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Poles as tourists in foreign countries


OP pawian  221 | 25662
24 Jun 2024   #61
Poles -

Because you were so active here recently, let`s reward it with another tourist story - to Russia, more exactly to Konigsberg. The guy is married to a Russian woman.

My first trip to Russia in 2024 and the first time I had a problem on the Russian border. The old visa expired in the fall, so a new one appeared in the passport. The officer looked at my passport for long minutes, I thought maybe she liked my photo that much. Unfortunately, at one point she reached for the phone - on the Polish-Russian border it always means trouble, no matter whether the phone is Polish or Russian. She glared at me.

- There's a mistake in the visa, they changed your name and surname.

- And what now ?

- I don't know, the chief will decide, move aside so that others can pass - what was to be done, I stood aside modestly and analyzed the situation. For me it wasn't a terrible mistake, but who knows how they will approach it. I began to regret that Galina was not with me, she is reliable in such situations, but I did not lose hope, after all, I learned a lot from her. The gray-haired boss came, listened to the officer and took my passport in his hand.

- The visa is formally invalid, you can't enter - it's as if I had been hit in the head with a blow. Tomorrow Galina is flying to Konigsberg from Sakhalin, we haven't seen each other for a long time, and here's a gong. I knew that no amount of arguments, complaints or shouting would help, I had to act like a Russian . I learned it from her, to talk in "human approach"

- Chief - I started humbly - my wife is arriving tomorrow, we haven't seen each other for a month and a half, I'm already shedding tears of longing. She's like a Japanese typhoon, she'll say it's my fault for not checking properly at the consulate, she'll talk to me about it for half a year. It's coming all the way from Sakhalin.

- You say wife? And where does he live? - the border guard became alert.

"Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 7 Bumażna Street, 18 Quartira," I recited without hesitation.

- Well... come on, I'll let you go, but fix your visa when you come back, because you won't pass again .

The Russian official is not nice and smiling, he is often the master and master of our fate, it has always been like that here, but on the other hand he can break the rules when he deems it necessary. It's worth learning to speak "human approach" here.

Bobko  28 | 2282
24 Jun 2024   #62
he is often the master and master of our fate, it has always been like that here, but on the other hand he can break the rules when he deems it necessary.

Is it not the same everywhere?

In my 20s, living in America and driving around a lot, I would get stopped by police quite often because I was an idiot. However, I probably only paid 2 tickets in my whole life. I used the skills developed with Russian traffic police, to similarly avoid problems with American cops.

Here are my tips:

1) It really goes a long way, to spend a little bit of time memorizing military (state troopers) and police ranks. When you address someone as "trooper", "sergeant", "lieutenant", rather than just "officer" or even worse... "hey" - the treatment is immediately different.

2) Don't interrupt them, even if what they are laying out is orthogonal to the truth.

3) Apologize for causing extra work (because that's what they really hate)

4) Be absolutely honest about why you f*cked up (because more than anything they hate lies, since everybody is lying to them 24/7)

Nobody likes law enforcement, nobody likes the taxman, nobody likes bureacrats - and they are all perfectly aware of this. They pay "the people" back with the same kindness. So if you treat them at least a little bit like a figure of authority with a minimum modicum of respect, then the results are usually magical. If you talk to them, as if you are talking to an animated pig - then the results are predictable.

So yes, talk to humans as "humans", and not as pigs.
Novichok  5 | 8208
24 Jun 2024   #63
So yes, talk to humans as "humans", and not as pigs.

You forgot #5: Plea insanity.

Me: Officer, you forgot to ask why I was speeding.
Officer: OK, why were you speeding...
Me: Because I am a moron...
Officer: OK. Slow down...
Lenka  5 | 3528
24 Jun 2024   #64
Nobody likes law enforcement

I do. And most I know have an ok attitude.
Bobko  28 | 2282
24 Jun 2024   #65
I do

I hate cops.

Only a loser becomes a cop.

You have to have a strange family to be a cop.

You have to have a strange moral/ethical coordinate system to be a cop.

Instead - be a fireman. Be an ambulance driver. Anything... just don't be a cop - because then you are not my brother anymore.
Lenka  5 | 3528
24 Jun 2024   #66
Only a loser becomes a cop.

Or somebody who want to stop the bad guys!

You have to have a strange moral/ethical coordinate system to be a cop.

