Save Cash in Warsaw

Where Not To Shop, And How Not To Pay

2011-12-15T14:35:00.002+01:00

This is technically a post about PolCard and them charging in U.S. Dollars again, but this time I had to add the merchant – who kind of sucked during this process.

On Wednesday my wife walks into this store called Silver Line on Nowy Swiat to get a Christmas Gift for my Sister-in-law. She was with another Expat and didn’t want to seem a little crazy (like I tend to be I suppose) so when the receipt came back and showed that she had been charged in Dollars (she was not given a choice), she humbly asked the woman behind the counter why she was charged in Dollars. Apparently the woman took offense, and shrilled back ‘What’s the Problem?!” and was generally unhelpful. My wife left frustrated because she had basically been cheated by about $4 on her purchase.

So after she tells me the story – I go back the store on Thursday to fix the situation. I insist on the Shopkeeper refunding the credit card (in Dollars) and charging me separately for the same amount in Zloty. At first the Lady in the store insisted – “No Way! Can’t Be Done! Impossible!” And she maintained several times that it was IMPOSSIBLE to fix this. Then another customer walked in, and I said “But it is possible, because I’ll simply call my credit card company and have the charge reversed.”

That threat seemed to make a difference.

The lady then got on the phone (with PolCard maybe?) and spent nearly 10 minutes finding out how to get the charges refunded to my credit card, in Dollars. In the end, that's exactly what happened. I paid with a different card and was on my way.

Of course, this wasn’t perfect. The exchange rate had dropped from one day to the next, so the amount I paid ($76.96) was less than the price refunded ($75.33) by $1.63 – which would have been a loss, but I figure that with the proper exchange rate, I ended up only spending $73.12. So me going all the way back down there and making her fix the error, saved me a whopping $2.21 overall.

But that’s not the point!

The point is that every single time that an Expat gets charged in Dollars without being given a choice – we should say something. A colleague points out to me that all this is likely to do is upset the store workers, but at some point, if it’s wide-spread, they will stop forcing this on the consumers.

Maybe.

In the mean time, there are two lessons here:

1. Please refuse to accept being charged in Dollars when you’re not given a choice

2. Unless you want to deal with a not-pleasant woman when jewelry shopping, do not go to Silver Line on Nowy Swiat!

And as a side note – If you are the proprietor of Silver Line and you’d like me to remove the references to your horrible customer service – I will take all references off this post for the price of 1.63 American Dollars. That’s what I estimate I got over-charged. See? I’m thrifty, but I am fair.

Toy R Us Is Now Open

2011-12-12T12:17:00.002+01:00

Toys R Us, Blue City Mall, Warsaw, Poland

Just to follow up on the earlier Post about this... Toys R Us is now open in Blue City Mall.

I went this week and tried to take lots of pictures to show everyone what a great store it is. This is the only one that I took before being approached by Security:

One picture of the inside - with an approaching Security Guard

So the security guard approached me and told me that I was not allowed to take pictures. Of course this doesn't seem to be a written policy, but rather the policy that he just made up. I have a problem when people try to pull my leg, so I tried to reason with him by telling him that I'm a semi-famous blogger, and I really am a big deal. But he didn't seem to buy it.

So I agreed that I would stop taking pictures if he took a picture with me. And much to my surprise, he agreed:

The Security Guard, me, and my thumb

But getting back to the actual store. It was great. Bigger than I would have imagined (bigger than Smyk, not as big as a real Toys R Us) and the prices are so good (especially with the strong Dollar) that I think that Santa will buy Legos here, then take them back to the US to deliver them... Especially with the favorable exchange rate, the prices are very competitive.
Also - they have an English Web Site! (Although decidedly unhelpful to any actual shopping…)

And one last anecdote: I accidentally let my credit card there and my wife went back the next day to get it. When she showed up she explained who she was and they made her identify the name on the card before they gave it back... which she did. Then she goes through the store - buys a couple more items and when she checks out, they ask to see her ID to accept her card. So they have no problems handing over a credit card in a man's name to a woman, but paying for something with your own credit card might get you carded... Just sayin.

Pardon My French

2011-12-12T12:11:00.000+01:00

Another suggestion by a fellow Expat on a place to get nails done... and whatever it is women do at such places:

"One place that isn't cheap, but new and very good: Pardon My French, manicure and pedicure. It's located across from the Hyatt. They speak English and they seem to be getting a large following among expats. They have a service called Shellac. It's a relatively new procedure, and not many places do it. The manicure lasts for weeks. I'm into my second week, and my mani/pedi still looks fresh. Only thing: they don't take credit card (and it isn't cheap)"

Fashion House Outlet Center

2011-12-12T12:10:00.000+01:00

A review by another Expat:

"...I stumbled up on the Fashion House Outlet Center out by the framing shop and I thought you might want to check it out. I didn't see it under your "shopping" entries. We thought they had really good deals at the five shops that we bought items at, and ended up getting designer duds for really great prices. Luckily they have a website: http://www.fashionhouse.pl/index.php?mall=4. Many of the stores we saw there are nice stores at Galeria Mokotow and Zlote Tarasy."

The iPhone 4s Is Coming To Warsaw

2011-11-04T13:24:00.001+01:00

Supposedly on the 11th of November, iSpots in Warsaw will start to offer the iPhone 4S. You cal call them starting today to make reservations for one.

If you're interested in reserving yours, call this number: 800702322
I haven't made my reservation yet because I can't possibly justify a new phone... but if you're into that kind of thing. I'm sure that it's about time to renew your cell phone contract soon right?

Toy R Us Opening in Poland

2011-11-04T13:20:00.000+01:00

Yep - You read that right!

And just in time for the Christmas Season.

The Warsaw Business Journal reports that soon (and I've heard possibly as soon as next week) the new Toys R Us at Blue City will open up as a new competitor to Smyk.

May the best store win!

Pay for Parking with your Mobile Phone

2011-10-30T10:32:00.000+01:00

OK, all this stuff about paying for bus tickets with my mobile phone is pretty neat, but this is blog is called "Save Cash in Warsaw", and so far all this system has done is cost me a little extra when I fund my mPay account. When do I start saving cash?

The answer - probably the first time you pay for parking downtown.

You know the usual system. Once you've found a spot to park, you have to find the ticket dispenser, you feed it, get little slip of paper for your dashboard that says how long you can park, and off you go. But nearly every time, you either have not enough coins to feed the meter for as long as you expect to be parked, or you have too much, and you overpay, getting back to the car well before your time expires. If you're nice and someone nearby is lucky, you hand them your parking slip with the extra 30 minutes on it just as they were about to pay. Otherwise, those paid minutes go unused - wasted, even. Wouldn't it be cool if you could just pay for exactly the amount of time you're going to be parked?

With mPay, that's precisely what happens. Not only do you not have to go hunt down the machine to get a parking slip, but you only pay for the exact amount of time that you need. Not only that, but if you originally set it up with a maximum time (more about that later) and you find you're running behind, instead of running back to the ticket dispenser and to the car with a new slip for the additional minutes, you can just pay for more parking time from wherever you happen to be, without returning to the car at all!

OK, so how does this magic work?

There are a couple of steps you need to take before you can use this system for parking. Firstly, you need to register your plate number(s) in the mPay system. Log into your mPay account, select "my parking" and then "my vehicles" from the left sidebar menu. Enter the license plate number(s) of your vehicle(s) without spaces, and hit "add". Then you need to download this as a pdf file and print it out to keep in your glove box. If you'd like, you can also order stickers to put in your windshield (above or next to the car's registration sticker) so you don't have to fumble around for the paper by filling out this on-line form (imię = first name, nazwisko = last name, e-mail address, numer telefonu = your mPay telephone number, and adres do wysyłki = the address you want it sent to.) The sickers will generally arrive in a couple of days.

Now that you've got the set-up done, you're ready to go. Once you've found a parking space, put your printed .pdf file on your dashboard, dial in the number *145*221# to start the meter running (in Warsaw), enter your PIN, and you're done. (If you want to, you can also set a maximum parking time by adding the maximum PLN amount at the end - for example *145*221*7# = 7 złoty maximum. I'm not really sure what the benefit of this would be.)

When you return to your car, just dial the same number again - *145*221#. You'll receive a message telling you how much parking has cost you. Relpy with "1", and your parking meter stops, deducting the exact amount of your parking time from your mPay account, and not a grosz more.

If you did for whatever reason set a limit to your parking and you find yourself coming close the the end of your time before you can get back to the car, you can just pay again right from your phone right where you are without returning to your car.

You can pay for parking in Łódź, Bydgoszcz, Kielce, Kraków, Świnoujście, and a number of other cities and towns around Poland as well. Each city has its own codes, so outside of Warsaw start with *145*1#, then work your way through the menu.

Paying for Public Transit by Mobile Phone

2011-10-30T00:12:00.000+02:00

So you've got your mPay account set up and somehow managed to get it funded. Now what? Here's a quick tutorial on how to pay for transit on busses, trams, and metro in Warsaw.

To buy your ticket, you dial *145# on your cell phone, then navigate through the menus to select the type of ticket you want. You can get a 20-, 40-, or 60-minute ticket, or even one- and three-day passes for zone one or zones 1 and 2.

If you want to forego all the menus (and who wouldn't?) you can dial in the specific series of numbers for your ticket of choice and get straight to the purchase. Once you punch the number in (or finish navigating through the menus to select your ticket), you'll be asked to confirm the purchase with your PIN if your account is set up this way (see below). You'll then receive a confirmation by text message that the ticket has been purchased, and the exact time its validity expires. You're good to ride until that time!

I have the codes for a 20-minute ticket (*145*220020) and a 40-minute ticket (*145*220040) saved in my contacts list. All I have to do is select the number for the ticket I want, dial it, enter my PIN, and I'm done. (The other codes, by the way, are *145*220060# for a 60-minute ticket, *145*221101# for a 1-day, one-zone ticket, *145*222101# for a 1-day, 2-zone ticket, *145*221103# for a 3-day, one-zone ticket, and *145*222103# for a 3-day, 2-zone ticket.)

Evidently if a ticket-controller boards and asks you for your ticket, you dial a number he's got on his badge. I don't know if the conformation of your payment comes to your phone or to some device he's carrying. I've never been checked.

A couple of other tricks:

If you're riding the metro, you'll need to bypass the turnstiles to get to the platform since you don't have a valid paper ticket. This is easy - find the elevator and head on down.
If you're traveling with a youngster who gets a discounted ticket, you'll have to do this in a total of four transactions. First, you'll have to change your account settings to get your half-price ticket. Again, I have this number saved in my contacts list - *145*0*2*1*1*1#. You'll need to enter your PIN to confirm the change, then when you buy your ticket, it will magically cost you half price! Then you have to reset your account settings to normal tickets (Save *145*0*2*1*1*0# to your contacts list!) to buy your own ticket. This is a bit cumbersome, but it beats paying full price for a ticket that should be reduced!

Once you've got all this mastered, you can also navigate through the menus to use your phone to pay for public transit in Lublin, Białystok, Kraków, Inwrocław, Włocławek, Ostrołęka, Radom, and Płock. (No, I don't know where some of those places are, either.)

UWAGA! It's possible that your account might be set up to allow you do make a purchase without entering your PIN. This saves you a step, but it's generally discouraged. To make sure your purchases require PIN conformation, log in at mpay.pl and select my settings>settings and enter 0,00 under transaction value (PLN) requiring PIN verification.

Paying for Stuff with Your Mobile Phone

2011-10-29T11:35:00.000+02:00

What follows is a guest-posting by Herr Julien. If it's awful, don't blame Mr. Thrifty.

If you're only an occasional passenger on public transit in Warsaw you've probably run into situations where your "just-in-case-I-need-them" supply of tickets runs out, you have to board at a stop where there's no ticket machine and no Ruch kiosks are open nearby. You get on the bus only to find that the driver's not interested in selling you a ticket unless you can pay in exact change, or he tells you to use the ticket machine towards the back of the bus, which you discover is nieczynny. (This is also when you learn the word nieczynny in context.)

Or...

Perhaps you've had the experience of driving downtown only to remember once you get there that it's a weekday which means having to pay for parking, and not having any coins to feed the parking ticket dispenser you just turn around and head back home to Mokotów without your Cherrios and Ben & Jerry's.

Not that I'm speaking from experience here, of course...

If either of these scenarios sound like you, then let me tell you about a pretty neat 21st century system that can save you the trouble of hunting down that Ruch kiosk or climbing over the big snowbank to get to the parking ticket dispenser, eliminate the need to keep a reserve of bus tickets and/or pockets full of coins, and in could even save you a few of those coins in the process.

mPay is a system that allows you to set up a pre-paid account online that's tied to your cell phone. One you've got it set up, you can use it to pay for public transport and parking in Warsaw and several other cities (including Kraków) around Poland. It's one of three such competing systems for public transport in Warsaw, but it seems to be the one with the greatest applicability to payment for other things in other places, and it doesn't require the actual installation of an app on your phone, which was the show-stopper for the other systems for me with my decidedly low-tech cell phone.

To set up an account, you start by dialing *145# on your phone. You'll get a message in Polish asking you to set a PIN. Depending on your phone, you'll either get a little text entry field to enter your PIN or you'll hit "reply" and enter it. It can be any 4-digit number you like. Once you send it, you'll get another Polish message asking you to re-enter the same PIN. Once you've done that, you'll get a text message that you can ignore telling you that your PIN is set.

The next step is to visit mpay.pl, which is naturally in Polish only. Don't let this stop you - just find the box in the upper right corner of the page that says "Zaloguj się jako" (Log in as...) and click "Użytkownik" (user, I believe). Once there, you can choose "EN" from the drop-down menu that defaults to "PL" in the top right of the registration/sign-in page.

Once you've got a language you can understand, you can input your cell phone number and the PIN you selected with your phone under First time access. You then need to enter the random 5-letter security code to prove you're human, then hit "log in".

You'll now be asked to set a password. Again, this can be whatever you want it to be, but try to stick to the usual password security rules about using a combination of numbers, capital and lowercase letters, and maybe an non-alphanumeric symbol or two for good measure.

Hurrah! You've now created an account, and everything's cleverly back to Polish again. Fear not, the drop-down language change menu is still up at the top right of the page. Your log-in page will show you your active accounts, of which you'll have one, your Portmonetka (which is translated in other places on the page as e-wallet).

Now for any of this to work, you need to fund the account. Choose accounts administration from the menu bar on the left and then recharging on your administration page. You can do this in a number of ways, but sadly this is again a Polish-only procedure. You'll be asked for your cell phone number (Numer telefonu, which is now also your mPay user id) and the Kwota zasilenia (PLN amount) you want to put in your account. You can then choose from a very long list of banks and online money transfer systems, all of which will presumably have their own procedures for completing that transaction. If you have a bank account here in Poland and you do any online banking and bill payments, then you probably know the drill for your bank. (mPay takes a very tiny percentage for this service, but if you use it for parking you'll probably end up saving enough to cover the fee on your very first time.)

Now you should have a charged-up account on mPay and you're ready to start making payments with your phone!

Tomorrow's post: How to pay for bus/metro/tram tickets, and how to get on the metro without an actual paper ticket.

Coming soon after that: How to pay for parking, and how you"ll probably save money doing it.

Groupon In Poland

2011-10-26T10:38:00.001+02:00

Groupon is a community-based, deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local companies.

I see on FB that lots of my friends back in the States take advantage of it in their area for good deals. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they also offer deals here in Poland.

My wife signed up when she noticed that there were some deals for bowling groups, although just like the States, there are time limits for some deals so you have to act quickly. (I'm the anchor for my Expat Bowling team - and by anchor, I mean the guy that drags the rest of the team down every week).

The site appears only in Polish, but a quick run through Google Translate or using Chrome and you can translate it pretty well.

