Polish Blog A daily dose of Polish life

Where I come from when someone passes away we stick them in a box, heat for an hour at 2000 degrees and sprinkle the ashes around their favourite park/beach/tree.

Not so in Poland. Cremations are rare in Poaland and funerals tend to be a tradional coffin burial. Polish cemetaries have a rich variety of graves and the care that goes into looking after graves is astounding. Being Roman Catholic they believe death does not end human life and since everyone has an eternal spirit we will all meet up in the afterlife.

Many families visit graves frequently to pay respects, lay flowers, lantens and sweep away any dust. Many stones have the face of the deceased engraved into it which I find a bit chilling.

An important day in the Polish calender is All Saints Day (Wszystkich Swietych) where families visit the graves of loved ones to place candles to help the departed souls find their way through the darkness. It’s quite a spectacular sight if you get to see it.

Apologies for the brief haitus, normal service will now resume.

In my time away I’ve been spending a lot of time in Warsaw library, this has nothing to do with the new librarians… well it might of had something to do with it. I didn’t really get much reading done.

Patrycja

Justyna

Paulina

The folks at Xbox decided the best way to promote the console in Poland was to get some busty Polish girls in white bikinis demonstrating some of the games on the beach, they also decided to have a bar serving chilled Zywiec.

The marketing man at Xbox has been given a well deserved medal.

The beach in question is in Pobierowo (about 100km north of Szczecin) which is a lovely place to visit should you be in the area.

In the UK there is TV program called ‘Eastenders’, it’s watched by millions and the program is basically about a bunch of poor gypsies trying to out-depress each other. Storylines range from kidnap, abuse, murder and illicit affairs with friends/business partners/sisters etc. See what I mean? You tend to watch an episode and then want to kill yourself.

Unfortunately this program only airs in the UK, but luckily for those in Poland a new series by TVP1 started recently, titled ‘Londynczycy’.

The series does remain fictional; however it is based on real life stories of Poles who went to the UK:

“We were inspired by real life events which happened to the latest emigration of Poles on the islands: these stories were a starting point which we elaborated upon. This is important because the series is not a documentary on the real lives of Poles; it is a work of fiction, although the script writers did spend a few months in London doing research,” said Maciek Kubicki.

What may be seen as a novel approach to Polish television is the bilingualism that is present throughout the series, with both Polish and English being used simultaneously:

“Poles speak English with the British, they speak Polish amongst themselves, but the English they speak varies depending on their education and background. There has never been such a kind of show on Polish television where this bilingualism is so prominent. We have Polish, Polish-English or just English dialogues. It’s a new and interesting perspective for this series,” said Maciej Kubicki, story editor of ‘Londoners’.

With scenes set in Boroughs such as Ealing, coined one of the original Polish districts, Soho as well as The City and Canary Wharf, the series will provide an insight for Poles who stayed at home about what their lives may have looked like had they gone to the Big Smoke, London’s infamous nickname. For Poles who have already come back from the UK, many of the scenes may seem all too familiar…

Check it out:

I’ve been getting a few emails asking “Where can I meet Polish Girls” or “I am from <insert 3rd world country> and would like to marry a sexy Polish girl, please help”. Whilst it’s nice to be recognised as the Hitch of Eastern Europe I’m not sure some of these guys know what they would be letting themselves in for.

Dating a Polish girl has it’s pros and cons, so I’m going to try and compile a ‘Top 5 reasons to date a Polish girl’, I’ll follow this up next week with a ‘Top 5 reasons not to date a Polish girl’.

So here are the top five reasons to date a Polish girl in no particular order:

1. The Cute Names

Rather than the “Darling” or “Sweetheart” you get from an English speaking girlfriend, a Polish girl will introduce a whole new set of cute nick names which sound ever so sweet:

Misiu – Teddy Bear

Sloneczko – Little Sun

Kotku – Kitten

Pimpek – Cute Thing

2. The Food

Now some of the younger Polish girls I’ve dated have been useless in the kitchen, it comes from living at home and having their Mother cook delicious food for them so they never have to lift a finger.

