British In Poland

I know there's a tendancy to be critical when talking about what's different in a new country, so I just thought I'd put a few things I like about Poland because I think overall it's a great place and don't have any regrets about moving here.

1. The weather is better. No you read that right - the weather is better. I know that it drops to minus 1o sometimes at night in the depths of winter (or lower I hear in years gone by), but I would rather have -10 degrees with crisp white snow everywhere, a clear blue sky at day time and dry weather rather than +10 degrees in London but with drizzly rain and a depressing overcast grey sky. Plus summertime is much hotter than in the UK and I love the sun.
2. The food is better. Well my wife says I don't like Polish food but that's not true, more that I am ambivalent about Polish food. However I am ambivalent about most food. But I still prefer to buy 'proper' meats and the local produce that is more readily available here rather than what I heard someone refer to as 'plastic ham from Tescos' in England.
3. Family values are still important. The UK news always talks about moral decline, falling standards of behaviour in schools and in the streets and the increasing numbers of single-parent families. I like the fact that in Poland the family unit is respected more. I hear it was like that in the UK in the fifties, but given that I was only a gnat in my dad's sack then I can't comment on it.
4. There is a lot of investment in Poland. I know that sounds like a bit of a crap reason to like Poland, but what I mean by it is that when you walk, drive or go anywhere you can't help noticing the new buildings going up, the new roads being built or the pavements getting a much needed refurbishment. Whether I am alone on this I don't know (please comment!) but it gives me a sense of excitement about how things will be here in the medium to long term. It also reaffirms my decision to move here that Poland is indeed on the up after being unjustly held back for so many decades.
5. There are some beautiful places to visit. I thought Gdańsk was just a bombed-out ship yard until I visited it - UNBELIEVABLE! I couldn't have been more wrong. Well worth a visit if you haven't been there before. Poland has a choice of miles of sandy beach along the northern coastline or stunning scenery and skiing in the mountains in the south. Plus there are loads of places to visit in between.
   

I seem to keep blogging about vehicle related stuff, but given that I do a lot of driving over here I guess that can't be helped.

This is a post about remembering to carry your documents with you when driving in Poland. This is something I find hard to adjust to, I simply never remembered to do so having never had to carry documents in the UK. I know that this is a fairly 'normal' requirement, and possibly not unreasonable, but I can't help also feeling slightly resentful that I have to carry documents with me everywhere I go.

Now that I have a Polish car the registration certficate is a tiny practical thing that comes laminated and handily fits in my wallet so I don't have to remember it anymore. But when I first came over with my van, my UK documents were of course all A4 and I had them filed away in a safe place.

So anyway one day early in 2007 I was taking the van back to England for another trip to collect more stuff and to sit an exam back in London. My wife came wife me as usual, but along for the ride was my father-in-law who spontaneously thought he might as well take advantage of a free trip to London given that we had a 3rd seat in the van and he had the time free.
We only got about 2 hours down the motorway when we were stopped by Polish customs.
Now I should mention that if you have an old English van and are returning from anywhere in Central/Eastern Europe you are GUARANTEED TO GET STOPPED at least once on your journey. They expect you to be stocked to the ceiling with cheap cigarettes to dodge the duty in the U.K. Polish customs like to set up random stop check points on border routes and I was on the main E40 motorway heading for Germany.

So of course they asked for my driver's licence, registration certificate and certificate of insurance. I had my licence in my wallet but then remembered that everything else was safely filed away in my filing cabinet back in our flat. The customs guy was incredibly rude. He asked me why on earth I wasn't carrying my insurance and what would I do in the event of an accident - this seemed like a stupid question to me and I made my reaction obvious - if you have an accident you exchange details and then spend months piddling about with the paperwork later - what difference is there if my policy is physically with me or not? The important thing is whether I have the insurance or not, which I did.