The most notable discount I've seen was 61% off "fish pedicures" here in Warsaw. I can only assume from the photos that a fish pedicure is where they let little fish suck on your feet taking away the excess skin... While I'm not totally on board with that - I'm sure that at some point there's something that you might find interesting.

After that there seems to be a lot of Spa activities...

Credit Cards With a Chip In Them

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000+02:00

I wrote a while ago about some places overseas not being able to be used unless they had a special chip in them.

Locally the only place I've found this to be a problem is the Movie Theater and the grocery stores, and that's only using the Express Lanes and only because they also want you to use your PIN (Not the same PIN as we use in the US for debit or cash advance purposes).

There's a site called The Consumerist that does a good job of explaining which banks are offering test-credit cards and if they're going to expand later. Click here for the article if you're interested.

Just more banking stuff that I've come across. I'm in the process of having my main credit card being bought up by another company and I'm nervous that I won't have all the same benefits that I used to... So there might be a few more posts soon railing against the credit card industry.

NFL - On Your Computer

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000+02:00

I just found out about this recently, but I think this is at least one year old.

If you're like me and really want to watch your NFL during Football season, there are a few options (last football season I outlined a few here and here) but this year I've found something much, much better.

Up until this point I had been using Slingbox to get signals from my Sister's house in Texas all the way here to Poland. The picture is not bad, but it left a lot to be desired.

The new thing that I discovered that I can't live without: NFL Game Pass!

You sign up and purchase the regular season (with the option of the Post-Season) and you can stream games live over the internet (you don't need a fantastic connection, but of course it helps).

I'm a Texans Fan (yep - Let the insults fly) and so I love that I see every single game, live, in HD. The picture quality is far better than the Slingbox and of course you can pause the action if you need to.

I've also worked out a nice trick where I can watch three different games on three different monitors throughout the Living room. Mrs. Thrifty is thrilled with this development I assure you.

Its another option. It works well for my house so it might work for yours too.

Fees Using ATMs Overseas

2011-10-13T11:07:00.000+02:00

A colleague mentioned recently that he has his checking account with Bank of America back in the U.S. and when making an ATM withdrawal here in Poland, he heads to a Deutsche Bank ATM because if he uses their ATMs, he doesn't have to pay fees for an ATM withdrawal from his checking account. He went on to say that he also doesn't get charged any foreign transaction fees.

I find that fascinating since I haven’t really delved into the foreign transfer fees for ATM withdrawals. Supposedly he used an ATM here on 18 April and got a rate of 2.72. The WSJ exchange rate from the last business day before that was 2.736. So it’s quite possible he was getting a rate that’s near the actual exchange rate and not paying transaction fees or currency conversion fees.

I use USAA Bank (San Antonio, Texas) and they never charge me a fee for ATM withdrawals, but I do get hit with a 1% foreign exchange rate fee every time I take money out of a machine here. The exchange rate is always fair (as long as you don't do something stupid like elect to take the bank's exchange rate - see this post on that). Other than the 1%, there are no more fees that I'm facing.

That all got me to thinking about other banks. I checked out ING online (an internet bank) and I see that they charge .8% for foreign currency exchange rate fees. The best I’ve found so far.

Then I found this webpage and realized that I could pretty much stop doing the research on my own.

The basic thing you've got to remember about this is that you need to do your homework before you leave the U.S. to get here. You can always try to catch up after you get here but it can be more painful (I actually tried to get my daughter a Capital One Checking Account while we were here and Capital One nearly laughed at me when I tried to set up an account over the phone).

A Decent Fireworks Place

2011-10-12T18:07:00.000+02:00

This is probably the most Vague post I've written yet - but this week I went out firework shopping at a new place (traditionally I go here for fireworks).

I spent 499 Zloty on a decent selection of fireworks over the summer for a little 4th of July party.

Not a bad deal, and the lady was super, super nice.

The problem I have is I didn't get the contact info for the store or anything. I can tell you where it's located - It's on the other end of the parking lot from the Real in Ursynow. It's around the corner from the Chinese Restaurant and a little further than the car wash place. You get to it by getting off the main road and parking on the side road immediately next to the car wash.

I know - vague. They have long hours though and again - the lady who's there is super nice even though her English is limited to individual phrases (which she randomly spits out in a perfect English accent - but she claims not to speak a word).

One note of caution. I brought the little kids in on this trip (big mistake) and they lasted about 60 seconds before I was sure they would destroy the entire shop and had to take them out.

Bottom line - It's small, but it's nice.

My New Favorite Wine Place

2011-10-11T08:00:00.000+02:00

I'm not a wine drinker. It's just not me.

I like my beer, and I'm not really picky about where I buy it. Makro has beer for cheap, but I can also go to just about anywhere else and pick it up. One of the things on my to-do list before I leave is to visit a few breweries.

So again - I'm not a wine guy.

But - Mrs. Thrifty is a wine lady. She likes her wine. Finding a cheap place here in Warsaw to get wine is not as easy as it sounds.

I think I might have found an interesting solution though. It's a tiny little shop in the north part of Konstancin (less than a mile south of the American School of Warsaw) that has a modest, but decent selection of wines. They offer discounts for bulk purchases, and it doesn't matter if you mix and match the bottles.

My family seems to do an above-average amount of entertaining, so we're always on the lookout for red wine to stock the wine cellar, and this place offered several bottles in the 20 Zloty range, which isn't terrible.

It's not $5 a bottle, but it's fairly cheap and apparently tastes pretty good.

I'm a little confused on the name of the shop. They list themselves on Facebook as Wineshops.pl. But that web address is not working. The sign on the outside of the shop says Dobrewina... And somehow my wife got a discount card (unclear if the bulk discounts listed above are also applied with the card discount).

Bottom line - I like that they are a local business, run out of a small shop - close to the house, and very willing to get my repeat business. I like their selection and the guy who runs the place, Tomek, seems to be a straight up guy.

I haven't talked to him about it - but I also kind of envision him as being my wine connection. They do deliver... And I am prone to running out of wine at the last minute so I see this being a mutually beneficial agreement...

Finding Those Stupid Soda Stream CO2 Refills

2011-10-10T17:28:00.000+02:00

If you have one of these:

Then eventually you'll need another one of these:

Just a little background - Several months ago Mrs. Thrifty bought the red Soda Stream contraption above to make fizzy water at home (saving the environment from lots of excess bottles... or some crap like that). "This will save us time and money" she insisted.

It comes with a CO2 bottle like the one pictured above. That bottle lasted less than two months in our house before we had to replace it.

I went back to Saturn (where she got the thing in the first place) and I asked the guy where he kept the replacements. He told me that they don't sell them. I have to call the number on the box, or just buy a new contraption (At the time it was about 275 Zloty or so).

That was weeks ago. My wife has been buying woda gazowana because she didn't have a refill. Today I had a day off - so my entire purpose in life was to help her find a new canister...

So I started by calling Dar Natury (the number on the outside of the box). I explained my situation and the nice lady pointed me to the Distributor for the Soda Stream in Poland. This woman, while I didn't catch her name, was my angel from Heaven today.

She started off telling me that I should be able to go to any Saturn or Auchan to get a refill. I explained that I went to the Saturn in Zloty Terassy and the Auchan in Piezescno and neither had the refills.

She directed me to the Soda Stream website and told me that there was a map of where I could go to get a replacement. Luckily I was already in Makro and it told me that if I go over to Blue City I could get refills at Saturn or the Carrefour across the street.

That went about as well as I imagined it would.

The good news is that the Saturn there did have refills, but the said they were out. I could buy a whole new cartridge (for half the price of a whole new unit) or wait until next Monday (maybe?) when they were expecting the next shipment. The ladies there were a little snotty so we blew that off and went over to Carrefour.

In Carrefour the ladies at the customer service desk insisted that they did not swap out canisters, and that FOR SURE, I could not buy them there. I left the store, and eventually got a call back from the Soda Stream people telling me that I had to go to a different part of the store, and talk to a different desk.

I'm told that if you have Dar Natury deliver water to your house, then they can deliver the refills as well. Half way through the day I was willing to get water delivered to the house as long as I didn't have to keep looking for the stupid canister.

In the end I was successful. I got a new refill pictures above for 40 Zloty and it only took me 1 hour and 17 minutes (not counting driving time). But my goodness was it painful.

The end result is one happy Expat:

(BTW - the ladies in the background were the ones that told me, in no uncertain terms, that they don't sell replacement cartridges in that store...)

Pam Cooking Spray

2011-10-05T13:35:00.000+02:00

I found Pam cooking spray in the most unlikely of places. I was shopping in Galeria Mokotow at a sports supplement store (because I'm secretly a professional bodybuilder). I looked up from the protein powders and noticed the 4 different cans of Pam.

They're pricey (starting at 39 zloty a can), but if you're desperate for Pam, now you know where to find it!

(It's likely available in Kuchnie Swiata too, but I've never noticed it before. And that wouldn't give me a chance to brag about my awesome ~~lying about why I shop at supplement stores~~ bodybuilding.)

Mrs. Thrifty

Asian Food Store

2011-09-21T17:00:00.001+02:00

While I was out wandering the city with a friend today, we happened upon this place:

Asia Tasty!

It's located at the back of Hala Mirowska, on Plac Mirowski and the cross street Zimna. I bought some AWESOME Thai loose green tea.

They have a good selection of Asian food (heavily Thai) along with fresh and frozen stuff (they have okra!).

Around the corner, they have a small restaurant as well, which smells delicious, but we didn't partake as we had previously loaded up on donuts (also found inside Hala Mirowska) because we can't see the future and didn't know we would happen to find Asia Tasty.

- Mrs. Thrifty

Arkadia

2011-08-05T12:00:00.001+02:00

Arkadia is located about 3km north of the city center, it’s a little farther away than Złote Tarasy and perhaps, a little harder to get to if you’re alone but, the trip is worth it. Arkadia is known as the largest mall in central Europe and has almost all of the stores I’ve already mentioned and more. Outside of the mall there is a large fountain where many younger kids play during the hotter summer months and this mall is all in all, gorgeous.

The food court is enormous and not only includes your typical fast-food restaurants but has many nicer restaurants as well. Arkadia also has a decent sized movie theatre and over all, this mall is so large there will always be something new to do.

Złote Tarasy

2011-08-04T12:00:00.003+02:00

Złote Tarasy can be found in the center of Warsaw. It is placed in between the train station and the Palace of Culture and has a strange yet beautiful architectural view. Złote Tarasy is designed as a giant warped circle on the inside, making it very easy to keep track of where you are. With 5 floors including the food court and movie theatre there are many places to shop here for guys and girls.

“Over 200 stores with a variety of goods for people of various tastes and age. Large fashion salons and small boutiques, international chains and respectable Polish brands, well known stores as well those that are just entering the Polish market” – zlotetarasy.pl

Stores that have not been previously mentioned include, New Yorker, The Body Shop, Bershka, Calzedonia, Camaieu, Douglas, Games World, Hugo Boss, Inglot, Intersport, Kuchnie Swiata, MAC and many more that can be found by following the link to their website.

Although many go here for shopping, the movie theatre (Multikino) is brilliantly designed with a gargantuan theatre designed specifically for premiers. As well as having many floors dedicated to 3-6 large theatres each.

(Premier Theatre)

(Waiting area on the first level of the theatre)

Not only does the Multikino show movies but on one of the many floors incorporated into the theatre they have a club, for those older high school students (18 and up) or college students who have come to visit.

Want to get out and do something outside of the mall? Well, as previously mentioned the Palace of Culture is directly across the street. The metro line runs directly below the mall, there are many buses at the back entrance and you’re in the middle of the city! There are places to go whether it’s a bus ride, metro ride, or short walk away, you can find something to do such as:

Go to the Hard Rock Café – attached to the mall, can be accessed by the bottom level or coming from the street entrance. There is a bar on the top and lower floor but the eating area is on the lower level of the Hard Rock Café.

Nowy Swiat – Which means “New World” in Polish is a very nice street which leads into the Old Town Square. It has a Subway which is open until 2:00am and Starbucks as well as a Coffee Heaven both open until 10-11. No cars are allowed to drive on this street except taxis and buses so, it keeps pretty clean and clear and there are many days where cars (including taxis and buses) aren’t allowed at all. This allows for plenty of walking room.

More clubs – There are definitely more clubs around the area, finding one which suits your wants requires some research on your part. Google “Clubs in Warsaw” and you can find plenty of clubs near the city center worth going to, make sure to read the comments and ratings and be safe about your choice!

Galeria Mokotów

2011-08-03T12:00:00.003+02:00

Galeria Mokotów is located southwest from the center of Warsaw. It is, more or less, about 10km from the city center. The mall is rectangular in shape but much larger than Sadyba so, it’s a little easier to get lost than in Sadyba which is 2 floors, 1 rectangle right on top of another. However, as long as you just keep turning corners, you’ll find where you want to be.

Galeria Mokotów is somewhere you go for shopping. From the Empik that has 3 floors to the massive food court and arcade, this is a mall you can spend hours in. This list of stores, broken into a section for the girls and a section for the guys should help sum up what you can get here:
Girls:

• Zara – (clothes)
• H&M – (clothes)
• Converse – (shoes)
• New Look – (clothes, shoes and accessories)
• Aldo – (shoes)
• Stradivarius – (clothes)
• American Bookstore – (books in English)
• Bijou Brijitte – (accessories)
• Cropp Town – (clothes)
• Cubus – (clothes)
• Deichmann – (shoes)
• House – (clothes)
• La Senza – (bras and underwear)
• Levi’s – (jeans)
• Mango – (clothes, shoes and bags)
• Orsay – (clothes)
• reReserved – (clothes, shoes and accessories)
• River Island – (clothes, shoes and accessories)
• Tally Weijl – (clothes and accessories)
Guys:

• CK Jeans – (jeans)
• Cropp Town – (clothes)
• House – (clothes)
• KappAhl’ – (clothes)
• Lacoste – (clothes, shoes)
• Marks & Spencer – (clothes)
• MaxMara – (clothes)
• Mexx – (clothes)
• Pepe Jeans – (jeans)
• reReserved – (clothes and accessories)
• Tom Tailor Denim – (jeans)
• Versace – (suits)

The top floor of the mall includes the food court, movie theatre, arcade and GoSport. The food court combines a mix of different cultures such as Asian cuisine, American and European. The movie theatre is large and again, they take a student discount if you have an ISIC card. The arcade includes games such as (air hockey and Dance Dance Revolution), a bar, bowling alley and pool table area.

The stores listed above are generally the best for shopping and getting decent prices however, there are some stores on the list above that are expensive as well as plenty that are cheap and there are many more shops in the mall that are not listed. New Look, for example takes the ISIC card and that can get you up to 20% off depending on what other sales they are having however, on most days it will only get you 10%. However, if you go to Aldo you will find that even the highest sale can leave your pockets empty.

The summer is a great time to shop in Warsaw, as the summer month’s progress the sales get better and better. These summer sales range from the beginning of the summer at 20% to the middle of the summer being as much as 70% off in many stores.

Galeria Mokotów is a great place to go shopping, hang out with friends and spend a couple of hours however; there isn’t much to do in the surrounding area. If you’re looking for something to do all day, that’s when you go to the dead center of the city to find the real action.

Sadyba Best Mall

2011-08-02T12:00:00.006+02:00

This week we’ll work up in lower quality to the highest quality shopping malls in or on the outskirts of Warsaw. Here you have Sadyba Best Mall.

I have never, in the entire time that I have lived in Warsaw gone to this mall and NOT seen someone that I know. This mall isn’t great for shopping, they do have some decent stores like CCC for cheaper decent quality shoes and Aldo for more expensive shoes, Empik and the American Bookstore for electronics, CD’s, games and of course books, Flo for a variety of interesting items, various jewelry stores ranging from cheaper (Accessorize and Glitter) to more expensive, better quality jewelry (Apart), Mango for clothes and Sephora for pricey makeup. However, what most teens come here for is the movie theatre.

