A Big Thank You to Poland and the Polish for a Very Memorable Tournament

Higher

Apologies if there has already been a thread of this nature but I can't seem to find one.

I would just like to make a thread to thank the Polish people for being so kind, warm and generous throughout our stay. From Poznan to Gdansk and Sopot not one Irish person I met had a bad word to say about the Poles. Gorgeous women who will chat the ear off you and really fun lads who are only more than happy to show you around their cities best watering spots and engage in a bit of banter. The police were excellent throughout and to be honest probably better behaved than our own in similar situations. The Polish did not jack up the prices in the pubs or restaurants as I expected either. I was also impressed with how patient and mannered they were because to be honest we were all very drunken a lot of the time!

Huge respect for the Polish and thank you for hosting us Irish and showing us such a great time.

Fenix

Roy Keane would have a field day with you.

kryogen

Ah yeah, typical Irish, just there for a holiday huh?

mikemac1

Higher wrote: »

The police were excellent throughout and to be honest probably better behaved than our own in similar situations.

Any examples of the gardaí badly managing large crowds of football supporters?

Higher

mikemac1 wrote: »

Any examples of the gardaí badly managing large crowds of football supporters?

I am referring to large masses of drunken people. I witness Gardai losing their heads more easily in Temple Bar on a Saturday night. That said Polish police were obviously on best behaviour. Still I was impressed.

Samich

I don't think any polish people who live in Poland frequent this site.

Higher

There lots of Polish on this site who will be happy to hear it tbh.

stovelid

mikemac1 wrote: »

Any examples of the gardaí badly managing large crowds of football supporters?

Never any gardaI at the woolshed for big games. It's a disgrace.

Paco Rodriguez

Havent had the experience of being there but the stadiums and ceremonies have been well run. That kick off countdown is a great addition too.
But it has been a well run competition.
And thanks to the Ukrainians too.

bohsman

mikemac1 wrote: »

Any examples of the gardaí badly managing large crowds of football supporters?

Well played. Numerous examples of them badly managing small crowds of footie supporters though.

dfx-

mikemac1 wrote: »

Any examples of the gardaí badly managing large crowds of football supporters?

They don't need large numbers. Have you heard of how the Fitzgibbon St gentlemen policed Glentoran's visit to Dublin...

Bodhisopha

Mods?

homerjay2005

ive been to poland many times and i can tell you, their attitude is normally completely different. i think they were told to calm it down alot in Poznan after the first day or two.

they normally wouldnt give you the time of the day if you asked them, so their more relaxed approach after day 1 was certainly refreshing.

dirtyden

bohsman wrote: »

Well played. Numerous examples of them badly managing small crowds of footie supporters though.

They should not have to manage football 'fans'. If certain elements tend to behave like animals they should be treated as such.

dobsdave

Fair play op, but not sure a thread was required?

Roll on the new season ;-)

bohsman

dirtyden wrote: »

They should not have to manage football 'fans'. If certain elements tend to behave like animals they should be treated as such.

They don't need to but they enjoy overtime so they intimidate and send out riot squads for practice sessions to tiny crowds of normal supporters. Longford away was one such training day and believe me there's never trouble between Longford fans and Bohs fans.

stovelid

dirtyden wrote: »

They should not have to manage football 'fans'. If certain elements tend to behave like animals they should be treated as such.

Do you know the specific incidents he's referring to or do you just fancy spouting **** for the sake of it.

kitakyushu

The Polish: A great bunch of lads.

Liam O

Apart from being ripped off for a taxi in Gdansk there was absolutely nothing wrong with the prices though they were a fair bit more expensive in Poznan and Gdansk in general than Lódz where I stayed but it wasn't by too much.

Hell there were even some fans of Lechia Gdansk who led us through some dodgy looking back alleys and got us to the stadium far quicker than we would have, all while giving out about the English media's portrayal of them as violent

carlop

I fully agree with the OP. Everybody was unbelievably sound and always eager to help. To kind of sum it up, our last train the other day the four of us get into a 6-man compartment. There's one elderly man there too. We're disgracefully hungover, smell quite strongly of vomit, and general camping/holiday musk and would have fully understood if the man had given us a dirty look or moved compartment.

