Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up!

The red hair, kilt and funny accent are a dead give away.

Edit: Typcasted?

My wife thought I was Polish when she first met me.

Edit: No, typecasted :)

There are some Poles with red hair also.

Not as common as in Scotland, me thinks....

My wife has a workmate (Polish), her and her husband have a red-headed son.

That's the beauty of English :)

Anyway, back to the topic. One of my old uni friends had a party in Kraków and the lack of respect shown was horrible, he said. He didn't want to be a part of it. Some Brits see it as a payback for what they perceive as Poles polluting their country. He was disgusted at their attitude. Tit-for-tat BS.

It's not as common, no.

I think every nation has people doing these kinds of things when in a foreign country, they just don't care. Americans trash Mexico all the time.

Oh, of that I have no doubt, Penn. Still, I don't think you have sampled the boozy antics of the Brits. They are some of the worst pigs when abroad. Selfish is an understatement. They tend to be more English than Scottish. Scots have always travelled better than the Sassenachs.

Doubtful, since they are often high spenders and Kraków isn't, let's face it, particularly interesting to 'quality' tourists. But instead of 'chasing them away' or criticising those tourists who come, it would be better to do something about the Poles who organise the stag tours there.

My father who's lived in a number of European countries before coming here says Brits get "weird" and violent when they drink. Then again Poles aren't any better, according to him in Spain only a Pole or a Russian gets drunk enough to be falling all over the place.

Maybe it comes down to income levels. Those who can afford it are probably more prone to go to more upscale locations, and bring with them a better level of behaviour. Those who are in the lower income brackets go where it is more affordable, and they bring their behaviour with them.

Do you want a thriving boor culture in Kraków, Johnny? That's what you seem to be advocating. It is interesting to quality tourists. It's a major attraction for Japanese tourists or are they not quality enough for you? Those who organise stag tours are select individuals so should be forced into assuming more responsibility, you are right on that point, J.

A bit less funereal would do.


Not really - their tourist euros go to hotel chains mostly. Not neccessarily a bad thing given the state of private hotels down there.

It seems some people just don't like tourists having fun.

OK :) :)

I think we need to be absolutely clear what we are referring to, Johnny. I have nothing against people having fun and using the entertainment options there. It's the complete lack of self control, vomiting and yelling like madmen that upsets Cracovians. Fair's fair in that Poles enjoy London and British nightlife so so should we. However, how often do you read reliable stories about Poles disrespecting the local area? That's not to say it doesn't happen but....

I've never seen this. What I have seen is a mixed group of middle-aged (and sober) tourists (some of them Polish) being told by police that they're too exuberant!

Kraków isn't the Vatican, it isn't a museum. It's a central European city with lot's of bars.

There were plenty of news stories on it, JM. Also, my fellow Scotsman went with an American friend, who lives in the neighbouring city, to Kraków. He likes a good drink and light atmosphere but he was sickened by the group of Scottish lads there that were obnoxious. Rarely does he call people obnoxious. It is those types that give Brits a bad name.

I suspect some of them are exaggerated to say the least. I was once in the old part of Gdańsk sitting in the garden of quite a nice restaurant, and there was a group of young men opposite. They were fairly boisterous but well behaved. Approipriate for a beer garden, even a classy one like that. Some were Americans, some Russians and some Poles. All were speaking in English. Two old ladies sat next to us (real hatchet faced wifies) were moaning all evening about the terrible behaviour of British people. But none of them were British and the only people behaving badly were the two old hags. The only British people there were my friend and I who'd given up our seats for them.

Exactly! It doesn't make sense to bring nationality too much into it. I do see a fair bit of such judgementalism here. Tutting at those having harmless fun. I do find a lot of oldies here to be largely inept hacks.

Yes. One lady I know (actually highly cultured and something of a VIP, if occasionally grumpy) was having a go at me about British people in Kraków. It turned out that she hadn't been there for twenty years. I've heard the stories about stag groups, but all I've ever actually seen are football fans (British but not English) making whoopee in Poznań Rynek. The bar owners didn't seem to be complaining. And some English squaddies stripping off in the Ice Cave Bar in Warsaw. Nobody was complaining ;-)

Stag groups, especially when they have specially printed tee-shirts or silly hats, do tend to stand out a bit. But most are fairly well behaved.

That's just them being grumpy old folks. They're mad they don't understand the spoken language, feel out of place. They're mad they're old, they're mad their looks are gone and so on and so on.

Poles, of their own admission, see the lack of tolerance here and we need to judge by the standards of the reasonable man. There is often no call for their griping. It's often just a distraction to their petty lives. People need new causes to get into and there is much evidence for this. Some need to turn their heads away more.

That's pretty well the truth. In their defence, I'd say that the restaurant (one of my favourites but I can never remember the name, Tawerna Franciskanska or some such, wins prizes for its fish soup) isn't cheap and quite an investment for a lot of people to go there. But it was largely just as you say.

Hehehe, Penn. You hit the nail on the head with that commentary :) So many fuddy-duddies on the go. I'd like to live in a more liberal part of Poland as it's full of stuffy old hags here.

I see you didn't go to public school.

Well with my language comment that was a little mean, they're in their own country and shouldn't have to understand English but with old people being biter about everything it gets annoying.


Isn't Poznan the more liberal of the larger cities?

They are in their own country, yes. However, grumpiness is better in movies ;)

Poznań? You'd have to ask delph and other posters.

[quote:Harry: I see you didn't go to public school.]

Actually, yes I did. It was close to the tracks, but I think I ended up on the right side. Unlike some of the boorish scum who see fit to piddle in the middle of the rynek, whether they be British or outer Mongolian.

So how come you don't know that the richest people can behave worst of all?

Oh I know it. The point to my earlier point was that rich people go to the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands or Monaco or even Nice (and likely behave themselves there). Middle class punters go to Krakow because the beer is cheap and the women are supposedly easy.

We're not talking about religion here the other aspects. A hot, poor country for tourists to trash.


Huh? we're not talking about migrant workers, and jobs here man!! Look at the last posts




Behavior of drunk tourists

4 years later and drunk British tourists terrorising the locals is still the topic of conversation - love it!

And Seanus, 26.500+ posts shows a level of commitment that is truly inspiring ;-)