Sadyba Best Mall is closer than any other malls to the American School of Warsaw and directly down the street from the British School. A bus ride or walk down the street gets you there after school on a Friday afternoon. If you walk up to the third floor (above the food court) you will often see many people you know in line buying movie tickets. The tickets are cheap and even cheaper if you have an ISIC (International Student Identity Card), you can get this student discount at all movie theatres in Warsaw and many stores as well. In general the movie theatres in Sadyba are decent, small but clean and the movies are played in English with Polish subtitles. This is different if you are going to see any cartoon, where the movie is dubbed in Polish. Sadbya’s movie theatre also includes an IMAX where movies such as, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides played in 3D and Batman: The Dark Knight. Sadyba Best Mall is a good mall for hanging out and it’s great because it’s close to school but, if you want to do some better shopping you might want to look deeper in the city.

Malls in Warsaw

2011-08-01T12:00:00.004+02:00

When I moved to Warsaw in 2002, I vaguely remember there being 1 or 2 “larger” malls and one very small mall that I don’t recall ever going to. Moving back to Warsaw in 2007, after living in Africa, came as a pleasant surprise. There were at least 3 more “larger” malls and they had shopping. Good shopping. At the risk of sounding like a “typical teen” I’m going to go ahead and let you know exactly where to shop for great deals over the coming week, for guys and girls who love to shop. Whether you’re trying on shoes with your friends or simply need a place to look for a present for your girlfriend you’re bound to find what you’re looking for in one of Warsaw’s many malls.

Teen Warsaw: Summer Weather

2011-07-18T19:31:00.001+02:00

The end of school is something exciting for everyone, vacation, new experiences to look forward to and of course beautiful weather. Living here for 6 years of my life I know Polish weather like the back of my hand. For many people who are new arrivals or people who have even been living in Poland for a couple years they often find it hard to deal with the weather (especially during the winter) but, the summer can be confusing as well.

It has taken me at least 4 of my 6 years here to figure out the weather so, for those who don’t have that long under their belt here in Warsaw and never will, I’ll let you in on a little secret about Polish summer weather. It’s a paranoid schizophrenic. Really, I’m not joking with you. The early summer months of 2011, May-June (excluding the snow at the beginning of May) were beautiful. Warm and sunny. Most people would take this as a blessing. I on the other hand, look at the sky with suspicion. The weather often goes from beautiful and sunny to cold and rainy in days and it stays that way for at least a week. This is how you will know the rain is coming:

1) Days with beautiful blue skies

2) Warm temperatures increasing by the day (or within a day itself)

Doesn’t it sound beautiful? Now you know not be shocked when the day after 85-90 F/29-32 C weather is 61 F/16 C and you can’t see the sun behind all the gray.

Believe me, the summers are beautiful. Warm weather, green grass, flowers blossoming, places to walk and bike ride are among many pros of a Polish summer all I’m trying to say is, be prepared. Although the weather may seem surprising (and at times it can be), it is quite predictable.

Cars 2 in 3D!! This Weekend in Sadyba Mall - AGAIN!!!

2011-07-13T18:25:00.001+02:00

This weekend, on 16 and 17 July there will be an encore presentation of Cars 2 in 3D in English!!!!

This is because we had such a good turn-out last weekend, the theater is considering making this a steady thing - So please get the word out if you know anyone who hasn't seen it yet who might be interested!

The prices for the tickets are the same as for all 3D movies on weekend:
Adult 34 zł (price of the ticket 31 zł plus 3zł for 3D glasses),
Student 28zł (25 ticket price plus 3 zł for the 3D glasses),
Children\Senior 27zł (24 zł ticket price plus 3 zł for 3D glasses).

Cinema is the Cinema City in Sadyba Best Mall in Warsaw. The times are 11:20 showing for both Saturday and Sunday.

So tell everyone you know that might be interested!! This is definitely something that we want to publicize and get more people to come to, so that they will keep showing more of these!!

Best,
Thirfty

Site News

2011-07-01T11:25:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone -

Nope - The Thrifty Family did not fall off of the face of the earth. It's the summer so there's vacations, and lots of other moving around. As there usually is.

So posts will be erratic, as always, but if you have any additions, suggestions or any other comments, always feel free to leave a post or send notes to comments@thrityexpat.com.

My Thrifty Daughter is planning to do several segments in the coming weeks on teen life in Warsaw for newcomers and recent arrivals. I'll add a new tag for Teens to the sidebar. Hopefully some of her insight will be helpful to others just getting to Poland as well.

We do plan to continue movie days. Stay tuned... I'm promised that the theater will try to get Cars 2 in English. I'll see what we can do. Earlier this week we had a bunch of people signed up for, and expecting to see Gnomeo and Juliet to be pleasantly surprised with a screening of KungFu Panda 2. That's Poland for ya - Plan one thing and be ready for changes.

Thanks for reading - and all the American Expats out there - Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Gnomeo & Juliet

2011-06-06T16:05:00.000+02:00

The Summer Movie Season for Children is kicking off in a few weeks with a showing of Gnomeo & Juliet here in Warsaw.

The movie will be the full 3D version and in the original English so the kids can follow along!

Prices are 19 Zloty a person (discount rate, same price for kids and adults). It will be at 10:00 in the morning on Wednesday, 29 June 2011.

Drop a note to movies@thriftyexpat.com so that we can make sure that there’s enough seating.

Hope fully this is the start of many more this season!

The Lego Store

2011-05-30T08:00:00.008+02:00

There is a store in Warsaw dedicated to selling Legos. It's called Bricker, they have an on-line store and here's the store info:

Bricker Deal Salon
02-703 Warszawa - (Mokotów)
Bukowińska 26C
tel: 22 241-17-59
E-mail salon@bricker.pl
Mon-Fri 11:00 - 19:00
Sat 11:00 - 18:00

Not really much for saving cash in Warsaw - because they're kind of expensive. Not really expensive though because my wife tells me the prices are comparable or cheaper than when you find the same sets in Real, Smyk or Auchan. They also have, by far, the best selection of Legos in town.

So if you're looking for that perfect gift for the little Lego fan you know - this might be a great place to check out.

Day Spa

2011-05-28T12:32:00.001+02:00

I would say this post is for the ladies... but according to their website, they are happy to take male clients as well.

My wife has been going to a place called Escape Salon & Day Spa for getting pedicures. She's really, really particular about who touches her feet, so this must be a pretty good place for her to go back more than once.

The contact info is below:

Salon & Day SPA Escape
ul. Limanowskiego 11 S
Opening hours: Monday - Friday 9.00 - 21.00
Saturday 9.00 - 17.00
tel.: (0) 22 642 33 58
mobile.: (0) 604 137 406

I usually let my wife give these recommendations because she knows better, but she's been slacking with putting up posts recently. I see this charge come up regularly on my credit card bill, so I know that she either 1. really likes this place and keeps going or 2. She's having an affair with one of the hunky masseuses there and uses her pedicures as an excuse... I'm pretty sure it's the first one though. Pretty sure...

Exchanging Dollars Or Zloty For Euros

2011-05-26T08:00:00.001+02:00

“What’s the best way to exchange for Euros here in Warsaw?”

I get that question a lot. Up until now I never really checked into it because usually the only time I go to the EuroZone it’s to Germany and I know that there are enough ATMs to get local currency when I get there.
However, in June I’m planning for a trip to Southern Croatia and while they’re not on the Euro there, the hotel I’m staying in charges in Euros (and doesn’t take credit cards). So rather than suffer yet another currency conversion, I decided to figure out the best way for me to get Euros before I leave Warsaw. I get this question a lot when people send their kids off to European schools for sports exchanges.

All the below calculations were done on Wednesday, 25 May, at about 4:00 in the afternoon.
I tried to find out how much 100 USD or 281 PLN would buy me in Euros. (The 2.81 was the Exchange rate my employer was giving that day, so that was an easy comparison.)

My first stop was Raiffeisen Bank, where they told me they couldn’t help me because I didn’t have an account. Bummer.

Raiffeisen did point me to a money exchanger place (or Kantor) that are all around the city – especially near the old town.

At the Kantor I could exchange a $100 bill for 68.66 Euros. Or I could take my 281 Polish Zloty and exchange it for 69.90 Euro.

Not bad.

Then I walked down to a local Nordea Bank Branch (where I do have an account) and there I could exchange my 281 Polish Zloty for 73.46 Euro. That’s more than 5% better than what the local Kantor can offer. They can’t convert right from USD to Euro though, they had to convert to USD and so the rate was worse than using dollars for me… But still slightly better than the Kantor.

And to verify everything, I went to XE.com where the current exchange rate was showing $100 to give me 71.19 Euro…

So bottom line – If you need Euros before you travel, the best way seems to be to go to a bank with someone who has a bank account. Second best way is just go to a Kantor exchange. This is all assuming that you can’t just go to the ATM when you get where you’re going.

Credit Card Of The Day

2011-05-24T20:04:00.000+02:00

A colleague (Who never read my blog before today) asked me in the hall today what credit cards I use.

I think I've outlined this before, but real quick recap - In order of use:

1. The formally-known-as Charles Schwab Invest First Visa. This is no longer offered and was bought out by another company called FIA card Services. No foreign currency fees.

2. American Express Platinum. This card has a ridiculous annual fee** but it has a benefit package that is growing every month it seems like. Biggest recent benefit to me: No foreign Currency Transaction Fees.

3. Capital One. I think it's called a Platinum MasterCard (or something like that) but I have a a personal dislike for Capital One. I think they're worse than those sub-prime lenders, but I keep their card because they don't charge the fees and have a modest cash-back program.

But - Today, when I was looking up a card for my colleague, I found a 'new' card, The Pentagon Federal (PenFed) Promise Card.

Their website says it all, but here are the features they tout:

No Annual Fee
No Foreign Transaction Fee
No Balance Transfer Fee
No Cash Advance Fee
No Late Fees
No Over Credit Limit Fee
No Penalty APR

They've also got decent offers if you transfer your balances (at least for a limited time), and they have decent APRs.

What's the Promise? Something about going green. The best I can tell they call themselves a 'green card' becuase they promise to send you electronic statements... I don't really see that as being different than any other card on earth, but whatever.

So that's my deal of the day in how to get around the system.

**Unless you know a way around the system. If you're active duty military, you have a way around the system.

They Have Marshmallows In Real

2011-05-19T14:45:00.000+02:00

The title and the picture should say it all: - But if you need them, you can buy small bags of marshmallows at Real (and presumably other stores now too).

Small victories!

Getting Tires Changed/Fixed

2011-05-17T10:54:00.000+02:00

Finding places that change tires are as common as light posts.

However, I found this one guy that works out really well for me. It’s a small shop near the Centrum and they charge 50 zl to repair a tire (I’ve gotten this done more times than I care to admit) and this morning I just got all four tires changed for 100 zloty.

Might not be the cheapest in town but they’re easy to communicate with, they usually don’t have a long line, and they’re really nice. Today I was in and out in 20 minutes after they changed 4 tires. They not only took my old tires to 'recycle' they also took a couple of motorcycle tires that I had lying around.
Here’s the address and phone number:

Sprzedaz Hurtowa i Detaliczna Opon Joanna Sawicka-Gasiorowska
ul. Fabryczna 7,
00-446 Warzawa
Tel: 627-25-56

They’re not much on a website apparently.

Where You Can Get Firewood in Warsaw

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000+02:00

Last week I bought a fire pit from Real. Unfortunately I didn't buy it until May, so this was the first time I went looking for firewood since I moved here. I'm really enjoying the idea of siting around a fire, talking to people and enjoying a few drinks, so I went out looking for wood.

By went out, I mean I went to two garden places that told me they didn't sell it. I did discover that the local Shell Station sells firewood and kindling. I paid 21 zloty for a few logs - enough to kind of get a fire going for one evening.

But when I decided to take it up a notch, I went looking for something bigger. That's one thing about me - I always do things bigger!

I finally figured out the best way to search for my area. I searched for "drewno opałowe Konstancin-Jeziorna" to find somewhere near me. It turned up three good results in Piaseczno and through a Polish-speaking friend, this is what I got:

Stolart - This ended up being one dude on a cell phone. They offered me a cubic meter for 220 Zloty. This is dried oak, ready to light (unlike the wood from the Shell Station) and no delivery fees.

Bartczak - Another seemingly-small operation and their prices were reasonable. 190 zl for one cubic meter and they charge a 20 zl delivery fee. T
hey were also in Piaseczno.

Ciran - By far the fanciest website of the three. They were actually located in Warsaw, the Airport Area. They will deliver two cubic meters for 500 Zloty and 30 Zloty for shipping.

So I tried Stolart. They didn't speak a word of English so I went through a translator. The total cost was to be 440 Zloty (they said they would only deliver for a two cubic meter order) and the guy said he'd be at my house at 08:00 the next morning.

I didn't catch the guy's name but he was nice enough and there was a laborer that came out to unload and stack it all in my garbage gate. He showed up on time (ten minutes early actually) and they efficiently moved the wood from the back of the van (pictured above) to my covered garbage gate. That's a lot of wood by the way... Then came time for the bill. My total bill for two cubic meters of wood ended up being 541 zloty. Apperatnyl once he unloaded it all the bill came out higher because he had to add the 23% VAT. But he was also just bad at math and his calculations came out wrong, so I got charged an extra 10 zloty because he couldn't add. Also I tipped the laborer 20 zloty, but he earned it.

So I can't say that I recommend going with Stolart. Try one of the other companies, or if you find something better, please let me know for next time.

But if you only need say a few dozen logs, let me know... I'm sure we can work out a deal... I don;t deliver though.

A Motorcycle Repair Shop Recommendation

2011-05-11T08:00:00.004+02:00

A Spanish Expat recommended this place to have motorcycles serviced. He has a nice BMW and has nice things to say about this location:

Moto Szklarnia
Larsson Polska
al. Pilsudskiego 73
05-270 Marki k. Warszawy
022 771 31 00
motoszklarnia-szczepan@wp.pl
motoszklarnia@wp.pl

There's also personal info on the card I was passed:
Pawl Pomacho
501-201-358

Parking At The Airport

2011-05-09T12:06:00.000+02:00

I live in Konstancin, so it's a bit of a long way for the taxi to drive. Taxis range between 70 Zloty for a one-way trip in the middle of the day, and up to 150 Zloty on a weekend.

So I was interested in the parking solution at the airport because I reasoned that even at 100 Zloty a day, it would be cheaper than a taxi for a 2-day trip.

Here's the airport parking website.

I caveat this with at least some of those prices are outdated. It lists 68 Zloty a day as the rate, but the signs at the airport say 74 zloty a day. That's what I paid, plus several extra hours because of a delayed flight.

Bottom line - parking isn't the most ridiculous I've ever seen, but those that live closer are probably better to go back and forth via taxi.

The chart is helpful though if you want to know how much to bring when parking picking up or dropping off at the Warsaw International Airport. I also learned the hard way that even though they advertise that their machines take credit cards - they don't take U.S. credit cards. They take Polish or European credit cards with that special PIN (not the same as a cash-advance PIN). Knowing this in advance will likely save you a trip back and forth between the ATM in the Terminal.

What I’ve Learned About Traveling Via Air

2011-05-06T08:00:00.002+02:00

Today I’m off on a trip to a neighboring country via LOT and there’s one big lesson that I learned from this trip: Always buy your tickets as far in advance as possible.

Five weeks before travel, I was looking at tickets for $202 each. Then a little over 30 days out the price jumped up – first just a little, then quickly to $282 a piece, then within two days all the way up to $382 before I bought them three weeks out. The price for these same tickets yesterday were $658 a ticket.