Instead he whips out 8 bars of chocolate and gives us two each! This kind of random generosity happened throughout the trip.

Corholio

carlop wrote: »

I fully agree with the OP. Everybody was unbelievably sound and always eager to help. To kind of sum it up, our last train the other day the four of us get into a 6-man compartment. There's one elderly man there too. We're disgracefully hungover, smell quite strongly of vomit, and general camping/holiday musk and would have fully understood if the man had given us a dirty look or moved compartment.

Instead he whips out 8 bars of chocolate and gives us two each! This kind of random generosity happened throughout the trip.

So you took candy from an old man while you were intoxicated?

Don't want to know the rest of that story :pac:

monkey9

This thread is a good opportunity for fans who went over to Poland to share their stories and experiences. I'm sure there's plenty of funny incidents to tell of.

df1985

I would thank the original post 100 times if i could. the polish were fantastic, the police were sound, even the skinhead steroid boys who you were told to avoid were bang on.

I will be in poznan again some day, would have never even heard of the place before the tournament-great city, great people.

SantryRed

Met four lads who were in our compartment on the train to Poznan from Berlin on the 9th. They all seemed pretty hammered from the night before so we got some bottles from the bar and they decided to keep drinking to stop a hangover. When we got into Poland, about 10 Polish police got on the train, some were massive bastards. Anyways they walked through the train a couple of times and stopped outside our compartment until the next stop came so they could get off. One of the lads decided to go back to the bar and had to squeeze past the policemen, one of the policemen had to go tight up against the window to allow the lad to squeeze by so this lad decided to pat the massive police man down as if he was searching him. You could hear a pin drop in the compartment as we looked on with horror, until the big bastard police man turned around, laughed, high fived your man and chilled in our compartment until the next stop :pac:

ArmaniJeanss

I'd gone to 'dangerous deadly racist' Krakow with a work crew a few years ago that included an Asian guy and a Maori girl and we'd a fantastic friendly time there.
So was immediately suspicious of all the Panorama style warnings about Poland, and was unsuprised to have a another great week.

Couple of nice touches I experienced were a) we booked an apartment in both cities suburbs through agencies which is generally an impersonal transaction, but in this case the owners of both made contact and insisted on meeting us at airports and train stations and ferrying us to the apartment, ditto when leaving. Also left gratis beer and food in the fridges which is not the norm.
b) Out in the suburbs just the amount of Polish randomers shouting 'Ireland' and clapping as we walked down the street, made feel that extra bit welcome.

Cops were great as previously stated. Obviously their strict 'no drinking on the streets' rules were totally relaxed for the 3 weeks which is a credit to them and the local authorities. I fear if Ireland hosts 2020 that the opposite will apply, I foresee a combo of the Vintners Lobbyists and the 'wont someone think of the children' brigade leading to a zero tolerance approach to the on-street socialising which was by far best of the trip.

Doubs

Here here, the hospitality and friendliness shown to us by polish people to us was incredible.

One of the notable changes I witnessed re the police was their presence as the streets as the tournament progressed. For the Croatia match there were 100'd of riot cops decked out on several corners (although there were rumours of the Croatian and Polish fans trying to get at each other). For Spain there were a few but not as visible. When back in Poznan for Italy there was only a smattering of riot cops and their riot helments had been replaced with baseball caps and smiles. To be fair we were drunk a lot of the time and the patience they showed was a credit to them, they seemed to get that we were no trouble from the off.

My other memory is the amount of Polish people who were on the streets for the Italy game, and came up to us telling us what great fans we were and how they'd miss us, and thanking us for putting their city on the map (as a result of all the coverage of Irish fans). I'd hardly go that far, but it was nice of them to say so. Felt proud to be Irish.

