Monday 25 June 2018

Strawberries

Strawberry ('Truskawki') season it is. You can literally buy them at every corner of the street. 


And not in portions like I was used to in the Netherlands (250 to 500 gr).
People buy at least a kilo here, in fact they are in wooden baskets in 2 kilo portions in most occasions.


Poland is a strawberry country, the biggest producer in Europe. Rules to sell them are less strict than in the Netherlands, recently I read a news article about a group of sellers being penalized but in general it is being tolerated (street sales without a permit). This is one of the reasons you can buy a big portion of strawberries for a good price.


I explained before that compared to the Netherlands the average salaries are lower here, but prices are also much lower for food. In the case of strawberries this price difference compared to the Netherlands is big.

At Albert Heijn in NL you are paying 3,49 Euro right now, for 500g of Dutch strawberries. In Warsaw you would get 1.5kg for that in retail, 2 kilo on the streets right now. Now that's quite a difference. Unfortunately this is only for a few things, like food which comes from Poland itself.
Nevertheless, it is great to buy 1 or 2 kilo of strawberries at a time and stuff yourself with these buddies.

Polish strawberries are the best 👌
mniam

Saturday 23 June 2018

Polish superstitions (1-3)

You’ve all heard of international superstitions like ‘don’t walk under a ladder’, but how about some exclusive to Poland? 

Lucky number 102
In Poland, like in many other countries, the number 13, is usually considered unlucky. How about lucky numbers? Everybody has their own, of course, but in Poland the number 102 is supposed to be especially lucky. Why? No clue really. In fact many people here do not even know its existence.
You can use 102 as a good luck charm or you can describe something positive with it, for example: Będzie impreza na sto dwa! – ‘It’s going to be a 102 party!’.

Don’t count the pierogi
Speaking of numbers, remember never to count the pierogi while they’re still boiling!


If you will do, while they’re still in the pot, without a doubt half of them will end up stuck to the bottom of the pot or torn apart with the filling coming out.


Interestingly, this is one of the very few cases when a superstition does seem quite rational as indeed usually one or two pierogi from the batch tend to end up ruined.

Don’t sit down when baking a cake
Here’s another culinary superstition: when a cake is in the oven, you should never sit down. If you do, the cake will ‘sit down’ as well: it will sink and come out flat rather than nice and fluffy. So stand, lay down or hang upside down.

Stay tuned for more :-)
Have a nice day folks. Cheerio.



Source: culture.pl

Monday 18 June 2018

Szacunek

Szacunek, the Polish word for respect. I struggled to make these pictures at a cemetery in the Mokotów district. I did it discreetly, as it was so impressive. 


The grave is of football coach Janusz Wójcik, who passed away in 2017. Former coach of Legia Warsaw and the national team of Poland. Later he became a politician. 

Several football clubs showed their respect by placing crests of their clubs made from flowers as you can see on the pictures. 


The cemeteries in Poland which I have visited all were impressive, the majority of people keep such good care of the graves of people they lost. A garden of flowers and lights, on cleaned graves. Not only on special days. 

Also, we have never been alone on the cemeteries we visited, there are always people regardless of the size of the place.
In the Netherlands more people are being cremated nowadays, maybe that is also one of the reasons. In Poland it is not legal to keep the urn with the ashes at home if I am correct.

Nevertheless, big respect for the people who respect the last resting places of their loved ones. Szacunek.






Saturday 16 June 2018

San Escobar

San Escobar is a non-existent country, a blunder of Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski. On 10 January 2017, Waszczykowski told reporters that, in a bid for a non-permanent seat for Poland on the UN Security Council, he had meetings with officials from various countries, including some Caribbean nations, with some of them "for the first time in the history of our diplomacy. For example with countries such as Belize or San Escobar".

You got to be kidding...


Then the fun started.

As a result, the "country" gained a significant presence on the Internet, and was spontaneously given a fictitious identity on social media, including a flag (blue, white, and green stripes, with a yellow 5-pointed star in a red triangle), photos and maps.


The Facebook page was created by Jarek Kubicki, a member of the Razem political party. Within a day the hashtag #SanEscobar was tracked by over 2 million people and has become the most popular within the Polish segment of Twitter. 



