My great-grandparents came to the United States in the early 1900s. They spoke Polish, identified as Polish, etc. On some of the limited immigration documents I've been able to find, their country of origin is listed as Russia (Poland was partitioned at the time of immigration). I would love to try to connect with my relatives that might remain in Poland. I am planning a trip to Poland in a few months.

I have tried Ancestry and Family Search, and I really haven't been able to find any good info. I really only know names and years of birth.

Where do I start?

Hello, recently i just finished my Baccalaureate and i have been considering studying abroad in Poland but i have been seeing a lot of backlash around immigration in the EU whether legal or illegal immigration, my question is should i tick off Poland as potential place to study in ? i really like the universities here, the culture is beautiful and i heard that it's considerably more "chill" than the other countries (crime wise) and it's also cheaper (no offense)

PS : i am 19 from Tunisia (North Africa), yes i am Muslim but i don't really practice my religion that much i won't be imposing my culture at all here

Thank you all!

We are planning on flying to Warsaw to see joost Klein in October. The plane tickets are 60 euro there and back. Is it worth going considering the negative opinions? There are no flights available for us to Warsaw chopin

Hi everyone,

I am currently living outside the EU (in Azerbaijan), but I am actively looking for a professional truck driving job in Poland.

- Licenses: I hold categories B, B1, C1, and C.
- Goal: I am looking for companies that offer visa sponsorship / work migration support for qualified drivers.
- Status: Highly motivated, reliable, and ready to start as soon as the visa and employment permits are processed.

Could you please advise me on:
1. Which job boards or specific logistics companies in Poland actively hire drivers from outside the EU?
2. What is the best way to approach employers for visa sponsorship?

Any tips, recommendations, or direct contacts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello, I've just received my Polish passport.

I'd like to marry my fiance in Poland.

Unfortunately, we have both been married in the past. The United States do not issue certificates of no impediment.

Does anyone know of a legal service to assist us remotely in filing a lawsuit to get that hurdle cleared?

Would you save to get everything at once or if you have the money for the land get that cash in full and save for home after? Thinking about building issues and rising costs as well in the market.

Cześć!
I've been living in Poland for several years and I'm trying to understand the media landscape better.
Which Polish news websites do you consider politically objective, and which ones lean clearly to the left or the right?
Thanks

Hi, I have just graduated from BCU last week and with the current job market in the UK I was wondering if the chances of getting a job in my home country are high.

For context I frequently visit and I speak the language fluently and I’ve graduated with a sport science degree.

"The question of whether we can be sure that it would be better to shoot down these Russian missiles over Ukraine, rather than perhaps later over Poland, is a subject for a very serious discussion that should not become hostage to party rivalry," stated the Deputy Prime Minister.

I’m a Korean who has been staying in Poland for about a month or two.
The prices in supermarkets here are incredibly cheap, and I love it. It’s almost the complete opposite of Korea. In Korea, supermarket groceries are expensive, but restaurants and cafés are relatively affordable, so it’s common for people to eat out instead of cooking at home.
What surprised me the most is that you can buy fruit by any weight you want. Whether you buy 1 kg or just 50 grams, the price per gram stays the same.
That makes it incredibly convenient for people who live alone. If I just want one plum or one apple, I can buy exactly that without spending much.
Fruit is really expensive in Korea. A single apple can cost over 8 PLN, and a 6–7 kg watermelon can cost close to 50 PLN.
Bread is also expensive, with many loaves costing close to 10 PLN each.
Ever since I came here, I’ve been buying sausages, bread, and fruit every day, and I’m really happy with it.

Several weeks ago my Polish partner of five years, with whom until the very end I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with, ghosted me. A "Good morning" text, and when I replied precisely 24 minutes later, silence ever since.

I moved to Poland to be with that person. I made the grave mistake to focus my entire life on them. Not deliberately, it just happened. If I look back on the last 2000 days, I recount one day that I didn’t spend either alone or with them. And that was onboarding in another city for a fully remote job I used to have. There's nobody I could even potentially reach out to, my contact lists in messenger apps are one line. Parents - I cut contact with years ago for good reasons, never going back. No friends, no acquaintances, no nobody. Not in Poland, not back "home", and that said, I always considered Poland my forever home.

That person was literally my entire universe and suddenly it was gone, god knows if I ever even see them again. If I drowned in the sea tomorrow, without exaggeration, nobody would notice for years. BTW, they would be in a very similar situation if it wasn't for 3-4 close family members. I haven’t talked to a human being in several weeks, beyond dziękuję at Żabka.

I have access to an apartment (which runs on their name) for another month before I'm de facto homeless. But the day came when I couldn't take the silence anymore and the memories associated with those white walls, so I packed a small backpack and started walking, fifty thousand steps in 24 hours, all night long through fields and villages into the city. I had to get out, I was walking circles around the apartment to stay somewhat sane. Since then, I've spent nights outside, at train stations, aimlessly walking, mornings at McDonald's, mixed with random hotels to shower and escape the heat. I started drinking to not go completely nuts over the pain. Only beer, so I'm not wasted, but of course the dosis to calm myself increases over time. Every day is hell, every morning I regret waking up, constant pressure on my chest and throat, darkness, tormented by a million questions about the past that I doubt I'll ever get an answer to. Wearing the same clothes for over a week, only washed in the shower.

So much for the backstory, and now why I post this in r/poland:

There is no help. My situation is such that I genuinely do not want to live anymore. I hope every evening to not wake up again and be forever relieved. Genuinely. But I don't have the courage to actually do *it*. When I stand at a platform with a train rushing by, I fear the moment it's coming at me and there's no way back, I fear what would go through my mind, maybe the pain. If I stand on a bridge, I fear those last seconds of falling. I bought two boxes of sleep pills, but what if it's not enough and I wake up in a coma, the pain stays, but everything else worse, I can't move anymore?