So he searched the van, found nothing of course, then decided to call the police to report me for not having my documents. I wasn't too fussed at this point, more annoyed that we were being pointlessly delayed, but my wife was going ballistic with me - she couldn't believe I hadn't thought about documents. Meanwhile my father-in-law was going a funny colour and looking incredibly stressed. I have learnt now that the older generation of Pole are typically quite afraid and respectful of the authorities, and from the look on his face I thought he was going to have a heart attack about it. So 2 hours later (I couldn't just drive off as customs were still holding my driver's licence - believe me, I thought about it) the police arrived. Luckily for me they were two younger and friendly guys who clearly weren't impressed with customs that they had been called out just for this. Seeing how annoyed my wife still was with me, one of them jokingly offered her his baton and showed her where she should hit me with it to not leave any obvious marks. Then they issued me with the minimum on the spot ticket they could - 50 zloty - and sent us on our way.

Of course when I got to the German border the German customs pulled us aside for another search. "Papiere bitte" they asked. Again my father-in-law turned a funny colour. Again my luck was in - because I can speak German I told them that I had lost my documents (well, a small stretch of the truth) and had already got a ticket for it in Poland but needed to get back to the UK to sort my documents out. The customs officer looked at the amount of the ticket, commented on what good value it was said that in Germany it wouldn't have been so cheap before sending us on our way again.

Moral of the story - repeat after me: I will always carry my documents with me when driving in Europe.

One of my websites is a little eCommerce shop where I sell products and then post them off. This means I have parcels to send by registered delivery on an almost daily basis to (usually) the UK and Ireland.

90% of these orders are to England so I didn't mind too much when the woman at the counter at the local post office would add "ANGLIA" to the end of the address (apparently "United Kingdom" isn't enough). I started to do the same to save time at the post office, putting "SZKOCJA" or "WALIA" where appropriate. One day I had a parcel for Northern Ireland and so had written "United Kingdom, PÓŁNOCNA IRLANDIA") on the address. I was quite suprised when she told me I had to put "Anglia" on it. What followed was an extremely strange 5 minutes of argument because I refused to do so, telling her that Northern Ireland is not in England. She insisted that only "Anglia" was a recognised country and it had to be "Anglia". I asked her if she thought that Scotland or Wales were in Anglia too, at which point some of the increasingly frustrated people queuing up behind me started to join in the argument too.

The situation was resolved by her calling her manager, who reluctantly agreed that we could leave the envelope as it was, but they weren't convinced that it would get to it's destination OK. I said I would take the chance.

When I got back home I was so annoyed I wrote a sarcastic email to the Polish postal service (Poczta Polska) asking them if they knew the difference between England, the UK and Great Britain or if they only had problems with European geography in my local branch.

I was suprised to get a letter out of the blue 2 months later stating that they had held an investigation, given the employees some training, and that according to their code of practice the country must be either Northern Ireland (PÓŁNOCNA IRLANDIA) or Great Britain (WIELKA BRYTANIA). As a nice little twist that made me smile, the letter also said that the woman serving me had tried to tell me that it must be "Wielka Brytania" but that I was rude to her. Err, no love. So she seems to have not only a problem with geography but memory problems too....

Finding a car/motorbike

The use of the Internet lags behind the UK somewhat, but it's still a great place to start looking for vehicles. Have a look at the motoring section on gratka.pl or the most popular Polish auction site allegro.pl.

Like in the UK 10 or more years ago (i.e. pre-Internet) one of the best ways to find a car is to do the leg work and go and visit local dealerships. Also you will often see vehicles parked at the side of the road with "Sprzedam" (for sale - lit. "I will sell") in the window.

Some useful vocabulary:

• przebieg (mileage)
• pojemność (engine capacity)
• rodzaj paliwa (fuel type)
• skrzynia biegów (gear type, i.e. manual or automatic)

It's worth noting that the price of second-hand vehicles is higher in Poland than in most western European countries such as the UK or Germany. I can only presume this is because there is a higher demand for older cheaper vehicles in Poland which means that vehicles hold their value longer. If you have a trailer and go back and forth by road frequently enough I am sure you could make a sideline importing motorbikes for this very reason. If you have spent any time on the E40 motorway you may well have noticed the amount of crash damaged French/German cars that Poles bring over on trailers.

Lots of Poles I know check out the German market too - have a look at autoscout for example. You might find a cheaper car there, but then of course you have the hassle of going to Germany and then importing the vehicle over here. Also worth a mention is that foreign cars of the same age may well be in better mechanical condition as they haven't had the extra punishment of the pot-holed Polish roads exerted on them.