San Escobar has also become a subject of numerous joke news, e.g. about an appointment of a military attaché and its nice ecology. A good deal of them play upon drug lord Pablo Escobar, popularized via the TV series Narcos. 



A Twitter account for 'República Popular Democrática de San Escobar' (@rpdsanescobar) was established, which quickly rose to prominence. It announced full support for Waszczykowski in his endeavor, and proceeded to issuing various news releases in Spanish and English. San Escobar issues a newspaper, the San Escobar Times. San Escobar has also become a popular travel destination via El Niño Airlines. 



Then everybody jumped on the bandwagon. Ticketing service Fru wrote that there are only one-way tickets to San Escobar. Netflix (the creator of Narcos) also allegedly claimed it already has airline tickets to sell. 

In 2017 Comedy Central Poland recorded an anthem of San Escobar sung by Eric Cartman, an animated South Park character.



Also a lot of bars popped up with a reference to San Escobar. I always pass one of them when walking to language school. 
The place is called "San Esco Bar". Brilliant.
Years after it still has not faded away. One slip of the tongue and everything went full circus. 


Have a good day everyone :) 


Tuesday 5 June 2018

World Cup - Mundial

Recently I published a blog post about Robert Lewandowski and his presence on huge billboards, in TV commercials, magazines, you name it. The big brands like to connect him to their brand, as he is The Polish icon. You might have missed it, click here: Lewy

Multinational big brands paid for his services to promote their products.




Any more? Plenty...



World Cup - Mundial
Now that the FIFA World Cup is about to start, more players show up in commercials. Kuba Błaszczykowski, Kamil Glik and Kamil 'Turbo' Grosicki I saw so far. But they get nowhere near the presence of Lewandowski. 

The only one who is also getting a lot of commercial exposure is the coach, Adam Nawałka.



He is 60 years old and it seems he is grabbing any commercial opportunity with both hands before retiring and enjoying his pension. At the end of the day it can result in a lot of money for a dead simple task.




These are just a few examples where he promotes Leroy Merlin, OSHEE and Play. All big brands in Poland.

He is also featuring on a huge billboard in city center. It is opposite to a bus stop which we frequently use.



Most recently he featured in a TV commercial for 'Berlinki', sausages comparable to hot dogs. The commercial is hilarious really. You must be one greedy git to accept offers like this. Poland's best paid coach...have a look yourself:


How low can you go 😂

Adam Nawałka
Nawałka is a former footballer who played at Wisła Kraków for ten years before he went to the U.S. in the last stages of his playing career. He gathered 34 caps for the Polish national team. Later, his managerial career led him to various clubs in Polish football before he was appointed at the national team. 

What are the odds? 
It is not so difficult. Poland will finish second or third in their group. If they reach the next phase the chance is big that they will be eliminated quickly after. But obviously it would be nice if they will turn out to be the surprise of the tournament. It will be fun, the Polish are patriotic and proud.

Three things are sure.
1. The national hymn will be belched out from the gut.
2. There will be an awful lot of swearing. By people who usually do not give a rat's ass about football. Just like in any other country :-) 
3. It all was the referee's fault.

Enjoy the World Cup all



Friday 1 June 2018

Polish customs: Marzanna

Every country has its own customs, so Poland as well. Some of them are absolutely bonkers, like this one.

Burning and drowning Marzanna
Marzanna is a Polish name for a Slavic goddess of the Pagan religion: The goddess of death, winter and nature.
This religion was forced out of Poland in the middle ages, but the ritual of Marzanna is still there. When spring starts, some people make a big straw doll.

Which they burn.


And then drown.


For what?? To chase away winter and encourage nature to blossom again.
A tad macabre isn't it? 😆


The Marzanna dolls, some are around ten meters tall, are traditionally made of straw and white canvas and decorated with colorful ribbons. Her sacrifice is subject to several rules: you can’t touch her while she is in the water (your hand would wither), you can’t look back while coming back from the river (you’d bring illnesses upon you and your relatives). The Catholic church was fighting this ritual even until the early 20th century but never succeeded in having it stopped.

Cannot wait to witness it myself really 😎




Source: culture.pl

Statistics

Just some statistic I posted a couple of months ago: Pretty amazing isn't it? Lets go over some other ones, not necessa...