engine...

When it was fixed he had it lowered to the ground again...

Nobody complained....

wildrover
they were scared?

Now I understand your drang nach osten. Place where you can stick your chopper in a window…

Ahhhh. No they would not! grilled on my balcony for years!! (in USA) Many many many ! people grill every day on their wood balconies with no problems. Perfectly acceptable!

My question is our balcony is cement, well the whole building is cement! I asked the wife, Can I get a propane or gas grill (No ashes flying around (small one) for the balcony? She said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo every would call the police!!! my question ... WHY? I can smell everyone dinner in my flat and they are cooking inside their house ! If it is not a fire hazard, why can't I? Like many before said it smells better than cigarette smoke!