Warsaw - what's there to love? Semi-livable city?

This is your place to vent or defend what many consider to be a nasty city to live in..

THERE must be something wrong with all this 1,709,781 warszawiak to live there?
i assure you 1.7 million of them would differ with you!!
and they would ""vent and defend ""every inch of it.

I love it there

Well if you hate it so much go live in poverty infested North Korea Kim Jong....

[Moved from]: Warsaw is Semi Liveable.

Warsaw is 'semi-liveable' says ranking

11.02.2010 14:37

Warsaw places in the middle of a ranking of the world's most livable cities, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

With a score of 78 percent, Poland's capital is placed 71st in the global livability survey of 140 cities.

Each of the cities was assigned a score for over 30 factors across five broad categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Warsaw got the lowest rating in the health care and education categories.

But as the future co-host to the European Football Championship (alongside Ukraine), Warsaw scored relatively well in areas important to visitors to the event, with stability, infrastructure, and culture and the environment all scoring 80 percent or more. Kiev lies 91st in the ranking, the EIU release says.

In terms of tourist attractions, Warsaw is behind Budapest (regarded as the most attractive city in Central Europe) as well as Prague, Bratislava, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Vancouver continues to top the ranking with a score of 98 percent, followed by Vienna and Melbourne

.....It is interesting to note that Warsaw is so low on the list, I'm sure some forum members would disagree?

link?

I don't know, I've never heard anyone excited about moving to Warsaw... Krakow, Gdansk, Wroclaw maybe... there's usually a sigh involved, some comments about a salary, and an overwhelming cloud of sadness.


the economist charges stupid amounts of money and have Vancouver on the top of the list. You probably don't want to see the list :)

ok, I found something..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities

I guess others don't put as much weight on the weather as I do. When I'm up north, I start getting suicidal around this time of year.

Vancouver? If you like rain, drugs and junkies its a great place. I have been there twice and can't say that I was so attracted to it... I live in Warsaw and like it. Gdansk seems to be a nice place as well. Haven't been to Wroclaw. Krakow although interesting is too small for my tastes...

Warsaw doesn't offer anything that every other 1st or 2nd world city doesn't. It has deplorable weather 3/4 of the year though the summers are mild and pleasant actually. The one thing that constantly reminded me I was in Poland (well aside from the lektor guys on TV) was the horrid customer service.

I bought a laptop and found it was defective when I got it home. The next day I took it back and the shop said "send it to service...we just sell them it's not our problem". THAT is a glaring example of the attitudes toward service that permeates Poland and something I experienced countless times over a decade. I finally got it replaced by contacting the manufacturer's US office. After that the Polish office was calling apologizing and offering things (same office that told me to toss off when I called them several times before) like they had had their willie smacked by the bosses.

In other words unless you enjoy average to below average city life and horrid customer service Warsaw has little to offer over any other developed place.

I lived in Vancouver for 5 years before moving to Gdansk. Van is a strange place - probably great if you're a single 20-something who lives with a group of friends in some hip area. Ugly city in a beautiful location. Expensive. Large - so things you could do are usually over an hour's drive away. Running out of places to build houses - land is v. expensive so they build huge houses that leave no room for trees (to replace the ones cut down when the site was clearcut).

And everywhere you go to enjoy nature ... well, 200 people will be there before you.

Gdansk is ... well the expectations are less :) and so are the crowds.

Buy something at a reputable store. Saturn even takes back stuff because of customer error (failed to read the package correctly)...

Warsaw look exactly like Pyongyang in questions of architecture

How are you feeling these days, by the way?

Merged: Is Warsaw the New Jersey of Poland?

Everywhere I've been in Poland, the people there have derided Warszawa, and everyone from there. Conversely, everyone from that city have had the same negative comments about the rest of Poland. From whence comes this beef? What gives?

Its more that warsaw is business capitol, so the reason people deride is that they think people are unfriendly and snobs.

snooki want smoosh-smoosh!

youtube.com/watch?v=YxKjga305cY

its a Jersey thing

In 2018, Warsaw was ranked 65th city in the world. The improvement seems steady. Whenever I visit Warsaw, I feel so relaxed and free.

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It looks a bit like Nigeria in this picture.

Dunno about that but I've definitely seen better shots than that one! The only thing in its favour is the sunset.

There's something about the perspective and the zoom they used. The bridge is quite a long way from the palm in reality, and the grey buildings are really a long way away. The photo must have been taken with a tripod, a special lens and a long exposure to get that shot of the rising sun.

Warsaw isn't the most photogenic city but there are still some places for nice photos. Even of that grey traffic roundabout that the palm brightens up.

Exactly. I have better photos of the city than that one. Despite some ugly areas as most big cities have, I'm quite fond of Warsaw.

I rather like it. It isn't a typical Warsaw view and there's a great deal of camera trickery in it however there's definitely something there.

Some of the best Warsaw views are along the river, especially the unspoilt parts to the north. Also, some parts of Stara Praga were photogenic before they started to modernise the buildings.

Although Warsaw does have some charm and appeal it would struggle to get into my top five Polish cities.

...that disappears on day three. If you are with your wife, it takes a little longer.
What I liked was free city transportation for seniors. I didn't like those glass and metal horrors that overpower Palac Kultury. Just imagine Empire State Building next to Eifel Tower.

A Stalinist monstrosity, should be 9-11nd, and a skyscraper version of the dancing house (prague) built to take it's place.

If it was destroyed it would just be replaced by office blocks, malls and apartments. Could be just turned into a park I guess.

Anyway, it would have to be paid for by Polish taxpayers, not Australians.

I am sure now that destroying it would be unpopular among Warsaw citizens.

One problem is that it would have to be taken down brick by brick over many years or the skyscrapers in the area would come down too.

I actually quite like it. It's Soviet kitsch however it's put to very good use and is better than just having corporate offices or chain stores there.

Well, at least paint a mural/street art on it. that would be a tourist attraction, worlds largest art piece.

Warsaw's not short of graffiti and they do actually light it up in different colours sometimes.

The German artist, Christo, the one who used to wrap large structures up in paper wanted to wrap it a few years ago however the mayor at the time sadly refused.

It's pretty amazing inside. Not just the public bits.