patrick.net

Traffic is horrible in Krakow, even in the middle of the day. Don't bother trying to drive anywhere.

Nowhere to park either.

I just saw a gay flag, first one.

Patrick says

You are right. Them too.

Everyone here is aware that the Russians killed all the officers in the Polish army, the massacre at Katyn. 25,000 people.

And no one was ever held to account.

Every country engages in war crimes.

How many people killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Neither city had any military value.

My family oriented aunt is Polish. She is married to my uncle, who is a surgeon and an asshole with regard to how he treats his family members. Tell your relatives that we are proud of their immigration officials.

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

Just one person, no one else among all the people in Krakow.

From my experience, lager would be the most common beer type.

12oz portions are also laughable there.

It could be seasonal though. Lagers are great summer beers. Winter I'd bet on something stronger and darker.

mell says

That's not true. Standard of living in many German, Swiss or Austrian cities is magnitudes better than in the US. These are not exceptions, they are becoming the norm. Asia is not far behind and will overtake the US if its stays on the given path. I agree that esp. European nations do aid to their own downfall with unfettered mass immigration etc, but the US is currently declining faster under xiden, no doubt about it, esp. since leftoids have taken a foothold in most big cities and the still nice touristy rural areas. If you are single maybe the US still wins out, but if you're raising a family it's far behind already.

Meanwhile, on Planet Reality:

Euro zone economy grew JUST 6% over the past 15 years.

US grew 82%.

By 2035, the gap between the US and EU will be as large as that between Japan and Ecuador is today.

But hey! I am sure Ecuador has some nice cities too.

That will happen when you attempt to print your way out of a recession... But the Euro is doing no better, as in Europe the bailouts are by country, not bank..

Patrick says

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

Just one person, no one else among all the people in Krakow.

Did you point and laugh?

Patrick says

I just saw someone wearing a mask.

My wife and I have gone on to Vienna, Austria. I've seen two people wearing masks now, one in full hijab. Lots of Arabs here, and even more Turks.

The Turks finally did succeed in invading Vienna.

I may have missed it above but what all countries are you visiting?

Patrick says

I have to admit that there are tons of really hot Polish women, far more than I expected. Much better than the US.

For sure not many hot Polish women in the US.

@Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

The_Deplorable says

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

Creative Accounting and Financialization. Although in fairness, we do have the vast majority of IP still.

SunnyvaleCA says

Patrick says

I have to admit that there are tons of really hot Polish women, far more than I expected. Much better than the US.

For sure not many hot Polish women in the US.

Few polish people period on the west coast, many in NY/Chicago/Midwest

The_Deplorable says

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

So, where is this higher GDP coming from?

We didn't sent all of our industrial operations, just most our lower tier and a lot of our middle tier industries. Our high tier mostly stayed and grew.

High tier = higher value. That means higher GDP.

But industrial development in and of itself doesn't matter when it comes to GDP. If it did, then the heavily industrialized USSR would have been a juggernaut 2-3 times higher GDP than us.

What matters is the value you produce by what you do. Sure, manufacturing can deliver a lot of GDP...but not as much if is constrained by government. And Europe's economy is stifled by regulation/welfare state bs compared to us. As we are compared to Asia.

But demographic collapse in Asia is putting an end to that disparity and in Europe it will just kill whatever little growth prospects they have. 40% of the EU population will be retirees. China will be just as bad or worse. Russia and Ukraine worse of all.

India has the best prospects and is geopolitically sitting pretty sweet, but for the corruption and caste bullshit.

BayArea says

I may have missed it above but what all countries are you visiting?

Poland, Austria, Czecia

AmericanKulak says

Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

I will look.

In Austria :

In the Wielicka salt mine near Krakow :



And this is way the hell underground.

Center of Tuliszków. My great great grandfather's house is on the far left and he planted the tree with the scar in the center.

Trollhole says

India has the best prospects and is geopolitically sitting pretty sweet.

Why? Help me understand this.

Patrick says

AmericanKulak says

Patrick

Are there White males in commercials?

I will look.

I watched some TV. The majority are white people including white men, but they frequently include blacks and Turks.

The_Deplorable says

This doesn't make sense because unlike Europe, the US sent all their industrial operations - entire factories, the equipment, including the foundation bolts to China.

