right, so here are some things about poland.
starting off, there's "the stadium" which is a stadium, but it and its surroundings are used as a market. you'll find lots of russians, poles and vietnamese people peddling all sorts of knockoff wares. this includes shoes, music, porn, clothes and fragrances (and even pots and pans of all things).
the transport system is awesome. if you don't already have a monthly ticket, you just but a ticket for 2.20 pln (zar) and you can ride the line as far as it goes. it's valid for the trams, buses and the underground metro. you can also get a day ticket which allows you to ride the system with no limits for the whole day. i think i might do that some day soon. for anyone who's interested, here's the website: http://www.ztm.waw.pl/
oh yeah, cable tv is quite interesting. it's got a few channels that you would find on za satellite such as discovery, animal planet, bbc prime, mtv, vh1, etc, but... it's all dubbed into polish. it's quite surreal watching the likes of mythbusters (named "prawda czy fałsz - pogromcy mitów" which is literally translated into "truth or false - suppressors of myths" - lol) dubbed in polish. some of the dubbing is quite annoying because the english is still audible. not only that but most of it is off sync so if you understand both the english and the polish, you hear all of the speech in double. also, it's normally only one guy or girl (never both) speaking and they make no attempt to differ they voice for different characters. and the tv guide's all in polish, so i have to guess what the polish-english translations actually refer to (such as the title for mythbusters). there's also a channel dedicate to cars called "tvn turbo" who's tagline is "a man's ride". they often screen top gear also dubbed into polish. and for the anime freaks out there, they have naruto dubbed in polish on one of the three kids channels.
i don't suppose i need to tell you it's cold here in poland. it snowed the first morning that i was here. it didn't snow enough to cover and ground tho but there are still lots of piles of leftover snow that refuse to melt away. but that's great, at least it's not as hot as za with the average temperature being 7-10°c.
the shopping here is amazing. there's a pick 'n pay equivalent (although it's not) that's about the size of your average makro. you can get everything there. it's called carrefour (which is a french chain). one odd thing tho, in the fruit juices section the juices are sorted by flavour rather than brand. i suppose it makes some sort of sense... just haven't seen it done like that before anywhere. also they have this new mall in the centre of town called "złote tarasy" meaning "golden terraces" which is so slick. there are some pics in the picasa link below, but you might want to check out the ones on panaromio on google earth (n 52°13'47" e 21°00'15" ) which are much better in quality.
the drivers here are crazy. really aggressive. it's kind of like having taxi drivers in normal cars (so here you can't distinguish who's a maniac and who isn't). and they drive on the wrong bloody side. also, altho pedestrians should have right of way, it seems that most of them have missed that particular memo.
if anyone has some questions, send me a mail and i'll try and find it out.
2007.03.02 | some things around warsaw
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2 comments:
Yay carrefour! they've infiltrated here as well, but become very taiwanised in the process, so I'm betting your ones are better.
The 'shower in the kitchen' thing also sounds quite taiwanese... Perhaps it's a Eurasian thing?
Wow. It sounds like for the amount you've been around, you've picked out a lot of things...or Poland is just weird. I like the arrangement of the juice, though. I think we could learn from the Poles there!
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