Lesson learned: For U.S. travel, the prices usually spikes then drop back down – here I don’t see that. So make your ticket purchases when you lock in your trip. I only wish I had done that sooner.

Sklep Domowe Przysmaki

2011-05-04T08:00:00.002+02:00

Another Expat Recommendation:

Sklep Domowe Przysmaki
Ul. Goplanska 33A,
02-954 Warszawa
(022) 497 – 9995

Small neighborhood deli with a good variety of homemade Polish food and other items. I bought some Bigos, Beef Stroganoff and other Polish items whose names I don’t know, and must admit it’s some of the best Polish food I’ve had in this country. Most items sold by weight. Store is located one block off Sobieskiego.

Credit Cards That Work Well Overseas

2011-05-02T08:00:00.011+02:00

This post started off being about how I just found out that the American Express Platinum card no longer charges foreign transaction fees for purchases made in currencies other than U.S. Dollars.

Then I started digging around to find out what other cards are out there (with hyperlinks and everything) that don't charge that foreign transaction fee. This is what I found:

American Express Platinum Card - $450 annual fee

Capital One:All cards - Annual fees vary, but many are free

Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card - $395 annual fee
British Airways Visa Signature Card - $395 annual fee
Chase Priority Club Select Visa Card - 1st year free; $49 each additional year
Hyatt Gold Passport Card - $75 annual fee
United Mileage Plus Club Visa Card - $375 annual fee
Chase Sapphire Preferred - 1st year free; $95 each additional year

ThankYou Premier Card - 1st year free; $125 each additional year
ThankYou Prestige Card - $500 each additional year

The pattern here is that most cards that charge a really hefty annual fee will waive the foreign transaction fee as a benny for using their cards. I had no idea when I started how expensive some credit cards can be. I mean, I can see paying the $450 annual fee for an Amex Platinum, but $500 a year for Chase Card? Are you kidding me?

After a good hour of work compiling the above, I found a website called Nerd Wallett that has a great article, much more extensive than this one, on credit cards that have little or no foreign transaction fees. Check them out of the above if you're tired of handing over your hard earned money for yet more fees.

P.S. - This is SCIW's 300th Post - Thanks for reading!

Authorized Apple Reseller

2011-04-30T08:00:00.008+02:00

I've passed this place several times, but never stopped in. Last week I popped by this tiny shop off of Marszalkowska with the signature Apple Logo out front:

TechMaq
Wilcza 29A
+48 22 628 21 83
+48 22 628 75 45

He had a few laptops in the store and some Apple parts and accessories. He says that he can get just about anything (Mac, Mac accessory) the same day or the next day. And yes - they've got at least one guy who speaks perfect English.

So basically he's an Apple iSpot store without the overhead. I didn't compare prices, but if I was going to buy a Mac locally, I'd start by seeing what he had to offer.

But the better part is - He handles Apple and Mac Repairs. Both in and out of warranty. At least he says he does.

I have a ton of Apple products, and I like the idea of knowing there's an easy place to go to get them fixed. Especially in-warranty repairs.

So - Bottom line on this place. It's an authorized Apple Service Center and Retail store outside of the malls.

Driving In Poland Can Be Frustrating

2011-04-29T08:00:00.018+02:00

If you've been in Poland for more than one week, you’re probably raising your eyebrow at the understatement of the title.

One the ride home one day last year, after having nearly been hit broadside by a jerk running a red light, I started to make a list of irritating things about driving in Warsaw. Just thought I'd share a few observations for those that are coming to Warsaw. This is not a critique of Polish drivers (Heaven knows I'm not a perfect driver) but it's a lot of general observations about driving in Warsaw from my nearly 100,000 miles on Polish roads over six years.

If you are in the middle lane - you're a sucker. If you're on a road with three lanes going in the same direction, you can bet that the left and right lanes are going to back up either from buses or from people backing up to turn left. If you stay in the center lane you can't go wrong, but you can also bet that people are going to be cutting in and out in front of you to try and get a jump on traffic.

Speaking of left turns – I am still amazed at how almost every intersection in town has a right turn light, but to make a left turn, you’re expected to wait until the light turns red, and then rush to make a turn before the cross-traffic starts moving.

"Czy Pan Wie, Kim ja Jestem?" It means "Do you know who I AM?" This is a polish saying that I find applies mostly to standing in line and driving in Warsaw. People will cut you off in a second because they simply believe that they are more important than you. It's nothing personal. I see it happen more with black Mercedes and BMWs than any other vehicles.

The concept of “traffic feathering” is completely lost here. Out near my house there's a place where the road goes from two lanes to one. The simple idea would be that everyone goes to the front of both lanes and feather in, one lane then the next. In reality what happens, people in the right lane backup for a mile and there are bunch of people who fly to the front of the left lane and cut in. Then road rage ensues as people in the right lane try to cut off people in the left lane from going forward. This happens almost every day.

It is perfectly acceptable and even legal here for motorcycles to "lane share" or drive in the same lane as cars going the same direction. Don't get frustrated - it's the law. Generally motorcyclists will give you lots of room and very rarely would they ever get close enough where they could possibly scratch your car. Please resist the urge to open your door or drive your car into them as they go down the center of the road – You will most certainly be found at fault and you could kill someone.

In Poland they still call those things on the front and back of your car "bumpers" but if you so much as touch the bumper of another car, you can bet that you're going to either have to pay someone money or call a cop to settle a dispute. What may constitute a normal scratch in other parts of the world, amounts here to an offense punishable by public admonishment.

If your license plates aren't like everyone else's (different color, different country, etc...) be careful of where and how you park. I’ve learned this one through experience.

If you are in an accident be prepared to argue about it. It's always your fault - Especially if you're not a fluent Polish speaker. It happened to me just two weeks ago, I was turning right, a man hit the gas and tried to pass me on the right and clipped me. I pulled the car over, examined my car, then turned to him (I was feeling nice) and told him I didn't see any major damage and he could go. He looked me dead in the eye and said "okay, but this was your fault". Apparently passing people by jamming on your accelerator and passing you on the right in a single lane is perfectly legal - Or so this man would have me believe.

One more thing - In the U.S. we're taught to leave a certain amount of space, or car lengths, between our car and the car in front of us. This is especially true in less-than-perfect weather conditions. Here, if you so much as leave a single car length, other drivers are going to think you're leaving that for them, and they will use it. So don't be surprised. The worst is when driving in wet conditions and cars whip in front of motorcycles and then break. There's a reason that Motorcyclists leave that space, and it's not because they drive so slow.

It was recently explained to me that all Polish Drivers are taught to be aggressive, or to be on the offense. This is a stark difference than the U.S. where, of course, we're all taught defensive driving.

Bottom line - If aggressive driving disturbs you, plan to take the bus, or better yet - the Tram or Metro. Especially during the winter.

Credit Card Theft: In Poland?

2011-04-27T08:00:00.005+02:00

I've lived overseas pretty much since early '96, and for most of that time I've been a pretty heavy credit card user. Aside from a couple of instances where I paid for something and it never got delivered, I've never really had a problem with fraudulent credit usage.

It impresses me in Europe how your credit card pretty much never leaves your sight. Just about every restaurant I've ever been to here has a little remote terminal that they bring to the table to swipe your card. Heck, Even the grocery delivery services and RoomService take-out have these little wireless terminals.

And I don't think any tellers in the U.S. ever even check the back of the credit cards - here they scrutinize the card's signature to make sure it matches. I've been handed back a new, unsigned credit before and have been told they will not accept it because it didn’t have a valid signature.

Do I want the States to be like this? Of course not - they're kind of a pain in the rear about it here. But I do admit that for the first time in the umpteen years of credit card ownership - I have been the victim of credit card theft.

I was passing through the Newark Airport late at night and I bought my family snacks at the Sam Adams Pub while waiting for a connecting flight. Now the real crime should have been the $9 they charged for a small beer, but that was the only time that I used my card in New Jersey. The waitress took away the card then brought it back to me to sign. 5 weeks later my credit card was supposedly presented to a Home Depot in Hoboken, NJ for two purchases. I can only guess that it was skimmed and sold to someone who made a few bucks off of the deal. In the long run I got the charges reversed, but this is obviously a potential problem anywhere.

So when I read a recent CNBC article that said one the riskiest places to use a credit card are Small Shops/Cafes in Foreign Countries - I just had to chuckle a little bit... In my experience - You've got no problem worrying about the local shops where they bring the machine to the table, then swipe the card, and give it back only after studiously verifying the signature vs. the receipt you just signed.

I am very interested in other people's experiences though – particularly if you've been the victim of fraud here in Poland.

Great Spaghetti Sauce

2011-04-25T08:00:00.003+02:00

For those of us not talented enough to make our own spaghetti sauce, the idea of buying ready-made sauce in a jar is ideal.

Unfortunately I've had some hit or miss sauces here. Many are not quite the same consistency as what my kids are used to from the U.S.

You can find a brand called "Barilla" that comes in small 400 gram bottles (small by US Standards) and they have lots of flavors. It's better than Prego or Ragu for sure.

My current favorite is their Ricotta Flavor. It's just out of this world.

Might be worth checking out.

I Did It! I Now Have My Own Wireless VPN!

2011-04-23T08:00:00.002+02:00

I’ve been looking for a while a way to make my life easier when it comes to watching movies, TV and videos across the internet from the U.S.
I’ve finally found it – at least I’m pretty sure I did.

Quick History – All I want to do is watch my Netflix subscription (that I pay for monthly) and a few times a week, stream TV shows from major networks like NBC, ABC, FOX, etc… Because I’m overseas, even though I’m a tax-paying American overseas, I don’t get the privilege because I’m in Poland. We’ve got satellite, but it’s not the same. Dang it – I want my MTV!!!

Last September I was turned on to a site called StrongVPN.com. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it and was sure that I was going to cancel in the first week because they have a 7-day, full money-back guarantee to try it. Does it work? Yes, very well. I’ve renewed twice and now and the next time around I'm going to buy a full year to save a little more cash.

What it didn’t do at the time signed up was make it possible for me to use my Wii (Playstation, Xbox, etc…) in the same manner as the computer. That signal had to go to the router and the computer was what made the connection. I could use my computer, iPhone, iPad, Linux Computer or Mac... just not some devices like the PS3 and Wii.

StrongVPN sells routers pre-configured for $129 and up, that they say all you have to do is plug it in. I’m a pretty tech-savvy guy (or so I think) so the end of November I bought a refurbished Linksys WRT320N router for $50.24 at Buy.com. I figured it couldn’t be too hard to program it.

Famous last words.

I’ve been tinkering with it off and on since the first of January, and this week I was able to bring it to life. I have two routers in the house now. One has my usual connection from Netia (about 19mbs download) which works on both wired and wireless. And now I have a second network (again, wireless or wired) that broadcasts a signal throughout the house that I can connect any device to – with the only difference being: The new network says that I’m in the U.S.

There’s a trade off for speed of course. My speed on the U.S. netwrok dropped to about 3mbs download, but it’s always on and always ready. I can use Netflix on the Wii, I can stream to a WD Live box or a Roku Box and any laptop or desktop appears to be sitting in the U.S. – so I get a U.S. connection and can feel free to surf any U.S. websites without being kicked off for being in the wrong country.

Hello Hulu!!!

If this sounds interesting (and if you have a teenager with an X-box it probably does), it’s not that hard to set up a router from scratch. First you have to get a router that you can 'hack' (you’ll be installing a new Firmware). You can find this at the router database on dd-wrt.com website. I used a refurbished Linksys WRT320N router which now sells for under $40 at many websites on the net. The instructions to set this up are posted on the StrongVPN website. As long as you have the StongVPN service, it’s really a piece of cake.

StrongVPN isn’t the only one to do this of course. There are lots of other options out there. But from what I can tell, they far and away have the best customer service. Which is great if you have no idea what you’re doing.

Bottom line: If you really want to watch American TV, StrongVPN is a great solution, their customer service is great and more importantly, they are easily compatible with just about everything. Including the Wii.

Is Wifi Safe In Poland? Or Anywhere?

2011-04-22T08:00:00.003+02:00

I know people that refuse to use their wireless router. At least they refuse to use the wireless part of the wireless router.

This involves cables strewn through their house. Why? Because they're paranoid that someone will infiltrate their home network and steal off of their information.

Is this a valid fear? Well, yes. Yes it is. It is easy to hack into someone's computer and sneak around, even if you have very little idea what you're doing.

Firesheep is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to sit in a cafe and mine other people's twitter and Facebook accounts and passwords while sipping your latte. It's not Rocket Science.

And if you have a Wifi connection at home and you don't secure it - it's pretty much open season on your home network. Somebody with just a little know-how will probably be able to dig right in and have access to your files and internet connection if your connection is unsecured. You may feel you have nothing to hide - but how many people out there keep a file saved on their hard drive with all their usernames and password (don't lie - I see them all the time when helping other people out with their computers).

But - as dangerous as the digital world is - there are easy steps to protect yourself. And there are over a million articles on the web about how to secure your wireless network... So I won't go into too many details - but I did come across several articles that might be helpful:

Consumers Urged To Step Up Wireless Security

Free, Public Wi-Fi Can be Dangerous to Your Credit Card

WiFi Vulnerabilities: Advances and incidents in 2010

Protect your data on the go

5 Steps to Home Wireless Security

10 Tips for Wireless Home Network Security

Some really basic steps include the easiest things you can think of:

-Change the default password on your router.

-Turn on the Security on your wireless router.

-If you broadcast your network name, DO NOT put your family name, your street address, or other identifying data. I change my network name every six months or so both to change things up and to drive the rest of family nuts because they have to reset their devices. From my upstairs room I can see no fewer than 12 other home networks at any given time, and tell you what house that most of them belong to becuase if their name or street adderss in the title. Of coruse mine is obvious - My network names are always in English...

This is also a great article: http://www.wikihow.com/Secure-Your-Wireless-Home-Network

If you want to get very paranoid and add yet another layer of security to what already is available - look into getting a VPN connection. It's not fool-proof, but it's another layer of security.

In fact, I've taken to using a VPN whenever possible when using my iPhone 3G. It's easy, it's cheap, and it gives me a little peace of mind... Plus I can watch NetFlix and listen to Pandora... It's actually a pretty good deal if you find a reputable company.

High Speed Internet Choices in Warsaw

2011-04-21T11:21:00.000+02:00

When I first got here in 2007, I was amazed at all the advertisements for internet at home for very cheap prices.

I’ll be honest. Even to this day, I have no idea how you’re supposed to get any of those deals. I was told when I moved in there are two choices in Warsaw for high-speed internet: Netia or TPSA. That’s it.

That’s not entirely true though. You can get a cable modem and internet through Aster Cable that I hear can get a lot faster than other providers. There’s also a company called UPC that offers cable internet service too and they are supposedly pretty good. There are lots of wireless providers (but they limit the amount you can download per month) and of course you can get a GSM modem (again, limited download capability).

The biggest problem though is where you live. Not all neighborhoods have access to all services. In fact, as I understand it – it’s rare to have a wide choice in cable or internet services for any given location.

Most people I know use TPSA for internet. Most are not overly-satisfied. The average speed that I have gathered is 1-2mbs download with a max of 6 in most areas around Warsaw. The problem seems to be with the lines that are run. The lines are supposedly old and anything beyond 6mbs downloads for most neighborhoods is simply not possible.

May people signing up for 6mbs are reporting that they rarely get more than 2 or 4mbs using TPSA in Warsaw. Again it's where you live because I do know people that get a full 6mbs download.

