Poland-My 9-day experience

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optsThreads: 12 Posts: 333 Joined: Jul 29, 06 ♂	Jul 29, 10, 23:59 #211
AussieSheila Have you considered writing a travel guide book on Poland and lecturing about your extensive travels in Poland?

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 00:00 #212
12PLN, ouch! I can buy 4 bottles of decent beer for that here :) Spending power is not the name of the game here in Silesia. Tradition is. Regional food and dialect :)

warszawskiThreads: 60 Posts: 2,222 Joined: May 21, 10 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 00:18 #213
Seanus: Tradition is. Regional food and dialect :) So it is still a barter system in Silesia?

ikes

Jul 30, 10, 00:25 #214

When someone's travelling with a tight a-day-here-and-there schedule, it may be quite decisive whether you happen to be out when everybody else is too or during the week's quietest evening, catch or miss interesting events, enjoy nice weather that cheers you up, etc., and then you make your judgement based just on that somewhat random impression. For instance, last year I was in Gdansk during St. Dominic's Fair*, by sheer luck, and the place was bustling with activity; food, antiques and handicraft stalls filled numerous pedestrian streets of the old town. I truly regretted that I hadn't a chance to stay couple of days more just for that. This year my visit to Krakow was on weekend so it was good timing considering taking a look at bar scene at Kasimierz, while a rainy sunday evening in Wrocław left me somewhat unimpressed but I try to be fair and think another visit some other time might provide quite different experience.

* www dot shopandsee.eu/en/gdansk_guide/previews/st_dominics_fair

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 00:26 #215
Oj, nie tylko :) There are many more ways to get things done :) Silesian food is better in winter.

THE HITMANThreads: 1 Posts: 392 Joined: Jun 15, 10 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 00:56 #216
Torq: This is my penultimate post here. GOOD!! Can,t have it all your own way always. Learn to yield a little. Like Wroclaw says , see it through the eyes of an outsider.

♀

Edited by: Eurola Jul 30, 10, 06:17 #217

Jeez.. this AussieSheila got so many people excited and she never came back to comment on anything. Purely, a trollish post to spark a conversation and many took the bait. lol.
Yeah, there were some valid points, but mostly trash.
When i arrived in the USA I thought it was ugly and dirty - and that was Chicago!
When i rode on the L from Oak Park to downtown, I thought I'm riding through the ugliest part of the world... Well, 30 years later when i ride from Rosemont to downtown, i still think some of the parts are ugly, abandoned..and I'm wondering, do people live there?
The part that I love most is the train in the middle of the Kennedy expressway, so picturesqe...moving in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic. Sweet.

AussieSheila	Jul 30, 10, 07:10 #218
I don't have to answer every post and I dont have time either. Besides I don't agree with some who categorically trash Poland as a 3rd world country. I bought 10 Zloty sailing ship souvenir at Hel and I thought it might be made in Poland, I read the fine prints and it says Made in China. What do Poland produce nowadays? Supermarkets here in Australia sell Polski Ogorski and it's made in India.

FUZZYWICKETSThreads: 12 Posts: 1,821 Joined: Nov 3, 09 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 09:31 #219
AussieSheila wrote: I don't have to answer every post and I dont have time either. I wouldn't worry about it Sheila. read my last post (#203) and you'll see you're not alone in your opinions.

♂

Jul 30, 10, 12:23 #220

AussieSheila:

What do Poland produce nowadays?

What does Australia produce, apart from destroying her environment just to sell metals to the Chinese?

AussieSheila:

I bought 10 Zloty sailing ship souvenir at Hel and I thought it might be made in Poland,

You bought something worth 10 zloty and thought that it would be made in a developed country? My my...you're either a complete idiot or completely naive.

ikes

Jul 30, 10, 12:52 #221

AussieSheilaI bought 10 Zloty sailing ship souvenir at Hel and I thought it might be made in Poland, I read the fine prints and it says Made in China. What do Poland produce nowadays?

Like I said in my message on this same page, there were countless handicraft and antiques stalls at Gdansk's St. Dominic's Fair last year, and they had really wonderful genuine Made in Poland products there. Too bad I had already too much luggage to carry, but I bought some very nice ceramic figurines for souvenirs from there for reasonable price (more than 10zl but still great value). There were some pretty necklaces, children's dresses, wooden toys, etc. too, and tons of other things. But it's true you may have hard time finding such good selection elsewhere if you don't plan your visit for such an event.

Dougpol2Threads: 1 Posts: 95 Joined: Apr 22, 10 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 13:51 #222
Interesting thread Warsaw - a big NO Baltic holidays - a big YES Wisla - a YES Silesian food - NO, too calorific, only if faced with a fait d'accompli, MIL style :)

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 14:26 #223
Silesian food is too calorific for sure. Drenched in oil and dripping with fat :( :( I'll stick with my tuna, thanks :) Beef rolls (rolada) are great for winter but I can't imagine eating them in summer.

