Poland in two minutes

Recently I found a pretty fun series of videos on youtube. It's called 'The World In Two Minutes'. Basically they try to present a country in exactly 2 minutes. After watching video about Poland I have to admit it's quite accurate;).

If you liked it - there is a lot of videos of other countries.

Man of Sport

Although Euro 2012 is now over there are still some interesting stuff going on. For example: there was a party organised by UEFA to celebrate the success that the tournament was. Of course many members of PZPN were invited (PZPN is Polish Football Associaton). During the party people from UEFA were pretty astonished, because polish delegates drank all the alcohol there was. They went throung 70 bottles of vodka and were quite disappointed there was no more. Oh, our brave representatives. Man of sport.

It's not that shocking to people in Poland beacuse PZPN members are here well known for their incompetence, tendendy to smoking and drinking and willingness to accept bribes. In case someone wonders why our football is in bad shape.

Euro 2012 Tickets

Few days ago someone found an auction on ebay, where you could buy ticket for Euro 2012 semi-final. Nothing weird here. But the thing is that the ticket is a property of Goverment of Poland. It is even printed out on it. You can see it here.

This is one of the tickets that Polish Goverment received for free. And someone who got it, is now trying to sell it for a lot of money (much more than the price printed on it). And it isn't the only one of this tickets that is out there. Many people claim they have seen this sort of auctions with tickets owned by Polish Goverment. Oh well...

Some people joke that this is a desperate try to save our public finances. Whatever works.

Predicting the Scores

As you probably know, Poland and Ukraine are hosts of Euro 2012 that is currently underway. And do you remember Paul the Octopus, famous animal that was predicting scores in 2010 World Cup? Paul lived in a tank at a commercial attraction, the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany and became internationally famous after his feeding behaviour was used to correctly predict the winner of each of the Germany national football team's seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final. Basically it looked like this:

The flag on the box he chose, was the flag of the country that was supposed to win. I think he got all the scores right, which was quite impressive.

Well we all remembered Paul and when Euro 2012 started, many Poles decided to present their own score-predicting animals. Of course Poles are very creative and they really, REALLY want their team to win. Here are some of the best works that are quite popular around the Internet (polish flag is white and red):

Yes, that's a cucumber on the left.
Some people said that it was unfair, so as a response, we got few more:

Yup, the cucumber got picked when it was on polish side. Different dog though.

And you can't have any doubts here...

Anyway, as fun as it was, unfortunately none of this predictions was right.

KOKO KOKO

Few weeks ago the official song of polish national team for Euro 2012 was chosen. There's been a lot of controversy around it, beacause of its folk character and quite miserable lyrics. It was also declared 'the worst football song ever'. Check it out for yourselves:

The other thing about this song is that the lyrics in chorus (Koko Koko Euro Spoko) could be translated as:
Cluck Cluck Euro Cool. Yes, cluck cluck like the sound that chicken makes. Why football song (and official song of polish national team) has a reference to chickens? I have no idea. I think noone does. Probably only because in polish language cluck rhymes with cool.
And the weird thing is that this song wasn't just some random pick - it was chosen through official voting around the nation. I think that 10 million of Poles have thought: "Let's vote for KokoKoko as a joke!". And we did. Cluck Cluck.

In the whole history of football songs I think there is only one that can compete with that. It's 1978's scottish song. It is about how Scotland will will win the trophy (they went out in the first round). You can listen to it here:

It's hard to decide which one is worse. They are both really bad but in different ways.

Still, whatever you might think about both of this songs, they are quite catchy.

Poland overview

Poland (or officialy Republic of Poland) is a country in Central Europe. Borded by Germany to the west, Ukraine to the east, Russian exclave to the north and bunch of lesser countries. It has a population of over 38 million people and total area of 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq miles). It's similar size to Italy, Norway or Germany.
Till 1989 Poland was basically controlled by Soviet Union. Most famous Poles are Pope John Paul II, Nicolaus Copernicus or Maria Sklodowska Curie. Enough of "school" information.

Now let's try to paint a picture of what kind of country Poland is.

Drinking alcohol is common in Poland. Very common. Some of people are even drinking at work. According to official statistics 40% of people were at least once hungover at work. 21% are hungover on regular bases.
This is quite understandable considering that minimal monthly wage in Poland is 1500zl (340 euro or 422 USD/month. Weekly it's 85euro or 105USD). And of course that's before taxes. This let's you buy 3 pairs of good shoes. Or two if you choose to pay the taxes. For your paycheck you can get 4 full tanks of gas for average car or get half of laptop.
Polish roads are well-known for it's bad shape and it is even possible to lose a wheel if you drive too fast.
People with college degree often have to work in supermarkets or in chains like McDonalds due to poor job market. Most of them know at least 1 or 2 foreing languages. At the same time our main politicians can speak only Polish. And some of them poorly.

Politicians are incompetent and embarassing. Basically they try to get votes by trashing their opponents. They also lie and never take responsibility for anything. EVER.
Out health care is free but usually you have to wait 3 or 4 months for you appointment. Unless it is life-threatening.

This shall give you general idea about Poland and it can help you understand upcoming histories that will be posted here.