Polish stuff

Just thought I would share some random Polish tidbits:

• They like to drink red beer, with straws. We saw this a lot when we visited before we moved, and it's not just the women who sip it with straws. It was kind of funny seeing the men do it as well. Finally at one bar the woman ahead of me ordered one, so I just said "I'll have what she's having". Turns out it's just a Polish draught beer, with a cherry/raspberry/strawberry syrup added to it. You order it by saying "I'll have a beer with juice". I figured I would love it, but I didn't really. It reminded me of the time that my Irish soccer friends talked me into getting a Guinness with Blackcurrant syrup in it, like they used to drink when they were younger. Note: Please don't ever try that...

Here is Mike enjoying the local drink. Actually it's mine, I don't think he'll be happy knowing he is on the blog holding a beer with a straw in it

The berry syrup I found in the grocery store. Some of the larger stores have a whole aisle filled with this stuff. I wonder what else they use it for? When we stayed at the Sheraton we had access to the Club Lounge (=free booze) and there was a pitcher of the syrup next to the beer. Weird

• I guess this goes without saying, but they love their sausages.. I found this display slightly disturbing though, the ones on the right look suspicious to me....like mummified weiners

• Cereal comes in bags, not bags within boxes. Extremely annoying, because as hard as you try to not rip the bag when you open it, it always gets ripped. And even when you cut the top off with scissors, if you open the bag enough times it rips and the cereal spills all over the place. Do you know how much I hate the feeling of little cheerios crunching under my foot?? And as you can see, they don't sell 'real' Cheerios here either. Still a big thing I miss from the good 'ol US of A. For a country known for their high obesity rates, it still has the best selection of low sugar breakfast cereals.

• They love basketball. Who knew? I thought it was just an American thing, like football or baseball. I found a huge sporting goods store and I was surprised to see a big basketball aisle.

• There are billboards everywhere. The first few weeks that we were here, I would see a sign for something that I needed for the house but I would pass by it so quickly I couldn't write anything down. But since everything is in Polish, I could never tell which one of the words was actually the name of the store anyway so eventually I just started ignoring them

• They like to keep their kids entertained. In every shopping center we have been to we have found a big play area where you can leave your kids while you shop. And in most restaurants they have some sort of playground/slide/bouncy castle right next to the outdoor seating, and in hairdressers/banks/other places where there might be a wait there is usually a little IKEA table and chairs set up with some coloring books, crayons, and puzzles. Very nice when you are forced to drag your kids with you everywhere

• They park on the sidewalks. I have yet to figure out the rules for this, but if I see a car on a sidewalk and there is room behind it I just park there. So far I haven't gotten ticketed/towed/clamped (knock on wood). I have gotten some evil stares from passers-by, and one cyclist banged his fist on my hood (what was he doing driving on the sidewalk anyway?!) but that's not going to stop me when I need to park my car.

• Polish drivers are crazy. And this is coming from a New Yorker who lived in Boston for five years. They are so aggressive, have zero patience, and just scare me - speeding, driving down the middle of the road, passing when they shouldn't be, tailgating, etc. etc. Maybe I am just used to the slower pace of Dublin or I have become an old geezer, but I get passed on a daily basis driving on the main road leading from city center to our house. And it's a built up, busy area so it boggles my mind when they pass me, and pull over just in time to avoid a head-on collision. Plus Polish roads are not well maintained at all - the shoulders are a few inches lower than the road so if your tire happens to veer off just a little bit I imagine your whole car would fly off the road - or you would do some serious damage to your tires.  I found Irish people to be very courteous drivers (except if they were on a motorcycle, see below). If say, a delivery truck was pulled over on the side of the road partially blocking your lane of traffic, in Dublin the opposing cars would move over on their side so that you both would be able to pass by. But here (which is like the U.S.), there is no way anyone would do that and it's almost like they enjoy trying to run other drivers off the road. 

