Dangerous football matches

I want to see a football match live in Poland but I will wait for the next season. When I said the idea to watch a Polish football match I was told that I should go with Polish friends and not with foreign friends because it might be dangerous for foreigners. I was told that some people go to the matches to find a fight and foreigners would be perfect targets to release their aggression. So foreigners should keep their mouths shut and just watch. It is hard to believe that going to football match would be that dangerous. We will see next season.

Can collectors

Yesterday I went to open air student festival in Lodz. There were collectors of empty cans like in Finland but in Poland you do not get 15 cent deposit from a can. One kg of cans are worth one euro when you sell it and still there are people who see that it is worth to collect cans in Poland. In Finland you earn many times more as a can collector. Though in Finland you have more competition.

Learning Polish

I have been trying to learn Polish but I have not dedicated as much time for language learning as in Spain or Turkey. For example I do not know numbers above 10 so it is hard to understand many situations where numbers are involved. So far I have been mostly learning Polish by watching Youtube videos. At least language exchange event gives me a chance to speak Polish every week.

Bike rack

Bike rack in Lodz

Bike racks are very different in Lodz compared to Finland. In Lodz the most important function of the bike rack is that you can attach your bike with a lock to make sure that nobody steals it. In Finland the most important function of a bike rack is to keep your bike standing. There is no need to attach your bike as bikes get rarely stolen in Finland.

Floorball in Lodz

I joined already to a floorball team in Lodz. I was happily surprised about the level of the team like in Spain. Here also training session is divided between three different teams like in Spain. First team trains in one half and girls train with juniors on the other half. We have training sessions two times in a week. So far it seems that training here is a bit more intense than in Spain.

Bicycle

My bike

I bought a bicycle as tram is very slow in Lodz. Tram shares often the lane with cars so it cannot advance freely without cars on the way. There are some lanes for only bicycles but I have to use also lanes shared with cars on my way to work. After the snow melt I have noticed plenty of bicycles in the traffic. Lodz is very flat compared to Kuopio, Ankara and Madrid so that makes Lodz more comfortable for riding a bicycle. My first bicycle journey did not start well as I drove straight to a big hole on the ground and my back tire got flat. I do not have any tools to fix it so I have to take my bicycle for somebody who can repair it.

Hand shaking

Street view from Lodz

I already learned to shake hands in Spain but in Poland men shake hands even more often than in Spain. For example my team mates in floorball shake hands when coming to training and when leaving the training. In Spain I did not shake hands with my team mates that often. Also people who you have seen few times but not talked to them might offer you a hand if you see them in a new location.

Night life

I have been few times in night life in Lodz. I noticed that here it seems to be much more common to dance and give spins to the girl. You can see more couples dancing together holding hands than in any other country where I have been. Of course you can see here also groups dancing in a circle.

Green light street crossing

In Turkey people cross the street anywhere without hesitation. Poland is similar to Finland when in to comes to crossing street. People respect the red light for pedestrians in Poland. The secret is that the police gives you a fine if they see you crossing the street with red light. The fine is around  25 euros.

Debit/credit confusion

So far I have been using my Finnish bank card for paying but it makes shop assistants always confused. Shop assistants do not expect that with my card you can pay with credit or debit so they start to call their collagues, pull off my card or something else. I just try to advice them to choose debit option but they have difficulties to understand me. Still I have been always able to pay. I have just received Polish bank so I can start to use it soon.