??? Putting away criminals is immoral/ unethical?
Torq  8 | 955
24 Jun 2024   #67
don't be a cop - because then you are not my brother anymore

You're a football fan! :) Spartak or CSKA?
OP pawian  221 | 25662
24 Jun 2024   #68
I hate cops.

You drifted away from the topic. The story about the Polish man married to a Russian woman didn`t involve cops but border guards.

more exactly to Konigsberg.

The man looked around the city and noticed:
The aesthetics of old German cities with solid architecture and a lack of finesse, but with its own charm. Here it appears in a rudimentary state, but the Russians try to refer to it. Standard khrushchev houses, standing on one of the main avenues, have facades that look strikingly like old tenement houses, a result of the World Cup matches that were played here.

On the banks of the Pregoła River there are new apartment buildings in a similar style to ours in Gdańsk on the Motława River. They refer to the centuries-old tradition of Hanseatic merchant towns.

Everything else doesn't look very nice. Typical housing estates from various eras of the Soviet Union with characteristic built-in balconies, summer warehouses and drying rooms for laundry and fish, this has always been the case here. There are pipes running along the blocks, through which heat is supplied to the radiators, a Soviet invention. They could be buried in the ground, but in the event of a failure you would have to dig again, and this is easier. This makes sense in Siberian cities, where the ground turns into hard rock in winter, but here they probably did it out of haste. The city is marshy, apart from the Pregoła river, many smaller and larger streams and rivers flow through it, it may still be winter, but the weather is typical of early spring. Undeveloped and lower-lying areas turn into floodplains.



  • BeccccztytuuKo.jpg
Bobko  28 | 2282
24 Jun 2024   #69
You're a football fan! :)

Кони жрут мясо.

**** Spartak. Buncha homosexuals.

You drifted away from the topic.

The topic was relationship of "small man" and power.

You tried to draw some caricature of Russia straight from Dostoyevsky and Chekhov.

I'm telling you it is the same everywhere.

Hello?
Torq  8 | 955
24 Jun 2024   #70
**** Spartak.

Центральный клуб Армии it is then. Why am I not surprised? :)
OP pawian  221 | 25662
24 Jun 2024   #71
I get off the bus and, as usual, I'm hungry, I head to the station building, there's a nice table there. What is "stolowaja", it is the granddaughter of old factory canteens. The factories are gone, but the canteens remain and have multiplied. They are practically on every other street. They all look similar, a long buffet, starting with appetizers with the obligatory herring under the buffet, then pancakes in various varieties, soups, hot dishes, and at the checkout, compote and walrus, a sweet red drink dating back to the times of the USSR. At the very end there is bread, black, sold by the slice. Practically everyone takes it, it doesn't matter whether you eat soup or just one, you have to eat everything with bread.

It is the same in Ukraine, Belarus, and even in the past it was the same in Lithuania. Without bread there is no real meal.

Prices are affordable and sometimes even ridiculously low. A portion of groats with milk and butter, a typical breakfast dish in Russia, costs PLN 3. In some of the cafeterias you can drink beer and there are refrigerators with branded drinks. I always smile when I see Coca-Cola in them, the company withdrew from Russia, closed its factories, but did not prohibit sales from other plants. The drink has become very international, with cans coming from Switzerland and liter bottles from Turkey. Master of business, we join the sanctions, we do not produce, but we sell as before.

Of course, you can eat something exquisite, just go down to the waterfront and go to the fishing village, there are plenty of fashionable restaurants where you will pay a lot of money for three mussels served on a huge plate with unspecified greens.

Expensive pubs are the same everywhere, you don't pay for the food, you pay for the prestige of being here and being able to afford it, I've been through this many times while working for an American company. I grew out of it, now I prefer home-cooked food with simple food, without any frills.

Novichok  5 | 8208
24 Jun 2024   #72
I hate cops. Only a loser becomes a cop.

When walking down the street you see a woman being raped...Who do you call, if anybody?
jon357  73 | 23223
24 Jun 2024   #73
Do you see that often?
Alien  24 | 5891
24 Jun 2024   #74
see that often

In his mind's eye three times a day. 🤔
Bobko  28 | 2282
25 Jun 2024   #75
you see a woman being raped...Who do you call

Nobody? I try to make brain pudding from rapist's cranium?

I know you love cops, just understand the love is not widely shared.

So many among them, are strange people with a hero complex. But as mentioned, firemen and ambulance workers for some reason do not act as if they are gods walking among mortal men - even though their profession is much more noble.

