Poland in photo riddles

That`s a fantastic approach. :)


I am afraid you need to visit Warsaw more often. Warsaw Market Square houses look like this:

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To me he looks a bit like he's rehearsing for an appearance on Sprawa dla reportera or some other expose show. He has an outrageous bill that he wants to wave in the camera (not realizing the numbers won't show up...)

Got nothin' else...

No, it is not a bill/receipt. If it was, he would be holding it vertically.

It looks like he's about to ( reluctantly? ) give that piece of paper to someone, but he's holding it in a slightly odd way. Maybe the paper doesn't contain good news and he's about to show whoever's filming what's in it?

Will have to ponder some more..........

Or he's miserable because he's just been given that paper and knows what it contains....................the look on his face suggests ' thanks for nothing '.

But is it paper? The picture isn't that clear but it kind of looks like something else, but just what... a hint?

OK, guys, it is a piece of paper on which you could read something.
A hint? Here you are: usually people of that kind prefer to remain still and passive, even for a long time, while that guy was different - he was active and mobile. :):)

wild guess.... he'd been declared dead by mistake? I googled what 'akt zgonu' is supposed to look like and it didn't match, but I got nothin' else...

Oops, I suspect we ran into a misunderstanding. The person who took the photo was me and I certainly didn`t look like a reporter. Just a private guy walking the street, approached by another private guy. :)

OK, another hint: when I said that usually people of that kind prefer to remain still and passive, I really meant it: not moving, but sitting on the ground, rarely kneeling. For hours.

So he's a beggar? And the piece of paper is his sob story?

A friend in the medical field once saw a woman with a small child and a printed sob story about collecting for an expensive operation and he was feeling goodhearted and tried to find out more information... only to discover that they didn't want him asking questions and drawing attention... and they weren't even Polish...

Yes, written in English. I was walking with a British professor around a tourist infested district. But I looked more distinguished so the begging guy approached me and the professor escaped unharmed. :).

Phew, that was a long one.

What is it?

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The last thing I was thinking is that he was a beggar!


You forgot to get a tree and it's your last chance being Wigilia, but unfortunately, there was only one spindly looking specimen left :D

Reminds me of a time I was in the rynek chatting up some girl at a cafe and a homeless dude walked up to me asking for money. Normally I don't give money to people unless I know them and know they got me if I ever needed it so I refused and talked in English pretending I didn't understand. I saw him hobbling away.

For some reason I felt bad and spent a few minutes trying to find him in the crowd. Eventually I did and gave him a 20 zl bill since i didn't have anything smaller besides coins. Dude got teary eyec and started kissing my hands before he took the bill. It was something else...

That`s interesting, it means you didn`t come across such guys too often, neither me but when he approached me, I immediately knew the context. I bought the copyright to his image for 5 zlotys. :)


:):) Great. Yet, in this case, it is not about that tree sapling, but the background object.


Pity you didn`t take a photo. :) Then you could post it here, asking: Why is the guy kissing my hands?

Not sure what is behind that entrance gate. I can see arrows showing directions and a yellow triangle, but I can't see anything else too clearly. If only I could remove the bars from the gate.........


I do, but my mind wasn't thinking along the lines of beggars. There is a big problem in the UK with the numbers of homeless people rising, mainly due to the current government's policies.

Hey, you know this one but you are playing with me like a cat with a mouse! It is unfair, it is my role in this thread! :):):)

Don`t you really know??

By a background object I meant the gate and fencing. Things behind them are unimportant.

A hint: Those signs you mentioned are important. But they aren`t behind the gate, they are in front of it. How? And what does it tell us?

If only!!


The gate is an exit and not an entrance? Emergency exit perhaps? It's going to be closed as it's Xmas? The signs look like road signs, but I don't see a road....

This is like pulling teeth!

I'm out of this one, the Polish mania for putting up unnecessary fences that make it harder to go from point A to point B prevents me from thinking straight... (I've wasted so much time in unnecessary detours....)

Warmer, more warmer.. :):) Emergency exit - partly yes. Most of all - a drive-through entrance. Can you see that bungalow in the farthest background?
Yes, road signs. You can`t see the road because it was behind me - the signs are reflected in that transparent plastic.

So, now we know the gate and fence are next to the road.

Final question: What is the function of the fence? Probably I should have asked it at the very beginning...


That`s Polish individualism again. :):)

It is a barrier to something I have no idea about!

Yes!! Great guessing. A barrier to..... I can only say there are a lot of such barriers all over Poland. :)

thru traffic?

Sorry, it is a traffic noise screen with drive-throughs. :):)

Phew, it was a challenge. Thanks for Polish perseverance in guessing. :) Let`s have a rest for a while, next riddle tomorrow morning.

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Back to work
Who first conceived the idea shown in the banner?

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Are you sure?? It looks like a baby doll.


We don't have any equivalent to kolęda in Ireland. A couple of weeks before Christmas you receive a Christmas card with a list of the Christmas mass and confession times plus an envelope for your Christmas 'dues' as they're known. The dues are due at Easter and Christmas. If you want to, you pop an offering in the envelope and drop it anonymously into a box in the church. Priests don't do the rounds of houses at all at any time of year but they will certainly come to the house if invited. Some families like to have a mass said in the house once a year, some people like to have the house blessed when they've just moved in to a new place. The priest generally only visits when he has an arrangement to bring Communion to those who are too infirm to go to Mass. Nowadays however it's more likely to be brought by a Minister of the Eucharist, a layperson. He doesn't wear the full kit either when he brings Communion, he just puts the stole round his neck. Cross-cultural Catholic information exchange :))

Yes, interesting. I don`t know yet where this Polish custom of home kolęda comes from, one day I must find it out. So Irish priests/ministers give the communion to the hand or mouth during a service? In Poland to mouth.

As for the doll, it is an ape. Look at its hairless head, brown colour only resembles hair, and protruding dog-like muzzle.

I've always found the practice in Poland to be odd and disgusting, to be honest. Also, it's strange that wine isn't given.

Communion to mouth? It has always been so here. I find hand communion as odd. Sort of sacrilegous. How many people wash their hands before entering church for mass service? I always do but others certainly not. :):)

As for wine, priests cleverly guard their supply of wine - if they share it, they might run out of it. :)

Are you thinking about Tusk comparing Schetyna to Shrek ?( where the quote originally came from )

Yes, I was thinking about Shrek 1, and unforgettable words uttered by the donkey. I took part in creating the Polish version for DVD release.

Talking about dragons, what does this one represent?

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In Ireland, it's your own choice, how you want to receive it. Communion has been given into the hand for about forty years now I think. We were taught in school how to receive Communion in the hand and most people choose to take it that way. You cup both hands, and the priest places it in the left hand and you take it with the right, if you're left-handed you can reverse it of course.

By a strange coincidence I came across this yesterday and thought it might amuse you. This short film was made by two Irish priests who had a long running religious affairs program on Irish television. Note that though it was made 50 years ago when Ireland was a much more 'Catholic' country than now, there's nothing solemn about it, it's intentionally humorous, in a rather dry, satirical way. . I think that's the main difference I find between the Irish and Polish forms of Catholicism, yours is a lot more 'serious', not much room for laughter.

This is a film with with every Irish Catholic would identify. I don't know about Poles :)

rte.ie/archives/2017/0904/902134-manners-in-church/