I happen to live outside of Warsaw and benefit from my location and the newness of my neighborhood. I pay Netia for 20mbs and get a consistent 19mbs download. I pay about 110 zloty a month for the phone line and the internet. I think I’m getting a steal and couldn’t be happier.

Most people with TPSA are satisfied but not thrilled. Most people with the Aster Cable option, if they can get it, are generally happy with their service. If I didn’t live in a place where Netia provides such awesome internet, I think that I would look for the cable option before I went with TPSA. But if that’s all you’ve got – then it’s what you’ve got. It’s all about where you live.

Why You Should Never Accept Being Charged In Dollars

2011-04-17T07:45:00.000+02:00

I haven’t touched on ridiculous fees in a while, but if you have a credit card where the base currency is something other than Polish Zloty, it’s probably in your best interest to be charged in Zlotys when you pay at the register.

Most of the time I've found the merchant will ask which currency to use (if there is a choice). Sometimes they do not. There was a time in Poland where many merchants weren't even asking - they were just hitting the "Dollars" button, but now I find that most vendors ask. And I never select USD because it’s nothing more than pure profit for the Credit Card Company – in this example: PolCard.

Why is it a profit for PolCard? PolCard is one of the main companies that processes credit card transactions, and they will happily convert your money for you when you pay by credit card – supposedly for the cost of the current exchange rate, plus a modest 3.5% “hedging margin” which of course is a flat out fee to you.

The problem with this is: You’re bank will convert the money for you!! Usually at a MUCH better rate. To illustrate why this is a bad idea – I offer my own experience recently:

I used a Visa card the end of March at a place that I do business with and without prompting from the person behind the counter; the invoice was issued in U.S. Dollars. The amount was to be 2,250 PLN. They would charge me $821.71 for this transaction. That ROE is 2.7382PLN : 1USD. The WSJ ROE that day was 2.8393:1.

The difference is $29.26 on that transaction – with 100% of that extra fee going directly to PolCard - not the merchant. Also – to add insult to injury – Most Credit Card Companies will also charge a foreign currency transaction fee – even though you paid in Dollars, because most companies charge you the fee for any transactions initiated outside the US.

I refuse to use my credit card with companies that charge me in Dollars using my credit card. There is a spot on the receipt (above) where you sign that says “I accept that I have been offered a choice…” and if I’m not – I refuse to use them. Just two weeks ago they did the same thing at the BP station near Blue City Mall and I stopped the line and said I wouldn't pay because they billed me in Dollars. The guy behind the counter actually argued with me saying that even though it said Dollars, it also said Zloty, so I was being charged in Zloty. Ignorance like that just means more money out of your pocket.

So getting back to the purchase I tried to make above, instead of leaving to find cash, I pulled out my American Express Card that I carry (but never use because Amex charges a 2.7% foreign Currency transaction fee).

The result of using the Amex: Nothing. The purchase went through in PLN just like any other transaction I conduct here. Not even the option of paying in Dollars. Here was my new receipt:

I’ll save the conspiracy theories on why I think that is, but my point is this: I should have paid about $792.25 for this transaction. I ended up paying $799.91 by using my American Express Card even with their high currency fee (which means they give me a better rate than I usually get with my Visa Card that I use for everything). PolCard, by not giving me the choice to pay in PLN, would have easily charged me 30 bucks for absolutely no additional service.

This is criminal – it really is. I’ve written to PolCard but they never replied. They don’t care. They obviously won’t fix the problem (had the same problem with the same Merchant a year ago) and they are content taking my money. And yours!

My only recommendation here is to please, please, please refuse to pay in Dollars if they print out a receipt that looks like the first one above. If it says that you were given a choice and you weren’t, but you pay for it anyway – Merchants don’t care and the situation never improves. If all of us carrying cards with other currencies balk and make it harder for the merchant, then hopefully the news will get back to PolCard that they need to be offering a choice instead of charging whatever fees they feel like.

Am I Blu?

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000+02:00

Big question that people coming from the States always ask: Will I be able to I watch local DVDs on my U.S.-based DVD player?

The answer is: It depends.

Standard DVDs have region encoding and generally the answer is that you can play the DVDs you bring, but most likely you won't be able to grab a 10 Zloty movie at Auchan and play it in your U.S. spec player. For more on region encoding, check Wikipedia.

I had assumed that Blu-Ray DVDs would be exactly the same because they also have Region Codes. I figured it was pretty cut and dry.

But then my Canadian Expat Friend, not knowing that there might be a conflict, bought a Blu-Ray copy of Indiana Jones locally and it works just fine in his system from North America. Not content to think that he just got lucky, he did a little digging and found the following info that is encouraging to Expat Movie Buffs: "BD license agreements mandate that RPC (Regional Playback Control) can be applied to a movie in a specific region for up to 12 months, after which new production runs of the title must be manufactured region-free."

I'll be honest - I own a decent Blu-Ray player that I bought for a heck of a deal 3 years ago, but I only own a handful of Blu-Ray DVDs. All animated. The prices for mailing US Region Blu-Rays to us here just gets a little price-prohibitive. I'm also finding that we, as a family, have less and less time to sit around a TV and watch movies - but I like the idea that any movies that were released over a year ago, I could potentially buy locally.

So it sounds like a pretty good chance that it will work.

Dining with kids

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000+02:00

Usually when we go out to restaurants here, I'm not expecting anything for the kids. Kids menus are still relatively rare here (outside of fast-food restaurants) and so I manage my expectations.

We recently went to a place with our kids called Pizza Marzano. They're a chain here and if you've ever passed by Sadyba Mall at night, I'm I'm sure you've seen their blue neon sign.

They have a decent little kids menu (pictured below) that the kids actually liked. My 7-year-old was so hungry I think he could have gotten an adult's portion though.

I don't like that they advertise dessert but then charge another 9 zloty on top. So we just went to McDonald's in the Mall for ice cream instead.

But still - they're trying to be kid-friendly. Inside they have two little play stations for kids - one for drawing and building and another with a video screen. Unfortunately, they did not plan ahead and their waiter's kiosk (the one where they place the orders) is right next tot he play area... Which is very inviting for curious kids.

Down Side: It did take us forever to get food. Nearly 40 minutes from when we were seated. That's not uncommon here, but I would have preferred to at least get the kid's food served earlier.

Our bill for a family of six was bout 130 zloty. Not dirt cheap, but reasonable for a dinner out.

But again -the upside here is they are trying to cater to families with kids - and that's a huge bonus around here.

Sklepy Piccola Italia & Mediterraneo

2011-04-04T08:00:00.000+02:00

From a fellow Expat: Sklepy Piccola Italia & Mediterraneo

Great Italian store with a wide range of fresh food items imported from Italy (as well as Spain and France per their brochure). Very reasonable prices and overall very good Italian products, to include pasta, cheese, ham, olive oil & balsamic vinegar, chocolates, breads, canned and jarred items, etc.

There are three stores in Warsaw. The one closest to Wilanow is located on a side street (ul. Egejska 17) which parallels Sobiekiego and is visible from the main road. Open Mon – Sat until 9:00

(3 locations in Warsaw)

1. u. Egejska 17, 02-764 Warszawa (at ul. Sobieskiego, 200 meter from ul. Bonifacego, towards Wilanow)

2. ul. Emilii Plater 47, 00-118 Warszawa (at Zloty Terracy)

3. Centrum Handlowe METRO BIS Ursynow, Al. KEN 85, 02-777 Warszawa (ul. Herbst, at metro station Stoklosy).

Cellular Telephone Service Wrap-Up

2011-04-02T08:00:00.002+02:00

To review the week: If you look for a new iPhone 4 at one of the three largest Cell Phone Providers in Warsaw, you’re looking at the following total package prices (assuming you don’t exceed the allotted number of minutes):
Play: 1,800 PLN for the iPhone 4 and 1,799 PLN for 24 months of service
Orange: 2,376 PLN for the iPhone 4 and 1,699 PLN for 24 months of service
Era: 1,199 PLN for the iPhone 4 and 3,576 PLN for 24 months of service (keep in mind this is twice as much data as the other competitors offer)

So assuming that you want a phone and service for a minimum price, Play looks awfully good right?

It depends.

The hidden fee in all of these plans is the early cancellation fee. It could be a monster. You’re looking at a 1,500 - 3,500 PLN fee if you have to leave Poland before your contract is up (A concern for many Expats). One alternative is to just pay out the rest of the bills until your contract expires, but unless you're close to the end, this seems wasteful to me.

Compare that with just buying an unlocked iPhone from any iSpot in town for 3,299 PLN (3,899 for the larger 32gb model). Yes – You read that right – The cost of an unlocked iPhone, while expensive, is less than twice the price of buying one with a contract, and will be significantly cheaper if you have to cancel your contract with the carrier for any reason.
So if you’re going to be buying a new phone, and you’re not absolutely positive that you’ll be here for 2 years for the life of the contract, please do yourself a favor and buy an unlocked phone and pick up a pre-paid data plan from Orange or Play. And just for grins – I did the math. These are the costs for each of the three major carriers if you have a phone for 12 months and then pay the approximate cancellation fee:

Play: 6,199 PLN
Orange: 4,887 PLN
Era: 6,487 PLN

The price of buying the same iPhone and paying for a premium pay-as-you go package from Play that actually offers more bandwidth for one year: 3,899 PLN.

Even if you pay the full price for the unlocked iPhone 4 and don’t end up spending a lot of time making voice calls, it’s still very competitive compared to signing up for a contract.
So if you’re looking for a new phone – do a lot of digging, but know that depending on your telephone habits, getting a contact here in Poland might not be the best way to go.

Pre-Paid Cell Phone/Data Services

2011-04-01T08:00:00.009+02:00

All the providers in Warsaw have a pay-as-you-go (pre-paid) services that includes both data and outgoing call minutes.

If you have a cell phone already that you don't want to move away from, or if you just don't want the hassle of a contract, then pay-as-you-go might be the best way to go for you.

We did this for two years using two Play pre-paid cards when we first arrived. Monthly bills were minimal, but that was well before all the data needs that we have nowadays.

Years ago we also used Era's TakTak plan and that was pretty cheap as well.

But I find that now Orange has positive points as far as price goes. I had a great conversation with a nice lady in the Orange at Galareia Mokotow and she explained that for 20 zloty I can buy a new SIM card and for 20 zloty a month I can get 1GB of data service. And of course if I use more, I just buy more time. Orange will also give you a discount the more time/data you buy...

Unlike Era who charges a ridiculous amount for pay-as-you go data plans. If you're going to get pay-as-you go - avoid Era if you plan to do any internet surfing or other data usage.

Play seems very reasonable and they provided me with the great chart shown below, but I'm not convinced yet that they are the best way to go. Mostly because the Play woman couldn't answer many of my questions. But if you did only data, they clearly look like the best way to go... Except that Orange gives discounts the more you buy, and I don't think Play does...

I have decided that in April I'm going to figure out who the best provider is in terms of network speed for mobile devices. I plan to unlock my iPhone 3G and buy a pay as you go card for Play, Orange and Era and test out each one for network speed and availability. Of course I'll throw in some phone calls just to test the voice quality too.

Play Cellular Telephone Service

2011-03-31T15:15:00.004+02:00

The first two years we were here we used Play's pre-paid service. That was back before smartphones and before we hardly used data. Play was attractive then because they were the cheapest per minute for calling. Their voice service was pretty good, but it was yet another carrier that couldn't get coverage in my kid's school.

Play has 5 plans for data and phone minutes. They get pretty cheap per month (lowest being 45 zl a month) and the cheapest plan even has 1gb of internet a month.

For comparison below, I went with the middle-of-the-line monthly plan because it was clear the price for the total package gives you the best bang for your buck. You can check out theirs charts for service relatively easy on their website.

Cheapest Most Optimum plan (w/min 1GB data): 75 PLN per month.

Actual amount of data plan: 1 GB per month

Included calling minutes with the plan: 350 (but calling to other Play phones is free)

Cost of iPhone 4 using the above plan: 1,799 PLN

Total cost of buying a phone and 24 months of service: 3,599 PLN

Cost of cancelling the plan before the 24 month contract expires: Unknown. The call center is almost useless when you don't speak Polish, and they refused to tell me how much the cancellation fee is - either in-person or over the phone. I will assume the same as Era - 3,500 PLN.

Cost to unlock the iPhone 4: Free - All iPhones bought form Play are supposedly unlocked.

Orange Cellular Telephone Service

2011-03-30T08:37:00.003+02:00

Orange's coverage is okay, but it isn't great. I can't get Orange coverage deep inside my kid's school. I also had trouble getting full bars in the upstairs bedroom of my house. In town they were mostly pretty good though, and they have hot spots in most malls.

Orange has 4 basic plans for data and phone minutes. 3 of those have data limits of 1gb per month of data and the last one was cheap (59 PLN per month) but only .2gb of data transfer).

Cheapest plan (w/min 1GB data): 99 PLN per month.

Actual amount of data plan: 1 GB per month

Included calling minutes with the plan: 300

Cost of iPhone 4 using the above plan: 1699 PLN

Total cost of buying a phone and 24 months of service: 4,075 PLN

Cost of cancelling the plan before the 24 month contract expires: approx 1,500 PLN (May vary by plan).

Cost to unlock the iPhone: 77 PLN. They're the only company tested that has their phones locked, so they're the only ones that charge to unlock it. Even if you pay your bill faithfully for 2 years.

Era Cellular Telephone Service

2011-03-29T08:00:00.003+02:00

My personal experience tells me that Era has about the best coverage in Warsaw. We live a little outside the city and we get full bars on the Era phone where competitors just didn’t get the signal. For some reason my kid's school is like a black hole of cell service.

Era's price for their iPhone 4 varies based on what cell phone plan you want. They have a great chart on their website that shows you how much an iPhone would cost using any of their plans.

Cheapest plan (w/min 1GB data): 149 PLN per month.

Actual amount of data plan: 2 GB per month

Included calling minutes with the plan: 440

Cost of iPhone 4 using the above plan: 1199 PLN

Total cost of buying a phone and 24 months of service: 4,775 PLN

Cost of cancelling the plan before the 24 month contract expires: 3,500 PLN

Cost to unlock the iPhone 4: Zero. They don't charge for unlocking the iPhone.

Cell Phone Company Comparisons / The Search For The iPhone 4

2011-03-28T08:00:00.009+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I went out looking for an iPhone 4 for my wife’s birthday gift. Two years ago I bought her iPhone 3G with Orange and then a couple of months later ended up going with Era for my daughter’s iPhone 3GS.

I wrote last week that I dumped Orange as a cell phone provider and switched over to Era. Now our whole family is on Era because that’s what I use at work. But that doesn’t mean Orange doesn’t still have their perks. In fact, I think I’ll keep them for a different use, but I’ll get into that later in the week.

For the next three days I’m going to cover each of the three main cell phone service providers in Warsaw: Era, Orange and Play. I’ve used all three providers over the last 4 years, and they all have plus and minuses and different costs. Friday I’ll cover pay-as you go phones, and Saturday I’ll offer a wrap-up with an alternative solution for anyone who might not be able to sign a 2-year contract. I did a lot of math for that post…

So that we have an equal comparison this week, I’ve gone with most optimum (usually the cheapest) monthly plan per provider with at least 1GB per month included in the data plan.*

I'll be using price comparisons for the iPhone 4 16GB as of 26 March, but you can use the pricing of all plans compared for any smartphone. All comparisons with contract rates are for a 24 month contract because, let's face it, two years from now any smart phone that we use that’s sold today is going to be hopelessly behind in functionality two years from now. I wouldn’t sign a 3-year contract here if I were you.

I did not concentrate on monthly minutes for this comparison because I was more concerned about data. Calling times vary and if you like to call a lot of people (cough, cough, Mrs. Thrifty) then you might want to look a little further than I did. I hope if you’re ever planning to get a phone or replace a phone in Warsaw, this week’s comparisons help out a little bit.

