“Boję się ciapaków” – told me my old university friend. Intelligent, educated, with a diploma in difficult field from a leading Polish university. “Ciapak” is a Polish racial slur for Muslims and Arabs, but also for Indian people and other people with a darker skin. The closest English equivalent would be “Paki”. “I fear Ciapaks” – […]
Scotland
Go West – Barra and Watersay
Scottish Hebrides fell victim to its own success. World famous Isle of Skye became one of the most popular holiday destination, which means that during the summer, swarms of tourists queue in the traffic jams full of coaches and caravans or struggle to find parking space around most popular attraction. With the warm summer finally […]
Can Scotland learn something from Slovakia?
Everyone has those few memories from childhood that stick out. One of mines is the day, when I was about 12 years old and for the first time become witness to serious discussion on the topic of foreign politics. My distant uncle, a prominent Slovakian politician, visited Poland somewhere in 1992. The adults – my […]
Apocalypse now
Glasgow has seen biggest snowfall in years. About 15-20 centimetres. I often mocked Britain for its inability to tackle even a little sprinkle of snow. But that was when it was indeed just a sprinkle. Now, with that amount of snow, it is no longer laughing matter. It is a SNOW ARMAGEDDON. And so, the […]
“Driving in the snow is impossible. Period”
I always loved winter driving. When I lived in Poland, I was taking every opportunity to drive out of the town, or to have some winter fun on the empty supermarket car park. But since I live in the UK, I do it less and less often. And it’s not even because there is rarely […]
Morvern, Ardnamurchan and Moidart
Although Scotland is a sparsely populated country for European standards, those who seek to enjoy it’s beauty on their own can find even those tourists that can be met at Loch Ness or on the route to Skye to be an annoying crowd. Some say that the true uninhabited Scottish mountains can be found only […]
Britons: give me a blowjob* and translate correctly!
Let’s state the obvious: there is an elephant in the room. Britons cannot into languages. Of course, there is many who speak more than just English, but in general, Britain is all about English. Average Briton can live all his life with virtually no contact with foreign languages. There is virtually no foreign music in […]
Scotland allows Poles like me to have our dream lives
The internet nowadays is full of people who are happy to tell you how to have a good life. One group urges you to join them in leaving the rat race, drop everything and retire to some exotic country where life is cheap and beaches are beautiful. Another group includes motivational speakers who urge you […]
Driving lorry on the Atlantic
In previous parts of this feature we have been introduced to the life of a Scottish transport company, providing haulage services to a small community of people living on the Scottish Western Isles. After being introduced to the company profile and everyday operations, we have accompanied a driver on his journey from Glasgow to port […]
Over the hills and far away
In the first part of this reportage we presented you with an overview of the Scottish transport company, Hebrides Haulage. This company operates in a difficult market, providing deliveries of basic goods to people living in one of Europe most remote places. So how it is to be a driver in a firm, that sends […]