Green, walkable, clean, good public transport, mostly-well-connected airport, reasonable cost of living (esp. if you work remotely as a software engineer…), good and varied restaurants, and very safe.
I go to Poland nearly every year because of Lambda Days, which is in Krakow, though next time I fly over I might take the train over to Warsaw again.
There were simply too many cars around that block so they effectively locked each other up. That was ten years ago though so maybe they fixed it.
A big part of my time there was spent in a taxi.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.2309595,21.0148913,16.75z?en...
It was probably more the roundabouts combined with traffic lights that caused the mess.
I remember thinking that someone needs to drop a bomb on this place or we'll be stuck forever.
The only place worse/as bad in the EU is Northern Italy but at least they have geography as an excuse.
It would be a nice place if the Poles stopped burning coal..
* https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2023/...
It’s easy to manipulate by using a color scale where perfectly harmless pollution levels are painted red or black.
Better map (live) here: https://airly.org/map/pl/
The one I posted was the yearly average which I think is a much better way to look at this (maybe monthly would be better though).
> < 20 p/ug
~ 20 seems quite high (IMHO)
> so almost no one uses coal or wood here
Power plants might be the much bigger issue. Coal is still > 60%, of course it has improved massively over the last few years (used to be almost 80% a few years ago). IIRC Poland produces more electricity from coal than all the other EU countries combined besides Germany (who also suck).
The actual air pollution issue stems from small heaters used in houses that haven't been upgraded yet (or people using them improperly / burning trash) - but there's plenty of EU funding going towards replacing them. Many of the remaining users are unfortunately living in poverty and can't even afford the remaining 20-30% of the price + heating afterwards can absolutely become more expensive.
Coal powerplants suck cause they produce a lot of CO2, but they don't polute much (because of mandatory filters). It's negligible compared to unfiltered coal heating in millions of homes.
If you follow for example air quality in Legionowo (one of Warsaw northern suburubs) since November till March the air quality drops at around 6pm until 6am to the levels compared to most industrial parts of Silesia. This pollution spreads over central areas of Warsaw depending on the winds.
However the major problem is that gas is expensive and wood is cheaper. It is enough that one house in the neighborhood is heated by burning wood and everybody can smell it.
The situation is also much worse in small villages far from Warsaw.
I also live in London and never had that.
Good for you that you stayed if that's more like your cup of tea. Perspective of somebody who actually moved - best decision of my life. Nothing less than Switzerland, no point trying to reach less in life than the limit. Not easy to get into by any means, and you have to adapt to their culture and way of life and not vice versa (which is usually the biggest issue with immigrants) and accept few tradeoffs.
But for adventurer and mountain lover like me, who came to appreciate massively clean everything, low criminality, consistently polite and respectful people, society that just works (TM) - social, education, medical aspects, even bureaucracy. Then coming back (not Poland so not comparing with it specifically) gets less and less rosy over time, to the point of being disappointed with whole place and society. You see corruption, stupidity, self-shooting in the foot, greed, everybody thinking about themselves and screw others, mafia, and everybody knows it, knows who is bad guy, yet nothing is done.
Not a place I decided to have kids and raise them, nor get old. To each their own, as long as we are all happy with our choices down the line, life is easy in your 20s and 30s without kids practically anywhere.
Westerners who move there as tourists or with their remote jobs will never see this so for them it's only upsides, especially if they come from that country full of gun crime and homeless people, it's like some miracle place.
Having grown up in the late 60's and 70's in the States, eastern Europe was usually demonized because of the then influence of Russia. When my wife suggested Prague, I admit I had a little apprehension, but I was absolutely wrong. The people were very kind and helpful, the history was interesting and the food and drink was fantastic.
Still, what I wrote is valid for that too, no reason for me to return there from where I am now. As semi-local I could see through the surface and see issues I mention, and they are there (plus a typical Prague thing - kids starting with meth at 10-11 since its very accessible and weed even earlier, very popular with adequate consequences). They may be negligible /invisible to many others, not pushing my opinion but I stand by it, and in past 15 years nothing happened to change it, in contrary.
For someone from Gdańsk this is laughable. The city is very car-centric. There are large areas of it that are just concrete with no green in sight. This contributes to absurdly high temperatures in the summer and difficulty of finding any shade. “Patelnia” (frying pan) has that name for a reason and it’s by no means the only such place. The city also keeps building glass skyscrapers which reflect sunlight onto the ground in already heat-stroke-inducing heat. It’s laden with huge intersections with 2-phase crossings, which you need to run through in order to go through in one go. If you fail, you’ll be stranded on a concrete island breathing in fumes from car traffic. Public transport is good if you can use the metro. But there are only 2 lines, so aside from maybe going to work you’ll most likely be using a bus. The bus is most likely to be going regularly late and overcrowded (god I hate 186).
I disagree with it not being walkable somewhere though. You can easily get anywhere on foot, and safely. Never had an issue with that anywhere in the city. It could definitely be more cyclable, as there are still many places without a dedicated biking lane (and you have to use the road or sidewalk), but walkable it definitely is.
That reason was actually retconned.
Back when the term was coined there weren't that many cars in Warsaw and summers were not this hot.
Most likely it was simply the first association anyone had looking at it when emerging from the subway.
I did find the huge open spaces next to Stalin Skyscraper and Saxon Palace to be very unused looking.
I love Warsaw, too bad I find the language impenetrable.
It's weird but I managed to learn conversational Polish in about 6 weeks, thanks to a girlfriend who couldn't speak English.
I mean, that's a pretty strong motivator, unfortunately it's not a viable strategy for everyone ;-)
I agree that it's mostly safe, but green, or clean? And the public transportation is a mixed bag, my daily commute to the office used to be 1h each way (around 6 miles distance). Cost of living is ridiculously high compared to the rest of Poland, software engineers, businessmen and celebrities are probably the only ones who really can afford it.
But the main reason I'm leaving is because people here are assholes. As a capital city of Poland Warsaw attracts the worst kind of scum, politicians, wannabe celebrities, con men, corporate drones, gold diggers, etc.
If I could have one wish it would be for Putin to nuke Warsaw.
Good god that escalated quickly.
This sounds pretty standard, maybe you don’t like capitals / big cities??
Also, the relevant NATO simulations start with the first nukes arriving from Kaliningrad (Königsberg) to North Dresden. Warsaw is a bit later in this game. In the end all is down.