Leiva

I was really impressed by the Polish people and general welcome we got.
The Irish fans craic and open attitude kinda broke the ice and dissolved any concerns the locals may have had. They simply hopped on board and the rest is history.
It was a great great success for open friendly atmosphere and how different fans should mix and interact, as not only the locals, I saw Croatian, Italian and Spanish lads get fully involved in an Irish led party

Around 15 of us somehow hopped on the wrong tram heading to the Italy game.
A polish girl (20ish) explained in English our predicament and kindly explained how to get off the tram and catch two others to the stadium.
Well not only that;she got off and waited with us for the right tram. When we got off around another 20 supporters joined the group as she guided a couple of blocks to the second tram - all us singing "she is bringing all home for tea, she is bringing us home for tea"
She was laughing her head off at around 40 Irish supporters following behind her. She waiting for the right tram to come and only left when we got on .

Just a little story of the many kind things we experienced whilst in Poland.
I was in Gdansk, Touran, and Poznan and I felt as welcome in all.

10/10 Poland !

mada999

yep, the polish were very warm and friendly... in fact the only trouble we had was from drunk Irish gímps...

on the way to the Croatia game one of the trams broke down...we were an hour away on foot, some polish people stopped and rang a taxi for us....but it was gonna take 30 mins.. so onward we walked, some polish guy in his car called us over and give us a lift to the stadium what a legend!!

we rented an apartment in Gdansk from this sweet blonde honey and she had nice bread, meat and cheese for us to munch on.... savage!!

Ganymede Glow

carlop wrote: »

I fully agree with the OP. Everybody was unbelievably sound and always eager to help. To kind of sum it up, our last train the other day the four of us get into a 6-man compartment. There's one elderly man there too. We're disgracefully hungover, smell quite strongly of vomit, and general camping/holiday musk and would have fully understood if the man had given us a dirty look or moved compartment.

Instead he whips out 8 bars of chocolate and gives us two each! This kind of random generosity happened throughout the trip.

Morzadec

Can only add to what has been said - beautiful cities and warm and generous people who made us feel so welcome and at home right from the start. Cheap beer and food, and beautiful women, and the banter and fun had between Polish and Irish was great to see. I would also congratulate the Irish fans, who for the most part represented their country brilliantly and to whom the locals responded really well to.

I would highly recommend visiting Poznan, Gdansk, Sopot or Torun to anyone for a weekend trip.

Well done Poland.

The_Kew_Tour

The two cities were fantastic . People could not be nicer.

I will be shouting for Poland if they make major tournament unless of course they play Ireland.

10/10

Sútalún

I can only echo what everyone else has said.. The only complaint I have is a sore neck from having a gander at all the beautiful women! Shall be making a return trip to Sopot without doubt.

n32

Just to echo the sentimentsof the other posters, thanks so much for a great experience. What was more enjoyable than the holiday / football was meeting so many friendly Poles who treated us like friends instead of holidaymakers.

On the other hand, fúck you poland for the fact that i ll never be able to look at a woman again without saying ''theres way better in poland'':D:D:D

billyhead

I spend a week in Poland for the Euros and must echo what other posters have said. The real sense of cameraderie and freindliness shown by the Polish people towards the Irish must be congratulated. The women were stunning and they seemed to have adoted the Irish team as there second team during our participation in the tournament. The only downside was the service provided in restaurants were I felt some places we ate in the restaurant staff were ignorant but in general It was a great experience and the Polish public were very nice. I would throughly receommend Poznan in particular as destination for a stag or Hen party as the Sqaure were the city hall was would be ideal for a booze up

carlop

I wrote out a longer summary of the trip for another forum that I might as well post up here too.

Got back from the Euros last night and pretty much two and a half weeks without internet. Despite the disappointment on the pitch, I have to say it was an amazing experience. I'm sure there's been a good few trip reports done in both the mainstream press and here, so rather than do a whole diary thing, I thought I'd pick out some of the moments that best summed up the trip.

