Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewhere!

21.11.05, 21:55
Ahoy Foreingers! smile
Since I'm a foreign person as well, I thought I can post here.... but I am at the quite opposite
situation: a Polish woman being in Los Angeles. I can tell how you guys feel being foreigners in my
home country and I am glad you're there! for sure it's an interesting experience for you all. As for
me, I've been in the US for 4 years already but have decided I'll be giong back to Poland next year....
to be honest - I can't wait!..... I miss my beloved city of Krakow and my family and friends.... The
emigration is cool, but I guess it's not for everyone. I always feel "different" and although it's nice and
I don't get any offensive remarks from Americans, I much more prefer to be just same different
weirdo, but in my own country I guess..... and all the cultural dissents and nuances are just too hard
to overcome. I can't find my identity out here..... but maybe it's not enough time to say so yet?....

What are your own thoughts and feelings on that? Please share, and thank you.
    • usenetposts Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 22.11.05, 11:50
      Far be it from me to suggest what you should do, but in my view 4 years is a
      fair crack of the whip to give any country.

      There is no objective reason why life in the States should be any better than
      life in Poland, I personally would not choose it. There is simply an abiding
      idee fixe in the head of Poles that their country isn't good enough, and that
      they will not find themsleves unless they go to the UK, to France, to the USA,
      Canada, wherever. OK, travel broadens the mind, but these countries are not
      necessarily any better places to live than Poland.

      Poles are traditionally unable to see the value of their country until they
      have been without it. Mickiewicz refers to this fact in the opening lines of
      Pan Tadeusz, but things haven't changed, other than the fact that it's safe to
      say "Poland" now, you don't have to code it "Lithuania".

      So if going to America for 4 years has taught you the value of your home;and,
      you might say it was 4 years well spent just for that.

      But you are right to come back. Come and rejoin your country, which doesn't
      suddenly have looting and shooting the moment it rains a bit more than normal,
      which doesn't have parts of the country resembling an African refugee camp if
      there's a bit of bad weather.

      Welcome to the group, and let us know how you get on.
      • nasza_maggie Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 22.11.05, 11:55
        ditto, Daveysmile
      • monami5 Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 22.11.05, 19:03
        You're right Dave!.... smile
        I've come to the conclussion it's not that bad in Poland (uhmmm...maybe the new president will prove it
        right?!), but despite the politics yes, it's not any worse or better that US in my opinion. I do know it now,
        but to be frank I never wanted to come here - but that's how life has surprised me: I've met a guy and
        came here with him (that's the only reason I guess). Now, when we're not an item anymore I wanted to
        check the city of LA on my own, to see how it'd be to live here as I've imaged (cool loft etc.) - and I love
        the place but not the country. Yes, there's shooting every now and then here - it happens a lot, plus
        any other violence around..... and also - it's kind of an isolated city.... people aren't too
        friendly.... and sit in the offices or cars, commuting. Everybody's preoccupied with their busy - too busy
        - lives and seem not to have any need for making friends. Hmmm....

        In Poland it may be poorer, but it's so "mine". And also I think I'd like to try to make it a better palce -
        in the means of giving my country the talents and ideas I possess, while here in US - although I'm often
        appreciated and all - I'm just another creative person.....

        Having that all in mind I'm counting days to my return. And I miss the white Christmas and Easter and
        the All Saint's Day and other holidays tremendously.
        • usenetposts Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 23.11.05, 22:47
          Well, keep safe, and stick around. I wanna read frequent updates on your
          returning plans.

          Don't go and get sent off to Guantanamera, or whatever it is they have there,
          just days before you get your exit clearance...
          • asia9111 Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 23.11.05, 23:55
            Hi abd welcome to the group from a Polish woman in Florids (at the moment). I
            have been here a bit longer than you (closer to 18 years) and have lived and
            worked in CT, NY, NJ, FL and will be moving to Washington, DC right after a
            lovely Christmas/New Year's in Gdansk. I actually do not like California, and
            prefer East Coast, but I have been considering relocating to PL for a while
            now, so I understand your decision to go back totally!
            • monami5 So.... 30.11.05, 04:44
              Welcome too, Asia - are you considering moving back to PL as well, or it was just an idea some time
              ago?.... it's interesting. Why were you thinking of that?....

