¶ Global Travel and Living Abroad
Hi , welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol . We are two moms with a passion to travel .
Each episode we interview people around the globe to explore where to go next . This is Carol , and in today's episode we are meeting with my cousin , paul . He and I both grew up in Minneapolis , minnesota , and he is now living in Warsaw , poland . It has been years since we have connected , so just a little history .
So Carl , kristen and I have been friends for a very long time , even though we probably didn't talk to each other for like 10 years .
We both met in California , lived in the same complex and then , kind of coincidentally , worked at the same company , robert Half , which is a staffing company , and now we both have our own businesses Mine is Salesforce Consulting and Pardot Consulting , and Kristen has her own staffing agency herself .
We're both independent and the reason why we're doing this podcast is to prepare for our empty nester years . We got a few more to go before that happens , but we both are really inspired to want to go live in other countries , visit other countries , maybe remote working time , maybe a month , two months , three months , maybe move to another country at some point .
I think , like once we ever become grandmothers God forbid then we might want to move back home . But you know , having that flexibility . We're just so hungry to learn and we don't see a lot of podcasts out there that talk about this , so we're like we're just gonna make a round . A lot of them are from just all about places to retire .
There's just so much more than just a place to retire , so how ?
long have you been ?
living in Poland now .
I've been here since 1994 . I was only supposed to be for a few years and here I am all these years later . You know I visited many times before as my . You know , my father was born in Poland , so my grandmother was here and my dad's brother and sister , so I have lots of cousins and relatives here . It's just been great .
It's been a really high quality of life and fun place to live , with people working very hard and really wanting to make something of themselves . Coming out of communism . Quality of life here is really really good .
Really . Yeah , I don't think of it . I still think of it , kind of depressed really good Really ?
Yeah , I don't think of it . I still think of it kind of depressed . People have no , when they come and you can look this up and there's a one of my business associates and a good friend of mine , hadley Dean , is going to be writing a book and one of the things he discusses and they took their company public in Johannesburg , south Africa .
Anyone that comes to Poland , they're just shocked because the billions have been put into infrastructure and in the cities I mean downtown Warsaw has got skyscraper after skyscraper , hustling , bustling .
You know the tallest building in Europe is being completed right now in Warsaw and people don't understand the economic might , the entrepreneurship of Poland , the wealth that's coming out of Poland . I mean it's really people just don't get it and when they come , they're just shocked . They're actually shocked .
And I'll give you another fact which you'll be blown away there's more international investors in Warsaw owning real estate . There isn't . Then there is a New York city , so you have South Koreans investing , you have a South America . Of course , the U ? S has always Every country in Europe invests here . I mean it's a really dynamic place to be .
Wow .
That is amazing . The largest BPO market is in Krakow , cities like Wrocław , and then up in Gdansk , tri-city Gdynia . It's a remake . The housing that's being built is just an absolute boom across the entire country and it's really , really beautiful .
So we have skiing , we have the mountains , we have the sea , we even have a desert in Poland , we have the lake region .
What is the sea in Poland ?
I need to get my map . I'll take it .
I've got it up .
Actually , when you go to the north , so we have Gdansk , gdynia , sopot , beautiful resort places . You go right onto the sea and there's beautiful hotels being built , from koobjik all the way across the top . It's just uh amazing what's happening . You have five-star hotels being built .
The hotel prices are basically the same like in , like on the island of crete , even more expensive here , and it's all state-of-the-art , everything's brand new and everything's just full oh , I see , yeah , I always thought holland is like landlocked and so remember , at lech valenta you have the shipyards where solidarity started okay , I gotta get your history blank here
I'm , I'm .
I'm the worst history person . Okay , yeah , christian , she's scandinavian , so like that's actually very close .
Just I was just on there , I noticed I'm swedish yeah , the sweet .
We have tons of speeds and you can actually have proms going across all the time . I think it's like I don't want to lie it's eight or ten hours and you just take a prom right to sweden . I actually have a swedish part . I've been to stockholm many times and it's like an hour and ten minutes flight or something . What's a prom ?
It's like a big bulk , a ship . They call a prom , so you can park your car and then you can go across and buy a ticket and then you can drive around . It's like a big ship that just takes you back and forth . It's a taxi .
Okay , I thought people go there for prom for a second .
I don't know . You know it's just a mixture of English speaking with American speaking . So you know it's a combination .
So we use a lot of these English terms in Poland as well . How good is your Polish ? I mean your grandmother spoke to you in Polish , right ?
Are you totally fluent ? When you went there ? Oh super . When I came , I understood a lot and had a good basis of the language .
But you know , it makes all the difference in the world when you live here and then you just pick everything up and what was amazing going back all those years is , after living here , words were just popping into my head , so like the word for fork just came out of nowhere and I knew how to say it because when I was a child I spoke Polish .
So it was really bizarre , for like 94 , 95 words just started coming out of nowhere because you know , as a child I spoke it and then didn't speak it for so many years . But you know , I always heard it through my , you know my dad and your dad , you know everybody speaking Polish .
