Cultural: Five interesting things about Poland

I have been thinking about this one for quite a while. There have been several interesting, or even “odd” things to me that I wanted to share with you. A couple of them I just learned within the last few months - but others I have known for a while. I think you will find these interesting.

 

  1. When you buy property, you only own the top 6-10” of dirt - not the dirt - all the way down under your house.

Because of this, there is no such thing as “mineral rights” here and if they were to discover gas or oil on your land, it would all belong to the government. Once I learned this, I understood then why the people I know who sold topsoil never claimed to sell the dirt - they only charged for transportation of the dirt (which was a joke since the price they charged was far more than simply transportation should be).

2. You are supposed to pay for public radio and public tv on the honor system.

If you use them - you are supposed to go find out how much it costs per month and pay the bill. Apparently during communism, they would come around and check on whether you had a tv or radio in your house and check to make sure you had paid. (I am not entirely sure of the current status of this law.)

3. In a lot of areas, you do not have the right to wash your own car on your own property.

From what I’ve read, however, the police rarely enforce this one unless the neighbors complain. The only exception to this is if you use biodegradable soaps, etc. The exact requirements/bans differ depending on where you live. (I just learned this one!)

4. You have to ask permission to cut down a tree over a certain size on your own property.

A while ago the government had a ‘holiday’ from this ban and people went and cut down trees all over their lots - leaving many of them distressingly bare. I didn’t understand why people would like to cut down all the trees as I simply adore having trees on our property. I think it was because they were afraid the laws would change back and then they wouldn’t be allowed to cut down the trees without paying or waiting for permission. (They were right - the laws were tightened back up again.)

5. Kids are supposed to wear school shoes once they get to school.

There is a special entrance, and then they go to a locker or special area where they are to change into their shoes. They are to be used only for school. Our school told us our kids had to have only WHITE soles because the black ones might leave black streaks on the floor. At least in the elementary schools, they would set up monitors who checked the soles of the kids’ shoes to make sure they actually changed into clean school shoes!

There! I hope you have enjoyed these 5 fascinating things that I find a bit different from what I grew up with.

Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/life journey here in Poland and wherever I am!

Becky Petersen4 Comments