              I have to tell you something: I can't quite understand why most of the folks out here - both Poles and
              Americans consider going back as a big, huge "failure"?..... is really being abroad (I mean not in Poland
              of course) at all costs better than being same or even more content in your own country?... I can't get
              that, really.....
              • nasza_maggie Re: So.... 30.11.05, 09:57
                monami5 napisała:
                > I have to tell you something: I can't quite understand why most of the folks
                ou
                > t here - both Poles and
                > Americans consider going back as a big, huge "failure"?..... is really being
                ab
                > road (I mean not in Poland
                > of course) at all costs better than being same or even more content in your
                own
                > country?... I can't get
                > that, really.....

                I don't think most of us 'get that'. It's just this silly belief that it you
                want to leave the USA there MUST be something wrong with you.
                It also depends on what reasons you went out there for and how long you were
                there.

                Dave wrote about this in another post, that Poles just don't appreciate their
                own country.
      • m.zawilinska Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 30.11.05, 21:10
        There is simply an abiding idee fixe in the head of Poles that their country
        isn't good enough.
        If I may join in the discussion - is it really true that Poland is no worse
        place to live in than any other European or, to be more precise, West-European
        country? I am myself a Pole living in Poland but I've been abroad several times
        and I'm always struck by how life seems easier and maybe even more enjoyable
        abroad than it is in Poland... Maybe it's because I never really got to feel
        what it's really like to live somewhere else for a longer period of time (my
        longest stay abroad was 3 months, working in Scotland)? I don't really know but
        each time I come back I'm always disgusted by gray ramshackle buildings in the
        centres of cities, rubbish and dogs' poo on the pavements, and it take me quite
        a long time to get accustomed to grampy shopkeepers and clerks anew... Maybe
        it's my proverbial Polish pessimism that speaks now? Surely life is just a bowl
        of cherrieswink but aren't Polish cherries a bit sour?
        • monami5 Hmmm.... 30.11.05, 23:50
          They're sour-sweet. Sometimes..... wink
        • kylie1 Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 01.12.05, 00:15
          What you have just said reminds me of Erma Bombeck's book "If Life Is a Bowl of
          Cherries What Am I Doing in the Pits?"
          Are the shopkeepers really that grumpy? I can find a lot of grumpy shopkeepers
          around here too.It's just a matter of who is more grumpy, I guess...
          Are the streets really that dirty? I can take you to a real skid row in
          Vancouver where certain streets got more needles and candoms than you can poke
          a stick at. I can show you guys living on the streets in their own vomit and
          urine covered only by cardboard boxes. They drink rubbing alcohol and shoot up
          drugs right in front of everybody. East Vancouver has a lot of dumpy streets
          with trash and beer bottles all over the place.
          Isn't the grass always greener on the other side? What do you think?

          smile
          • monami5 ........ 01.12.05, 10:07
            yeah.... same here, in LA - I live in Downtown area, just close enough to the skid row where additionally
            the hospitals are dumping it's psychiatric, homeless patients .....that's just a recent news from LA which
            made quite an impact in the city and the whole country probably..... and there's more: just today I saw a
            headline in the paper: "Hundreds od sex offenders living in Downtown"..... what can I say?.....

            In Krakow I hate the dog's s**t all over the place, it's so nasty and smelly.... and I was thinking of that
            many times - that I'd be actually ashamed to show Kazimierz to same of my foreign friends because of
            that...... why can't Poles learn to clean after the dog?..... But anyway - seems there's a poo here, there,
            everywhere!.... wink

            So it really doesn't matter that much where you do live. It's all more or less the same.... that's the
            conclussion I am slowly coming to!.... the grass may be greener on the other side but when you look at
            it closely - it's same light green. At least for a time being..... Anyways - despite the poo, I am coming
            back. So be it. smile
            • varsovian Re: ........ 01.12.05, 12:20
              Oh I do like you lot using so many Americanisms:
              Downtown - (city centre) very provincial - originally "I'm going down town"
              skid row - no British alternative
              rubbing alcohol - I only learnt this one a week ago.


