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I just got back from a 3 week trip to Poland to get married (again, church ceremony, had a civil ceremony here) and spend time with my wife's family and tour the country. It's an interesting place, and here's my take of the country.
First, practically all the houses are concrete or brick - no wood. And a good number of them are the exact same size and shape as if back in the day the commies say "all houses must be two story concrete squares 15 meters by 15 meters." Practically all houses have city water and sewers, but almost none have air conditioning, no screens on the windows, and some new or fixed up houses have vinyl siding over the brick or concrete. And, the telephone poles are concrete too. They don't look very nice compared to wooden poles, I guess it depends on what you are used to. When a new section of a town is built it is laid out like an American suburb, with all power lines and such underground, and the houses will be fully furnished with new lawns and people moved into them... but half of the houses will HAVE NO ROADS TO THEM!?!? People will be living in them and driving new cars over what would barely pass as a dirt road (you need a good old American pickup or SUV to get to it without messing up your vehicle over time), and what is even stranger is, this is seen as perfectly normal. Sorry, but you build the road before you build the house, let alone move into it!
The country's infrastructure needs work. The roads are narrow, the highway system is practically non existent, the trains are fine but not the most modern, satellite TV is VERY popular because there isn't much cable TV lines laid out, and high speed internet is only available in the cities, only dial up even a short distance away. To be fair, they are building new roads and subways like crazy, but they still have a way to go.
Cell phones are naturally everywhere, because giving people a phone and putting up cell towers is not hard to do, but most people have cell phones that are a generation behind ours (you can tell by the cheesy beeping ring tones instead of the music you usually hear in America). The coverage is very good even in the middle of nowhere in the country.
There are very few stop signs, mostly yield signs, which is not good in a country of crazy drivers. Cars are naturally tiny. Almost no pickups or SUVs. Some small SUVs are popular like the Toyota RAV4, and the common pickups I saw were brand new Mitsubishis. I saw a few grand cherokees (even a hemi), a couple of H2 hummers, an 80s V8 camaro, one F-150 pickup (pretty new), a 2.0L PT cruiser, and a red 95-96 2GNT (I have a picture standing next to it, I find 2Gs everywhere I go!) I saw two of them, but it was two weeks apart in the same small city near where my wife's family lives, and they were the same color so it was probably the same car. I also spotted an EVO and an STI. Oh, the import scene is somewhat popular out there. I saw some riced out civics and VWs. (Just can't get away from the rice, no matter where you go lately) Also saw a dodge durango with 24 inch chrome rims in my wife's small town of all places!
If you drive around anywhere outside a city there is one word that will sum up your experience: CHICKENS. They are EVERYWHERE! Every other house has about a dozen chickens. They will just be running around in the front yard, even if there is no fence. Rural areas are well populated because all the farms are small and family run. Everyone, even people in the city, will at least grow food in gardens. My in-laws have a big garden and about 15 chickens and they are not farmers. Even one family I met that lives in Warsaw owns a plot of land outside the city so they can grow things.
The economy there is changing as people in the cities or even in the country have more modern jobs, but in the towns you will have some people with a lot of money and big homes living right next to people who are still essentially subsistence farmers; with people still pulling carts around with horses and tending to their fields. And even in smaller cities you'll find people driving tractors through the center of the city.
Food is excellent, no chemicals, all fresh, no counting calories either, but few people are heavy. I definitely gained a few pounds. The beer is a step up from average American beer, but not up to spec of a good german or belgium beer. Vodka is excellent, smooth and easier to drink, and drink, and drink. I drank almost every day I was there, at least 2-3 drinks a day. At my wedding I must have had 8 drinks, but that was spread out over about 10 hours.
Most stuff there is cheap. A full meal is 1/3 to 1/2 the price, most goods are about 1/2 the price or less, except computers and some electronic items are the same price or more expensive, and gas is about twice the price. Fortunately they haven't switched to the euro yet so our currency is about 2.7 times the polish currency, which is good for us if you want to visit.
On the radio, more than 1/2 the songs are American songs even though most people can't understand them, about 1/3 in Polish, then a tiny bit of Spanish, Italian, and such. Most young people speak at least some English.
And the women (yes, i got married out there, but I was doing "research" for you guys by observing my surroundings, yea that's it  ) well, they are on average better looking than out here, partly because almost none are fat, almost all are thin from being active, not scrawny at all and not "hard bodied" like some girls here who spend too much of their life in the gym, they are just right. And most of the girls look alike too (my family and friends who went there for the wedding said the same thing.) If it's warm, they also have no problem wearing very little, very tight clothes. A defenite place to go and pick up thin, good looking chicks in the city like at a club or bar (people in the big cities will moree likely speak English).
Overall, very nice place to visit, but you won't get paid like you do out here for the same work and the infrastructure is lacking. Being on the wrong side of the iron curtain will do that to your country, but they are very resilient and working hard to make their country better.
As for weddings: Weddings are 1 to 3 days long, and the first day always lasts until 3 or 4 AM (I went to bed around 4 or so). You start from the bride's house and the parents of both bride and groom bless the couple, then you go to the church, in a procession on the street if it's close enough (which is what we did, with a band playing as we went!) Lots of dancing, drinking, and food. There was a constant supply of food and vodka(we had 70 bottles left over afterwards), and that does not include the 4 courses we had (last course was served at 2 AM!). Very fun. I had a rather traditional wedding. We had to bribe "Germans" to get through to the reception (a polish tradition to bribe people at a "gate" or two, sometimes dressed as Germans or Russians because the Poles don't like either of them; can't blame 'em) We had to get through two gates to get through, and you give them vodka, cigarettes, and such.
Overall a great time! I'll get a few pics up when I can.
"Tutto fa brodo."
Todd Scungio
98 RS
15.173 @ 90.70 MPH
And also a 2011 Ralliart
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