Poland is a vast country located in Eastern Europe and shares its border with Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. This country is always referred to as full of rich Culture and Heritage. While there are so many positive aspects of living in Poland, there are some Cons too. In this article, we will share the pros and cons of living in Poland from real-life experience.
I lived in Gdansk for 5 months in 2018 while working for a *** company. During my past time I studied Polish and tried to visit as many cities as possible (I went to Szczecin, Torun, Chelmno, Warsaw, Olsztyn, and Lodz and also did a weekend trip to Kaliningrad (Krolewiec). Later on, I also organized tours to Poland and did lots of solo traveling in the country, so that I can now proudly say that I’ve been to every single wojewodstwo of Poland.
Pros:
Affordable Living
Very affordable prices. If you are educated and especially if you know languages, you can easily find jobs that pay at least 1000 euro net per month. Might not sound like much, but prices in my own country are often 4 times more expensive and despite of this the net salary for most people is around 1800–2000e/month after our progressive taxes. Thus the purchasing power in Poland is sometimes actually better than in the Nordics.
Culinary Delights
Awesome food. In Nordic and Scandinavia you will struggle finding local food and most restaurants are extremely expensive, because you are expected to cook your own food. In Poland you can find big portions of delicious local food in the local milk bars (bar mleczny) for 2–4 euros, and even in the fancier places you’ll pay only about 5–10 euros. For 20 euros you can eat like a king.
Cultural Riches
Beautiful cities and people. I am a big fan of history and walking through Polish cities sometimes feels like travelling back in time or visiting an outdoor museum. Most locals look healthy and women are very beautiful and feminine. Also no homeless or crazy people in the streets and instead of drugs most locals just stick to alcohol, which is also of very good quality in Poland.
Safety and Security
Safety. Despite of Western stereotypes the former Eastern bloc cities often feel safer than Western European big cities, not to even mention the American ones… The only people you should be vary of are football hooligans, but I think this applies to any country.
Promising Future
Future prospects. Polish economy has been performing very well for the past 20 years and there are lots of opportunities in the country. I personally hope that the country keeps their own currency of zloty, because the price level in both the Baltics and Slovakia rapidly increased after the introduction of euro.
Cons:
Pervasive Negativity
Negativity. The national hobby of Poles is complaining and lots of people are very grumpy and negative about life. Luckily this seems to be changing with the younger generation, but unfortunately you still encounter lots of bad customer service and general nagging.
Environmental Concerns
Bad air quality. Not so bad in Gdansk because of the proximity to the sea, but further inland you can have serious trouble breathing. In my opinion the best solution might be replacing the coal with nuclear power.
Political Landscape
Politics. Poland is extremely divided on this topic and the main issue seems to be religion, and coming from a secular country this felt very weird to me. Instead of discussing actual everyday problems such as environmental issues, infrastructure or economics, most energy is spent on arguing about abortion, conservative vs. liberal values and the historical hardships the country’s been through. Of course the situation is quite similar in many other countries at the moment.
Conclusion
In general Poland is a great place to live and to explore, but staying there long-term requires some nerves to cope with the surrounding reality just like everywhere else. I’m hoping that the situation improves with the younger generation and I’m already waiting for my next visit.