Checking the vehicle/test drive

You are pretty much on your own here. There aren't the checks that you can get in the UK such as AA car check etc.. Also their MOTs don't show the history of the mileage so you can't check if the car has been clocked or not. My tips:

• Check the car out yourself, bring a mechanically minded friend if necessary.
  
• See if there is a service history.
  
• Check that the engine numbers match the documentation.
  
• Look for signs of an accident damage repaired car by checking the engine bay for unusal marks/damage/weld joints
• Look for signs of broken glass under the carpet in the boot (where the spare-wheel is etc..)
• Does the car have winter tyres on or summer tyres? You might need to buy a full set depending on the time of year and how long the car's been parked up

Don't be afraid to take the car for a test drive. As long as the car's registration certificate is still up to date you will have the mandatory 3rd party level of insurance so anyone can drive it legally.

Buying the vehicle

Buying is straight-forward except there are some differences:

• Most transactions are cash only. Expect to have to go to the bank first!
• Get a proper receipt with the seller's details and your correct details on it - you will need this at the treasury office so don't lose it
• VAT is payable on second-hand cars. You have to go to the treasury department and declare that you bought the car, show the receipt and pay up. If you buy at a dealer they can do this for you to save you the trip. I had to pay 2%. The dealer might not want to put the full value of the transaction on the receipt because they also pay tax on it. It's up to you if you mind doing that or not.
• The seller/dealer will give you the registration certificate. You now have 28 days to get the car registered in your name, which means going twice to the transport department (wywiad transportu i komunikacji)
  

Registering the vehicle

Take your registration certificate and your certificate that shows you are registered to live in Poland (tymczasowe zameldowanie) to the transport department.

There you will have to queue up and fill out a form (wniosek) that you have bought the car and fill in your details. If I recall correctly I had to pay a fee of 60 złoty. I was lucky that the car I bought had local number plates for the area I lived in. If your car is from a different area to where you want to register it then you will have to buy new number plates and pay 300 złoty. It's quite a bizarre sight seeing the woman at the counter handing out pairs of shiny new number plates to people.
They will take your registration certificate from you and give you a temporary one valid for 28 days. You will have to return in person to collect the new one after about 2 weeks.

If you are temporarily registered to live in Poland then your registration certificate will have this noted on it and therefore will only be valid whilst your personal registration is valid. Frustratingly you will have to go back to the transport department each time you renew your address registration to get your car registration updated. On a standard temporary address registration that is every 3 months.

Insurance

The registration of the car includes basic 3rd party insurance so that you can legally drive the car anywhere in the EU. If you want fully comprehensive or fire and theft cover you will have to go to one of the insurance shops (ubezpieczenstwa) you see in the high streets. I haven't bothered with this so can't comment on it.

MOT

On the registration certificate is a stamp and date that says when the next vehicle inspection is due - "termin bandania technicznego". You can go to most garages to get that done and they simply stamp your registration certificate for you. I have to go and get an MOT for my motorbike next week so will update this post then about it.

Insurance

One of the nice things about the car registration system in Poland is that unlike 3rd party insurance is included with the annual registration fee, similar to the Australian system.

This makes total sense - you are assured that all drivers have the minimum legally required insurance cover, unlike in London where I see that 1 in 10 drivers aren't properly insured.

The plus side of this is that you can lend anyone your car as long as they have a valid driver's licence. Gone to the pub and decided to drink? No problem, let someone else drive back...

Roads

As everybody knows the quality of the roads isn't great, but what do you expect after years of underinvestment? The money is pouring in from the EU and they are busy building motorway networks. Give it a few more years and the roads won't be so bad. They'll just be full of traffic instead.

Overtaking

One of the pleasures (or terrors, depending on how you look at it) of driving over here for me, is the Polish custom for overtaking at any possible place, regardless of road-markings or oncoming traffic. Slow car in front? Overtake them anyway, the slow car will pull to the side to make room for you and the oncoming truck will do the same. Brilliant.

Lights

As of 2007 you have to drive with dipped headlights on 24/7. In previous years this was just required in winter months, now it is obligatory all year round. I know they thought about introducing this at EU level and dropped the idea because the enviromentalists said it would hurt the environment with the extra energy consumption. Personally I think it's a great idea, it makes vehicles much easier to spot at distance or in bad weather and if that saves lives then it's worth it.