So it was really wild , like I'd be sitting there and these words would just come out of nowhere and I would remember them . But you know , living here , you know I'm fluent , I'm very fluent , far from perfect , but understand everything and can do anything and speak and all the rest of it .
Yeah , and what's ingrained ? In my head is daimipivo , daimipivo , okay , daimipivo , that means bring me a beer , yeah .
Very good Give me a start , or daimibuji .
On the stage , and then next is daimibuji . So give me a kiss . They're going to love you here . I need the beer first to give you a kiss , yeah , all right . So where do you live now ? Are you in Warsaw ?
I live in Warsaw yeah , a suburb of Warsaw , and my office is downtown Warsaw and I live in an enclosed community and a's kind of the lifestyle it's a little bit different , more like East Coast .
Here , instead of the big houses which is around Warsaw , most people want to be closer to the city and developers , you know , make a lot more money building condos than you know single family homes .
How much is a condo there ?
Right now , prices in Warsaw , depending on where you want to be , anywhere from 2 000 euros to 10 000 euros a square meter . So you know a square meter is about what is it 11 , 11 square feet . People will buy like 100 square meter flat .
That's , like you know , 1100 square feet , and that would cost you anywhere from , again , 2 000 to 10 000 euros per square meter is this is to purchase , to purchase .
Like 200 , 300 . Like two to 300 .
So it's very comparable to like Colorado , it sounds like .
Yeah , so it's not a cheap place to live . Well , San Francisco .
Yeah , san Francisco , come on . I think , compared to the rest of Europe , capital cities were still cheaper , like by far , but prices keep , you know , slowly catching up , so it could be a good for an investor at this point now . Well , I think a lot of people made huge money when Poland came into the Euro .
So they were , you know , probably buying for 2,000 to 3,000 euros and within two years , prices were , you know , 4,000 , 5,000 . They got a big uplift and there's still a huge run on housing and there wasn't a rental market . And that's just starting in the last two years .
So they changed the laws and you have these big funds coming in and going to developers and buying these buildings and creating rental properties .
So it's really new to Poland , it just started in the last two years , and what they're saying , unfortunately , is because pricing is going to start going so high that people won't be able to afford to buy and there's going to be this huge rental market which is just starting .
Do you mind me asking ? I'm curious you have a family kids and you speak very fluent , but I know you lived here . Do folks around there speak English ?
Yeah , of course I have a family . I have two daughters here in Poland and my oldest daughter is in San Diego .
Oh , and they're your brother .
Yeah , she's close to Johnny Jade . I don't know if you know my daughter Jade , oh yeah , so Jade's in San Diego with my brother , and then I have Jessica and my youngest daughter , mila , who's here , and everybody now pretty much speaks English all over the country .
It's like a second language in all the schools and everybody kind of gets by , even sloppy English . But you know , 15 , 20 years ago not a lot of people spoke English . But now , like all the young people , everyone do . And you know , the Polish people love to travel and they travel all over the place and that's where they helped as well .
You know , if you come here , don't speak Polish , you won't have an issue whatsoever .
Okay .
And they have all the menus , have it in English , so it's Polish , and then you can get an English menu or a German menu . So it's really really international .
Okay , very nice Okay .
On the subject of Italian , are there certain predominant other countries that come in , or like what are the food ?
Well , the Italians have been here for a long time . You know Fiat , which they've had car dealers , their manufacturing facilities in Poland since communism times . Everybody's here , but I think the Americans , the English , the Germans , the Italians , you know Germany next door they're really , really prevalent investors .
You were really surrounded by so many different countries , along by the Baltic Sea as well with several others . It's pretty amazing how many . Yeah , and everything's .
You know it's great living in Warsaw because you're basically two and a half hours for almost everything . So it's a two and a half hour flight to London . You're two hours to the south of France , two hours to Milan To go to the island of Crete . It's less than three hours . You can jump on a plane and be in Crete in less than three hours .
You're in the middle of Europe and you can really go to a lot of places super quick . And I have friends and employees and they go someplace , they book their vacations and they take cheap airlines and they're always visiting someplace .
Okay , what about the trains ? Is there a lot of high-speed trains also in between ? Well , high speed , high speed .
But look , you can do a train from Warsaw to Berlin . It's just under six hours . Okay , yeah , and it's really affordable instead of flying . You know the train to Prague is more like 11 hours or 10 and a half hours . That's a little bit longer , but it's an hour and 20 minute flight and you know there's cheap flights .
So I mean within Poland , like if you want to go to Krakow or up to the Gdansk from Warsaw , it's like two and a half hours , so it's great . It doesn't make sense to drive to , like pose nine , or to , if you could dance , kandini , which is in the north , or into krakow , based out of warsaw .
You have fast trains that take you everywhere okay so a lot of people use the trains okay , yeah , it seemed like trains are like more friendly to the the environment . Um , all right , and so what about ? Do you like ? What's the expat community like there are ? Are you an anomaly ?