              • kylie1 Re: ........ 01.12.05, 21:09
                what IS a British equivalent for a skid row then? Or perhaps you don't have
                any? Wow...

                smile
                • usenetposts Re: ........ 05.12.05, 01:05
                  What is a skid row?

                  Is it like where you queue up to slide down a hill in your sleigh?

                  Sure, we have them, but we don't get to use them that often, as the climate is
                  not severe.

                  In the town where I grew up, we were lucky to get a few days of decent smow a
                  winter.
                  • kylie1 Re: ........ 05.12.05, 03:55
                    Hello, Dave and welcome back!
                    I was wondering what happened to Uncle Davey...Glad to see you back.
                    Well, skid row is the seedy area of a city for the down-and-outs, full of drug
                    addicts & alcoholics drinking shoe polish or Chinese cooking wine (you can buy
                    a bottle of Chinese cooking wine at our China Town for a buck and it tastes
                    horrid), dealing drugs and stabbing each other. A typical skid row has slummy
                    hotels for 20 bucks a night and as a bonus you get to spend the night
                    studying "social" bahavior in mites and cockroaches.
                    Besides all that, we have more than a fair share of mentally disabled people
                    that mental hospitals refuse to look after. Those are people that you will see
                    pushing shopping carts with all their belongings packed in garbage bags; you
                    will find them sleeping in cardboard boxes in some dingy and smelly alleys.
                    It's not a pretty picture, I am afraid.
                    You know we don't get much snow in Vancouver either. Right now it's snowing but
                    the coldest we can expect is maybe -3 degrees and the snow never lasts very
                    long. Our Pacific Ocean with its warmn currents keeps the Greater Vancouver
                    District and the Lower Mainland snow free most of the winter. Kids are not too
                    happy about it.

                    smile
                    is it snowing in Poland now?
            • kylie1 Re: ........ 01.12.05, 21:06
              I hope the "doctors"( sorry, "dog turds") won't stop you from coming back to
              your old country.
              There is a very simple solution for people to clean up after their
              pooches...it's called a "fine". People seem to learn a lot faster when it hits
              them in the pocket!

              smile
        • usenetposts Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 05.12.05, 01:02
          m.zawilinska napisała:

          > There is simply an abiding idee fixe in the head of Poles that their country
          > isn't good enough.
          > If I may join in the discussion - is it really true that Poland is no worse
          > place to live in than any other European or, to be more precise, West-
          European
          > country? I am myself a Pole living in Poland but I've been abroad several
          times
          >
          > and I'm always struck by how life seems easier and maybe even more enjoyable
          > abroad than it is in Poland... Maybe it's because I never really got to feel
          > what it's really like to live somewhere else for a longer period of time (my
          > longest stay abroad was 3 months, working in Scotland)? I don't really know
          but
          >
          > each time I come back I'm always disgusted by gray ramshackle buildings in
          the
          > centres of cities, rubbish and dogs' poo on the pavements, and it take me
          quite
          >
          > a long time to get accustomed to grampy shopkeepers and clerks anew... Maybe
          > it's my proverbial Polish pessimism that speaks now? Surely life is just a
          bowl
          >
          > of cherrieswink but aren't Polish cherries a bit sour?

          Poland has sweet and sour cherries, they are different cultivars.

          You may be getting confused withe the grapes. Poles can sometimes be seen with
          sour grapes.

          Unlike some nations, which have a problem with bottom grapes.
      • usaf Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 04.02.06, 21:05
        usenet, ehem, In my view you are being a bit too patronizing and self indulging.
        wonder why you wont mention american lack of identity for that matter. You
        sound anglosaxon. you are distracting attention away from it by talking about
        the polish version of that complex.
        I wonder if you are ready for this.
        I havent been anywhere nearer myself than north of chicago. noone there seems
        to be what youd consider allamerican. and most of us just smirk at overly
        selfassertive people of germanic origines.
        we, all others including irishmexicans, russian jewes and marrocan french dont
        trust high culture, high education and think of them as just another way to
        dominate others.
        during my visits in Poland on the other hand I have to have my sports gear with
        me to stay out of intercultural dispute or just from being called, gay, naive
        or just dumb.
        polish people are souls that chose an absolute independence and being their
        self but during their lives most of them choose to adapt and are forced to play
        it the..arian way cause outscored by all that selfassertiveness that is champ
        in hiding all dirt.
        you guys here on the foreigners living in Poland are playing safe to a point
        that it makes real people scratch their heads.
        YOU CANT PALY IT SAFE ALL THE TIME.
        dont mix pc with appropriatness, whatever.