♂

Edited by: warszawski Jul 30, 10, 16:22 #224

AussieSheila:

What do Poland produce nowadays? Supermarkets here in Australia sell Polski Ogorski and it's made in India.

Polski Ogorski, bottled in India - Poles are creative, there are probably genuine reasons for this, maybe transport costs and export/import agreements between india and Australia related to tax. In respect of Poland being more westernized, since 1989 the changes have been significant and you come to Poland to visit Poland, not to see another USA or UK. In order to appreciate Poland you have to look beneath the surface and understand the history to fully appreciate it. Thats why men of great like Norman Davies and Wildrower are an authority on this subject...

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 22:50 #225
I'm glad that some here value Poland's image abroad. I've been helped by some really helpful folk in different offices and I think it was because I was foreign. Otherwise, I've had to roast a lot of boors here. Downright rude!! Still, it's those positive experiences that stick in my mind as it's the exception to the rule. God Bless them for trying against the grain of their culture :) :) :)

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,143 Joined: Jun 7, 07 ♂	Jul 30, 10, 23:47 #226
warszawski: Thats why men of great like Norman Davies and Wildrower are an authority on this subject... Thank you very much...

♂

Jul 31, 10, 08:49 #227

My first post but I am keen reader of PF for the last 6-8 months...(since I started to think seriously about return to my old country for good)...
After reading the whole tread, I am surprised that almost everyone (except obviously Torq) failed to recognise that AussieSheila is not who she/he said she/he was and perhaps she/he never visited Poland after all (difficult to imagine that anyone 14years old + and with any above 30% of average intelligence would make such shallow, biased comments after 9 days in any country ) ....thus the whole purpose of her post was just to stir PF community and create the opportunity for further bagging of Poland and its people.... typical troll behavior

GOOD!!

Can,t have it all your own way always. Learn to yield a little. Like Wroclaw says , see it through the eyes of an outsider.

No good !!

Although I disagree with many Torq past posts I (and no doubts many others) always liked to read them... :)
Pity, he has gone but somehow it is understandable... at least moderators should be able to recognize trollish behavior :)

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Jul 31, 10, 08:58 #228
Well, there is the other side where some truths are incorporated which don't sit well with some. There should always be a balanced perspective.

♂

Edited by: DavidODwyer Aug 1, 10, 22:42 #229

Not meaning to just point out negatives but some negatives Iv seen on two of my visits are;

Drunk old people.

Shop keepers can seem glum and not that I agree with the OP but well, I did see a few shop keepers that I did seem to have just annoyed them by even buying water.

On a whole though I love Poland, every places has its negatives, these are just some stuff iv noticed on two stays in a south eastern polish town near the Ukraine border, and my points are just stuff iv noticed when i compare it with life in Ireland.

And I mean it... lots of drunk old people.

(View based on a ten day stay in Feb "10 & a three week stay in July)

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Aug 1, 10, 23:28 #230
There tends to be more drunk and desperate people in the east of Poland. It's a hapless plight for them. I see quite a few drunks here but its standing out depends where you are from. I saw many more in Scotland so it isn't striking for me at all here. There's very little staggering around, unlike in Scotland.

♂

Aug 2, 10, 15:17 #231

DavidODwyer
Drunk old people.

Yes...my wife is visiting Krakow at the moment and she complained about that too but .... I can point to places in Australia where you see invariably drunk beggars everyday...places like that exist almost in any country...perhaps in Poland more than in others but as Seanus is saying

I saw many more in Scotland

every places has its negatives

This is the key...I live in arguably one of the nicest city in the world but I could point to all negatives from OP existing here too ....except perhaps lack of waves :)

MEMBER ♂

Aug 4, 10, 09:08 #232

Torq:

Anyways - I've feckin had it with this anti-Polish board. This thread (not that bad
in itself) was the last straw for me. I'm not going to stay on a forum which allows
obvious trolling (moreover - the trolling gets support from a moderator.)
This is my penultimate post here.

He was serious hey, i wonder if he'll be back.

If it makes you feel any better Torq ive had lots of friends and family visit me in Poland and every single one of them loved it and all but one have come back again and again.

FUZZYWICKETSThreads: 12 Posts: 1,821 Joined: Nov 3, 09 ♂	Aug 4, 10, 09:21 #233
Wroclawboy wrote: If it makes you feel any better Torq ive had lots of friends and family visit me in Poland and every single one of them loved it and all but one have come back again and again. my parents came out once, also enjoyed it.

♂

Aug 8, 10, 10:50 #234

Gdansk old town is great - if you only walk through in 10 -15 mins rather than stop to look in Crane, go to St Mary's, visit Artus Court, see ul MAriacka, National Museum, Oliwa, Westerplatte....

pgtx:

England is full of natural beauty where as the only place that has natural beauty and its own character in Poland is Zakopane.