Or I mean , well , it sounds like there's a lot of expats from other countries , but like from the US specifically . Or is there like co-share working places for digital nomads and things like that ?
when this , all you know , broke loose , there was so many Americans here . There was at one point in Warsaw , I think , almost 30,000 Americans living in Warsaw . You know 3M and all these companies came . They brought all of the management with them from the US and then over time they've trained Polish management and left .
I don't know what the population right now of Americans are , but there's a huge , you know it's a big expat community of of everyone . There's lots of germans and english and you know all these countries , italians , as I mentioned , and even czechs , and you know we all know each other and we're friends .
Um , like the american embassy unfortunately it was closed this year , but they always do a fourth of july party and you go to the ambassador's house and everybody's there and it's really , yeah , it's really cool . You have like the sheraton and myriad and there's food and live music and really friendly fun and unfortunately , with COVID it hasn't happened the last
¶ Business and Lifestyle in Poland
two years . So AmCham is here and you know it's not as close-knit as it used to be because I think there's less of us , but there's a lot of people that are living here and have been here for a long time and we stay in touch so what brought you ?
oh , sorry you go oh , I was gonna say what brought you to Poland .
I know you're Polish and and has kept you there well as again , we came , you know , in the early 90s , when you know communism fell and just to come , and you know , help the family , maybe set up some business and just be a part of it to check it out .
You know I was young at the time , I thought I'd be here for two or three years but the business opportunities were just so incredible and just one thing led to another , where you know , I've created my own company . You know what I consider pretty large business and I've been really fortunate .
You know my background , being from the States , gave me a lot of knowledge on , you know , what was going to happen development wise .
So you can , you would just know like there's going to be a gas station built on this corner , or you know someone's going to build , you know shopping mall needs to go here or a retail park's going to come up , and you just kind of know , growing up in the us you can see there there was so much to do and that's how I kind of got involved in all that
and and obviously me speaking perfect english and understanding polish I was starting to meet a lot of these funds and they were coming into Poland to invest and they were looking for a local partner and that's how it all just kind of progressed .
Yeah , and I won't waste your time with the long , boring story , but that's how it started and you know it grew into a really large business and we were dealing with some of the largest funds in the world , which came and invested in JV and partnered with us to develop a lot of really cool stuff .
We developed landmark buildings all over Poland and you know it's really cool . Does anyone have your ?
name on it .
Does anyone have my name on it ? No , it doesn't . You know , we were asked like they wanted a name around about , you know , using our name and things like that , but we didn't really progress that Are you a real estate developer ? Yeah , we build shopping malls , hotels , office buildings .
We just completed an award winning building in the city of Woods , right on the right dead center of the city , the tallest building at the hotel mixed use . I'm really proud of that . It's an iconic building , landmark building in the city of .
So that's a fun one , and you know we built malls and regional cities as the largest regional mall what's the building called ? the one is called high piotrkowska , so it's on the . The longest walking street in pedestrian walking street in europe is piotrkowska street .
It's in wuj and we're right at the beginning of the transportation hub there but can you spell that for me ? Okay , it's high , h-i high , and then it's piotr , which is p-i-o-t-r , like piotr p-i-o-t-r okay k-o-w k-o-w s-k-a perfect polish name .
Okay , so there's mountains for skiing , but then you're also at sea level . So someone that likes like Colorado is amazing because it has the four seasons , but our winters are never really that bad . You know , we get tons of snow , what everyone hears about . We get 12 inches of snow , but then it'll be like 40 degrees the next few days and it melts .
So is this more like a Minnesota kind of climate or is this more like a middle of Midwest climate ? Or obviously it's not . It's not Greece .
Well , we have all four seasons here as well . So right now we have a really hot summer . We had a proper spring , we hit a fall . Winters like in Warsaw aren't that bad at all . This past winter was . It's kind of on again , off again this winter , like in Warsaw . To the north it's not so bad . We do get some cold In the mountains down south .
We're not Colorado mountains for skiing , but there's some nice skiing down there , not like that . But we have four seasons for sure and there's tons of snow down in the south in the mountain region . So yeah , we have all four seasons , so that's really nice . So it does remind me of Minnesota .
Especially in the northeast is the lake region and if you're there you would think you're like in minnesota , wisconsin . I mean , if someone puts you there you would think , oh , I must be in minnesota oh , really , oh , that's interesting .
Yeah , does everyone go up north then ?
well , it's called . It's called the lake region . So yeah , tons of people go to the lake region . They love it and a lot of the lakes are connected so people rent their boats and all you can go around the area .
So if you look up , it's called Missouri , missouri , and if you look up to the to the northwest and you'll see like elk and all these different cities and those lakes are all connected .
Oh , I see it . Oh yeah , I don't know if I'm in the right place .
The elk , augusto , horton , gizgo . So there's tons of people that go there .
