Moving to Poland

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Mod's you can re-direct this if it's not in the right place, sorry.

Hello! Im moving to Poland with my work, but i get to choose which area of Poland i live in. I was thinking maybe somewhere outside warsaw or in the west of Poland, but i wanted to ask;

Can anyone recommend any good towns i should look at?

Preferably i'd like somewhere with restaurants, bar's, nightlife! It can be somewhere well known, or maybe not!

Thanks for any suggestions!

ojewriej

Warsaw is quite boring to be honest. It's financial capital of Poland, and it shows, if you know what I mean. But if you don't mind that, you will certainly find a good social scene there.

I would reccomend Wroclaw though, poland's 3rd biggest city. - see on www.wroclaw.pl, they have english version of this site.

It's a much more laid back than Warsaw, social scene is brilliant. Loads of restaurants, nightclubs, etc. Loads of stuff to see and do. Also, it's very conveniently located - only few hours (train or car) from Berlin and Prague. Not far from the mountains, to go away for a weekend. Also good connection with Europe, all the budget airlines are flying there, also good train connections.
I think it's a most European of polish cities.

Don't go to Cracow - it's a place to go for a weekend to, not to live in, especially if you don't speak Polish. It's famous for it's culture, so a lot of it would be lost on you. I find it a bit arty farty to be honest, up it''s own arse. There is very little to do/see outside city centre there.

Wroclaw is a way to go imho.

emkey

I lived in few Polish cities, so here's my bit:

As mentioned before, Warsaw is the capital. People come to this city to make big bucks and spend big bucks. If you're a yuppie type, you'll enjoy it. Whatever is currently hip comes to Warsaw within seconds. The best airline connection. Good public transport. Very good train and bus connections.

Lodz has the best club scene in Poland. Top notch djs play there every weekend. Unfortunately the city is a bit like Limerick, it's ugly and full of violence. The best public transport. Bad train or bus connections.

Krakow is artsy fartsy. It's a city overly obsessed about itself, although it's still a cool city to live in. Lots of possibilities of short trips around (e.g. the best climbing areas in Poland).

Wroclaw is the city with the best mood around. The worst traffic, as the city is a huge building site. Public transport is rather patchy due to the same reason. Quite a few interesting places to visit around.

There are other interesting cities in Poland (e.g. Poznan, Gdansk), but I haven't lived in them.
Just consider what factors are important to you.

jamaica

Wroclaw is your only man!!!

WooPeeA

I can recommend you Michael Palin's BBC production about interesting destinations in Poland.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HJaRglgEhyA

Enjoy.

scruff321

im going to krakow for the summer been there twice before on holidays and love it! hopin to get a job,anyone ever done this and what did they do?

trevorku

Warsaw is your best bet, it is not a boring city. It has everything that you need and theres always the trains if you want a day in another city. I was working in Warsaw from September December 2007.
Put it this way, if you have never lived abroad before, then your safest bet would be Warsaw, put it down to my experience as a previous ex-pat. If you live in one of the other cities, for example Krakow, good place for a holiday but its not practical for foreigners to live in to be honest. In Warsaw you have tons of shopping centres, some supermarkets sell Irish butter and theres one where you can get pop-tarts. It has alot of foreigners so you wouldnt feel too out of place. I saw the advice of some of the other people on this page, but how many of them have the experience of living there? Maybe some, but I know based on experience.
Its up to you, but I recommend living in the Suburbs of Warsaw, for example I was living in Piaseczno which was just 35 minutes to the city centre, also your chance of a job is better in the suburbs, and pays more than in the city centre as the city is more competitive.
PM me if you want any more advice and good luck, p.s. what job will you be doing there?

ojewriej

trevorku wrote: »

I saw the advice of some of the other people on this page, but how many of them have the experience of living there? Maybe some, but I know based on experience.

Have you lived in any other cities? Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw?

Most of us answering here are polish, or lived in few places in Poland.

Anyway, we didn't say Warsaw is boring, but that Wroclaw has a better buzz. It's like Dublin and Galway, just bit bigger.

trevorku

I don't think Wroclaw or Poznan is ideal for foreigners and yes I have stayed in other cities for longer times. I think a perspective needs to come from a foreigner who has lived in Poland as Irish have a different perspective to living abroad than most people. Also I am sure the person is not fluent in Polish so its better in that regards with Warsaw. He doesnt need to take my advise, its up to him but in my experience I have advised correctly.

ojewriej

trevorku wrote: »

I don't think Wroclaw or Poznan is ideal for foreigners and yes I have stayed in other cities for longer times. I think a perspective needs to come from a foreigner who has lived in Poland as Irish have a different perspective to living abroad than most people. Also I am sure the person is not fluent in Polish so its better in that regards with Warsaw. He doesnt need to take my advise, its up to him but in my experience I have advised correctly.

Fair enough. It's all matter of perception really - i lived with my Irish GF in Poland for a while, and she liked Wroclaw best. And I don't think it would be any harder for a foreigner to live in Wroclaw or Poznan than in Warsaw. A lot of people speak English, and as for the Irish butter, poptarts, papers etc - you can get them anywhere really.

The way i see it - if you like yuppie, business type of atmosphere - go to Warsaw, if you're into arts and this typo of thing - Krakow, if you want to relax and party a lot - go to Wroclaw. Whateve you are into.

trevorku

I disagree with the 'yuppie' description, it doesnt mean you go to Warsaw if your wealthy or whatever, Warsaw has everything compared to other cities, some other people may get bored in one of the other cities.

