The Witcher books play an incredibly large role in modern Polish culture. After the roaring success of “The Witcher 3 – The Wild Hunt”, and the Wticher series on Netflix, more fantasy fans have been swept up into the dark escapades of Geralt of Rivia. But it’s the series of the Witcher publications written by…
Polish women and Polish girls are at the forefront of a cultural change in their country. While benefitting from a shrinking gender pay gap, they’re still facing less access to abortion, more bureaucracy around birth control and struggling to have domestic abuse and rape by known perpetrators recognised in courts. Women in Poland are fiercely…
As I sit here eating my pierogi and sipping some czarna żubrówka (I’m not joking), I thought it might be an appropriate time to write a few words about Polish Vodka. If you’ve got no idea what czarna żubrówka is, then you probably don’t know too much about Poland’s national drink. Let me…
Polish names, just like the rest of the Polish language, aren’t always easy to pronounce. To add insult to injury, mispronouncing your Polish friend’s name can be quite embarrassing. And these are just the first or given names. When we start to look at Polish last names, the difficulty goes up a level. But look…
The Poles History Forgot – Politics, Glamour & Columbus In this article, I’ll go over some of the most well-known Political figures of the world and show how they have some roots that can be traced back to Poland. Want to see the first post in this series? Check it out here. The 2nd of…
The Poles History Forgot – Literature In this article, I’ll go over some of the most well-known writers in the world that have some kind of genealogy that can be traced back to Poland. Want to see the first post in this series? Check it out here. First up … ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER At least…
Once in a while a very interesting phenomenon occurs in Poland. Let’s call it the Rob Gronkowski Effect. Someone with a last name ending in ‘ski’ will pop up on the world stage and the Polish media will go into a twitter. The genealogical libraries will be busted open, the parish books dusted off and…
A lot of people seem to think that Europe ends at the Eastern border of Germany. Australians think Europe is the UK, Spain, France and Germany, the 3 countries up North, Pizza-land, Greece and then Russia. Even before knowing my girlfriend, I knew where Poland was. Granted, I had not much of an idea of its…