I don't know if I'm in the right place . The Elk , augusto Hurtin Gizgo . Yeah , augusto , yeah . So there's tons of people that go there . There's some big lakes and people you know sit on their pontoons and rent boats and chill there .
So very similar to and barbecue . Yes , tailgate Is sports big there . Well , soccer is huge .
Yeah , that's like number one by far you know , we just had the euro 2020 in poland in advance , so it was pretty depressed , but uh okay because , we have our superstar levendowski , who plays in germany , but yeah , that's a huge sport , um here , and then everything else is . We have , you know , good tennis players .
People play tennis , they swim , they do everything here . All sports are happening here , but for like , for stadium sports , that's like number one by far . And volleyball is really big here too . People in poland's good in volleyball , so there's a professional league and and it's on tv and people love to go to the volleyball matches as well , and that's so .
Is that six on six or like two on two ?
I believe it's , it's six .
Six on six . Yeah , it's on two . I believe it's six on six . Yeah , it's like team . Yeah , not like beach volleyball .
No , no , no . Like you know , Poland's like the defending world champions , I believe , and so it's a huge sport here .
Is that an Olympic sport ?
Yes .
Okay , okay , that's probably a summer sport . We'll see them in Tokyo .
Yes .
Okay , so I know in Sweden everyone takes the month of July off , and I'm curious is there some sort of traditions that the Polish do as well in terms of vacationing or other different things ? That's different from the US .
Well , yeah , we have . We call it the May holiday because May 1st and 3rd are holidays here . So the first week in May is always a big holiday for everyone here .
You know we have tons of holidays but that's like a big deal to like kick off spring and then , of course , you know , christmas time and New Year , everything's kind of shut down and that's a time that everybody you know really enjoys in Poland . But you know there's no Thanksgiving , unfortunately .
But I have Thanksgiving and I always invite people and you can buy turkeys , like the marriott sells full thanksgiving dinners so you can get a big turkey and all kinds of stuff . But yeah , and focus on that . That's probably the big holidays , like the may holiday . You know school ends in june , so july and august half the city's empty .
So we're in vacation time now and that's a little bit more liberal . Here in europe people have , you know , months . You have four weeks of vacation and they usually take two weeks , in the summer even three weeks , and everybody just goes either up to the seaside , the lakeside , or they travel across Europe or wherever .
So July and August is a big time where everyone's and then everybody comes back in September and then university kicks off in October and everybody is back at work . But , this is like this is vacation time .
Okay , so you said university doesn't start till October . That's interesting .
Yeah , the kids come back in October .
So that's good . So still like on . That's kind of think of like traditional Europe , like just take two months off for summer in August , like everything shut down so it's not becoming too Americanized . We're like no , we got to work 50 weeks a year .
Well , I can tell you , you know the Polish work ethic . There was something that came out who works the most hours ? And maybe you'll look this up to verify it and I think Poland was number one or number two in Europe for people working the most hours per week . People are really motivated here .
They want to make money , they want to make something of their lives , they want their kids to have better lives . So there's a really hard work ethic . So people they like to vacation and they enjoy it , but they do work really hard here . One of the cool things about Poland , there's a young working staff . That's you know .
They really want to achieve something .
So is education like how is that for you know , university , as you call it ?
Well , the school here is much harder than the US . I mean they're doing geometry like in sixth grade . Polish school system is really tough . So these kids learn a lot and advance well . Then you go into high school , then you go into university . So they have some top universities here . I know 3M just opened up a special university campus in Wrocław .
U of M has some stuff here . There's lots of international schools that have some joint teaching and things like that . So there's a high , high level of learning at universities here in Poland . And a lot of the kids like to go abroad as well . So they go into IB program so that they can study in the UK or the US .
What's the opportunity Like ? Do a lot of kids get to go to college , or is it really expensive ?
No , it's not expensive and everybody I mean .
If you want to go , you can go public universities and of course there's private universities , and it's just like in the States you can get cheaper ones or more expensive ones , but if you're getting really good grades , you can get almost like state sponsored and you don't have to pay too much money for a university if you're one of the top kids .
So if you're smart , you have a lot of opportunity and if you're average , you still have a lot of opportunity as well .
Oh , that's great . Okay , Boy , you just really opened my eyes to Poland . My dad is from Poland , so this is kind of sad that I don't know more of this . I've only been to Krakow . I haven't been . I never been to Warsaw before , so I'm motivated . Well , you know .
Krakow is where most people go because of the history and the . You know , the museum and the castle and everything is is in in Krakow and it's a great place to visit . I mean , if you're going to go someplace in Poland ,
¶ Exploring Opportunities in Poland
my first suggestion would be Krakow , because there's so much cool stuff to see .
So a lot of people do like the budapest , vienna um croco , prague , and there's a lot of tours like that and you see all these old cities and and and you know two or three days in each city and you get to see a lot and so what else is um like for activities for tourists ?
you know , other than seeing the history , is there outdoor stuff like ziplining or like mountain biking or , you know , hiking ?
what is the ? Is there anything that is ?
kind of unique or just there's no . Like colorado , like you hike and you ski and cross-country ski , well , no , I mean when you're down .