1. The Fields of Athenry after the Spain game was a special moment and received a lot of coverage, but for me my favourite example of Irish supporters came after the Croatia match. We're all in a makeshift bar near the stadium and there's quite a sombre mood. There are a few Croatians making some noise and people are congratulating them, but there's a real sense of realisation that we're basically out of the tournament.

The music in this bar was just the barmaid loading up requested youtube videos and songs. One of my mates goes over and requests a track. He refuses to tell us what it is, but says we'll enjoy it.

Next thing we know, 'Things can only get Better' by D-ream comes on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtvT-H4Du9A

The whole place goes nuts, and for the next hour there's a proper party atmosphere in the place. It even got to the point where the Croatians were sulking off confused, trying to understand how we were having a better time than they were.

I think this enduring, almost ironic optimism is what makes people love the Irish fans.

2. - We came into Poland from Berlin and we stayed in Torun for the first leg of our trip. To get to Torun we had to change trains in Poznan, and because of a delay in our first train we missed our connection. We had to wait a couple of hours for the next one, so we set off to find a bar to watch the opening game, Poland - Greece.

The match had already kicked off so we wanted to find a place quickly. We came to this very dingy looking place with what looked like a few fairly down-trodden lads watching the match. After quickly concluding we weren't going to find much else in the immediate area, we ventured in.

This was our first interaction with the locals so we rather nervously took a seat at the back. Straight away some guy goes to us 'Ah Irish, come sit here' and makes space for us at his table. The guy had no front teeth and his clothes didn't really look like they'd been near a washing machine for quite a while, but me and my brother took him up on his offer.

It turned out the guy had lived in Newry for a few years, and though his English wasn't great, we chatted away for the rest of the match. He even bought us a few pints. The rest of the bar had no English at all, but various others came up to us and gave us Polish flags, or asked to swap scarves. Despite the disappointment at Greece equalising, they did everything possible to make us feel welcome.

We hung the flag they gave us on the railing during the match, and because we had to run off to catch our train we forgot it. It brought a smile to my face to see it still there the day we left Poznan for the final time two weeks later.

This whole situation was typical throughout the tournament and in every place we went. The locals were just unbelievably sound, helpful and generous.

One day we were bowling and having a few beers. The lad in the lane next to us was getting a good laugh out of our Mr. Burns imitations (dropping the ball at the top of the lane and letting it roll down as slow as possible) and some high-fives were exchanged. After he leaves, the barman comes round with four Chivas whiskeys and says that on his way out, the lad in the lane next to us had paid for our next round of drinks.

Another old lad just started giving us all bars of chocolate on the train, despite the fact we were all horrifically hungover and smelt of a mix of vomit and general camping odour.

It can't be stated enough times just how sound the Polish were, and any fears caused by the Panorama documentary and general scaremongering were very quickly proven to be groundless.

3 - I can't think of a specific example for this, but the amount of times where we would ask for the bill after a meal and then laugh at how cheap it was was great. It's no exaggeration to say that you could survive on a tenner a day if you wanted to, so when you've budgeted for a lot more you can really live like a king.

As far as I could tell, there was very little price gouging going on, with the one exception being accommodation. This led to a few funny situations when we were camping. We'd go out for a three-course good quality meal in some really nice town square and a load of drinks and take unnecessary taxis everywhere only to go home and sleep in a tent.

Tl;dr - Great atmosphere throughout in a country that easily exceeded our expectations on every front. I never thought Poznan or Gdansk were that beautiful, I didn't think the people would be so friendly, and while I knew there'd be a few hot women, I didn't realise just how many 10s would be strolling around the place! I'll definitely be back.

dirtyden

stovelid wrote: »

Do you know the specific incidents he's referring to or do you just fancy spouting **** for the sake of it.