The other day while driving I had to take a picture of this sign because I wanted to translate it when I got home. To me it's a photo of a ballsy motorcycle rider cutting through traffic, thinking he owns the road, flipping the bird to everyone because he just doesn't give a f*ck about the rules and he knows no one is going to run him over. This is how motorcylists in Dublin drove and it used to make me crazy. Do they have some special license allowing them to do whatever they want, drive whereever they want, not obey a single traffic rule, putting pedestrians lives in danger wherever they are?? Seriously I used to try to run them off the roads because I would get so mad. Apparently the sign says 'enough space for all'. Yeah, I don't think so!!! They can stay behind me like a regular car would have to.

They have the worst napkins! Not sure if you can tell by this photo but I think they are made out of tissue paper. Really not much use at all, especially when trying to clean up after a 4 year old who has chocolate ice cream all over himself. The same goes for paper towels, they aren't made of the same material but definitely not anything close to Bounty - I am going though roll after roll because they are so thin.

• I don't want to generalize about Polish people, but we cannot get over how much they cut in lines. Are they that rude? Or just impatient? It is so annoying. If you are next in line for the ATM, they will sort of gather in a cluster around you and not form a real line, so as soon as you think it's your turn one of them makes a sneak attack from the side and jumps in front of you. It's very bad at airports too - and the other day at the grocery store I was pulling into the line with my cart and a woman yanked her maybe two year-old by the hand and she literally skipped and hopped right in front of me. I was so pissed off, so I have made it a habit of ramming my shopping cart/luggage cart/suitcases, etc. into the ankles of the offenders (which doesn't seem to phase them in the least by the way). 
• When it gets hot, men take their shirts off. It doesn't matter how old they are either - I've seen 70+ geezers do it, in a shopping mall for goodness sakes! There's a/c inside, I was just scratching my head that day. They walk around without their shirts in their hands and I don't even see them hanging out of their back pockets, so it's like they decided before they left their house not to put a shirt on. Last weekend we went to the zoo and saw a handful of bare-chested kids. Not as bad, but Jack sees this and wants to do the same thing. The week it was 97+ degrees here I saw enough disgusting man-boobs to last me a lifetime.
• They hate it when you don't use exact change. If you are at the checkout and your total comes to 22.38 zty and you hand them a 50, they start yelling at you saying who-knows-what in Polish. I just shrug my shoulders and wave my 50 at them and then they roll their eyes or hold their hands up in frustration and then shout something about groszy (grosha - Polish cents) so I'll have to sit there and at least dig out 8 cents or whatever it is they want.
• They don't use checks or automatic transfers here. I guess the check thing isn't too big of a deal since I didn't use them much anyway, but in Dublin we had most of our utility bills set up as automatic transfers out of our account each month. Now in order to pay a bill I have to log into our bank account and do a transfer  - which I of course have to remember to do which I find annoying, because for a lot of the utilities (garbage, recycling, gas) I have already been given the payment stubs for the next 6-9 months and I am sure I will forget something. And in order to do a transfer from our bank account, we need to enter an authorization code that gets texted to us which of course goes to Mike's cell phone not mine so I can only do the transfers when he is at home sitting next to me (and if you are reading this Mike, this is a reminder to go into the bank and switch it to my cell phone number, thanks a million)
• They don't wear bike helmets here, and this causes my kids to whine like crazy when I force them to wear them even if they are just out on their scooters. Ava especially hates it, she is very self-concsious these days and if she sees other kids her age walking around, she immediately stops, pulls her helmet off and tells me she wants to walk instead. Not sure how I get her to understand that she looks beautiful even with a helmet on : )
• It's cheap, or at least cheaper than Dublin - but I think I already talked about that. Ava and I have been treating ourselves to manicures and pedicures because it's only 100 zty, which would be about $30. I think that sounds about right? In Dublin it cost about €75 (over $90) for both, and that was for the most basic you could get - so very little foot soaking, massaging, or scrubbing. We try to drag Jack with us but he gets so bored so I think I'll have to wait until the kids are in school and then it will be my regular outing. There is a very nice Polish girl named Emily there who speaks perfect English so it's nice to chat with her about Poland.
• Some names I have been coming across are Piotr, Konrad, Bogdan, Malgorzata (shortened to Gosia), Magdalena (Magda, I can't help but think of Something About Mary's Magda), and Aneta.

That's all for now!