Best,

Thrifty

*I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person, but I have no idea how much data we actually use - My wife's plan for the last 2 years has been 1GB per month, and she usually doesn’t exceed that, but there have been months though where she ran out of data a few days before the end of the billing cycle.

The Only Place to Buy Amber in Warsaw

2011-03-25T18:00:00.001+01:00

Of course there are hundreds of places in Warsaw to buy amber jewelry, but there is one that has been around since 1991 that is still heavily favored by the Expat community.

It’s called Monika’s and its one of the best-kept secrets in Warsaw. They have the really fancy jewelry as well as smaller inexpensive pieces for those of looking for a special gift on a budget.

The also have a very fancy website but their show-room is in a little hidden spot near Wilanow. She doesn’t post her showroom address on the web site, so I think she encourages you to call or email for the actual location.

As I recall, her hours were flexible and in the past I have sent many a visitor to check out her beautiful jewelry.

UPDATE, 25 March 2011:
Monika’s Amber has changed it’s location. Beginning March 21st 2011, products will be sold only in the workshop/factory in Wolomin. Items will be on sale at factory
prices—cash only. To visit, please contact for an appointment at 602 466 303 or info@monika-amber.com The new address is ul.1- go Maja 10, 05-200 Wołomin Poland

Why Not To Get An iPhone From Orange in Warsaw

2011-03-25T10:29:00.010+01:00

It’s hard to believe that I first went iPhone shopping two years ago. Way back in 2009 I bought an iPhone 3G for my wife through Orange and a few months later an iPhone 3GS for my daughter through Era. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found that I may have made a mistake back then by going with Orange.

Orange just doesn’t have the coverage (at least in Warsaw) that Era does. We recently bought my wife an iPhone 4 through Era and she’s noticed that she gets more bars than she ever did with Orange in a variety of places – to include our kid’s school and our upstairs bedroom. Lots of places struggled with Orange, but have no problems with Era.

Couple more things that I find I don’t like about Orange:

I called Orange two months before the end of the contract to say I would not be renewing. They insisted that I go to an Orange Store to “cancel” my contract so that I would not be charged after my contract expired. I could not tell them over the phone that I would not be renewing my contract. I sat in a crowded Orange store when they first opened up for over an hour and a half before I was finally served, and the actual process took less than 5 minutes with me filling out one piece of paper. Kind of a waste of time.

Then a few weeks before the end of my contract, I call Orange with my IMEI number and ask them to ‘unlock’ my phone remotely since my contract is up (I know they can do this). The woman informed me that they would unlock the phone, but it would cost me 77 zloty, and I had to pay this in person at an Orange Store. That irks me just a little.

Ultimately I think what’s going to happen is I’ll just troll around the internet to find software to unlock the phone on my own. I’ll take a look at other providers and see what they offer, but my plan is to go with some sort of pay-as-you-go 3G SIM card and use this phone for 3G data only, not voice, because I already have a work cell phone for calls.

Since Play and Era both claim to sell you phone plans without locking the phone, I'm a lot more inclined to use one of them next time.

Vapiano Restaurant

2011-03-10T08:00:00.001+01:00

I really didn’t want to turn into a restaurant reviewer –But there is a place that my family has started going to that we really like.

It's called Vapiano. It's off the road that goes west past Galeria Mokotow and before you turn off for the airport.

It serves Italian cuisine, but it's not a formal restaurant. It's more like Italian Fast Food.

The way it works is when you enter the restaurant, every adult is issued a card (Don't lose it - you have to pay a few hundred zloty if you lose it) and you take that card from station to station- basically using it as a temporary charge card. When you leave, you bring the cards to the front and pay as you're walking out.

They've got a dessert bar, a salad bar, a pasta bar, a pizza bar and of course - a real bar that serves alcohol, juice and sodas. The pizza bar is very kid friendly and has three special kid's pizzas that are created in three different animal shapes.

You have get your own silverware, order and pick up your own food. The people there are all pretty nice and it's pretty easy to navigate, even if you don't speak a word of Polish.

The restaurant is really kid friendly. People bring their little kids and let them run around. There's a small indoors play area and many of the table are elevated, so it's like eating on bar stools.

On Sunday afternoons it tends to get crowded, so for large parties I'd suggest calling and making reservations.

And the price? That’s probably the most attractive part. I lug the family of six there and even with sodas, beer and wine, I haven’t yet paid more than 140 Zloty to feed us all. Not bad for a nice Sunday Supper.

Domino’s Pizza Has Arrived

2011-03-09T09:18:00.001+01:00

I just found out that Domino’s Pizza is open in Poland. They have one location so far.

I’m not sure of their delivery area, but this can’t be a bad thing.

Does anyone have any experience with the new store? If so, please drop a line!

English Language Kid's Movie in Warsaw

2011-02-13T16:48:00.000+01:00

Original version in English!

One time only!

“Tangled”

The story of Rapunzel

Sunday 6th March 2011

film starts directly at 15.30 (no adverts)

Multikino, Ursynow

Price: 20 PLN per ticket

How to get tickets:

· From the PTA office of the American School

· From the secretariat of the British School

· Alternatively, please collect your tickets directly from Céline Duckworth

Mob: 608 378 126 Address: Królikarnia (South Mokotów/Stegny)

Please note that we are no longer able to take payment at the door therefore

pre-bookings are no longer possible.

Hiatus

2010-12-02T12:36:00.001+01:00

If you’re a loyal reader, I’d just like to put out there that I’m on a break for a while. Holidays, travel, work, SNOW and family are all competing for my time lately, so there probably won’t be frequent posts for a while - but I'll still put up good deals during the holidays if I find any.

If you’re an Expat, feel free to drop me a line if you find anything you want to share.

If you’re new to the site – look around – There are about 280 ideas here on how to save a little cash in Warsaw.

Thanks
Thrifty.

Formal? Where?

2010-11-11T08:00:00.004+01:00

I've got a formal event coming up soon in Warsaw and I needed a few hard-to-find pieces of formal wear. Since Warsaw is kind of a cosmopolitan city, I thought this would be easier.

Specifically I was looking for these pieces:

-White, formal dress shirt with long sleeves, a stiff bosom, French cuffs, and a wing collar.

-Self-tie (not pre-tied) white bow tie, plain white silk or satin, without stripes or figures, not more than 2 1⁄2 inches wide.

-Plain white studs or cuff links (such as white mother-of-pearl), with or without rims of platinum or white gold.

-White formal vest, cotton twill, or polyester and wool-blended fabrics in twill weave, single-breasted, cut low with a rolling collar and pointed bottom, and fastened with three detachable, small white buttons.

I ended up going completely though two malls (Złote Tarasy and Galeria Mokotów). Neither one had exactly what I was looking for. I did find several tuxedo shirts, but they were all the latest fashion and I was searching for a more traditional look. I found pre-tied bow ties, but zero where you had to tie the bow yourself. I found nothing for vests that I was looking for but there were lots of elaborate vests to be found. And lastly - I could not find matching white cuff links and studs anywhere, in any store, in either mall.

So I got a recomendation. A friend at work told me about a place called Dyplomata on Koszykowa street "across the library", by the arch way to Plac Konstytucji.

The place was so small, I almost walked right by it. This is the entrance to the shop:

In Short: They had everything I was looking for. Exactly. This would have saved me hours of walking around the malls. It's not cheap, but it's exactly what I wanted and the staff is very friendly and they know what they are doing. I ended up with exactly the cuff links, bow tie, shirt and vest that I wanted.

I ended up renting the vest instead of buying one. The cost to buy one was just a little too much. But the rental for the vest was 50zloty. Not a ridiculous price for a 4-day rental.

In addition to selling parts and pieces for formal wear, they also rent tuxedos for any occasion. Their website is pretty impressive for such a small store, and when you go to the store, you might just be amazed at their selection.

I walked out the door with exactly what I needed. Not sure if you need a rental how fast they can turn it around for you - but it's worth checking out if you're in a bind.

Internet for the iPad

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

I'm waiting for the new iPads to come out.

Once they make a version that has a front-facing camera that I can use for Skype, I think I'll take the plunge. I find it very futuristic to imagine driving on the highway or riding on a train and video conferencing on a tablet computer with my parents on a different continent.

But that said - If you have the 3G version of the iPad now (or are thinking about getting one here or bringing from somewhere else) you can get the special SIM chips here (it's Apple, of course it's a special SIM chip). Those weren't available the first several months after the iPad's release here in Poland.

So this is what my buddy did: Went to Play. He has a pay-as-you-go plan and he's more than happy with it. Again - there is a special SIM chip, so it if were me - I'd probably bring the iPad there if I had the chance.

I went to the ERA dealer to see if they had the new SIM chips for iPad. He looked at me like I was nuts. He directed me to Plus, but by that time I was tired and hungry and not feeling like SIM chip shopping anymore.

Bottom line - It's possible, if not a bit challenging.

If we do end up buying one this holiday season, I have no doubt it will be used primarily as a tablet computer for the kitchen, and the second purpose will be the Skype feature.

I'm not convinced that it's worth the extra cost to have the 3G for any other reason than the cool-factor. Can you imagine sitting next to the guy on the train talking to his nieces on the other side of the world?

Kulig

2010-11-09T08:00:00.000+01:00

A Kulig is basically a sleigh ride and is an old Polish winter tradition dating back to the days of the szlachta (nobility).

Last winter I went on one south of Warsaw and despite being about as cold as I've ever been in my entire life, it was a lot of fun. It was a nice sleigh ride for the kids and after a while we had a nice bonfire with sausages and bread.

I'll be honest, it's easier going when someone else organizes it, but if you're looking to put together a really fun winter trip for a group of people, take a look at the below notes I've got from last year's Kulig:

-The POC is a Mr. Wit Laskus (his mobile phone no0510 077 424 and his fixed line phone no 022 795 35 80; he lives in Dabrowka, Karczewska street no 12) in the Celestenian forest (Celestynow and forest are located south of Warsaw

-We had a team of 5 persons (3 Polish and 2 Expats) who put this Kulig together.

- We started booking the sleighs back in Dec, before Christmas.

- We called up the gentleman in charge of the sleighs and informed him that we wanted a sleigh ride with a bonfire in the forest. He charged us 30 PLN per person (including children and they are not half price). This 30 PLN included the sleigh ride, a bonfire, the sticks to roast the kielbasa and lanterns to take us back in the darkness. The extra 10 PLN was for the bread and kielbasa, that we ordered through the gentleman too, all we had to tell him was how much kielbasa (about 20kg/100 pers) and bread (10 loaves for 100 pers but I think it was too much) we needed. We had to go and purchase the wine (25L for 100 pers and I think that wasn't enough), cups, forks and knives from Makro and dropped them off at his place in Dabrowka. He then warmed up the wine for us and dropped it off in the forest before we arrived. The extra 10 PLN included the accordion player which was about another 200 PLN. All this was well worth 40 PLN/person! If you are planning on bussing some persons we got a deal at 856 PLN for a bus and that was 60 PLN/person including transportation (based on 50 pers).

- His coordinates are 510 077 424 Wit Laskus, Dabrowka k/Celestynowa, ul. Karczewska 12. It was a blast and it was held in a log cabin on the way back from the Sleigh Ride. It included a Buffet Dinner, DJ, non-alcoholic drinks (but there was a cash bar for wine and beer) and the same bus driver took us back at 23:30.

Active Duty Military + American Express = Happy Camper

2010-11-07T08:00:00.002+01:00

Though Military people are only a small demographic of this blog's readership, I'd like to give a shout-out to all the Military folks who might come across this page.

If you are Active Duty (or called to Active Duty) Military and have an American Express Card - I strongly recommend that you call the number on the back of your credit card and identify the fact that you are Military and ask for any discounted rates that might apply to you.

Since this isn't the target audience, I won't go into the details - but I can promise that it's definitely worth calling Amex and identifying yourself, if you are Active Duty U.S. Military and have an American Express Card.

For that matter - It couldn't hurt to call all of your credit card vendors to let them know you're on Active Duty and see if they'll make any considerations. Calling Capital One can also have a lot of benefits, assuming you're completely satisfied with your credit limit...

Free Miracle-Water

2010-11-05T08:00:00.005+01:00

Okay - I don't know for sure it's miracle-water, but there's this water fountain at Powsin Park that dispenses what I assume is water from an underground spring.

It's open all year round, and the only thing that the website says is that it's a fountain of "deep water".

I've seen people coming, literally, with wheelbarrows of empty water bottles to fill up at the park. At fist I thought this must be some sort of fountain of youth or something, because why else would you drive to the park, find a parking place, and then haul so much up and down the hills for free water.

So I tried it.

It's not bad. It seems to be very pure and it does taste very good. I'm just not sure I'm dragging my 5 gallon water jug down there once a day to fill up.

I doubt that it's much competition for Eden or the other water delivery places, but it's a nice change of pace, and make me fell a little bit green for going to the well. Despite how much in gas we have to spend to drive over there.

Good Family Fun

2010-11-04T08:00:00.001+01:00

This last holiday weekend my wife was imploring the rest of the family to get out of the house - so we loaded up and headed to Powsin Park out near Konstacin.

This is a nice little place if you haven't been there.

It's a Polish park, so their biggest draw is the nature trails, which are very extensive from what I can tell.

But they also advertise so much more like: outdoor tennis courts, gym, bowling, billiards, sauna, solarium and a dining room, bar and 'summer terrace'. Get out of the pavilion, and approaching the central part Park on the left side you'll find beach volleyball, volleyball, mini golf pitches, then the Garden Playground, Bar, "Under the Swallow".

I'll be honest, I've lived here years and I have not used most of these amenities.

The Ropes Course, with zip lines

But this last weekend we were draw in by their very nice ropes course with zip-lines. My little guys were begging me to go up on it. Their system is very safe and my kids had a blast. At first we had just the 5-year-old up there, and even though those carabiners were large, his little hands got the hang of it pretty quickly.

My 4-year-old saw the 5-year-old up on the line and would not settle for a view from the ground, so I ended up buying another two tickets and took him up and around the course. He loved every step.

I've got some great pics of the 4-year-old going down a pretty long zip line all by himself, holding on and having the time of his life.

It cost 25 zloty for the kiddie course, and there are other more extensive ones for the older kids (and adults), but I think they cost more. I want to say it took us at least 30 minutes to make the round on the kiddie course. The ropes really aren't that high off the ground, so parents who are a little scared of heights should be okay too. If properly supervised, it's completely safe and like I said - the kids had an awesome time.

Happy Lights

2010-11-03T08:00:00.002+01:00

I meant to get this up earlier, but I really can't wait any more:

If you've been in Warsaw since Monday, you've noticed that it get's dark early here. Right now sunset is about 4:00 p.m thanks to the end of daylight savings time, but it gets worse. By the 9th of December, sunset will come as early as 3:23 p.m leaving us with under 7 hours and 45 minutes of daylight per day during the middle of December.

This actually affects people more than they realize it will their first year here. Why? Here's some medical science behind it courtesy of an Amazon Description:

"Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the "Winter Blues", or seasonal depression, are medical conditions caused by the seasonal change in the amount of available sunlight. People who suffer from these mood disorders experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the darker winter months. Loss of natural light can be the result of long winters, rainy weather, night shift work, airplane travel and subsequent jet lag, or just a lifestyle that dictates too much time indoors. Symptoms of Winter Blues, or winter depression, are sluggishness, sleep problems, memory loss, the inability to concentrate and loss of mental acuity, depression, confusion and sexual dysfunction. Symptoms of the "Winter Blues" (a milder form of SAD) includes a lack of energy, depression, listlessness and cravings for sweets and carbohydrates."