Enlighten me then. There are 2 sides to every situation though, and I know a number of guards in Perase street who certainly are not crying out for overtime to babysit thugs. And he did not refer to a specific incident in that post, it was what you may call '**** spouting', i would rather call it a generalisation.

bohsman

dirtyden wrote: »

Enlighten me then. There are 2 sides to every situation though, and I know a number of guards in Perase street who certainly are not crying out for overtime to babysit thugs. And he did not refer to a specific incident in that post, it was what you may call '**** spouting', i would rather call it a generalisation.

Longford away was an absolute joke, kids peppersprayed, full riot squad out and about, Bohs fans warned by friends in the Gardai that there would be trouble, no thugs at the game to babysit. While Tallaght Gardai have generally been very good for any Rovers-Bohs game they were an absolute joke for the Bohs - Pats Setanta Cup final. Gardai taking a Union Jack and throwing it in a bin at a Setanta Cup game in Dalymount another shocker.

If the Polish Police had reacted the way the Gardai do there would have been mayhem over there. Several photos around of Irish joking around with them, the Gardai reaction would have been baton charging those thugs.

dirtyden

bohsman wrote: »

Longford away was an absolute joke, kids peppersprayed, full riot squad out and about, Bohs fans warned by friends in the Gardai that there would be trouble, no thugs at the game to babysit. While Tallaght Gardai have generally been very good for any Rovers-Bohs game they were an absolute joke for the Bohs - Pats Setanta Cup final. Gardai taking a Union Jack and throwing it in a bin at a Setanta Cup game in Dalymount another shocker.

If the Polish Police had reacted the way the Gardai do there would have been mayhem over there. Several photos around of Irish joking around with them, the Gardai reaction would have been baton charging those thugs.

Fair enough, but I will have to take your word for all of this. If a Garda at the game was questioned about these incidents I am pretty sure he would have a different take on events.

I was really just annoyed about the derailing of the thread which was simply a thank you to the Polish hosts at Euro 2012 but which some had to sidetrack into something different quite un-necessarily.

bohsman

dirtyden wrote: »

Fair enough, but I will have to take your word for all of this. If a Garda at the game was questioned about these incidents I am pretty sure he would have a different take on events.

I was really just annoyed about the derailing of the thread which was simply a thank you to the Polish hosts at Euro 2012 but which some had to sidetrack into something different quite un-necessarily.

Absolutely, all I will say is that intimidation just isn't the way to go with large crowds of people. I, as a Bohs fan have 3 stories, fans of plenty of other teams will have similar. They do a good job most of the time and not a hope would I do their job but you can generally tell prematch how it's going to go whether they are having a laugh with fans or are searching everyone and acting menacing, guess they are just following orders.

Also the local Gardai in Longford were shocked at the actions of the riot squad and did their best giving out water to help with the injured.

dirtyden

bohsman wrote: »

Absolutely, all I will say is that intimidation just isn't the way to go with large crowds of people. I, as a Bohs fan have 3 stories, fans of plenty of other teams will have similar. They do a good job most of the time and not a hope would I do their job but you can generally tell prematch how it's going to go whether they are having a laugh with fans or are searching everyone and acting menacing, guess they are just following orders.

Fair points.

I think sometimes mis-information to Gardai may result in situations like you have described, where perhaps they are mistakenly expecting and prepared for trouble. I thought that with the incident you described in Longford there was some trouble with a small group who arrived to cause trouble (a group who liked to affiliate themselves with Bohs but who i am sure the club will have no stock with) but in that case the response was most likely heavy handed.

bohsman

dirtyden wrote: »

Fair points.

I think sometimes mis-information to Gardai may result in situations like you have described, where perhaps they are mistakenly expecting and prepared for trouble. I thought that with the incident you described in Longford there was some trouble with a small group who arrived to cause trouble (a group who liked to affiliate themselves with Bohs but who i am sure the club will have no stock with) but in that case the response was most likely heavy handed.

It seems in that case that there was some misinformation given to the Guards a few days before the game about one minibus that was travelling down which is why the riot squad was there. There is however nobody to cause any trouble with in Longford and more likely it was a case of a (now former) Bohs director with a grudge causing trouble for some fans, Gardai almost certainly outnumbered the total attendance and there are photos floating around of a 14 year old kid with his eyes bandaged.

