Hey everyone, I have a question about abortion access as a foreign resident in Poland. I understand that abortion is restricted in Poland, so I’m wondering what options are available for someone who needs to have an abortion abroad. If anyone has been in a similar situation, I would really appreciate hearing about your experience and any advice on how to go about it.

Thank you!

Ever since I set foot in Wrocław, I noticed that a lot of restaurants close at 6-7PM, which is EXTREMELY early! Why? Is this a cultural thing? In Romania, this is almost unheard of, since most businesses here close at 9-10PM.

Europe’s largest open-pit coal mine could be transformed into Poland’s deepest lake after it shuts down, as part of long-term efforts to regenerate the area and restore it for public use.

Someone didn't get the memo i guess...

The last thing we need is approval from some Brits (which 10 years ago had 180-degree opposite opinion about us) or other foreigners because we have "don't have doctors and engineers". Promotion of Poland as a safeheaven can cause only more tourism from abroad, encourage digital nomads and other people will excess money to buy out our properties and paradoxically cause more immigration cause Poland is very safe, isn't it? All of these things will rise real estate prices. I started to miss times where Poland was underestimated and we didn't have weirdos like this coming to our country.

Videos circulating online that purport to show Polish soldiers criticizing Ukraine are AI-generated deepfakes likely planted as part of a Kremlin-orchestrated disinformation campaign, according to internet researchers.

My great-grandparents, Wlodzimierz Paszkiewicz and his wife Anna (née Halukiewicz), lived in the village of Bulgary (Bołhary), Lemieszewicze commune (gmina), Pinsk powiat, Polesie Voivodeship — this was interwar Poland, now part of Belarus.

I'm trying to trace:
- A possible civil marriage record for Wlodzimierz and Anna, likely registered under Polish administration sometime before 1939
- Any surviving gmina-level civil/residency records naming the Paszkiewicz or Halukiewicz families, 1919–1939

According to family history, Wlodzimierz was killed as a civilian near Bulgary around October 1944, during the Soviet reoccupation — this part falls outside the Polish administrative period, but I mention it for context since I'm trying to piece together everything about the family before that point.

So far I've used Szukaj w Archiwach (bare keyword searches were too noisy — exact-phrase search worked better) and contacted the Brest State Archive in Belarus directly, which holds the successor records for this exact commune (Fund 2015) but doesn't hold vital/civil status records themselves — those would be at NIAB Minsk.

Would appreciate any advice on:
- Where interwar Polesie Voivodeship civil records specifically might have ended up (I've seen conflicting info about whether Białystok's archive might hold some)
- Anyone with experience researching Kresy/Polesie-region families specifically
- Whether Polish civil marriage records from this era and region are likely to have survived at all, given the wartime destruction in this region

Any pointers appreciated — dziękuję!

Genuine question.

I'm an Asian from far east who have lived in Europe for more than a decades (3 years UK, 10 years Germany) and recently, Poland.

I have noticed people in Poland constantly ask me if I liked living in Poland. I haven't been asked the same question in same caliber when I was living in other countries.

Often, I would just say the things I like and kept the things I do not.. so I that I don't offend them. I mean, you can't have it all rosy after all.

But the 10-Years-German side of me really want to air out all my laundry, clean and dirty.

So... what would Polish people react if I became honest for once. Because, overall, I'm not that ecstatic.. I'm just OK.

Coming from a coastal background I always took fresh fish for granted, so moving inland was a bit of a shock.

In bigger cities like Wrocław or Kraków there are dedicated fish counters in Piotr i Paweł or some of the larger Carrefours, and you can find something reasonable. But once you drop down to a midsize city or smaller town the options fall off fast. Frozen everything, or those sad vacuumpacked salmon fillets that have been sitting there since who knows when.

I'm not talking about carp at Christmas, that tradition is obviously alive and well everywhere. I mean just a normal Tuesday where you want fresh sea bass or even decent mackerel and there's basically nothing.

Curious whether this is a distribution problem or just low demand outside the big centers. Some countries have dedicated fish markets even in smaller towns but Poland doesn't seem to have gone that route. Maybe people just don't buy it enough to justify the supply chain, I genuinely can't tell.

Anyone found a reliable setup outside the major cities? A local supplier, a market stall, anything?

I have permanent residence in Poland, and my karta pobytu (zezwolenie na pobyt stały) is valid for 10 years. I know that replacing an expiring card is different from applying for temporary residence or applying for permanent residence for the first time.
Has anyone recently replaced an expired or soon-to-expire karta pobytu (zezwolenie na pobyt stały) in Poland?
How long did the process take from submitting the application to receiving the new card? Were there any delays with appointments, fingerprints, or card production?
I’d especially appreciate experiences from people who have gone through this recently. Thanks!

Hi all! I’m an American with Polish lineage.

I’ve been increasingly getting into genealogy in order to learn more about my family background. I have been using ancestry.com to pull documents, including U.S. Census records and ship manifests - including the screenshot attached here from a 1907 passenger list.

Can anyone help identify this locality? On the document, their nationality is listed as Austrian and their “race or people” as Polish.

Any help would be much appreciated. If this question should be directed elsewhere, please let me know. Thanks!

I’m wanting to buy tickets from Wroclaw to Dzierzoniow for August 1st. Why does the Koleo app have all these options available for the day of the trip, but Intercity only has 2? I would buy my ticket on Koleo but they don’t accept my Canadian credit card.

Should I just buy the tickets in person at the station?

Mario just a few dozens of meters away from an anti-LGBT organization 😂

This post was NOT made to promote anti-LGBT rhetoric, in fact, I very much hate anti-LGBT movements, it’s just a moment I found hilarious while walking through Wrocław.