Went to Gdańsk for a lovely few days to see the Baltic coast. My wife and I had borrowed her father's car to make the trip. We parked it in the city centre and went for a meal one evening. I was quite suprised to come back and discover that someone had stolen our number plates.

Apparently this isn't such a rare occurence - because Polish number plates start with a 3 letter code that shows which region the owner lives in, it's easy to spot non-local vehicles. Thieves steal the plates to put on other cars so they can go and tank up on petrol without paying, or worse still, use their car for committing other crimes.

I wasn't expecting the trouble involved though at the Police station. First we had to sign a warning that we weren't allowed to drive the car on the road without replacement number plates, but to get the number plates we had to go to Opole (other end of the country) where the vehicle is registered.
Where's the sense in that? Or am I stupid for even bothering to ask?

Given that we would have been stranded if we'd have left the car we of course drove it back with the registration number written on bits of paper in the windows (something better than nothing I guess). After an uneventful journey on the terrible Polish roads we got back without any further hassle.

The final sting in the tail was that we had to pay out 300 złoty to get new number plates. I guess on the plus side it could have been worse - at least they didn't steal the car...

one of the reasons I was happy to sell up in the UK and buy in to the Polish property market was the simple fact that Poland is/was cheap but prices are steadily climbing. It's simple economics - zillions of złoty pour in to the Polish economy everyday from foreign companies investing here, Poles abroad sending money back, or Poles abroad returning with their hard earnt savings.

An example is the PLN - GBP exchange rate. A couple of years ago you could get 6 zloty to the pound, now it's around 4.8 zloty to the pound.

But it's a double-edged sword of course - while the increasing strength of the Polish economy makes Poles 'wealthier' relative to established western economies, the cost of living is also rising. Things like food and rent are going up which makes Poland a less attractive and more costly place for me to live. Still, with no council tax to pay (well OK, about £50 property tax a year) and petrol still cheaper than back in the UK I think I will be happy here for some years to come...

Still it pleases me when I see constant reports like this one of foreign companies pouring money into Poland.

It was essential for me to get a reliable Internet connection set up in Poland. I rely on the Internet to run my little business. I like to use email and skype to keep in contact with friends and family and I like to read news sites such as BBC news to keep up to date with what's happening back in the UK. Not to mention the handful of websites I run (and this blog too!).

In the UK there is a plethora of Internet Service Providers to choose from. In Poland where things aren't yet so commercialised/privatised there are currently 3. The Polish equivalent of BT is called TP (Telekomunikacja Polska) and still has the monopoly on phone and internet. The new kids on the block are two fast-growing competitors - Netia.pl and Tele2.pl

The website www.szybki-tani-internet.com is only in Polish but shows prices from all 3 and has the links to their offers.

With reports of anywhere between 500,000 and 1 million Poles now living in the U.K. it does indeed seem strange that I went “against the flow” and now live in Poland. But after marrying a Polish girl and becoming disillusioned with life in England we decided to make a change.

Not wanting to commute into london until I'm 65, getting burgled just before Christmas 2005 and seeing the groups of sometimes 30 or more hoodies congregating on street corners were the deciding factors. We looked at the possibility of moving to Poland and soon realised that with the equity in our house, we could have the same sized house mortgage-free in Poland. With no mortgage to worry about and very low living costs I realised that this would buy me enough time to try and start a business of my own.

So in 2006 I sold my car and bought an old van. In September we put the house on the market. In October we quit our jobs, loaded up the van and drove to Poland.

It took us a little time to get organised over here, but in 2007 we bought a house south of Kraków, we bought a car and in February 2008 our first baby was born. So everything looks set for the future.

I already blogged about my attempt at importing my van - basically I couldn't. Well now having been here a bit longer and with a better grasp of Polish I am ready to tackle importing my motorbike.

Here's what I did and how long it took. I have written everything down in detail as I did it. The only thing I haven't mentioned is that the MOMENT YOU GET YOUR TEMPORARY BIKE REGISTRATION YOU ARE OBLIGED TO BUY INSURANCE THE SAME DAY. I found out the hard way - I thought that like in the UK and I presume other countries where logic and commen sense apply, you only need insurance if you want ot use the vehicle. I presumed you don't need insurance if your vehicle is just sat in the garage. NOT IN POLAND - IF YOU OWN A VEHICLE IT MUST BE INSURED even if it's off the road for 6 months. I will do another post at some time about insurance because that isn't so straight forward either...