Recently, a cop told me - "If a cop tells you to do something, you do it!". I complied of course (don't wanna get deported on account of this troll), but was a little bewildered at how this guy manage to graduate the academy.

I don't like interacting with people with low IQ, high testosterone, and a child's conception of self.
OP pawian  221 | 25662
25 Jun 2024   #76
With a full belly, I go to the bank to exchange zlotys for rubles, it is very important to do it here. Our money is dwindling before our eyes as we march east. In Königsberg it is healthy and strong, for one zloty we will get about 22-23 rubles, but in Moscow it will be about 8, it is worth remembering this when we go further to Russia. The exchange of money itself is very formal, there are no currency exchange offices like we know in Poland, everything is done in banks. You have to show your passport, they write down our details, including what is written in the visa, they ask where we live here and only then the exchange takes place. It's similar in hotels - they are obliged to make photocopies of your passport, visa and migration card.

Whenever I come here alone, I sleep in the Złota Zatoka hotel, it has two advantages, it is not very expensive and it is located near the station, it also has one disadvantage, it is owned by the Ministry of Defense. The receptionist's heavy look says it all, spy or not spy?

A quick overview of the internet, what works and what doesn't. Netflix, HBO, Facebook, you can forget about it, just like TVN services and Polish television websites, everything is turned off. YouTube and most news portals work, but there is something strange about banks. Obviously you can't make transfers to and from Russia, the Swift system is cut off, but why can't I use my online banking while I'm here. It turns out that the bank sees the connection through Russian servers and blocks access to the website, you need to remember this and settle all bills in advance.

Alien  24 | 5891
25 Jun 2024   #77
Russia

Why does anyone go to Russia of their own free will?
Torq  8 | 955
25 Jun 2024   #78
Why does anyone go to Russia

Charming and poetic country, amazing wild nature (including women), hospitable and kind-hearted people, beautiful language, relatively low prices - perfect holiday destination. :)
jon357  73 | 23223
25 Jun 2024   #79
Why does anyone go to Russia of their own free will?

To evade justice or to defect.
Alien  24 | 5891
25 Jun 2024   #80
Charming and poetic.....

The same could be written about North Korea or Somalia, but no one in their right mind takes a vacation there.
mafketis  38 | 11083
25 Jun 2024   #81
Charming and poetic country, .... hospitable and kind-hearted people

I can't relate.... they don't want freedom.... they want to drag others under the same repressive yolk they accept..... there might be some nice individuals but overall..... nope.
Novichok  5 | 8208
25 Jun 2024   #82
So many among them, are strange people with a hero complex.

Just like firemen, EMTs, rescue teams, ...

I love cops. I often tell them I am glad they are here.

When they pull me over I thank them. In return, I almost never get tickets. I never saw the muzzle of a Glock, either.

The last time I got pulled over for not wearing belts, he said: We want you alive...It was nice to hear.
AntV  3 | 693
25 Jun 2024   #83
But as mentioned, firemen and ambulance workers for some reason do not act as if they are gods walking among mortal men

But, they do. The difference is that firemen are better rested and don't suffer from the hyper-vigilism cops do.

I'd say firemen choose to a$$holes, where cops have to be.
jon357  73 | 23223
25 Jun 2024   #84
low IQ, high testosterone, and a child's conception of self.

It depends what country they're in, in terms of level of training and policing culture.

In some places it's mostly a graduate profession with a good gender mix and first class training, in others it's thugs and killers.
OP pawian  221 | 25662
25 Jun 2024   #85
go to Russia of their own free will

The guy is married to a Russian.
.
January mornings never make you feel optimistic, I looked critically at yesterday's shopping, nothing seemed to be right, you need to eat a normal breakfast. In a Russian hotel it is an additional expense - unlike in our country - if you want to eat in the morning, you have to pay extra. The room was small, a few tables and one waiter. There was no buffet, so I paid for a set with sweet pancakes and started looking for a free place. Breakfast is a meal that I like to eat alone, especially when traveling, it's time to collect my thoughts, plan the next day, but to no avail. All the tables were occupied, we had to sit somewhere.