        • usenetposts Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 04.02.06, 21:23
          usaf napisał:

          > usenet, ehem, In my view you are being a bit too patronizing and self
          indulging
          > .
          > wonder why you wont mention american lack of identity for that matter. You
          > sound anglosaxon. you are distracting attention away from it by talking about
          > the polish version of that complex.
          > I wonder if you are ready for this.
          > I havent been anywhere nearer myself than north of chicago. noone there seems
          > to be what youd consider allamerican. and most of us just smirk at overly
          > selfassertive people of germanic origines.
          > we, all others including irishmexicans, russian jewes and marrocan french
          dont
          > trust high culture, high education and think of them as just another way to
          > dominate others.
          > during my visits in Poland on the other hand I have to have my sports gear
          with
          >
          > me to stay out of intercultural dispute or just from being called, gay, naive
          > or just dumb.
          > polish people are souls that chose an absolute independence and being their
          > self but during their lives most of them choose to adapt and are forced to
          play
          >
          > it the..arian way cause outscored by all that selfassertiveness that is champ
          > in hiding all dirt.
          > you guys here on the foreigners living in Poland are playing safe to a point
          > that it makes real people scratch their heads.
          > YOU CANT PALY IT SAFE ALL THE TIME.
          > dont mix pc with appropriatness, whatever.
          >

          You're entitled to hold that view, and you're even entitled to believe that you
          speak for 'most others'.

          Doesn't make it true, though.

          Without wishing to engage in pointless spelling flames, it occurs to me that if
          you had anything sensible to say, you would probably know at least the basics
          of punctuation also.
          • usaf Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 04.02.06, 21:35
            boy, punctuation. is that it ?
            it hurts, really !!!
            but to brand me as fake majority is way too polite, haha
    • ejmarkow Re: Polish Foreinger to foreign Foreigners elsewh 01.12.05, 21:04
      Hi There!

      I am in a similar situation as you are, except that I left New York City, USA
      to come to live in a small but beautiful village in south-eastern Poland, in
      the moutains, only 65 east of Krakow. The difference is, I love
      Poland...perhaps it helps that my mother was born in Poland, and my father's
      parents were born in Poland as well. smile Keep in touch!
      • monami5 Great!... 01.12.05, 23:59
        .... sounds you've made a good decision!....you don't regret the move am I right? how long has that
        been?..... don't you miss NYC at all?.... do you speak Polish?....

        smile
        • ejmarkow It's Picture Perfect 04.12.05, 19:10
          Hi Monami,

          I don't regret moving to Poland at all. This village looks like it's out of a
          story book, with gently rolling mountains and valleys, lush forests and fields,
          and horse drawn wagons. I came here in June, 2002 and have been here ever
          since. However, I do miss my parents, brothers, and sister. I speak enough
          Polish to hold a conversation and to get around. It's not perfect, but good
          enough! When do you pland to come back to Kraków?

          Cheers,

          Eugene
          Siemiechów, Poland
          • usenetposts Re: It's Picture Perfect 05.12.05, 01:03
            ejmarkow napisał:

            > Hi Monami,
            >
            > I don't regret moving to Poland at all. This village looks like it's out of a
            > story book, with gently rolling mountains and valleys, lush forests and
            fields,
            >
            > and horse drawn wagons. I came here in June, 2002 and have been here ever
            > since. However, I do miss my parents, brothers, and sister. I speak enough
            > Polish to hold a conversation and to get around. It's not perfect, but good
            > enough! When do you pland to come back to Kraków?
            >
            > Cheers,
            >
            > Eugene
            > Siemiechów, Poland

            Sounds lovely. Pomerania, by any chance?
            • ianek70 Re: It's Picture Perfect 05.12.05, 13:46
              usenetposts napisał:

              > with gently rolling mountains and valleys, lush forests and
              > fields,
              > >
              > > and horse drawn wagons.
              > > Cheers,
              > >
              > > Eugene
              > > Siemiechów, Poland
              >
              > Sounds lovely. Pomerania, by any chance?