STEP 1 - TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT- TIME TAKEN: 2 hours

The first thing I did was go to the local office for the department of transport (wydział transportu i komunikacji). I explained to the guy there what I wanted to do, which is basically register my English bike which I bought many years ago in Poland where I am now living and temporarily registered. He told me that I need:

1. Technical inspection (Badanie techniczne)
2. Translation of my registration certificate into Polish (tłumaczenie dowodu rejestracyjnego)
3. VAT declaration from the treasury department (zaświadcienie o zwolnienie z vatu)
4. Certificate that I am registered in Poland (tymczasowe zameldowanie)

Now they might ask where you are permanently registered to live. If so you will have to explain/argue to them that you aren't permanently registered in Poland because as a foreigner you can't be, and that we don't have such a system/requirement in England.

Also now is a good time to ask where the local translator is. You will have to use an approved translator, so they should either have a list or be able to point you in the right direction. They will definitely know where the German translators are because lots of Poles import cars from Germany. Luckily for me I found an English translator was in the same street.

STEP 2 - TRANSLATION - TIME TAKEN: 45 minutes. Cost 60 zl.

Next I found the English translator to get my registration certificate translated. Had to wait 2 days to collect it and paid 60 złoty. I was charged for 1 and a half pages to do a standard V5C UK registration certificate.

STEP 3 - TREASURY DEPARTMENT VISIT 1 - TIME TAKEN: 45 minutes

Next I went to the treasury department (urząd skarbowy). Unfortunately in Poland you have to report to them everytime you borrow money, lend money, buy a car or fart. I found the department responsible for VAT and explained to them that I want to import my English bike.
They asked for my receipt from when I bought it - documents like this are extremely important in Poland, unlike the UK, where you don't need to report all financial transactions. This was my first major problem. I had to explain that I bought the bike many years ago from a friend and don't have a receipt. After a lot of head scratching and phone calls she decided that I had to return with:

• form VAT-24 - this is a form about importing a vehicle from abroad and paying VAT on it (yes that's right - unlike the UK in Poland you pay VAT on second hand vehicles)
• form NIP-3 - this is a form so that I can get a Polish NIP number so that the treasury department can then keep tabs on me
• a declaration (oświadczenie) signed by me, in Polish, that I bought the bike 4 years ago in the UK where I was living, I used the bike in Poland and I brought the bike to Poland when I moved here.

STEP 4 - TECHNICAL INSPECTION - TIME TAKEN: 1hr. Cost 116 zl.

Time to find a garage where I can get my technical inspection done. I did ask at the transport department but they said that almost all garages do these inspections. I asked at a local tyre shop where I know the owner and he told me about a local garage where they do technical inspections - stacja kontroli pojazdów. I went there and after scratching their heads for a bit, looking at the headlights and looking at my polish translation of my registration certificate they decided they couldn't do it because 'they don't have the data for this motorbike'. What that means exactly I don't know - maybe they don't usually do motorbikes or maybe they weren't confident about doing a foreign vehicle. They suggested another (bigger) garage locally.

So a month later with the weather having warmed up a bit more I went to the second garage. I asked the bloke if he could do an inspection on an English bike and he said sure no problem. He spent about 5 seconds looking at the bike, asked me to show him that all the lights worked and then asked me to follow him inside. To my suprise he sat there for a few minutes and then gave me two certificates:

1. "Dokument Identyfikacyjny Pojazdu zarejestrowanego po raz pierwszy za granicą", meaning something along the lines of "ID document for foreign vehicle registered for the first time in Poland". It has a list of 40 technical points on it such as country of production, country of previous registration etc..
2. Zaświadczenie o przeprowadzonym badaniu technicznym pojazdu which is basically the MOT certificate.
   

So it appears that if you can find a garage happy to do the paperwork then as long as your vehicle looks like it doesn't have any wheels missing and has got lights then this step isn't a problem. Cost 116 zloty.

STEP 5 - TREASURY DEPARTMENT VISIT 2 - TIME TAKEN: 1 hr. Cost 160 zl.