I mean when you're down south , I mean you're croco , you're an hour and a half from the mountains and you can do everything . There's thousands of kilometers of bike paths in Poland so you can bike , you can hike . They have all these tours , all kinds of fun stuff set up .
I mean , in the tour industry it's just bigger and bigger so you can rent helicopters and see the city and all the things you can imagine . It's all available here . So there's lots of cool outdoor stuff , for sure Everywhere . Chopin was born here , so there's some cool things like Chopin concerts .
You can go to his house and then they have free concerts and you know thousands of people show up and they have like the young , up-and-coming star . It's a summer series and every Saturday or Sunday they do a concert and it's they set up speakers and it's by a lake , and so there's some really cool stuff like that too , which is free and fun to do .
And then you have shared with me and a lot of our listeners might not know this . If your parent and I don't know if this is all of Europe was born in Europe , you are eligible for a passport . And can you explain about , like , what is that ? Does that mean I can ? Is that Does that mean I can work there ?
Does that mean I can just go to and from Poland if I got a passport ? And like , how much red tape is there to actually get that ? Do you know or did you go through ?
that , yeah , well , if you're , you know your mother , your father was born in any of these countries in Europe , you , as a child , are considered , considered a citizen . But you have to do your paperwork .
And and when I say do your paperwork , you know you have to hire a lawyer to do it um , and they'll go through the process and what's the most important is that they have like paperwork to prove that he was born , or your mothers , they were born in that country . And then there's lawyers that they they specialize in this and they just handing it out .
I just want to , you know , prove that that you are . You know your parents were , were born there , and even in some countries , if your grandparents are , and you just need to look into it . But if you check that out , then you can get a passport , and you can . You know you can stay in Europe as long as you like , and vice versa .
So you have a dual , dual citizenship us and , let's say , polish and then , if you have your european passport , you know you can work anywhere in in europe , but you'd have to get a work permit in that country to stay .
So if you had a polish passport , you can stay in poland , all you want and let's say you wanted to do something in italy and you had a job there they would give you a work visa or whatever they call it in a particular country because you're a European citizen .
And what if you have your own business ? Like you know , I'm a freelancer . Well , that is cool . Then you can work anywhere .
And you have your own business . So you probably wouldn't need a work permit because you're on your European passport . So you could just like rent a place there and do your business , and you'd have , they'd give you no issues .
And even if you don't , you can go to some of these countries and say you're going to be here for six months , you know , writing a book or whatever , and they'll like give you like a work visa , like they're cool with that .
So people just need to , you know , figure out where to go to do that , and then you can spend , you know , six months , nine months , even a year in these countries , and it's not really difficult . You just , you know , have to go through the process .
This is awesome . Yeah , I'm going to get my . Swedish passport yeah .
If your parents were born there , they'll give it to you . You're just going to have to go through the process and prove that they were born there , and then you're automatic and do you think I need a european lawyer or an american lawyer ?
you ?
need a lawyer in that country . So if you look up , you could probably just google it and say my . You know , my parents were born in poland and I'd like to get a polish passport . And probably five law firms in poland will pop up to say we can help you do this . And then and they don't charge a lot of money , it's not , you know , it's .
You know I don't want to exaggerate , but it's maybe $2,000 or something and that's for the entire package , a to Z , to get you to your passport . But you need to check each country and you have a ton of people from the West doing that right . You know , especially America .
You know their parents came from Europe and a lot of people are coming back doing that .
Yeah , I have a question also about industries and jobs whether people are , you know , in college coming out what are the prevalent industries there and then what are big jobs ?
Well , as I said , we in a booming economy . There's a lot happening , but I think you know in the big cities anything to do with business , meaning you know economics . All those professionals they get picked up very quickly . Anyone that graduates . They're being headhunted right away by the you know the big six like BWC and Deloitte .
They're constantly looking for the best people to come out . They have a lot of chances there . Huge production in Poland you know we're one of the breadbaskets of Poland , so we're a huge exporter of everything with food . People coming out of any degrees related to that can do very well . We have huge retail expansion as well .
So you have a lot of any engineers have jobs immediately and , of course , tech in Poland has been known for having great . You know IT . So there's tons of IT companies based in Poland and moving here and they have an abundance of really smart , intelligent IT people based here in Poland , and not only Poland .
You have Belarus and Ukraine close by and a lot of those people have moved to Poland . So they've they've based their IT headquarters here , like in the city of Łódź . There's huge IT and they're attracting more and more IT companies . That's kind of the field that's really blowing up right now .
Okay , and what are the salaries ? Like you said , the BPO is very big , which stands for business process outsourcing , if people are not familiar . So I do a lot of Salesforce work . So if I wanted to create a little captive team in Poland , maybe , know , maybe just two , two to three people that could do some of that work , would it ?
