Having lived in Poland for around 5 years I could write a small book but you would be so bored after the first page you would lose the will to live. So, here’s a brief summery.
THE GOOD
Countryside
Once you get out of the city the countryside is beautiful. To the South you have the mountains which is a popular ski resort. In the East you have the most unpopulated part of Poland but with fantastic lakes. The North gives you Gdansk, Sopot the Baltic coast and miles of sandy beaches. The only down side is that Baltic waters are bloody freezing.
Where I live in Szczecin which in the North West I am surrounded by national park and 90 (yes 90) lakes.
People
The people are very friendly once they get to know you if a little reserved. Older people are still slightly suspicious of ‘foreigners’ and bureaucracy (more of that later)
Food
Great food once you get used to the differences, It’s not all Sausages and Cabbage. The staple meat is Chicken and Pork (sorry my Jewish readers). Beef is not very good and Lamb is mainly in the South. Lots of fresh fish and vegetables.
Cost of living
Yes it is much cheaper to live here but not as cheap as it used to be. If you compare prices to the UK remember that the average salary here is 1/3 of the UK and VAT is 23%
Music
They have some great music here and it’s not all pop or heavy metal. What’s very popular is jazz and Latin American. Unfortunately due to the language difference the music doesn’t export very well. The bad news is that they’ve just started X-Factor here, not one of the UK’s better exports.
THE BAD
Bureaucracy
It drives me crazy. Government departments employ three times as many staff as they need so to get anything done you have to visit three departments and speak to three people.
The roads
They are being improved so around 10% of the roads are pretty good. For the rest they are either very bad or lethal ! If you think the potholes are bad in the UK, here you don’t damage a wheel you lose your front suspension. My front shock absorbers last around 2 years. Drivers are about the same as UK if a little more careless.
Language
In a word …. Impossible !
THE UGLY
Buildings
During the second world war many of the Polish cities were either destroyed or badly damaged. For example, Szczecin where I live was carpet bombed in 1945 and 60% destroyed (thank you RAF). After the war they had to built tens of thousands of flats and quickly. The flats they built were ugly pre-fabricated blocks with no planning, if there was a space build flats. Since then most of them have been renovated but they are still bloody ugly.
Older buildings
There are some amazing buildings but a lot more money is needed to renovate them.
That’s about it except for one more thing. The very best thing about living in Poland is my partner. She’s warm, supportive of a crazy Englishman (me) , intelligent, funny and very good cook. I am a very lucky guy !