So since we can't bring the sun to us - People turn to technology. They're also known as "Happy lights" but medically they're also known as a SAD light, Sunshine Simulator and

On Amazon.com there is a big selection, but when I turn to Amazon.co.uk, I only found two offerings. This one and this one.

What do they do? I'm not sure (something about artificial UV light).

Do they really offset the effects of Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?? I have no clue.

Do I own one? I've lived in Poland for 5 years now... Heck yes I do.

I have not been out shopping lately, but I'm pretty darn sure I remember seeing them in the stores here and the next time I'm out I'll see if I can take a picture to show what they look like.

In the meantime, if the long days are getting you down - it might not hurt popping into a local store to check one out. I do recall they are a lot cheaper locally than thorough Amazon.

Hard Rock Blues

2010-11-02T08:00:00.001+01:00

Just a couple of notes - My family loves the Hard Rock Cafe, and we can be spotted there just about any given Sunday, but there are a few caveats that you might want to watch out for that I thought I'd pass along if this place is on your list of places to try in Warsaw:

-Hope you don't get a particular blonde Waitress. We've gotten her the last three times my family went, and although most of the staff is as friendly as you can ask for, there's this one girl who's just miserable.

-Check your receipt. More than half the time they add the tip/gratuity to our bill. Because of this (and the fact the put it in the middle of the bill and not at the end) I've ended up tipping well over 30% before.

- If you're kid is a health-nut (like apparently mine is) you ave to ask for cold milk - Or else you'll get lukewarm milk that most American kids I know don't particurally like.

- Might want to check up on your appetizers. Once they served me soggy nachos (the appetizers) 15 minutes into the meal, and I didn't send them back. I swore that wouldn't happen again.

Despite my frustrations lately - They're still great, and you're still likely to see my family of six there any given Sunday.

Better Late Than Never

2010-11-02T00:23:00.003+01:00

Howdy Everyone -

Sorry about the absence and not putting up an out-of-office notice for the last month.

I was traveling in the U.S. and not saving very much money at all.

Now that I'm back, and pretty much broke, I'll be looking to stretch a buck even further so check back often between now and Christmas for penny-pinching ideas.

As always - if you're an Expat living here in Poland - feel free to drop me a line if you've you've found any interesting places or thrifty ways of saving money here.

All the best!

Thrifty

iTunes Works Here

2010-10-01T22:17:00.001+02:00

I was talking to someone over last weekended who mentioned he was surprised to find that he could use iTunes here with his U.S.-based credit card.

The reason (or at least the best reason that I can figure out) is that if your credit card billing address is a U.S.-based zip code, then you can still use your iTunes account to download movies, music, TV shows and rent movies and TV Shows - just like you were in the U.S.

If you're using a Polish-based account, I understand there's a significnatly limited selection option for you.

iTunes appears to base your home country off of where your credit card is based - i.e. If you have a U.S. based credit card, then you must be authorized to use their service.

Netflix could learn a thing or two from Apple.

Get Your Toddler's Hair Cut

2010-09-29T08:00:00.000+02:00

After a fellow Expat asked around to find a place to get a toddler's hair cut, someone responded with the name of a place called Fryzjerkowo

So I sent an email and the response I got was this:

"hi,
yes we do have english speaking staff,a girl called aga and me the owner.
its best for you to call and ask for the right person :)
hope to see you soon"

I immediately wrote back and asked for an appointment the next day. That was last Wednesday, I still haven't gotten a return email.

So give it a shot - but I think I'm going to stick with my usual guy.

Is It Wrong to Wash Your car?

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000+02:00

Maybe someone else can clarify this to me -

Is it against the rules here in Warsaw to wash your car in your driveway?

I try to do it every weekend. Not only the van but also the motorcycle.

My wife has recently pointed out that I'm just about the only person in the neighborhood that washes my vehicles in the yard.

So even on bright, sunny, warm Saturdays, there's nobody else out washing their cars but there are lines around the block at the car washes around town.

Just curious.

Save Money on Groceries

2010-09-26T08:00:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I got a coupon for 30 Zloty off an order of groceries from a place called Fresh24.

The nice girl promoting it didn't seem impressed when I compared it to Frisco, but she shrugged off my baffonish comments and insisted that they were fresher.

The code is G6-3BD-3HD and they passed out what looked like hundreds of little flyers like the above - But the 30 zloty off code is only good until 11 October.

We've used Frisco several times, and Frisco is okay... Fresh24 says they're fresher... So that would be a big plus. We haven't used these guys, but they do have an English link on the front page.

Their English Site looks like it needs a little work. There are titles in English, but the descriptions seem to still be in Polish. Also - It translated Żywiec to Light Beer in a bottle. I don't think we would call it light beer... But still, 30 Zloty off is 30 Zloty.

Windshield Wipers Not Like You Left Them?

2010-09-25T11:10:00.004+02:00

Have you ever returned to your parked car to find your windshield wipers straight up in the air? And you didn't leave them like that?

If this happens to you there's an easy explanation: You did something wrong.

Most likely you parked on the sidewalk, or blocking the sidewalk, or you parked over the line, or you parked in the space that some other guy usually parks in.

Regardless, that's what that means - You did something wrong. It was probably done by a random passerby and not the cops or local authority.

Hey - at least people don't scratch nasty words in your car with their keys right?

This Is How You Watch U.S. Websites like NBC From Abroad

2010-09-20T08:00:00.001+02:00

This post is geared to people who want to watch U.S. television via the internet, watch NetFlix movies online or even just be able to use all of the neat online features of a U.S. copy of Windows Media Center while sitting in Poland.

I used to have a system that I used for years, and then after a few technical glitches, I lost my free set-up to be able to make my computer appear to other computers that I’m in the U.S.

The reason you might want to make other computers think you’re in the U.S. is so that you can see all the latest U.S. TV Shows for free (usually) the next day after they air in The States. NBC, CBS, even HULU and most other U.S. networks won’t play video when they see you have an overseas IP address. Also, some people like to stream NetFlix videos if they have a NetFlix account. Lately I’ve been playing with the Window’s Media Center function on Windows and I’m really impressed at how many shows and movies are at your fingertips (if you’re in the U.S. of course).

So after telling a newly-arrived Expat that I was still looking for a way to mask my IP address he told me about a site I’d never heard of called StrongVPN.com

They don’t have a trial, but they did come with a strong recommendation. They have a complete money-back guarantee if not satisfied, their rates are as low as $7 a month (3 month minimum) and possibly the most important – There is no proxy server to go through, and there is no additional software. Once you sign up they give you a very detailed set of instructions for setting this thing up and it’s very easy to turn on and off with a single click after you do get it set up.

So if it all sounds complicated, don’t worry. Once you turn on the connection, you don’t have to do anything else. You surf exactly like you normally do. I have my computer plugged into my TV, so we just move the picture over to the big TV. It’s not exactly high definition signal, but I’ve watched several TV shows like Survivor and some new drama on NBC about a Supreme Court Justice who quit. No problems – It’s works perfectly.

If you are looking to watch your American TV shows while you’re in Poland, this is the only public option that I’ve used that I can recommend. It’s not dirt cheap, but it’s cheaper than anything else I’ve seen and it just works. Very simple.

Other good stuff – I don’t see a problem with running it on two computers at once. I’m not positive about that, but I was watching Survivor on one Computer when the wife was watching something else downstairs. I haven’t found a website that blocked me – and none of the ones that I visit were altered (at least not that I can tell). They’re customer service is good. I tried calling the Customer Service phone numbers and never got an answer. I tried chatting and it kind of worked. But even though it took them a day to get back to me – they were able to resolve one of two problems with a very simple email.

Now the Bad News - It’s not perfect. It says on the website “generally you won't notice any slowness”. In my experience, that’s a load of crap. Below is my before and after shot of my internet speed when I hooked this thing up. That after speed is about the highest I’ve gotten yet.

The left is before I used the VPN and the right is after I have it set up.

Luckily as far as Poland goes, I have a really nice connection speed, so I can afford the significant downgrade in speed. Does it affect me? From time to time streaming video (doesn’t matter from which website) slows and freezes and/or pixelates.

But again – it’s the best I’ve found otherwise because it’s cheap, it doesn’t require a software download and it works. So give it a shot and if you have problems – just cancel in the first week and get your money back.

There are other options of course. I saw a cute named site called HMA (you have to click to see the name). A loyal reader recommends software called Anonymizer but I don't like downloading software when it comes to stuff like this.

And an after-thought: There is one website that I’ve never been able to see overseas. No matter the software, I’ve just never been able to access the USA Network. Last week I found out why – In addition to detecting your IP address, they also look at your system’s time zone setting… Finally I changed this setting on the computer and could watch videos… Sneaky, but surprisingly effective~

Instant Internet - Yes, in Warsaw!

2010-09-17T08:00:00.004+02:00

This week we had a new family come to our office who moved into a newly-leased house that did not have internet up and running. Anyone with experience using TPSA knows that getting wired internet could take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks – If you’re lucky. Nowadays just about everyone wants to check in with friends and family via email, Facebook, etc… as soon as they arrive.

So based on advice from a fellow Expat – I ran down to the closest Play store to see what they could do for wireless internet. I went with Play because I know they have a pay-as-you go setup, and although I know for a fact that ERA has wireless internet (Orange too I’m pretty sure) I didn’t have a recommendation or someone else’s experience to rely on. So I went with Play.

In a nutshell – for 219 Zloty I got a modem (pictured above) and a SIM card with a 14-day or 1gb limit on data transfer. You take the SIM card, put it in the modem, just like a cell phone, and then plug the modem in the computer.

I tried this on a Windows XP computer and it installed automatically and connected with the touch of a button. The speed was a solid 1mbs download (as advertised) and the pages were snappy to load. I tried this at both my office here in the Centrum and their new house in the Wilanow area – but since it’s a cell phone based concept, I imagine anywhere there’s reliable cell phone coverage, there should be a signal.

-- I did get some feedback that during peak hours in Wilanow the signal tends to drop. Again, not sure if that's distance from the city center, or it's just a load issue when everyone else is using it. --

It’s not a perfect solution though – The new arrival’s first question was “Will it work with my Vonage?” which of course the answer is no. The box says that it WILL work with a Mac running OS 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 in addition to Windows computers.

Refilling the pay-as-you go time is just like refilling a cell phone. You buy time in 2gb (30 zloty) or 4gb (50 zloty) increments. You can do it online (when still having time remaining) or you can take the SIM chip out – pop it in a phone and refill it like a pay-as-you go cell phone. You have to get the refill that specifies “PLAY ONLINE” but they tell me you can get them anywhere else you buy minutes… Kiosks, grocery stores, gas stations, etc…

It’s not a great long term solution (or wouldn’t be for me) because there’s limited download ability, and my family downloads a lot of stuff and we use a lot of bandwidth with cameras, DVD players, etc… But there is a market. I essentially paid 200 zloty for a modem that you can get for free from Play if you sign up with a contract. Their contract plans go up to 10gb of transfer a month for 80 zloty a month. For me that’s the worst-case scenario if I just can’t get any hard-wired internet at the house.

Another bonus I see is this – If I’m on a trip on the train, there should be no problem using the laptop and staying connected while riding around the country. Not sure what I’d need to do on the laptop that I can’t do on my BlackBerry or my wife or daughter’s iPhones, but again – it’s an option. And in this day and age – being unplugged from the internet is almost like being unplugged from life support.

Now ATM Machines Are Getting In On The Exchange Rate Scam

2010-09-15T21:45:00.011+02:00

If you've read this blog for more than five minutes you probably know that I'm a huge opponent of paying for anything in your home-country's currency when using credit cards. It's a scam that the local credit card companies run to get your money.

Now ATM Cards are doing it too.

I was in Makro this week and saw the perfectly innocent-looking ATM machine that I always go to when I'm in Makro. It looks like this:

So I go up to this machine I've used in the past, and when withdrawing money, I'm first asked for my PIN, then if I want cash, then how much, and then for the first time - I get a brand new screen:

That blue screen pops up so fast it's easy to get confused. Basically it's asking if you want your bank to convert your money when you withdraw, or if you want the ATM operators to convert your currency for you (instead of your bank).

This is a bad, bad idea.

It's bad when the credit card companies offer you the option to convert your currency instead of your bank, it's bad when the ATM offers you the option to convert your currency instead of your bank.

How Bad?

You can see that their offer for conversion was to withdraw money at 2.82 PLN : 1 USD. The actual amount that I withdrew the money at was 3.01 PLN:1 USD (Official rate at the time of the withdraw according to xe.com was about 3.03 PLN:1 USD) . So even if you add the 1% fee that my bank charges for foreign currency withdrawals, that's still nearly 7% higher exchange rate than my U.S.-based bank charged me.

Think about that. the ATM card processing company gets 7% because you pressed the button that says you'll give them 7% more for doing virtually nothing. that's a pretty darn good deal if you're the bank.

Just Say No To Credit Card/Debit Card Conversion Fees!!!

A Note For New Arrivals

2010-09-13T08:00:00.002+02:00

One thing that newcomers, especially North Americans with small children, need to know: For the most part Poles will not hesitate to tell you what you're doing wrong.

I don't believe it's mean-spirited and this is obviously steeped in tradition because it’s so wide-spread, but Poles, particularly older Poles, will not hesitate to point out when you’re doing something you should not be doing.

This has happened to us more than we can count and we constantly hear stories about it happening to others.

If you’re the parent of a small child (we've had four small children here) and you forget to put a hat, gloves, booties, or just about any other article of clothing on Junior, a Polish Grandmother will materialize out of nowhere to give you a scolding. Many times they are nice, sometimes they are not.

While this is mostly confined to people with kids, I've seen it done in a lot of traffic situations and of course, standing in line.

The first time it happens to you can really catch you off guard. If you don't speak Polish it's probably easier because you can just smile, nod and walk away.

I've had friends in the past that have argued with old ladies that their kids are fine and actually won't die just because they're not wearing a hat in 65 degree (f) weather.

I've also had friends who went out of their way to learn phrases like "he is warm, thank you" and "please mind your own business". Obviously the latter being someone who was a little tired of being accused of child abuse.

My wife took the approach if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

So she dresses our little ones like little Polish kids in the winter complete with gloves, hats the whole bit. She even goes so far as putting the little boys in the tights they sell in the stores here. A bit extreme, but not getting yelled at by strangers in the street is actually a big incentive to conform.

She's also been known to carry a hat behind the kids, so that the old Grandmas will see that she was at least trying to get them in a hat. That's worked for her.

Is all that really necessary? It depends. Do you want to fit in or fight the system?

Just something to keep in mind when walking in the fall/winter/spring with small kids.

The Harlem Globetrotters

2010-09-10T13:59:00.001+02:00

A fellow expat sent me an email this morning about the Harlem globetrotters coming to Warsaw.

I’ll admit I’m a little excited.

If you’re interested, head to: http://www.eventim.pl/en/tickets/harlem-globetrotters-warszawa-torwar-76245/event.html

Where is the Cheapest Place to Buy Beer?

2010-09-10T08:00:00.000+02:00

So I had this little party at my house several weeks ago, and much to my wife's horror I decided to invite about 400 people.

This was partially a promotion party for me, where according to strict tradition, I had to buy all the beer.

Since we were talking about more than a six-pack of beer I looked around pretty hard for the best cheapest solution.

First I looked into kegs. I know a little community association who buys beer regularly from a Żywiec dealer and so I went to them first. One keg of beer would cost me 125 zlotys, and would give out 20 liters of beer. That came to 3.12 zloty per half-liter of beer.

Now in the States, normally the cheapest way to go is getting kegs. But despite the challenges of keeping it cold and finding taps, we still are paying way above the average. And the only beer available to me was Żywiec. That same beer distributor would give me a case of beer for 51 zloty each (plus deposits) which would make the cost of beer 2.55 zloty per half liter... Now we're getting closer.