              Somewhere down south. There are no hills in Poland, gently rolling or
              otherwise, more than a few miles from the Czech or Slovak borders. Well,
              there's one near Gdańsk, and around Częstochowa there's an area of dull, flat
              land slightly higher than the dull flat land that makes up the rest of Poland.
              I hate the Polish countryside (apart from the mountains, which are cool).
              Countryside should be hilly and full of big animals, but the Polish countryside
              is flat and full of farmers moaning that they have to travel by horse-drawn
              wagon because Brussels won't give them a trillion euros.
              • nasza_maggie Re: It's Picture Perfect 05.12.05, 14:16
                slightly higher than the dull flat land that makes up the rest of Poland.
                > I hate the Polish countryside (apart from the mountains, which are cool).
                > Countryside should be hilly and full of big animals, but the Polish
                countryside
                >
                > is flat and full of farmers moaning that they have to travel by horse-drawn
                > wagon because Brussels won't give them a trillion euros.


                oi!!!!
                • ianek70 Re: Oi? 05.12.05, 15:44
                  nasza_maggie napisała:

                  > oi!!!!

                  OK, so I've just found out I've got to spend Christmas (which I hate) in the
                  Polish countryside (which I hate).
                  But next time you're in a bookshop, check out the "Albumy o Polsce" section. At
                  least half of the pictures will be of churches (mostly identical), the rest
                  will be castles, and in the Piękne Krajobrazy chapter there's a couple of
                  mountains and the rest is simply completely flat fields with a tree in the
                  middle and the heading "A Beautiful Polish Tree", or for people who've seen a
                  tree before, "Look! In Poland We Also Have Rivers!"
                  • nasza_maggie Re: Oi? 05.12.05, 18:06
                    and since when do you form an opinion of a place just by looking at an album?
                    Because I don't. If I did, I wouldn't have visited half of the places I have.

                    You couldn't be more mistaken abut churches in Poland. And to finish off I'm
                    not sure which album you're talking about but I've seen shitty albums of other
                    countries (like France) which are far worse.

                    Poland Ian, is about history. It's not the National Geographic channel.
                  • ejmarkow Re: Oi? 05.12.05, 19:09
                    Ian,

                    I'm in South-Eastern Poland, in the village of Siemiechów, 32 km south of
                    Tarnów, in the mountains. I must strongly disagree with your opinion on how
                    Poland looks. First of all, there are many places other than southern Poland
                    that have rolling hills. Example, Pomerania, the Suwalki area, near Kielce,
                    etc. Poland is simply beautiful, and the countryside and villages are unique
                    from that of that rest of Europe. The villages are rustic and quaint. And,
                    Poland has a fantastic selection of churches. It's too bad you don't like it
                    here...I do.
                    • russh Re: Oi? 06.12.05, 10:33
                      Hi Guys,

                      Got to say that this time I'm erring on Ians side. Sorry.

                      Poland may have many fine things, but lovely countryside is not one of them. It
                      is generally very boring, and of low quality in terms of colour. This view has
                      been formed from a lot of travelling from the north to the south on the western
                      side of the Warsaw line (so maybe it is unrepresentative). You cannot compare
                      the hill scenes to the low alps, or Tuscany, or the highlands. You certainly
                      cannot compare the mountain scenery (I've only seen Zacopane) to those of the
                      major mountain ranges in Europe.

                      To say that the villages in Poland are quaint etc. Oooooh! In my opinion they
                      are completely characterless, with no 'form', and full of houses that are
                      falling down or unfinished.

                      Say what you may. I understand that all you guys want to be proud of your
                      country, and so you should be; but don't say it is a beautiful country, because
                      it isn't.
                      • nasza_maggie Re: Oi? 06.12.05, 12:17
                        russh napisał:

                        > Hi Guys,
                        >
                        > Got to say that this time I'm erring on Ians side. Sorry.
                        >
                        > Poland may have many fine things, but lovely countryside is not one of them.
                        It
                        > is generally very boring, and of low quality in terms of colour.

