File :-(, x, )
Ask me questions thread Anonymous
Poland edition GO
>> Anonymous
Sigh... nobody is going to make you come here if you ask a question, so just make with the damn questions already!
>> Anonymous
fuck it
>> Anonymous
i love the Witcher
>> Anonymous
What is Wroclaw like?
>> Anonymous
Are there any of you left over there?

You all seem to be on the building site with me over here in the UK.
>> Anonymous
>>11506
holy shit
i can hardly tell it's foreign
looks awesome
so how bout that globalization huh
>> Anonymous
>>11507
I've only been to Wroclaw once with my uncle to pick a package up but even during my short stay there it was absolutely beautiful.

But not as beautiful as Krakow.
>> Anonymous
>>11507
Never been but from what I know about it it's rather nice. I know a family who have lived there for most of their lives and just recently moved to Warsaw. They seem to miss it a lot.
It's largely a German city though. Not in the sense that the population is German, it isn't. I mean the history, architecture, etc.
It's a western city, which in Poland means that it is progressive and modern (unlike the Eastern half of the country). Aside from Warsaw there are no large cities in the East, really. And though technically Warsaw is in the Eastern half, it is a pretty big island of modern in an ocean of backward and stupid. You never come into contact with those people in the city and its immediate surrounding area. So if you stick to the West and Warsaw you should feel pretty much like the slowly dying "2nd world" doesn't even exist.
>> Anonymous
>>11513
Yes, Krakow IS our most beautiful city. Warsaw our most modern (it was practically leveled in the war so it's mostly brand spankin new) and Gdansk our most resort-like and tourist-y.
>> Anonymous
>>11508
LOL yeah, I think it was like close to 2 million that emigrated? But now we're finding out that most don't stay. Although, those who come back are mostly replaced by more emigrants.
Personally, I wouldn't want to go to Britain (to settle I mean), from what I've hard about the British Isles from those who've gone and come back Ireland is much more attractive.
>> Maurauth !7FUJaz4S7Y
Is it possible to spend a day in Poland, if I'm staying in Prague on holiday?
>> Anonymous
I have three questions.

From what I understand Poland is a lovely country bordering East and West Europe, with a cold climate, lovely forests and cities more appealing than those in neighbouring Germany. It seems the people there aren't caught up in being rich like the Germans and are really making themselves known through their constant innovation and motivation.

1) The people there: outside Warsaw (and perhaps a handful of the largest cities besides), would you say they have a first-world lifestyle or closer to second or third?

2) Is there much variation in the skin colour of the Poles? They all seem to be pasty white to me. Haven't seen one that isn't.

3) What language is Polish most closely related? They only speak Polish in Poland. German is spoken in a handful of countries and is the 2nd most used language on the Internet. Ukranian is close enough to Russian and Russian is spoken by a fuckload of people. You get the picture.
>> Anonymous
>>11529
Yes. Your best option would be to go to Krakow, both because it's closest and because it's just hands down the best option. You would have to travel by train early in the morning (it takes about 4 hours. Or at least that's about the amount of time that, I think, it took me last time. It would be faster but unfortunately the mountain lines between Poland and the Czech Republic have not yet been modernized, so the train can't go very fast.) You can easily walk everywhere once you get there. Krokow isn't very big and on top of that all the main attractions are very close to one another, as well as to the central train station. A day is long enough to visit all the most important sites. (Comparing that to Prague, a day is probably not nearly long enough. Two days may be just barely enough, depending on which sites you consider the 'main' ones.) Then, to go back you'd have to set out in the evening to arrive back in Prague by or after midnight.
>> Anonymous
>>11529
My memory may not be as good as I thought it was. It looks like the time it takes to get to Krakow from Prague is actually double that. It looks like you might have to ride overnight in a sleeping car. This is what I did but I was going from Warsaw to Prague and I actually slept for a lot of the journey, so my perception of time passing may have been a bit off. If you're not up for that and have money to spend a plane ticket might be easier, which can't possibly be more than ~$200. Another option is Wroclaw, which is closer and has been discussed in this thread:
>>11513
>>11515
>> Anonymous
>>11520
Jak tam w Polsce? :-)

My family hails from Tarnow which is in the south near the mountains. Beautiful city.

I say that Southern Poland has the most charm since it didn't see much action during World War II.

>>11536
1. Well, it depends on where exactly you are referring to. If you're talking about the cities, I'd say second moving to first. If you're referring to the countryside, then they're still second-world.

2. You're right about the pastiness. If you see a darker-skinned person in Poland, it's a nigger, another foreigner, or a local bitch who be tannin'.