Went back to the treasury department with my forms filled out as best as I could. The woman at the VAT window was expecting me following my first visit there, so had been informed by her colleagues about the English guy with his motorbike and thankfully I didn't have to explain everything all over again. She was very helpful and helped me correct my forms. I had to go to a 2nd window to hand in my NIP form, then to the till window to pay a flat fee of 160 złoty. I haven't quite worked out what that fee was for, I guess for the priviledge of importing a vehicle to Poland. Also for some reason the first till window sent me to the 2nd till window (more queuing), and she did something on the computer then sent me back to the 1st till window to pay (more queuing). Where the logic is in that I don't know...
After paying I went back the the VAT window, showed her my payment receipt and she told me to come back in 2 days to collect my declaration (oświadczenie) to show I have taken care of the VAT for this vehicle.

STEP 6 - TREASURY DEPARTMENT - VISIT 3 - TIME TAKEN: 10 minutes

As instructed I went back to collect my confirmation that they are happy with the VAT for this bike and they gave me a form called a VAT-25 which they had typed up and put official looking stamps and signatures on. Suprisingly it was there waiting for me and there was no queue. Brilliant.

STEP 7 - TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT- VISIT 2 - TIME TAKEN: 1 hour. Cost 188 zl.

Went back to the transport department with all of my documents. Was told that I couldn't register the bike today because I hadn't made an appointment. Gave him a sob-story about having a little baby at home and sick wife. Was told to fill out the registration form (wniosek), go to the till and pay 188 zloty. After 15 minutes he emerged with:

• Temporary vehicle permit (pozwolenie czasowe)
• My VAT-25 form with a stamp on it that it has been used to register the vehicle
• A photocopy of my UK registration certificate again with stamps on it
• A shiny new number plate!

Unfortunately because my temporary residence registration runs out in 2 weeks time I have to go back again then to collect the regular vehicle permit.

STEP 8 - TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT- VISIT 3 - TIME TAKEN: 10 minutes

Got my new temporary residence certificate so returned to the transport department. I was pleasently surprised to find no queue and a helpful attendant. After just a few minutes I got my karta pojazdu and permit no problem. FINISHED!

TOTAL COST: 524 zloty and 6 hours of time

Last year (2007) I already tried to register my English van over here, but after spending a lot of time having friends check with local garages and having my wife call various government offices I discovered that I can't. You can't register right-hand-drive (RHD) vehicles in Poland. Don't let anyone tell you different - you will not be able to get the technical examination certificate (badanie techniczne) which you will require.

Now you might see right-hand-drive vehicles over here or know someone who knows someone who's got one. This is perfectly possible because a number of years ago you could do it if you were able to demonstrate that you had experience of driving RHD vehicles on the right of the road. But that was stopped a number of years ago (I don't know when exactly).
This seems unfair to me given that you can register LHD vehicles in the UK, or register English RHD vehicles in France, but that's the rules I'm afraid.

So if you have a car here from England you have 3 choices (to stay legal):

1. Continue to pay your UK insurance, return once a year to do your MOT, renew your tax disc on the internet. This is the simplest solution but with two catches - the first is that insurance in the UK costs a lot. The 2nd is that technically you are not allowed to have your car here for more than 12 months. But if you return every 12 months for the MOT then the clock starts again.
2. Convert your car from RHD to LHD. I don't know anyone who's done that because the cost of it probably isn't justifiable. Labour is cheap in Poland but I am sure that would still be a big garage bill, not to mention that cost of new parts (dashboard, steering rack etc..)
3. Sell your car. Buy a local one.
   

If you don't stay legal (i.e. your insurance runs out while your here) then if you are stopped by the police and can't produce your documents there and then (you do always carry them with your right?) there is a chance your car will be impounded. Also I don't think it's worth the risk of driving without insurance anyway. It's one of those things that you don't need when you have, and always need when you don't.

Thanks to Paweł from Polandian for his comments which I have used to update this blog post.

One of the biggest shocks about living in Poland for the average foreigner has got to be the bureaucracy. In fact if I have to list 3 downers about living here they would be:

1. Unbelievable amount of bureaucracy to do anything in day to day life (register a car, buy a house, get a mobile phone, open a bank account, do anything at the post office...)
2. Lack of indian and chinese take-aways.
3. Did I mention the bureaucracy?