Agreed. It's irrelevant as GDP alone is mostly worthless without other measures. I say mostly because countries with a reasonably high GDP tend to do better, but it's meaningless once you reach a certain threshold. China is 2nd largest, but certainly way down in quality of life. Same for the US comparison to northern/Middle European countries. GDP per capital is roughly the same, but quality of life in their cities simply beats 80% of US cities. This is true for Switzerland, Germany and parts of Austria for sure, not necessarily sourther or eastern Europe. Demographics are also not really significant as you can sew with Japan, one of the GDP powerhouses and high standard of living. These graphs alone are meaningless.

Trollhole says

Euro zone economy grew JUST 6% over the past 15 years.

US grew 82%.

This is meaningless, clearly you haven't traveled. It doesn't mean the US isn't a great country, but in terms of avg. quality of life it's behind. GDP alone becomes meaningless at some point. With deficit spending it can go infinite. Doesn't translate into better quality of life.

https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp

Vienna is about twice as expensive as Krakow.

We had a far higher quality hotel in Krakow for about $120 per night, the Grand Ascot:

https://grandascot.pl/en/

Patrick says

Poland, Austria, Czecia

No Slovakia? Did you do any hiking, perhaps in the Tatras?

mell says

Doesn't translate into better quality of life.

Spot on. You can have a rising GDP and a declining quality of life, for sure.

Patrick says

We had a far higher quality hotel in Krakow for about $120 per night, the Grand Ascot:

https://grandascot.pl/en/

I didn't see any mention of parking on their website.

mell says

This is meaningless, clearly you haven't traveled. deficit spending it can go infinite.

Seems that someone is smoking the same 'quality of life' rationalization crack pipe that the Europeans have engaged in when faced with this ugly reality.

And deficit spending has nothing to do with it, either. Just another canard thrown out by the economically ignorant.

And let's cut through the 'well travelled snobbery' BS (a virtue signalling tactic typical of the Left) by asking the following question:

Tell me, you live in Europe or in America? In other words, do you live in a high GDP economy or a virtually non-existant GDP one?

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

No Slovakia? Did you do any hiking, perhaps in the Tatras?

Went through it on the train. No hiking, this is a pretty urban trip, except for visiting my grandmother's village.

zzyzzx says

I didn't see any mention of parking on their website.

They do have parking, looks like about 10 spots in the basement.

We're on the way to Prague now.

Trollhole says

mell says

This is meaningless, clearly you haven't traveled. deficit spending it can go infinite.

Seems that someone is smoking the same 'quality of life' rationalization crack pipe that the Europeans have engaged in when faced with this ugly reality.

And deficit spending has nothing to do with it, either. Just another canard thrown out by the economically ignorant.

And let's cut through the 'well travelled snobbery' BS (a virtue signalling tactic typical of the Left) by asking the following question:

Tell me, you live in Europe or in America? In other words, do you live in a high GDP economy or a virtually non-existant GDP one?

I live in both, neither snobbish nor left. I loathe the EU(rocrats) but some of the northern Euroepan countries, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, parts of Austria are just ahead of the US when it comes to quality of life for families, regardless of the EU. Nonetheless the US is one of the greatest countries of the world. You can see the best of worlds in both continents.

Patrick says

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

No Slovakia? Did you do any hiking, perhaps in the Tatras?

Went through it on the train. No hiking, this is a pretty urban trip, except for visiting my grandmother's village.

You'll like Prague, except for that really ugly brutalist reinforced concrete train tunnel that traverses the valley where the city is. They might have removed it, but it really was a big eyesore.

The old city is cool from a demographical standpoint - all the medieval structures have doorways designed for people no more than 5 ft tall. Make sure you visit the castle on the outskirts, where IIRC it was the seat of Charles IV. The Glockenspiel in the center of town is pretty cool as well.

See if you can find some old Commie money - it was really funny with the gear and the bough of wheat, etc.

No one wanted jews , wow. Curious as why so much hate towards them.
https://youtube.com/shorts/zSmcAKS1sy4?feature=share

Curious if this is real?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digvijaysinhji_Ranjitsinhji_Jadeja

"Good Maharaja's Square" in Warsaw, Poland, was named after Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji in recognition of his help to Polish refugees during World War II

KgK one says

No one wanted jews , wow. Curious as why so much hate towards them.
https://youtube.com/shorts/zSmcAKS1sy4?feature=share

They hate the Romi (gypsies), too.

The Russian economy outperforming Germany's

https://unherd.com/thepost/russias-economy-is-outperforming-germanys/

But hey! Germain cities are probably soooo much better!