3. Czech is the closest, I think. I speak Polish and had a conversation with a Czech once. I understood more then half of what he said and vice versa.
>> Anonymous
>>11536
1.) Most people outside of the cities do indeed have a first world lifestyle (which despite our best efforts is still not completely consistent with the common perception of our lifestyle among some groups in countries to the west of us). As I mentioned in a previous post the only part of the country that still lingers in the 2nd world are the eastern rural areas. There you may sometimes find pristine villages, where the people live exclusively off the land, and some that don't even have electricity. But those are exceedingly rare these days and kind of a "find", if you do find one.
>> Anonymous
>>11536
2.) There isn't MUCH variation but there is some. I happen to be one of the more tan variety. If I stay out in the sun for a while I could pass for say a "light Latino" or Persian. My hair and facial features give it away that I am in fact neither however, as I have light brown hair and white facial features. (Curiously, my family lineage on my father's side has been traced back to Sweden. I even have a Swedish last name. My mother's side is where I get my darker complexion from, though its origins are unknown. We've speculated that they are likely to be Roma genes. The gene also appears to skip a generation as my mom's skin is fair, while mine is more like my grandpa's.)
>> Anonymous
>>11536
3.) Polish is most closely related to Czech. Czech to us sounds a lot like Polish, but more as if it were spoken by a child. It's kind of comical to us and we have a lot of jokes about it. It's hard to explain, though. Ukrainian is a very specific language as it is in fact a mix of both Polish and Russian. When we listen to it we literally understand every other word, and it is complete with a perfect Polish accent and enunciation. The other half of the words in a Ukrainian sentence of course sound just like Russian. I don't really know the full history behind it, but I'm pretty confident that Ukrainian did not arise in the same way as Polish, Czech and Russian did (they were the original three Slavic languages).
>> Anonymous
>>11544
Siema!
I agree with most of your points, except we could go back and forth on the whole first/second world lifestyle in the cities. The cities have poorer areas like most cities in the world, but the more well to do live almost no differently (especially in the last 10 years) than what I have seen to the west of us.
>> Anonymous
>>11549
Nie zle! Ja teraz gnije w Ameryce. Naprewde chce wrucic do kochanej Polski.

True, true. I think we can both agree that Poland is still developing as a collective whole regardless of any "nexus of prosperity", like Warsaw.
>> Anonymous
>>11553
Yes, we certainly can.
I've got family in America, and they've had enough too. They're coming back next year :)
>> Anonymous
>>11556
I live in Cleveland (currently in Columbus for college) and I have family in Chicago and Canada.

I want to move to Canada.
>> Anonymous
>>11564
Wow... I have family in Chicago, Cleveland and Columbus (they moved around and then split in three)... but not in Canada.
I was just about to say... are we related??
>> Anonymous
>>11564
In fact one of them lives in Columbus but is in Cleveland for college LOL.
How weird.
>> Anonymous
How come Poland keeps getting conquered? Lloyd George once called Poland the epitome of a historical failure.
>> Anonymous
>>11791
Because we don't care about that bullshit LOL.
Look at America with its military might today and how disliked it is for it (or rather its misuse of it) the world over. People are over that shit.
We're not like the Ruskies who are all "Siriozy" about everything. You look at em wrong and they want to kill you. We're more light hearted, though we do tend to get proud sometimes, don't get me wrong.
>> (cont'd) Anonymous
>>11792
Oh yeah, and it's the reason why we spread out around the world more than some other nationalities. We tend not to care about our MOTHERLAND too much, or each other.
>> Anonymous
>>11792
Should have gotten more out of the Bolsheviks.
>> Anonymous
>>11792
is poland anonymous?
>> Anonymous
>>11792
Like you had a choice. Germany on one side and Russia on the other.
>> Anonymous
one thing that has always amazed me about Poland is how such a huge majority of its population is Catholic.

so, OP, i ask you: what is the religious environment like in Poland? most people might be Catholics, but are they practicing Catholics? are there are a lot of really hardcore religious folk around? i hear that Polish Catholicism is particularly terrifying -- my boyfriend came from a Polish family and was forced to go to horrible, hardcore Polish church for most of his childhood where all they did was preach about fire and brimstone and how demons tear you apart in hell if you sin. is this the norm or was his family just crazy (which they are)?

also, because the population is so seemingly religiously homogeneous, how are other, especially non-Christian, religions viewed by the general public?
>> Anonymous
>>11804
Homofaggotry is frowned upon and suppressed. Every once in a while we'll get in conflict about it with the European Court of Human Rights, but I think things are looking up with the new neo-liberal government in power. Other than that it's pretty loosey goosey for everyone else. The old ladies sometimes make a fuss about this or that, but no one takes them seriously. In fact they are ridiculed by most and a popular topic for comedy shows. They even have a not-so-endearing nickname, "moherowe berety" which comes from the mohair berets they all seem to be wearing.
We're all still "Catholic" and say we believe in god and all that, but hardly anyone goes to church, aside from the mohairs, who are dying off in droves anyway.
Non-Christians are A-OK. Like I said, only they gays have anything to fear. We have some Muslims here, although admittedly not nearly as much as the rest of Europe, and they seem to be getting along just fine.
I saw a map on 4chan recently that showed all the countries of the world and how important religion was to each. Brazil was bright red (i.e. very religious and practicing), the US was pink, and most of Europe, and that included Poland, was dark blue. So I think if you can handle the religious environment of the US (I'm assuming that's where you are) then you will most definitely be able to handle Poland.
And yes, your boyfriend's family would be viewed as insane.
>> Anonymous
Do you guys all run on 56k?
>> Anonymous
>>11861
Well most people that I know have DSL at 1-2 mb/s, which is also what I have (2mbps). They either have that or no Internet at all, and few of them don't have it. I don't personally know anyone who has 56k, but I'm sure plenty of people still do.