But I took a look in the stores and found that I could generally do better by shopping in Auchan or Real. They charge you for the deposit (for the half liter bottles) and for the crate (assuming you get the crate that holds 20 bottle) but its more or less easy to return them when you're done.
But since I was looking at buying at least 300 beers, I went another direction - I went to Makro - the Sam's Club of Poland.

I bought 14 cases (or 280, 1/2 liter bottles of beer) and they looked like this:

This ended up being more than enough for the 130 or so people who showed up and, well, I'm still drinking the beer.

The cost varied by each case of beer. Some went for 41 zloty and some went up to 53 zloty a case – but the average was a little over 46 zloty a case. A case has 20, ½ liter beers.

Here are some of my lessons learned:

-Makro has the highest cost of deposits (15 zloty for a case and 20 bottles, where most places are a little over 10 zloty for both).

-Makro (and I think everyone else) is pretty picky about the labels on the bottle. If they all wash off, you’re going to have problems getting the deposit back.

-If you buy multiple cases of different types of beer – you should keep them separate when you return them, because Warka won’t take a case with some Żywiec bottles intermixed, and vice versa.

-I have a stack of empty cases in my garage now because I did a poor job of recovering the bottles – people just threw them away and frankly, in the end I really didn’t care anymore.

Bottom line - The cheapest place in town that I could find to buy beer was Makro. Second place goes to the biggest chain stores. If you find somewhere cheaper - please let me know - Any better suggestions get you an automatic invite to next year's party!

A Place For Getting Your Toes Done

2010-09-08T08:00:00.001+02:00

My wife is pretty particular about her toes - at least as far as getting pedicures - So she's always looking for a good place to go that she can trust.

After asking around to quite a few people, there's only one place that she'e heard of that comes with nothing but positive reviews.

The place is called Escape Day Salon & Spa. Funny thing is she tried to go to their website, and we're pretty sure that it gave her the chance to purchase the website... Obviously it's down at the moment.

So here's the contact info:

Adres: 02-943 Warszawa, ul. Limanowskiego 11 S (róg ulicy Powsińskiej)
telefon: (0-22) 642 33 58
Fax: (0-22) 651 74 59
E-mail: info@escapesalon.pl
www: http://www.escapesalon.pl

Sushi Delivered

2010-09-06T08:00:00.002+02:00

I'm sure you can get sushi delivered through Room Service, but if you're within 10 kilometers of the Wilanow Post Office you can get Sushi delivered to your door from my favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Akiyama. Any orders over 80 zloty (easy to do when feeding more than one person) is free delivery.

If you're not looking for delivery and want take-out, you can pick it up for a 5% discount off your order (10% if you pay cash).

I'm no expert on sushi, but this has been our favorite place to eat sushi in Wilanow since we stopped going to Ohh Sushi because their PolCard terminal always charges in USD.

Follow-Up: Shortly after posting this I went in and discovered they have a "new menu". When I noticed that everything was the same - I asked the guy behind the counter what was new about the menu. He sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and said "The prices". Turns out they've raised their prices. So pay in cash and take away! That should get you a ten percent discount.

No Nook For You !

2010-08-06T21:57:00.000+02:00

If you are in the U.S. or Canada and moving to Poland (or anywhere overseas) and you either have a Barnes & Noble eReader (or Nook) or you're thinking about getting one, there's something you should know.

The first time you go to buy a book from overseas you could very well get an email that reads something like this:

"If you received this email regarding your order for a Barnes & Noble eBook, please be advised that these purchases are limited to those customers physically located in the United States and Canada."

The same could be noted about just about any product that requires purchasing and downloading overseas who might not find you fit as a customer anymore once you deaprt the U.S.A. (cough - Netflix - cough).

Another cool blog

2010-08-04T08:00:00.000+02:00

I just recently ran across Spotted by Locals when looking for the new cupcake shop, Goodies (I haven't made it there yet, but expect a review soon - I just have to pick a day when I don't plan on eating anything else!).

I'm enjoying looking through the blog. There were some things on it that I had heard about but never quite knew where they were but they are using a fancy map function, which helps me tremendously.

It's definitely worth a peek. Varsovians definitely know more about their city than we expats, and it's nice to have their view on them (check out the one on the Palace of Culture).

Time for Mums

2010-08-02T02:00:00.000+02:00

My husband will be thrilled that I finally jumped on the bandwagon and am writing a piece rather than just dictating one. So...here I am, Mrs. Thrifty, in my Save Cash in Warsaw debut:

Over the last three days, I've had the opportunity to head out with the little ones to some art workshops. In Saska Kępa (which is a great little area if, like me, you've never actually traveled to *that* side of the river), is a nice little business called Czas Dla Mam.

My kids took a photography class (oh, how they are mommy's little boys!) and a ceramics/general art class and had loads of fun doing it. They did some light painting (see above), traditional painting, and clay sculpting.

This place also does birthday parties, fitness classes for baby and mum and pregnant women, Spanish classes, Polish classes, and baby showers.

So if the kids are bored during the summer/school holidays, it's worth checking out! And mum can take a walk along Francuska street (which is currently under renovation, but is supposed to being made more of a pedestrian avenue - like a Nowy Świat for the other side of the river).

Shrek 4 - In 3D and in English

2010-07-29T15:30:00.000+02:00

UPDATED Info:
The Next Save Cash Movie is Shrek Forever, in 3D and in English, playing at 14:30 (or 2:30 in the afternoon) on Sunday 1 August.

I sent out a mass mailing this morning to everyone who responded, so if you're interested, and you didn't hear back from me - please email me.

We only get the discounted group rate if we know there's going to be a certain number of people, so it's great if you can come, but please do send an email to movies@thriftyexpat.com for details.

It's Like Taking Away A Star

2010-07-29T08:00:00.001+02:00

If you've got a Dodge, Jeep or Chrysler, you may have read one of my rants on V.I.P. Auto. They're in Konstancin and because they're a stone's throw away from my house, I tried to love them. I even wrote nice things about them despite the fact that I couldn't get everything on my car fixed.

But I've been to a new place, and since no one else has ever recommended V.I.P. auto, and because I had a pretty nasty experience, and because what I paid them over 4,000 zloty to fix on my van broke again a week ago - I have to take back my recommendation. I admit it - I'm also still bitter because they charged me hundreds of zloty for an oil change that I never asked for.

This week, on another Expat's recommendation, I visited Ed Mark Auto on the Praga Side of the river, and I've seen the light. They make V.I.P. look pale in comparison (future post to follow with my experience) and so far, knock on wood, their service has proven to be significantly better than V.I.P.'s.

So if you have a Dodge, Chrysler or Jeep (yes, even U.S. Specs) that you need serviced, you might want to consider calling them. They are an impressive outfit.

Rent-A-Bike

2010-07-27T08:00:00.000+02:00

I got a link to Wygodny Rower that appears to fill a perfect need - Renting bikes to tour around Warsaw.

I can't vouch for them personally, but this was passed on as a description:

"As well as selling new bikes, they also sell refurbished second hand bikes and you can rent bikes from them. Great if you have visitors who want to tour the city on a bike."

Free Movies

2010-07-24T08:00:00.000+02:00

This has nothing to do with yesterday's post, but if you like to watch movies - a fellow Expat passed on to me this link:

http://multifest.pl/kalendarz/?id=23311&lang=en

He tells me that it's a link to free movies, every night but Monday, during the summer.

Also at the Polish page, which gives you the list of movies specifically, with the dates and locations: http://www.filmowastolica.pl/filmy.html

Looks like fun - I don't know that I would take all four kids to go see one, but it sounds like a really cheap date night!

The Bar Bus!

2010-07-21T08:00:00.000+02:00

Not really on the topic of saving cash, but certainly on the level of being entertained in Warsaw -

No too long ago my family and I, driving along in our Dodge Grand Caravan, passed a genuine American yellow-school bus that in big letters said "Bar Bus" on the outside.

You should definitely go to the Bar Bus website to see the pictures, but this is a great concept. It's a traveling party! You and a group of your closest drinking buddies get in a bus, pay a fee (calculator is on the website and for an open bar it's not bad) and drive around Warsaw.

Simple.

Obviously I haven't been on it yet, but if you're planning a party send pics -

Better yet, Call me - I'm there.

More Tattoo Places in Warsaw

2010-07-20T08:00:00.000+02:00

Please don't ask me why I'm compiling a list of places to get a tattoo in Warsaw.

But if you happen to have a wife who's also looking frantically for a place to get a henna tattoo, just to try and win honorable mention in an internet scavenger hunt - try any of the below sites here in Warsaw:

Tattoo Ladies
Their art looks really good. It appears that they do Henna as well. They do specifically say that they put ink on men as well.

Szery Tattoo
Another slick looking website. Looks like nice artwork.

BlackStar Tattoo
I've seen this one before and it looks reputable. No personal experience though.

English Movies e-Mail List

2010-07-18T18:19:00.014+02:00

So today about 120 of us got together to watch an English language-version of Toy Story 3 in 3D at the Cinema City in Sadyba Mall.

Special thanks to both Mirek, Cinema City's District Director, and Renata, the Theater Manager for helping us out with a very successful day.

This was a lot of fun. Despite a couple of initial growing pains (to be expected when undertaking something new) I think it went really smooth, and everyone seemed to have a good time. We also got a discount for having more than 80 people.

So that got me to thinking - I'd like try and see more kid's movies in the theater (in English of course). We're well over a month into the summer and this is the first time we've done a screening. Overall it went quite smooth and if I can count on people RSVPing - we can continue to get the discounts.

More details will follow, but we also have the option of buying tickets early - which I really appreciate.

So, If you'd like to be on the mailing list to find out when and where the next kid's movie in English will be shown here in Warsaw, send an email to movies@thriftyexpat.com.

I'll add you to the list - and you'll be the first to know when and where the next English Movie is playing (Don't worry - your email is safe with me - I don't sell email lists. Heck - I can't even sell any ad space here)

All the best!

Thrifty

Macs Are Expensive Here!

2010-07-16T08:00:00.000+02:00

I am not a Mac user. I use mostly Windows-based rigs and I build my own (laptops excluded). I stopped buying ready-made computers after a Dell crashed on me one too many times while living abroad.

Warsaw is a great place for buying (PC) computer parts, and aside from software, I get most of my computer components locally from various sources. It's not as cheap as I could find it in the U.S., but it's great in a pinch.

But I've been looking at Macs lately and have been blown away at how expensive Macs are here compared to how much the same rig would cost in the U.S.

Don't just take my word for it - Listen to these two guys from the Czech Republic:

Why Steve Jobs, Why? - The top video clips of the week are here

But it's not just the computers - it's also in the accessories. The price of accessories in the iSpots (in almost every mall now) are just ridiculous - in many cases three times the prices for just accessories. We're talking 50%+ for the computers themselves compared to the U.S.

So if you're one of those people who only use a Mac be prepared to pay for the privilege here in Warsaw and try to bring whatever you think you're going to need. Picking up a VGA adapter for 159 zloty is one thing - trying to buy a new Macbook is a whole different story on your pocketbook.

TAX Included

2010-07-14T08:00:00.001+02:00

Poland has a Value Added Tax system that adds the tax for goods and services into the price that you pay. In almost all cases the amount is just added in there, but you do run across many places where they say netto (net price) instead of brutto (gross - with taxes).

They don't really have tax exemption here that I've seen. Even the people who are eligible for VAT relief have to go through wickets and roadblocks (and a lot of time) before they can actually get the money back.

This doesn't really help you to save much money since everyone pays the same rate no matter what, but when you look at the prices at Makro (for example) and they have both the netto and brutto prices listed, just assume that you'll be paying the higher amount~

There are some items where there's no tax. If you're curious how the amounts break out - please check the below extracted from World-Wide Tax.com

- In most cases, Value Added Tax is payable at a rate of 22%.
- There are reduced rates of 7% and 3% for certain products and services.

Some products and services are exempt from VAT:

- Health services (Which includes all dental work and orthodontia)
- Milk products.
- Insurance and banking services.
- Mail and stamps.
- Educational, art and science services.
- Provision of services for export.

Also - anything we buy from the American Bookstore shows having zero VAT. Not sure if that's a mistake, or if there really is no VAT on foreign books

I'd never say where of course, but in dealing with small businesses over five years I have found several that when I have asked for a VAT receipt, kind of look sheepishly at me and say something like: "Well, we can give you one, but then you have to pay 22% extra". Obviously I don't think that's totally legal so I don't encourage the practice, but I hear that it's widespread among smaller businesses.

Driving in Poland - Road Signs

2010-07-12T08:00:00.003+02:00

Wikipedia has the most comprehensive set of Polish road signs that I've seen.

So - If you're a driver in Poland you should go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_Poland

Now this isn't every single possible road sign you're ever going to run into (somewhere I've got a great picture to post of a road sign with a car smashing into a pedestrian) but this is the single best listing I've found.

In the spirit of full honesty, I just found out a few weeks ago what in the heck that road sign of the exploding car actually means For the five years I’ve lived here I thought it meant beware of cars that might hit you from behind, or maybe: Caution - Your car is very likely to spontaneously combust at the next intersection.

When The Cow Is Cheaper Than The Milk

2010-07-11T08:00:00.004+02:00

I wrote before about buying a brand new printer because it's cheaper than buying new ink cartridges.

Last week I went out looking for new ink cartridges for my Canon iP1900 that I bought a few months ago.

First I went to Saturn in Blue City last Monday and searched for Canon cartridges 37 and 38. As I recall, the #37 black ink cartridge was priced at 79.90 zloty and the #38 color ink cartridge was priced at 89.90 zloty. So for the two cartridges, it would have cost me 169.80. I would have bought a brand new printer right there, but not a single printer in the store was priced - which was more than a little frustrating.

Friday I went to Saturn in Zloty Terasy looking for some work stuff, and ended up seeing my same printer, the Canon iP1900, priced at 99 Zloty. No brainer - I bought the printer, went home, took out the ink cartridges and put the new in-the-box printer in the garage. I'll either donate it or just give it away to anyone who wants it. The chances of me actually using this printer are slim, but I can so take advantage of the ink cartridges.

But this is where it got interesting. Later that night, my wife and I were hanging around Arkadia Mall and I popped in to the Saturn there to pick up another printer or two because of the price. That Saturn's printer selection was less than impressive and just a little messy. When I did finally find my printer, it was priced at 119 zloty. But I'm also pretty sure that the black ink cartridge was priced at 67.90 instead of 79.90 at the Saturn in Blue City.

Anyway - At the end of the day I had a brand new printer for exactly 10 zloty more than the cost of a single color ink cartridge. I also noticed that there are definitely price discrepancies among major retail outlets here. This can be frustrating as I would have been really tweaked if I had gone to these stores in opposite order and found that the same printer I paid 119 Zloty for in Arkadia's Saturn was priced 20% cheaper at Zloty Terasy's Saturn.

But maybe that's just me.

Another Blogger

2010-07-10T08:00:00.001+02:00

Just found this guy this week:

British in Poland

I kind of like this guy - He thinks like I do, particularly with his continuing quest to watch TV from home (in this case UK) here in Poland.

So stop by his blog if you find the time - I see we cover a lot of the same themes.

Netflix and the Wii

2010-07-09T08:00:00.001+02:00

If you have a Netflix account, they tout a program for Wii owners where Netflix will send you an installation disc (free of charge) and allow you to watch videos from your Netflix account over your internet connection using your Wii.

Sounds great right?

My friends in the U.S. say that this is a great service and everyone should use it.

If you're wondering if it will work here - let me crush you now: It does not.

I've tried at least a dozen different ways, and unless you can mask your router's IP address with that of a State-side IP address (and if you know how to do that please let me know), it's just not going to work.