You know , go to Wooj , you know what ? What are the salaries ? Do you have ? I mean , what's a good wage ? They make 20 bucks an hour , five bucks an hour .
A good wage here . A healthy living wage is probably like $2,000 . People have a good life on $2,000 . A month .
Yeah , a month .
Not an hour . Yeah , you can look at what the average salary is . But you know , in the big cities , if you look at like CFOs and those people , they're probably making anywhere from five to $10,000 a month . But on an average I think a good salary is between , you know , $2,000 and $10,000 a month .
But on average I think a good salary is between $2,000 and $2,500 a month . In the big cities is a good salary .
Oh , okay , so that is a good , valid business opportunity for me . Yeah , for sure . Oh , wow , that's interesting .
So they're making like $25,000 , $24,000 , $25,000 to $30,000 a year to $25,000 a year . Yeah , that was back in the 90s . It felt like yeah .
Well , if you can go back and look in , you know century Europe and it's , you know it was .
I remember when it used to be like $500 or something , yeah , and now it's progressing very quickly and inflation is kicking in and competition , and so , as I said , the top people you know know a lot of money and salaries are going up and they've instituted some new minimum wages and things like that as well . So it's , you know , it's happening .
So where do you like to go when you want vacation ? You mentioned Greece and Crete , and do you go down to Greece , or where are your favorite European hotspots ?
Yeah , yeah , last summer we went to Crete and we like to go to the south of France . I enjoy that whole area there .
I have friends there , so love france love
¶ European Travel and Cultural Exchange
italy .
If we stay in poland , you know , we go to the baltic .
I'm just trying to think where in italy do you like to go ?
well , I like everywhere in italy , but I think um you know , tuscany is really great . Tuscany is a great place to visit . You know , you just have everything of great wine , great food and if you want to go to , you know the , the seaside , you know rome is fun to visit .
Um , you have to go to rome once and then you can go a couple hours down south and there's a . There's so many different resorts all along the mediterranean but you know , sicily is great . I really enjoy sicily . Sicily is fantastic .
There's some nice small cities to go visit with some great hotels , and the food's fantastic and the people are wonderful and everything here is true . It's a great place to to visit and you know they like the tourism and they treat you really well .
So and what do you ?
think you know . It's just you know those . Everything's close , yeah , you know . And then we like to ski in the winter . We do . You know skiing trips , everyone goes skiing .
So austria , switzerland , italy tons of polish people go to Italy and Austria , you know you just drive 8 , 10 , 12 hours and you go on your week skiing trip Because one of the things we talked about in school . You asked if it's a big deal .
We have winter break here , so everybody gets two weeks , two weeks of winter break and they rotate it Usually for one week . Parents take off a week of work and take their children skiing to someplace .
Oh , nice , right . So we listened to this , watch this movie . Zac Afrons , he did this mini series , I don't know what you call them . He talks about global warming and eating , and there's a place off of Italy where there's more centenarians than anywhere I can't remember which country , it was an island and they're talking about , like , just how they eat .
They go ahead and eat gluten . It's not a bad thing , right , but they eat more like natural food and like US has so much you know , processed food and chemicals and pesticides . What is like . What is the attention in Poland to like eating healthy and paying attention to good farming tactics ? Is that something of interest , or are you guys ?
more American ? No , no , it's becoming a huge business here , absolute huge business . Everything it's expensive , but the bio business is booming . There's a focus on that , for sure , everywhere you see . If you go into any of the big hypermarkets and supermarkets , they all have this new bio area and people are really focused on that .
Can they call it bio instead of organic ? The organic section .
Yeah , so the big word here , instead of organic is bio everywhere , bio in Polish bio .
But I call it bio . Is there Whole Foods out there ?
No , there's no Whole Foods . No , you have , like the French guys , a lot of French . No , there's no Whole Foods . No , you have , like the French guys , a lot of French . Acheon , carefour , the Germans are here big time Lidl , aldi , kaufland , tesco just sold out to the Danish . So Netto , those are a little bit smaller , similar to like Aldi .
And then we have a huge Portuguese group called Bedronka and they're huge and they're like similar again to like aldi or that type of type of place . But what's interesting is these places like 95 or 98 percent of the goods produced in poland , you know bringing , getting imported , you know poland's a huge exporter of products oh interesting .
And then you guys have amazon out there is that pretty common . Or you have competitors , yeah , yeah .
Amazon just entered the market . I think it was last year or this year . They have big warehouses that they were serving Germany with and now they've entered the Polish market . I mean it will be becoming big . Online sales , obviously from after the pandemic increased considerably , but it's still really low in poland compared to western europe or the states .
So there's a long ways to go and that's going to continue to to be a growing business and you know , being involved in retail , that's one of the things we really focus on is you know how the future is going to be .
We won't waste time on that now with digital , yeah , click and collect and everything that we need to do inside the malls to keep people coming and making their place for gathering and not just strictly shopping , and that's a whole different subject .