                        ROTFL smile)))))))))))))))))


                        This view has
                        > been formed from a lot of travelling from the north to the south on the
                        western
                        > side of the Warsaw line (so maybe it is unrepresentative).
                        VERY smile


                        You cannot compare
                        > the hill scenes to the low alps, or Tuscany, or the highlands. You certainly
                        > cannot compare the mountain scenery (I've only seen Zacopane) to those of the
                        > major mountain ranges in Europe.

                        Why would you want to do that? Wha't the point of everything lookin the same?
                        What do you want Poland to be - like Las Vegas? A replica of all things 'nice'
                        because it's in the travel guides? No thanks...
                        >
                        > To say that the villages in Poland are quaint etc. Oooooh! In my opinion they
                        > are completely characterless, with no 'form', and full of houses that are
                        > falling down or unfinished.

                        Again, just because something is old or unfinished doesn't mean it's bad or
                        ugly. You guys really need to dig deeper into history and polish culture to
                        understand some things.
                        This isn't Austria or Germany where everything has to look like a Milka ad.
                        Been to Romania, Ukraine or Moldavia?
                        >
                        > Say what you may. I understand that all you guys want to be proud of your
                        > country, and so you should be; but don't say it is a beautiful country,
                        because
                        > it isn't.

                        Yellow card.
                        • ianek70 The Great North European Plain 06.12.05, 13:40
                          Belgium.
                          Holland, Northern Germany, Poland and Ukraine.
                          This is a large flat area of land. This is a fact. Geology is sometimes
                          politically incorrect, so why do people get offended when someone implies there
                          are no interesting hills in their fatherland? If your ancestors laboured and
                          struggled for generations to make the land flatter and flatter, it would be
                          insensitive not to appreciate their efforts, but nobody's saying they don't
                          like Poland or Poles or anything.
                          I like the Beskidys, which are cool (as I think I mentioned) and full of places
                          with a lot of character, although they are different from both the Alps and the
                          mountains of Scotland. I've heard other Polish mountain ranges are also wild
                          and beautiful, but they do cover only a small part of the country. Is this
                          something to be ashamed of?
                          I like Denmark as well, and there's a saying there that beer crates are
                          specially designed so that by standing on one you can see the whole country.
                          This is maybe an exaggeration, but if you point out to Danes that the name of
                          their highest peak, the 147m Himmelsbjerget ("the Mountain of Heaven"), is
                          stupid, they don't burst out crying.
                          • nasza_maggie Re: The Great North European Plain 06.12.05, 14:12
                            north?
                            And here's me thinking it was central europesmile
                            • ianek70 Re: The Great North European Plain 06.12.05, 14:16
                              nasza_maggie napisała:

                              > north?
                              > And here's me thinking it was central europesmile

                              To me it's southern Europe, but the plain is called the Great North European
                              Plain.
                              Although personally I can't see what's so great about it smile
                        • russh Re: Oi? 06.12.05, 13:58
                          Come on Maggie, don't take it so personally! It's not your fault, neither is it
                          Polands.

                          The countryside is mostly natures fault, and the villages probably a mixture of
                          wartime destruction & communist miss-rule.

                          And remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! If you prefer the Polish
                          village to the British, that fine by me. If you prefer the Polish countryside to
                          Tuscanys, Switzerlands or Britains, that's fine by me. If you prefer Mazury to
                          Lago di Garda, Lago Maggiore, Lake Lausanne or the lake district, that's fine by me.

                          I prefer the beauty of my better half (she's Polish), to, for instance, Claudia
                          Schiffer, and that's also fine by me.