However, some will learn from their Mother/Grandmother and be great little cooks. You also get access to the cooking skills of the extended family which tend to be a lot better than anything your girlfriend can knock up (don’t ever tell her that). Visiting your girlfriends family in Poland will usually mean they will go all out to impress and serve you the most delicious homemade bigos/periogi/sernik you can imagine!

3. Conservative Nature

Polish girls tend to be a bit more conservative than their Western counterparts, whilst they enjoy a good time as much as any other nation it’s rare to find them bashing each others heads in after drinking 14 alcopops.

Polish Girls having fun

Binge Britain

4. Better Looking

Everyone has their own taste when it comes to what kind of women they prefer, I’ve friends mad on Japanese girls, crazy for Latino girls and some even find British women attractive! For me and a good number of others the Polish women win hands down.

There just seems to be a higher concentration of good looking women in Poland, other countries I’ve been in I’ve walked down a normal high street and struggled to see a girl I’d be remotely interested in where as in Poland I find that every few paces I see a girl I’d cut off my right hand to have a chance with.

5. A Polish Wedding

Those that have been to a Wedding in the UK/USA would agree that they can sometimes be quite dull affairs, sitting in a cold church for an hour then off to a reception for some prawn cocktail, roast beef, cake and embarassing dancing.

Should you choose to marry your Polish girlfriend you will discover a Polish wedding is often a 2-3 day affair, fuelled by copious amounts of food and vodka.

Poles dance a lot at weddings, usually to traditional folk music and a number of games are played, the games can be great fun but most of them at some point involve drinking vodka.

Coming in the next few days I’ll do a Top 5 reasons NOT to date a Polish girl (I could probably write a book about that)

When travelling abroad you often see amusing names for everyday objects/foods that would cause a raised eyebrow and a giggle were it ever to go on sale back in your home country.

In a country where the best selling male/female fragrances are David Beckham’s and Paris Hilton’s offerings you are likely to encounter some even worse brands and smells.

Branded fragrances are on offer but at a huge mark up to even western prices. Armani, Boss, Calvin Klein etc would all come in at around $100+ a bottle which for those on Polish wages is a very high price to pay.

I made the mistake of going to a high end department store to buy a girlfriend some Armani perfume, I nearly fainted when the cashier rung up the price of 320zl. I still bought it mind, I was fed up of her smelling of the sickly sweet Celine Dion rubbish she used to wear.

There is one particular brand in my local chemist shop that causes me to chuckle every time I see it called “Brutal” which is made by http://www.miraculum.pl  I just get a mental image of two jocks in a locker room after a shower e.g.

Jock 1: “Hey Chuck, what’s that you’re putting on?”

Jock 2: “Well Todd… this is BRUTAL”

Childish I know, but these things amuse me. So I decided to buy a bottle of Brutal to take back home for a Christmas gift. I went to the grumpy cashier, paid and put it in my bag, 10 minutes later I smell a very very strong smell of powerful aftershave and see that my bag, trousers and coat are wet in some places.

I check my bag and see that the bottle of the aftershave was not on, someone in the shop had obviously tried it and put it back in the packet without the top on leaving me smelling like I’d been dipped in petrol.

It had soaked through and got to my skin, it took nearly of week of intense scrubbing to get the smell away and an equal amount of time for my girlfriend to let me go near her.

When Wroclaw was the German city of Breslau to commemrate the 100th Aniversary of the Battle of Leipzig they decided to build the a Centennial Hall.

Originally named Jahrunderhalle it was renamed Hala Ludowa (“People’s Hall”) when the city became part of Poland under a communist government in 1945. A Pioneering work of design built by Max Berg, the building has earned UNESCO approval making it a world heritage listed building.