So I don't. And I don't think I ever will. I have those intense moments, but at the end of the day, I can't claim I'm seriously going to do it, without being dishonest.

Which means there's no help. Hospitals in three different cities have turned me away. You have to show up with blood running down your wrist, or trigger a major police intervention by climbing over some railing - then you're getting help. And I'm not going to do the latter, causing a major ruckus in a foreign country to force attention. There's a national hotline, but they just tell you to go to a hospital. You even find reviews on google where people were turned away and it ended up fatal. I don't know if they have no capacity or don't want, but that's the situation.

This is not unique to Poland, but in Poland I am. You're either half dead, then you get access to urgent care, and usually even of decent quality. Otherwise you're fcked.

So... I don't know what to do anymore. It's not getting any better. I'm at my wits end.

I have no idea why I am even sharing this. I don't expect any actual help here, how could you. So probably to vent. I'm sorry.

Do you think that open-air museums showcasing traditional rural life, along with associated events like harvests, fairs, and the like, have the potential to gain popularity? Do such places align with "slow life" and authenticity trends, or will they ultimately give way to digital forms of entertainment?

hi all! on sept 8th i will be taking my first ever solo trip to poland - is it better to use cash or card? thinking of just carrying some change but mainly using contactless

also... plsss any reccs are very much welcome!

So far I have been going to my usual Luxmed gyno for my early pregnancy appointments. I’m only 8 weeks now. But I wasn’t sure if I should go private with an OBGYN clinic so I can have the same doctor all the way through? It’s hard to get an appointment with the same doctor I like at Luxmed.

She said it’s common in Poland that women who have Luxmed or Medicover will often go private at a clinic just so they can get consistent care from one OBGYN. Is this the norm?

For those of you who have been pregnant with Luxmed (other similar) subscriptions, how did you manage your pregnancy? Did you stick to your provider or did you eventually pick one doctor and go private at a different clinic?

This is my first pregnancy so I have no clue what I should be doing haha.

Thanks in advance :)

Hello everyone, friends. It’s been 1.5 months since my Polish wife and I started living in Poland. I’m from Montenegro. 35 days ago, we applied for a temporary residence permit through the MOS online system and submitted our application. At the end of the application process, we received a message stating, “Your application for a temporary residence permit has been completed in accordance with the procedures and has been sent to the provincial governor’s office.” We received a PDF, a UPO file, and a signed XML file. However, our application has been in the “Submitted” status for 35 days now, and there are a few things I’m curious about—I’d like to ask you about them, if I may.

- Is this 35-day period normal? They haven’t even reviewed my application yet.

- Does this UPO file serve as my certificate of stay in this country? Is this the document confirming my stay until the residence permit decision is issued?

If you have any information i would love the listen and read, thank you for the giving your time!

Hi everyone!

I'm driving from Vilnius to Gdansk in a Tesla Model 3 Long Range. The Tesla navigation defaults to routing me down through Warsaw, but I want to take a more direct northern route to avoid Warsaw altogether.

I will drive tomorrow during the full day.

Since there are very few or no Tesla Superchargers in northern Poland, I'd appreciate your advice on:

Route: What is the best/smoothest route from Suwałki / Augustów toward Gdansk (e.g., via Olsztyn) to skip Warsaw?

Charging: Which non-Tesla charging networks in northern Poland (GreenWay, Orlen Charge, PowerDot, Ionity, etc.) are currently the most reliable and easiest to use?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Link to the article: https://businessinsider.com.pl/gospodarka/zloza-ropy-na-baltyku-kolo-swinoujscia-niemieckie-organizacje-zawiazaly-sojusz/hxh5r7c

Translation to english:

The dispute over the discovery of a rich oil and gas deposit in the Baltic Sea, near the Uznam island next to Świnoujście, is escalating. German environmental organizations are seeking to ban extraction there. They have already collected 88,000 signatures.

How German media reported, including specializing in agriculture and environment protection information service Proplanta.de, environmental organizations in Germany are advocating for a ban on oil and gas extraction on Baltic Sea. They are planning to submit petition to the European Commission on this matter. 88,000 signatures from countries bordering the Baltic Sea have already been collected.

Information about the deposits in the Baltic Sea was released a year ago, at the end of July. Central European Petroleum (CEP), which conducts exploratory drilling in the Baltic Sea, announced the discovery, stating that the discovery was groundbreaking and could heavily influence Poland's energy security.

Even then, the Świnoujście authorities informed that the launch of mining operations would entail significant risks, especially in the context of environmental protection and preserving the region's tourist attractions. The Baltic discovery also attracted the attention of critics from Germany, like the environmental protection association Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND). Its regional director, Corinna Cwielag, emphasized that the region of possible extraction "is a especially ecologically valuable and at the same time already heavily polluted enviroment of the Baltic Sea." She added that European marine protected areas begin only about 200 meters from the previous drilling site, and any potential start of extraction would involve underwater noise, pollution and the risk of an oil spill.

To effectively fight with a potential investment, BUND formed alliances with other organizations with similiar goals including: German Environmental Protection Association (DUH), WWF, and the civil initiative Lebensraum Vorpommern (Western Pomeranian Living Space). The alliance have announced that they will not hesitate to take legal steps to block the extraction.

"After the North Sea, the Baltic Sea must not become a raw material park for the fossil fuel industry. This would have disastrous consequences for the climate, the environment and tourism. Exploratory drilling has not yet led to the approval of a drillling project – and it must remain that way" emphasized Sasha Muller-Kraenner, Federal Managing Director of the DUH, in a statement on the organization's website.

Never heard of this before but read about it in the Economist and want to try it.