                          See - no problems. Its all fine by me.
                          • nasza_maggie Re: Oi? 06.12.05, 14:15
                            Yes ofcourse it is. It's just this kind of "madamme tussauds" approach to
                            things like local scenery, annoys me.
                      • usenetposts Re: Oi? 06.12.05, 20:18
                        russh napisał:

                        > Hi Guys,
                        >
                        > Got to say that this time I'm erring on Ians side. Sorry.
                        >
                        > Poland may have many fine things, but lovely countryside is not one of them.
                        It
                        > is generally very boring, and of low quality in terms of colour. This view has
                        > been formed from a lot of travelling from the north to the south on the
                        western
                        > side of the Warsaw line (so maybe it is unrepresentative). You cannot compare
                        > the hill scenes to the low alps, or Tuscany, or the highlands. You certainly
                        > cannot compare the mountain scenery (I've only seen Zacopane) to those of the
                        > major mountain ranges in Europe.
                        >
                        > To say that the villages in Poland are quaint etc. Oooooh! In my opinion they
                        > are completely characterless, with no 'form', and full of houses that are
                        > falling down or unfinished.
                        >
                        > Say what you may. I understand that all you guys want to be proud of your
                        > country, and so you should be; but don't say it is a beautiful country,
                        because
                        > it isn't.

                        I think there's a lot of it you haven't seen.

                        Last week as I crossed the Notec in Pomerania just south of Bialosliwie ("the
                        place of the white plums")on the 190 to Szamocin.

                        The savannah like heath, with its characteristic miniature trees and marshland
                        vegetation was so beautiful, I would myself unable to breathe properly for a
                        few moments.

                        And this country is a patchwork of hundreds and thousands of surprises like
                        this.

                        The thing is that people take it for granted when they're in it, and they don't
                        even know the beauty that is before their eyes. That is why a beautiful scene
                        can often be spoiled because someone has built an ugly building near it. These
                        will no doubt be taken away in due course.

                        At this time of year, when the famed golden Polish autumn is over and the trees
                        are bare, but there is no covering of white snow, Poland looks its worst.
                        However, there are four liveries of Poland in which the country looks
                        fantastic, the spring, the full-blown summer, the autumn and the full snowy
                        winter.
                  • kylie1 Re: Oi? 05.12.05, 21:10
                    Ianek, Eugene must absolutely love your welcome to the forum. I don't want to
                    come across as nasty but you sure sound like a bad case of PMS to me.
                    smile smile

                    PS. Oh boy, I am ready Janek....

          • monami5 Re: It's Picture Perfect 06.12.05, 03:40
            I am glad to hear you like the Polish countryside - so do I.

            I'm likely to be back in July, so it's still a long wait!.... in the meantime I'm trying to enjoy myself in LA
            and get to work seriously !... smile

            Cheers, Monami
            • monami5 Got a TICKET! 04.02.06, 20:10
              .... a one - way ticket to Krakow from LA, I mean. smile

              Hurray! finally - I'm coming back and now it's for sure..... I'll be starting to pack up soon. I'm looking
              around the City of Angels with that weird but somehow pleasant feeling of "doing it for the last time"
              (well - at least for a time being - who knows, maybe I'll be back to visit or anything...).

              I know in Poland it'll be cold and even gloomy - but I'm going to enjoy that - have been missing rainy
              days so much.

              So I'll see you, my foreign (and Polish) friends, for a coffee/glass of wine after March 2nd?.... I need
              someone to speak to in English - to not lose it, you know.... wanna help?.... smile

              • ejmarkow Re: Got a TICKET! 04.02.06, 21:17
                Congratulations Monami5! Nice decision....welcome back to beautiful Poland. :-
                )

                Eugene
                Siemiechów, Poland
                www.geocities.com/ejmarkow/siemiechow
              • usenetposts Re: Got a TICKET! 04.02.06, 21:25
                Of course we will meet you. Those of us who met last time are due to meet again
                and we'll make sure you get an invite. Keep checking back here for details.

                Welcome home.
                • usenetposts Re: Got a TICKET! 04.02.06, 21:25
                  And safe journey...
                  • monami5 Thanks! 06.02.06, 05:21
                    Thank you guys. I'll be in touch. Keep warm! smile
    • monami5 ........ 17.02.06, 19:59
      I still can't believe I'm actually coming back!.... it's so weird feeling....

      smile
      • usenetposts Re: ........ 17.02.06, 23:40
        When will you be in Warsaw?
        • monami5 Re: ........ 19.02.06, 06:33
          Me?... In Warsaw?!.... wink
          It'll take a while I guess, Davey.... I don't travel to our capitol - unless I have to. Do I have to?.... smile
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