Moving to Krakow
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1 Oct 2013, 10:25
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Journals
Hi polaks,
U might remember me asking for some advice about Krakow a few weeks ago. After some good thinking I decided to take the job and move to Poland. I'll be there in 2 weeks.
Now I was wondering if there's anyone in Krakow from the crossfire community who wants to go for a drink or 2 in the next few weeks?
U might remember me asking for some advice about Krakow a few weeks ago. After some good thinking I decided to take the job and move to Poland. I'll be there in 2 weeks.
Now I was wondering if there's anyone in Krakow from the crossfire community who wants to go for a drink or 2 in the next few weeks?
Too be honest I'm not that worried, in Antwerp (where I used to live) you could easily get assaulted too if you went down the wrong street or looked strangely at someone. I'm more worried about the club-scam (where you have to pay hundreds of zloty for just a few drinks).
On wikitravel about Krakow:
Bar scam
A recent scam is for two or three women (can be Polish/Foreign, not always attractive) to walk up to men in Rynek Główny, Market Square or surrounding streets and ask for directions to a particular street or square. If you respond "I don't know" they will ask you if you have a map, introduce themselves and say "will you join us for a drink?". They might also ask you questions like 'are you here alone?', 'do you know anyone in Krakow?', 'do you speak Polish?', all to try and determine if you are a tourist and if you have any connections to Krakow. They will then lead you to a nearby nightclub where you will be presented with a huge bar bill for ordering just a handful of drinks. Several bars/clubs on ul. św. Tomasza, Sławkowska, Floriańska and św. Marka have been linked to this scam, i.e. Club Saxon and Hard Candy.
Hard Candy and Club Saxon both do these scams openly. If you try to leave they have large Russian mafia-looking men rough you up. The city has not done anything about this and Hard Candy has been in operation for 10 years.
This is not normal behaviour. Yes they are allowed to have their prices as high as possible, but they don't have a menu or a pricelist lying around/on the wall. And when you're already a bit drunk and in the company of some nice Polish ladies, you don't always remember to ask for prices before you order... In all the clubs and pubs I've been before, I never had to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a few drinks (except Dublin, but that's because in ALL pubs the alcohol is extremely expensive).
And I don't know anything about being drunk in the company of some nice Polish ladies :<
In Ireland I earned around 1600-1700€ but everything was twice or three times as expensive as it'll be in Poland. In Dublin I spent on average 800 € on going out/partying a month. If I party with the same frequency, and drink as much, in Krakow, I'll maybe spend 300-350€ (I hope, hehe).
Anyway, Krakow seems a nice city, it's quite an experience and a challenge and the extra benefits were pretty good as well, so I took it. It's only for a year or two tops anyway and it should enable me to learn a lot to get a good job afterwards :-)
but i like what your doing man; getting to see the world,having some good times, collecting experience and upgrading on dat curriculum vitae all at once. and it seems you are also doing it just as long as you enjoy being abroad, and once you arent anymore, you just pack your stuff and leave.
may i ask whats your job description? your job seems pretty flexibel and doesnt seem to be dealing with language barriers too much...something in IT maybe?