Unfortunately if you decide to live here (or already are) you will have to resign yourself to the fact that that is just the way it is and take it on the chin. The Poles don't like it either and allegedly are slowly making things better. In fact because the procedures for doing things are in the process of change that can often add to the confusion - very often you are given out of date information or told different things by people or offices.

Anyway the first thing you will need to do is something called registration (zameldowanie). In what seems to me like an unreasonable breach of civil liberties you are legally required to be registered to an address to live here. If you aren't registered then effectively you are just a tourist in Poland and not living here.

Many expats live in Poland for a long time and don't bother to register - I didn't until I had been here for at least 6 months. I have been told that it is legally compulsory but I don't see how the authorities have any way to check how long you've been here or whether they even care that much about it.

So why register at all? Simply because at some point you might want to work here or buy a car or rent a flat and if you aren't registered then you won't be able to.

[UPDATE - I have been assured that you don't need to be registered to rent or buy property or to work locally. You don't need to be registered to by a car but you do if you want to register it to your name in Poland]

There are two types of registration - temporary (tymczasowy) or permanent (na stałe). As foreigners we aren't currently allowed to register permanently. I know we are supposed to all be in the EU now, but it doesn't feel that way.

[UPDATE - don't listen to the voices! Apparently if you have a karta pobytu then you can indeed register permanently according to the council in gdynia]

You can register temporarily for a maximum period of 3 months. That means every 3 months you will have to re-register. I have been told that I can register for up to 5 years but to do that I have to go to Kraków and frankly I can't be bothered at the moment with the journey.

To register or re-register you will need to:

• personally go during office hours (usually 8am - 4pm Mon-Fri) to the local town hall (urząd gmina) and find the office where they do registrations (zameldowanie).
• take your passport
• take with you the landlord or owner of the address at which you need to register - they need to sign that they agree for you to live there
• take with you someone who speaks Polish if neither of you do. Don't expect anyone to speak English, but be suprised if they do.
  

Don't ask what happens if you work during office hours, are ill in hospital or elderly. The concept of dealing with these matters by post or internet is about as remote as me flying into space with a london oyster card.

Also don't ask what happens if you don't have anyone to sign you on to their address. If you are going to be renting a flat then this will be part of the procedure (and this also gives the landlord the power to evict you very easily by revoking your registration).

[UPDATE - an authorative source tells me that you don't necessarily need your landlord or property owner with you in person - if you have written entitlement to the property than that should suffice. In my experience that didn't work at my urząd miasta, but the next time I go to re-register I will try and do it with just my legal documents and will be ready to argue!]

When you do your registration they will ask you lots of apparently random questions such as what your parent's names are. I don't know why. Maybe if you're naughty they will send a note home to them.

Finally expect a queue and to lose at least part of your day (if not all of it). That way if it only takes you an hour or so you will be pleasantly suprised rather than incredibly annoyed.

Let me know if you have anything to add, or what your experience of "zameldowanie" is like....

One of my first observations since arriving in Poland was of course the people and how they differ to Brits.

I must say that I like Polish people (which is a good thing given that I now live here) but they differ from Brits in a number of ways:

• They will insistently wait for a green man before crossing the road. What is that about? Maybe I lived in London for too long....
• They don't have much of a sense of queuing (although that probably applies to most Europeans and not just Poles).
• 99.9% of them are classic white-skinned typical Poles. I notice this more when I go back to the UK and see how many different ethnic minorities we have in the UK.
• They don't hold doors open for each other (or thank you if you do for them)
• They like drinking vodka from shot glasses, where as Brits generally mix vodka with juice or lemonade etc..
• They are polite in other ways such as giving up seats on public transport for elderly or pregnant woman. Something which I think has died out in London.
  

If you can think of anymore (or as I do too) drop a comment and I will update this list....

I have been toying with the idea of setting up a website based on the novelty of being (what feels like) the only Brit in Poland.

I thought it might be interesting and helpful to someone somewhere to know what it's like to live here or how to go about doing things such as registering a car, or importing a motorbike.

When I get time I will do something with the Polish language lessons that I got half-way through writing too...

Anyway welcome to my blog, if you are an expat in Poland then say hello.

Ben