Yes , yes , I'm so . Oh yes , I mean that sounds like the beauty of Europe , Like , oh yeah , you go to the bakery for your bread and you go to the butcher for your meat and you go and visit , you know everyone and they've been there forever . You just don't have that here . That still exists , I mean it still exists .
It still exists . You still have the big hypermarkets , like you guys have , with everything inside of it , but you still have specialty meat shops and the bakeries do huge business . People like to go to their baker and we have the farmer's market where I live .
There's a farmer's market Wednesday and Saturday and there'll be a billion people there and it's out of control . So people like all that and that goes on here . Everyone goes to the bakery and their meat shop and then you have your vegetable shop and your fish shop and you have these special bio stores where all they sell is everything that's organic inside .
Those do huge business and people again in Europe you'll find they'll go to the shop two or three times a week . Instead of having , you know , big dump freezers and dumping everything and that's really the case People visit two or three times a week and get their products fresh , especially in the countryside , in the smaller cities .
Like they sit down and have dinner together , and especially Sundays is a big deal . The families get together and eat together .
So there's , you know they go to church and you know big catholic country , so I think we're 90 95 catholic and you know the retail shops are closed on sundays , it's , you know you go , you meet your family and and have a meal together .
So that's , that's still a big deal here and more so we won't have brunch , but you know the smaller cities , they're at home eating yeah , and that was a big topic I was gonna ask we hadn't asked is the food ? What's a typical food ? What's a typical meal on a sunday , or you know what ?
oh , it varies . You know polish kitchen's fantastic . You know we have . You know you know you all heard of pierogies and golem cheese or cabbage rolls . Um , and then we have , you know , meat's big here . So a lot of chicken , a lot of pork . Poland's known for its ham . We we have great lunch meats .
So you know the good old Midwest food is kind of staple here in Poland . We have great duck . We eat a lot of , you know , duck . And then you have fish . We have a lot of fish .
But you know people here are meat and potato people kind of , so to speak , and I know that's I shouldn't say that because there's lots of vegetarians and you know lots of salads and all that is really happening here in Poland .
So that you say the potatoes and the beets just sounds very clever . Borscht soup right Like . Okay , that's where it comes from .
Yeah , and soups are still big here . People love to eat soup and basically every restaurant you go to will have three or four soups . I mean people like soup and they make it at home and you know you don't see it too often in the States , at least I haven't in a long time and it's really staple here .
Kristen , do you have any other big topics ? I'm moving to my what I call my rapid fire questions to wrap up .
I got all of them covered and it's been fascinating . It makes me definitely want to go and visit right like our bucket list is getting so huge but you guys come to europe , you can do like , in two weeks , you can do so much .
You can go like to paris and then go , you know , shoot over to , you know , whatever you want , everything's connected , it's again . It's everything's so close . It's a couple hour flight , so you can really do a lot yeah , and another podcast .
We interviewed a friend that lives in saudi arab but she was saying , like it's so close , she can get to Europe fast , she can get to Greece fast and you know she can get to Asia fast . So it was like she loves that central location . But , yeah , like safety .
So you know , women like we're traveling by ourselves , you know , I would assume it's just like any big city , but a lot of times we hear in these other countries that it almost seems safer than the US because they're more like leaf states . What's the crime rate in ?
Poland versus in general . Well , it's really low . I mean Poland's a safe place , it's a super safe place . I mean that's one of the things we talked about with a lot of people is if you're a couple of young girls in your early 20s , you can walk through downtown Warsaw and it's super safe , it's really safe .
I mean there's not a lot of like street crime or muggings and stuff . I'm sure it happens , but you don't hear a lot about it and you don't really see it , and there's not a lot of homicides and things like that . It just doesn't happen . You have to look up the numbers and I bet you it's really low , I it's really low .
I haven't looked in a while but you never hear about you know , you hear more about people dying in car accidents than homicides .
So right , um , and Paul has daughters .
So like you're fine with your daughters , like yeah , no , you know you always get a little bit nervous downtown or something , but you know there's nothing really happening and there's police around but we're like a police state but in general it's . It's a . You know you have to pick your places .
You know there's always bad neighborhoods or bad districts but as a tourist if you're , you know downtown and in the main places there's absolutely nothing to be concerned about right , okay .
So my question is that , the popular religion ? You already answered that catholic um , what is your favorite food ? We just talked about food , but , like Sunday dinner , you get to pick . What are you going to , what are you going to have ?
Oh , come on , it depends what I feel like . But no , I
¶ Polish Cuisine, Cultural Music, and Lifestyle
, I again on a Sunday . Maybe you would have duck . I mean , we did Poland . Poland is known . They have fantastic duck , so I really enjoy the duck with cranberry and some potato sauerkraut with the duck but you can have red cabbage . We have red cabbage with it , so that would be good , okay okay , uh , do you like to cook or does ?
your wife do all the cooking yeah , we cook all the time and I , you know , and grill and everyone likes to do that make homemade soups , you know , of course I like pierogi . Depends what you said . It depends what you're in a mood for . Cabbage rolls are always great . And what did you have for breakfast Today ? What did I have for breakfast ?
