From Sweden to Zakopane (permanently), possible?

Greetings,

To make things short and easy, I'm 22 year Swede, whom just dropped out of University to focus on music which for the last 6 months gives me 2.000 dollars a month and slowly but surely rising. It could be even up to 3-4k dollars in 2016. It all took my by storm, not being a millionaire but living off ones passion is a dream come true. I wonder if it's possible to find a living quarter in Zakopane or closeby, and what are the living fees? Generally I know that Sweden is twice as expensive as Poland so in a way that doubles my income, but southern Poland seems like a tourist hotspot and thus, more expensive? I don't speak the language, I will learn because my girlfriend is Polish, and I wont be needing to find any work since all I need is internet. Living in a mountain town with beautiful towns is a dream for me :)

With love,
Chris

Yes, with 2.000 dollars a month it is perfectly possible. With the US dollar on the rise and your income apparently on the rise, it makes your prospects look even brighter than ever before. The only problem you may have may be with the folk music of the Zakopane mountaineers which music I personally hate, but you may be able to bear. Good luck with your project then!

Thank you Ziemowit, I will hopefully make it a reality before 2016-2017 then :)

D'you plan on visiting any other cities in Poland, Chris? I'd recommend Szczecin.

I am happy for you :) I wish I had the courage to do what you did. Don't discount Krakow or Warsaw, both are not bad places for a musician to be.

I would love to visit as many places I could, thank you for the advise!

Which Polish city/town is most similar to Goteborg paa Alven? I know only of Wrocław nad Odrą, but unfortunately, I've never been!

Polish won't be that hard for you. You already know Swedish and English:-)

Hyl92 - why Zakopane?
If you could share your motivation then we'd might be able to help you better :)

Anyway, near Zakopane there are plenty small villages with low low prices. The region is generally poor, and should be chead apart from Zakopane itself. Crazy expensive.

If you are looking at Zakopane because of mountains you could also conside other places, Kudowa Zdroj for example. Or Bieszczady.

Hello again after two years. In zakopane on vacation for one week already and will be here for another week. Walked 9 hours yesterday in the mountains on our forth hike. I'm still living off my music but very keen to leave Sweden and my fathers house since he recently got married and I want to spread my wings and get my own apartment.

Have been asking around in Zakopane and some are cheap and some as expensive as Sweden.

Maybe like some of you adviced to look at smaller villages closely is smarter.

Hope it becomes a reality, it really feels possible now when I'm here.

Cheers,
Chris

Have you as yet made any attempt to learn Polish? Once again, best of luck to you, but without at least survival Polish, neither English nor certainly Swedish, will get you far, that is, in a meaningful way:-)

I've picked up quite a few of words and besides shopping food etc why would I need to speak polish fully? :-)

I know about 3 languages and the more I'm here the more I learn. I'm aware usually only younger people know English.

Oh why Zakopane? In love with the architecture here combined with the panorama of the high Tatras and the easy train connection to around Europe. Looking at some apartments next week before taking a train back to Warsawa and later Sweden.

When in Poland, I found much of the architecture in cities such as Szczecin/Stettin much like that of certain Hanseatic towns such as Visby in Sweden etc.

True, many young Swedes, teens primarily, do tend to like speaking English with foreigners, similar to young Europeans everywhere:-)

Polish is a richly inflected language and so I hope you'll eventually get more into it the longer your stay in Poland!

Poland is about 10 times more interesting in Polish than it is in English (the language is the indispensible key to any kind of real integration).

Amen, Maf! Right on, bro.

Looking for apartments now and have been searching for a few weeks while back home in Sweden.

About lanugage, if I stay long enough I will learn something. I picked up atleast 30+ words on my last visit. It's not possible for me to just study Polish because I won't have time. I'm there to hike, live and write music. Which has my job for 3 years now. I already speak about 4 languages and I wouldn't have the energy to study a new language full time. It would have to come naturally as I live there. Every Polish friend I know also speak English thankfully.

Sure intergrating would be hard, but I'm not there to do that if I'm being honest. I'm a very solitary person. Maybe if I actually stay there for 5-10 years then yes! Absolutely I would have learned a lot :)

It's turning into a real headache to find apartments though. I hope I can find something soon~

"Every Polish friend I know also speak(S) English, thankfully."

Consider yourself lucky:-) Much older folks will generally know next to zero English, but for that, fluent (if unwillingly) Russian and other educated people, some basic German:-)

Lycka till, Hy!

When in Zakopane, knowing 'general Polish' won't be really helpful anyway. They speak their own dialect. They're also used to tourists so they may know some basic English.

After all, Hylander has visited the place and managed to survive without knowing Polish.

If you want to rent a flat, make sure one of your Polish friends is around when you sign the contract etc so that you understand everything.

Good luck.

Strangely, it can be true. A colleague of mine was once asked a question "Kielo no cykocu?" in a street of Zakonane and she... ran away instead of giving an answer.

I wonder whether the "goral" aka "Polish Highlanders" (??) even know standard Polish:-)

Having never been there, I couldn't say.

@Ziemowit
I would probably stare at him speechless ...
What does it mean? My wild guess would be 'what time is it?'

Of course they do, but their particular dialect is part of the tourist experience (going to Zakopane and hearing the locals sound just like everybody else would be a letdown) and so they maintain it publicly (and it sometimes might be useful to discuss things they don't want outsiders to know about).

I find the local variants quite endearingly different from Polish, e.g. "godzinek" (zegarek), "napytac" (zaprosic) and so forth. Gwara goralska puts another spin on the standard language.