We visited the Baltic Coast last summer and we were loved Wolin Nat Park, bison, sand dunes at Leba, forests along sea and sunsets over sea along coast

And since as Londoner

AussieSheila:

Pathetic transport to Airport (it took longer to get to Stanstead Airport from London than fly from the airport to Poland)

Agreed - we hate it too, but it becomes part of the adventure and a perfect illustration of the weird way we Brisitsh have of doing things sometime, plus the fact that we Brits also , like Poland, have had certain economic problems for years. We try to fly from Gatwick! But at least we have the choice of more than one airport

AussieSheila:

Too many chairty and 1 Pound/ Pawn shops ( signs of a broken country)

I love our cheap shops. I love the fact that Poles can come to UK and sometimes get cheaper clothes than at home (eg TKmax). One of our services to Europe apart from our tragi-comic football team.

AussieSheila:

Too many foreigners- When we landed at terminal 3 of heathrow Airport, not a single englishman in sight among border officers checking passports.

Ouch! I think you might find they are all English - you might find there parents or grandparents perhaps were not born in the uk. Such a comment could easily suggest troll like qualities, but I'm going for cultural insensitivity

Having addressed these vital points (and adding how much we enjoyed meeting various Polish peoples especially the peoples at the Baptist Church in Gdynia and the amazing Magda and Magdalena in London and Ola the massager in Gdynia etc - and that it might be nice if people in Polish shops smiled a bit more but then you could say you wish that the british stopped being grinning so stupidly for no reason -culture hey ) , we are turning up in Szczecin on a Monday at the end of August by coach from Berlin and plan to book a flight back from somewhere in the east 12 days later (probably Gdansk but not necessarily), stopping off again at some stage in Łeba. Not wanting to spend too much monies and enjoying art, beaches, interesting city centres and beautiful Polish countryside, where would you stop off if you were making trip?

,

♂

Aug 30, 10, 23:41 #235

AussieSheila:

I visited Silesia (katowice, chorzow) Wisla, Zakopane, drove through Krakow without stopping, Warsaw, Danzig and also Hel.

What a strange attitude to form an opinion about a country after seeing less than 5% of things worth seeing here.

There is nothing distinctive in the country about wildlife, architecture, rivers, mountains or beaches. The only exception might be Zakopane which is beautiful with high hills, pristine lakes, national park, rivers and impressive wooden architecture.

Funny. The person considers Zakopane beautiful. :):):)

That totally discredits him/her in my eyes. :):):) Scam!

OlafThreads: 8 Posts: 1,348 Joined: Oct 29, 09 ♂	Aug 30, 10, 23:48 #236
AussieSheila: Danzig How stupid. So St. Petersburg should be still called Leningrad, huh? Great. The rest of these insights are also cr@p.

♀

Aug 31, 10, 00:13 #237

DavidODwyer:

And I mean it... lots of drunk old people.

Fek me, you're from Ireland and your complaining about drunken people?

PGH1:

plus the fact that we Brits also , like Poland, have had certain economic problems for years.

Not exactly a brilliant comparison...Britain has had boom bust, boom bust..etc etc..Poland just had a miserable existence (economically) for a long time due to being cut off from the outside world...Not because of incompetent governments and greedy consumers..

PGH1:

Agreed - we hate it too, but it becomes part of the adventure and a perfect illustration of the weird way we Brisitsh have of doing things sometime,

Our transport system is excellent - we have high speed rail links and metro systems in cities..nothing strange about that..When I go to Prague I have to take a bus to the metro and than change twice to get the centre...Where as in the UK most if not all airports have a direct link to the respective city, if they dont they have a bus/coach service..so you're talking boll*cks! Please dont make Britain out to be backwards and a bit slow!

AussieSheilaThreads: 6 Posts: 112 Joined: Aug 14, 10 ♀	Aug 31, 10, 03:04 #238
Danzig is the name for anyone educated outside Poland. Most people know Danzig, not Gdansk.

♂

Edited by: Chicago Pollock Aug 31, 10, 04:12 #239

PGH1

that it might be nice if people in Polish shops smiled a bit more but then you could say you wish that the british stopped being grinning so stupidly for no reason -culture hey )

The British Grin...you don't say?

Amathyst

Poland just had a miserable existence (economically) for a long time due to being cut off from the outside world...Not because of incompetent governments and greedy consumers..

From the historical record (posts & links on this forum), after the German occupation a sizable proportion of the Polish population supported communism. It wasn't imposed on them by Russia. If the Poles wanted to, they could have kicked out the Russians like they did in 1920-22. So the Poles are responsible for their lousy economy of the post war years. It was the Poles who cut themselves off from the World.

AussieSheila

Danzig is the name for anyone educated outside Poland. Most people know Danzig, not Gdansk.

The geography books that you're using are 60 years old. Especially since "Solidarity" the whole world knows it's Gdansk.

tygrysThreads: 2 Posts: 402 Joined: Dec 28, 07 ♂	Aug 31, 10, 05:54 #240
AussieSheila: and also Hel You made it to Hell and back, I give you credit

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