Thanks, Mark and Jolee! The three towns I visited were close to the German border and were in fact German before 1945. I need to go deeper into Poland. In Zgorzelec, Welinieg and Luban, all of the older and more beautiful buildings were built by Germans, though most are in terrible shape through neglect during the Communist decades. Compared to Germany, there are many fewer restaurants. In Welinieg, I couldn't find a single open eatery or bar. Before Law and Justice came into power in late 2015, they charged that "Poland is in ruins, that Polish provincial districts are falling apart, and that children are starving in Poland." Now that they're in charge, they're muting these claims.
P.S. And Poles are leaving the country. There are between three and five million Poles in Germany, a million in France and nearly a million in England. Most of these are recent immigrants.
Unemployment is 9.6%, not great but not horrific, but wages are low, so people get out. Two hours from Zgorzelec, there's a Toyota plant. The Vietnamese restaurant owner told me of Japanese employees coming to his restaurant. One even translated his entire menu into Japanese.
Bar Orientalny Restauracja now has three foreign language menus, in German, English and Japanese. The Polish waitress gave me a German one. Though she has never left town, her English is fairly good.
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Great photos from Poland which I just got around to check out. Love the story of the Vietnamese restaurant owner.
Thanks, Mark and Jolee! The three towns I visited were close to the German border and were in fact German before 1945. I need to go deeper into Poland. In Zgorzelec, Welinieg and Luban, all of the older and more beautiful buildings were built by Germans, though most are in terrible shape through neglect during the Communist decades. Compared to Germany, there are many fewer restaurants. In Welinieg, I couldn't find a single open eatery or bar. Before Law and Justice came into power in late 2015, they charged that "Poland is in ruins, that Polish provincial districts are falling apart, and that children are starving in Poland." Now that they're in charge, they're muting these claims.
Linh
P.S. And Poles are leaving the country. There are between three and five million Poles in Germany, a million in France and nearly a million in England. Most of these are recent immigrants.
Unemployment is 9.6%, not great but not horrific, but wages are low, so people get out. Two hours from Zgorzelec, there's a Toyota plant. The Vietnamese restaurant owner told me of Japanese employees coming to his restaurant. One even translated his entire menu into Japanese.
Bar Orientalny Restauracja now has three foreign language menus, in German, English and Japanese. The Polish waitress gave me a German one. Though she has never left town, her English is fairly good.
Linh
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