My girlfriend also is Polish and we looked at living in other cities and decided Warsaw was the best, just want to point out that I would never live in Warsaws city centre as its too much exposure so the suburbs are perfect and there is nothing yuppie about the suburbs.

Maybe thats why we are disagreeing, you think I am recommending Warsaw City to live in, but really I am advised on the suburbs like Piaseczno, Ursynow, Wilanow or so on, but definitely not the Wolomin area, its equal to the Nowa Huta area in Krakow

Krakow once again, its limited what you can do there and its quite small in my opinion, I know an irish person who lives there who would confirm this.

Wroclaw is for the younger crowd, not practical for foreigners in my opinion, okay maybe for the college students but not in general. Anyways lets leave it at that, dont want to start a silly argument or anything, we have given some information to this guy so lets let him decide. 3maj sie Olej

ojewriej

trevorku wrote: »

Anyways lets leave it at that, dont want to start a silly argument or anything, we have given some information to this guy so lets let him decide. 3maj sie Olej

No way, Warsaw is ****!!!

I'm only messing, you are right, it's a matter of opinion. Getting into an argument over it would be pretty pointless.

scruff321

hey thanks for all the responses and the little debate ,im over in krakow over a week now,i got a job in one of the irish bars and start today! after been there twice before id seen all the sites etc so thankfully i got a job cause tbh i was gettin a pain in me a/se hanging round all the time!im staying in a hostel at the moment but want to find a flat somewhere because im sick of hostels!so any tips for me?

WooPeeA

scruff321 wrote: »

hey thanks for all the responses and the little debate ,im over in krakow over a week now,i got a job in one of the irish bars and start today! after been there twice before id seen all the sites etc so thankfully i got a job cause tbh i was gettin a pain in me a/se hanging round all the time!im staying in a hostel at the moment but want to find a flat somewhere because im sick of hostels!so any tips for me?

Congrats with the job! Try some local newspapers. Also look for the ads in supermarkets like Tesco, Kaufland, Aldi, Lidl.. etc. If you don't speak Polish ask somebody for help as not every Landlord can speak English, he/she could ask him for every detail by phone or something..

I found a flat for my friends in Warsaw on gumtree. That's Krakow edition of that site: http://krakow.gumtree.pl/

is_that_so

ojewriej wrote: »

Have you lived in any other cities? Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw?

Most of us answering here are polish, or lived in few places in Poland.

Anyway, we didn't say Warsaw is boring, but that Wroclaw has a better buzz. It's like Dublin and Galway, just bit bigger.

Lived in Poznan and enjoyed it. Was never keen on Warsaw but always enjoyed Krakow and Gdansk.

WooPeeA

ojewriej wrote: »

The way i see it - if you like yuppie, business type of atmosphere - go to Warsaw, if you're into arts and this typo of thing - Krakow, if you want to relax and party a lot - go to Wroclaw. Whateve you are into.

I would add northern cities like Sopot or Gdansk to the party group, during the Summer of course.

scruff321

im trying to learn polish but im pretty much only learning the basic questions/answers/phrases..its a difficult language,what are english language schools like over here?there expensive enough thats all i know!

by the way lol was workin today for the first time in the bar and this polish lad comes in and asks me a question in polish i didnt understand he asked another person at the bar who was also irish and then when the irish fella didnt understand he said in english "all the foreigners taking our jobs" just found that hilarious:):rolleyes:

WooPeeA

scruff321 wrote: »

im trying to learn polish but im pretty much only learning the basic questions/answers/phrases..its a difficult language,what are english language schools like over here?there expensive enough thats all i know!

by the way lol was workin today for the first time in the bar and this polish lad comes in and asks me a question in polish i didnt understand he asked another person at the bar who was also irish and then when the irish fella didnt understand he said in english "all the foreigners taking our jobs" just found that hilarious:):rolleyes:

Haha.. Pretty funny isn't it. What's the name of that pub? If I will be in Krakow I'll try to visit it. I haven't drink Guiness for a loooong time.

About that Polish language courses, Yes you can find them. I know that government organize free courses for immigrants. At least I know they are free for war refugees as Poland has always welcomed them. Try google for it or ask some Krakow citizen (maybe your boss), I'm pretty sure they will help you if they know something about it.

Try to go to EMPIK (it's the pretty good store's chain with books, CDs, games etc.) and ask for some DVD course or something. I'm pretty sure they can find something. If they can't, then you can make an order for any title they have in their database (there's hundreds of thousands of tittles there ) and they will get it for you in couple of days without any additional fees.

scruff321

thanks for the response man,you in warsaw is it?the name of the pub is the irish mbassey,when i was told the name i thought that was the actual irish embassey lol..

herya

Polish classes in Cracow:
http://www.varia-course.com/
http://www.polishcourses.pl/
http://www.calleo.pl/?pg=&lang=EN&PHPSESSID=r1i3l4obek2c6roqpeelmjg1l4
Just the first three that Google returned, I'm sure there are more!

WooPeeA

scruff321 wrote: »

thanks for the response man,you in warsaw is it?the name of the pub is the irish mbassey,when i was told the name i thought that was the actual irish embassey lol..

Lol.. that reminds me one day when I was in Warsaw, there's a street Aleje Ujazdowskie, it's street of diplomats, lots of foreign organizations and embassies. I was just walking down the road and have seen many signs like "Embassy of UK", "Embassy of Germany", "Embassy of Japan".. then I've seen pretty nice building with the sign "Embassy of the Taste".. I stopped and tried to bring back where the hell is the country called "the Taste".. I was standing like that for about 5 minutes before I realized that it's just a restaurant.