I have to think I had oatmeal today with fresh fruit .
Okay , very American Okay . Oatmeal with apples and then fresh fruit Okay , oatmeal with apples and then fresh fruit . Okay , do you drink ?
espresso there . Oh , come on . Yes , and people are coffee crazy here . But we have , you know , starbucks is here . You have Costa Coffee and then we have our local brands . So there's coffee in every corner here , just like in the rest of the world . So coffee is huge . You have a cafe every .
You know , 100 meters as well in Poland , so that culture is alive and kicking . But for breakfast , everyone likes eggs . In Poland , I mean , scrambled eggs is a staple .
How about the music ? You know I listen to a lot of Polish music as a kid Is , like the traditional music , still very popular , or is it , you know , hip-hop moving in , or is it all over the place ? I mean I ?
think it's kind of global . It's a lot of the U S U K . You know , if you look at the top 10 lists it's , you know , mirrored of what you see in the U ? S . But we have our local , you know , musicians that sing in Polish and they have great size and we have , like , the voice of Poland and all that stuff too .
So , you know , stars are coming out every season and they come up with their albums but like the traditional music , I mean , you'll hear it now and then and people like it when you go into the mountains and you have the music and things like that . But I think most of it is just it's globalized now . So it's we're all listening to the .
You know same thing from justin bieber to whoever on the radio um what's the money called in poland do you use the euros no , no , it's it , it's Polish zloty , so it's a Z with an L with a slash PLN . Yeah , and it's about . It's about four to one I have to check the dollars maybe 390 . So $1 is roughly four zloty .
Okay okay , but you had mentioned euros before , so is some stuff transacted in euros ? Or you just like to talk that ?
um , well , yeah , well usually , usually even like the prices when you travel around europe . Everyone uses a euro rate , and then you'll , you know they'll charge your credit card in the local currency . So you'll book it in euros , but , like France and Italy and Germany and Greece , they're all euro-based .
So , like Czech Republic has their currency and Poland has the Zloty , but most of the countries within the EU are euro-based .
Okay , but you go grocery shopping .
Everything's in Zloty , everything's in Zloty , everything's in Zloty , yeahes yeah , oh , okay , okay , neat .
And then the last question where can you surf ? Like , if you're a surfer , where do you go ? Do you have to go down to italy ?
you can windsurf if you're a super surfing . Surfing is tough but we have some great um windsurfing locations . We even have , like the world champion it was , uh , one of the polish guy , I'm not sure last .
So we have some great places up on the Baltic where it's windy and people are just chill there all summer like windsurf , but like proper , like you want to do . California surfing is not going to be on the Baltic , unfortunately .
Yeah , you got to go there . You could wake surf behind a boat in all that elk area , I'm sure oh yeah , that all goes down in the lakes .
Yeah , you can definitely do that and do some tubing as well , and is the Baltic pretty cold ?
I would guess right the water .
It's not so bad now . Yeah , okay , I think it gets up into the high 60s .
So it's not so bad Okay .
Yeah , it's better than California . You know , on January 1st there's a big group of people that go jump in the in the baltic every year and on january 1st , and it's always on tv . So you're welcome to come do that that sounds great .
Okay , well , that we get right at an hour . Um , okay , well , thanks , paul , it's so great to see you and to talk to you . It's so educational , so you're not coming back .
Well .
I don't know .
You know , unfortunately it was COVID . So I always go to the States two , three , four times a year . I'm in New York , I go see my daughter in California , I go see my family in Minneapolis and you know we have other business deals and things happening .
So unfortunately , because , of COVID , we haven't been traveling back and forth , but you know , will I come back . I mean , I always spend time in both places .
So , yeah , I kind of feel like I'm in both places all the time . Yeah , okay , it's just a global world . This is where I am . Yeah , I mean yeah , yeah .
So I usually like the whole month of august I'm always in the states and then , you know , every quarter I'm basically in the States every quarter . I used to be . So , it's been kind of weird not not being home , even though home is here , yeah .
Clearly Right , yeah , yeah .
It's nice to go to the States and , you know , spend a month there , and then it's always great to to come back . Yeah , it's just a little bit different lifestyle and and uh , so I'm , you know , lucky enough to have , I guess , the best of both worlds .
I think even as I retire , I'll probably go , you know , spend time , because I have friends and a lot of people here but I still have in the states , so I don't think I'll just sit like on an island somewhere and show . I think I'll be going back and forth .
I think you're too motivated to do that . Just there's always something else to get done . Oh my gosh Great .
Well , have a good weekend , Great to see you .
Thank you , nice to do a championship game on Sunday .
Okay .
Nice to meet you as well .
Thanks , thanks , bye . In our next episode we will be visiting with Leah , who has created an amazing life for her and her family in Maui , hawaii . If you enjoy our podcast , be sure to subscribe to our show , rate us in your podcast app and follow us on Instagram at where next podcast .
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