There were a lot of uniforms with stars on their epaulets, which means that the officers, probably younger in rank, ate hurriedly and were probably in a hurry for some briefings. I didn't want to eat with them. War is an abstraction, I only know it from movies and books, and here are young men sitting who may be taking part in it. One of them may have killed a man or miraculously escaped death himself, maybe he had to send his soldiers to certain death because he was ordered to do so, or maybe he had never smelled real gunpowder before. I didn't want to know. I know it's a kind of cowardice, a denial of reality, but I wasn't ready for a real war yet.

The choice fell on a table at which two older ladies were sitting, wearing white blouses, sweaters and long skirts, officials on business trips or teachers.

Teachers. They came for training, they both taught history in their schools, it was a real treat for me. This field of knowledge has always fascinated me, it reminds me of a huge number of colorful puzzles. The difference is that in classic puzzles you can arrange only one image, and historical puzzles allow you to arrange many images, it all depends on which one you take in your hand. The topic of the training was very interesting, US policy towards Ukraine. I felt it was better not to argue with them, it would be a waste of time, the role of a humble listener seemed the most appropriate.


I felt it was better not to argue with them, it would be a waste of time, the role of a humble listener seemed the most appropriate.
- And what do they say there, because it's hard for us to make sense of it all? - It was like pressing the starter button, for half an hour images composed of Russian puzzles flew before my eyes like in a kaleidoscope.

"""America wants to rule the entire world, in 2014 it spent 5 billion dollars to create a Ukrainian Maidan and overthrow the legal president, Europe is no longer enough for them, they want to make Ukrainians their slaves, who will toil for pennies in agricultural latifundia. Ukraine in American hands is a tool to weaken Russia, they will fight us to the last Ukrainian soldier, and then they will buy everything to make money there, and after all they are our younger brothers, we cannot allow that. They have lost their way, it is true, they have been deceived by those horrible nationalists from Lviv, but they will not manage without us."""

- But war is war, lots of innocent people die.

- And people didn't die in Donbas? They were shooting for eight years. And in Odessa they didn't kill people when they wanted to join Russia? Do you know anything about that?

I didn't know and the coffee had gone cold. It was a bit too much for a simple hotel breakfast. I said goodbye politely as I left, I could feel the eyes of the young guys in uniforms on me, they must have heard our conversation. I gave up the field without firing a shot, 1-0 to them.

OP pawian  221 | 25662
7 Sep 2024   #86
Poles and Polesses who travel to Italy regularly complain of littered streets and rubbish everywhere.

onet.pl/turystyka/dalekowswiatpl/mediolan-smieci-na-ulicach-pety-z-papierosow-w-swiatowej-stolicy-mody/gg153e3,30bc1058

I remember how a few or a dozen years ago my friends went to Italy and proudly talked about what a developed country it was - wonderful highways, infrastructure, manufacturing power.

To be honest, after visiting a city that has the audacity to call itself the world capital of fashion, I am disgusted and I can honestly say that every Polish city beats Milan in terms of cleanliness and quietness on its streets.

I don't base my opinion of Italy solely on my visit to Milan. I've previously visited Naples, Venice, Prato and Bari, and I've seen a lot of uninteresting things there. In my ranking, it's one of the dirtiest countries in Europe. Although it still has a lot to offer in terms of tourism - the Alps, the Dolomites, Lake Garda and Sardinia are simply beautiful, the large cities of one of the countries belonging to the G7 group, the seven richest and most industrialized countries in the world, should simply be ashamed of how they look.

jon357  73 | 23223
7 Sep 2024   #87
who travel to Italy regularly complain of littered streets and rubbish everywhere.

When I was in Venice a while ago there were plenty of Poles (mostly women) there and they (apart from looking a bit serious and earnest) were fine. Much more cultured and civilised than the r*SSians and Chinese who were there.
OP pawian  221 | 25662
7 Sep 2024   #88
they (apart from looking a bit serious and earnest) were fine

What a surprise, jon!!! They were fine, instead of attacking, raping, robbing and leaving you naked in the canal of Venice. Death in Venice at Polish women`s hands, what a wonderful experience it would be. hahahaha buhahahaha
jon357  73 | 23223
7 Sep 2024   #89
attacking, raping, robbing and leaving you naked in the canal of Venice

That's the r*SSians.

Polish women`s hands

That's massage parlours in Birmingham.

Joking apart, they were relatively normal compared to the r*SSian tourists there. A bit solemn though.
OP pawian  221 | 25662
7 Sep 2024   #90
A bit solemn though.

That`s natural. Polish people are serious coz their history is marked with crosses.


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