Anyway, to get back on topic it seems they have done a great job in Euro 2012 and fans for the most part have shown that football fans don't always need segregation.

Paparazzo

I was talking to a Polish guy who lives beside me in Dublin, he was just back in Poland for a week. He said "What's the story with the irish fans? All my friends were raving about them". He's not a football fan, but he was saying the locals really got on well and loved the Irish fans.

TL,DR: We're legends

Hard Worker

dirtyden wrote: »

Enlighten me then. There are 2 sides to every situation though, and I know a number of guards in Perase street who certainly are not crying out for overtime to babysit thugs. And he did not refer to a specific incident in that post, it was what you may call '**** spouting', i would rather call it a generalisation.

Gardai in Pearse Street don't deal with any League of Ireland Grounds.

Paparazzo

bohsman wrote: »

Absolutely, all I will say is that intimidation just isn't the way to go with large crowds of people. I, as a Bohs fan have 3 stories, fans of plenty of other teams will have similar. They do a good job most of the time and not a hope would I do their job but you can generally tell prematch how it's going to go whether they are having a laugh with fans or are searching everyone and acting menacing, guess they are just following orders.

Also the local Gardai in Longford were shocked at the actions of the riot squad and did their best giving out water to help with the injured.

Ah, come on! They're woeful! Any time I see an internation match, or club game outside ireland the police are watching the crowd. How many times were you at a LoI game and the police spent the entire time watching the crowd? They're usually leaning on a barrier, half looking at the game, half talking to their mate. Then something is thrown over their heads onto the pitch and they have big serious heads on them looking into a crowd of a few hundred as if they can pick out the person who threw it.
They're usually sound to chat to, but do a terrible job professionally.

yesno1234

Looks like we made as big an impression on them as they made on us.

NaiveMelodies

One particular story that sticks out in my mind as an example of the friendliness of the Polish was on our drive from Poznan to Gdansk.
We'd managed to get lost due to a lack of GPS, and ended up in some tiny rural town off the beaten track.
We asked some fellow at a petrol station how to get back on the road to Gdansk, he hadn't a word of english, so he took us to his friends house, who had the tiniest bit of English!
Anyway from there, your man proceded to drive us(our van!) for 20 minutes back onto the road to Gdansk, pulled over at a petrol station while his mate followed, we tried to give him some beers but he wouldn't accept.

Another stop off 2 hours down the road, I ran into a cafe to ask how long to Gdansk, the stunner told me another 300km! I was nearly in tears, and she gave me a coffee free of charge, cheered me up for the rest of the drive!
Just ridiculously sound, and something I wouldn't imagine happens too often over here...

Polska Bialo Czerwoni!

doncarlos

Paco Rodriguez wrote: »

That kick off countdown is a great addition too..

Are you joking? That is the worst thing to happen to football since England won the World Cup in 1966

doncarlos

I'd echo some of the previous statements about the poles, they couldn't do enough for us.
The funniest situation I came across though was we were in a dodge enough area near the stadium in Gdansk outside of a Chinese restaurant finishing a couple of cans before we went in and noticed a very rough looking gentleman driving passed in an old banger a number of times. He finally pulled up beside us rolls down the window and shouts "Irish come here". We stayed still and were too shocked/scared to talk. He jumps out grabs one of my friends hands and puts a big bag of weed in it. Shouts "I love Irish", jumps back in to the car and drives away.

Gotta love the Poles. Mad feckers the lot of em!

Ormus

doncarlos wrote: »

Are you joking? That is the worst thing to happen to football since England won the World Cup in 1966

Seven Nation Army is worse. That music will forever be the sound of Ireland conceding yet another goal.

Leiva

yesno1234 wrote: »

Looks like we made as big an impression on them as they made on us.

Brillant !

We done something right .