Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Travel

Learn top 10 ways to prepare your travel

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Lesson Transcript

Hello everybody. My name is Marzena. Welcome to Top Polish Words. Today, we will learn Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Travel.

Okay. So here we go.

1. Wybrać miejsce “to choose your destination”

So, one of the most important is wybrać miejsce means “to choose your destination.”

Wybrać means “to choose” and miejsce literally means “place” but of course, here, we mean like the place where you’re going to.

So wybrać miejsce altogether means, “to choose your destination.”

And for example, you can say,

Wybrałeś już miejsce na kolejne wakacje? "Have you already chosen your next holiday destination?"

Wybrałeś już miejsce na kolejne wakacje? And of course, this is Poland and of course it’s Krakow, Wroclaw. I highly recommend Wroclaw to you. So it’s a wonderful city and you can drink amazing beer in the city center and there is also this Wroclaw Tower, big, very big skyscraper and it’s like the only skyscraper there which is very funny and you can sleep for pretty cheap money in a penthouse at the 46th floor. So be sure to try it out when you’re in Poland.

2. Kupić poradnik “to buy a guidebook.”

Next very important thing is, kupić poradnik. Well, kupić means “to buy” and poradnik mean “a guide” as a person but we are not buying a person here or it can mean poradnik as in guidebook and that’s the poradnik we are talking about. So kupić poradnik means “to buy a guidebook.”

Once again, Kupić poradnik. “To buy a guidebook.”

And I guess nowadays, you would buy a digital guidebook which is just easier to work around but it's a very good way to prepare for your trip and very good way to research as well. I know that we have the internet and all the things on the internet which is amazing but still a guidebook is better prepared.

So you can say to your travel buddy,

Kupisz przewodnik? "Will you buy a guidebook?"

So we can plan, we can start preparing, we can start planning and Kupisz przewodnik? And will you share it with me?

3. Zaoszczędzić pieniądze “to save money”

Our next step is a very important one and it’s zaoszczędzić pieniądze.

Well, zaoszczędzić means “to save” and pieniądze is “money” So zaoszczędzić pieniądze together gives us “to save money” And of course, it’s a very important step not only for traveling but many other things.

For example, you can say,

Musimy zacząć oszczędzać pieniądze. “We need to start saving money.”

And you probably noticed that I am saying zaoszczędzić and here I am saying oszczędzać there is this “za-” part missing from the beginning and that’s okay because zaoszczędzić is already perfect form while zacząć oszczędzać, oszczędzać is an imperfective one. So it’s not finished. It’s not a finished action but it’s the same verb.

4. Zarezerwować lot “to book a flight”

Another important step is, of course, zarezerwować lot. Zarezerwować means “to book” “to book something”; you can book a table, you can book a room, but here we are talking about something different. We are talking about lot, and lot means “flight, a flight.” So zarezerwować lot means “to book a flight.”

So for example, if you already booked your flight, you can say,

Zarezerwowałam lot do Paryża. Well, this time we are talking about Paris, but of course, we want to talk about Warsaw as well. So if you already booked your flight, you can say,

Zarezerwowałam lot do Krakowa. “I booked a flight to Krakow."

Zarezerwowałam lot do Krakowa.

And actually zarezerwowałam is an ending for a girl. So if you are a guy, you don’t want to say zarezerwowałam. You want to say zarezerwowałem. So the very ending changes from lam to lem.

Girl/Guy lam/lem

Zarezerwowałam/zarezerwowałem

5. Podliczyć koszty “to research the costs”

Another important phrase is podliczyć koszty. Podliczyć koszty means “to calculate or actually podliczyć means “to calculate” or “to sum up” and koszty means just “costs.”

So basically very similar to English right? Cost, koszty. Kind of the same sound and podliczyć koszty altogether you can translate as “to research the costs” or “to calculate” “to sum up the costs.”

And of course, this is a very important thing to do. So before you start to actually oszczędzać or to save money, you need to know how much you have to save in order to go somewhere and that’s when it comes in handy.

So for example, you can say,

Pamiętaj, żeby podliczyć koszty. “Remember to research the costs.”

6. Złożyć wniosek o wolne “to request vacation time"

Another important step is if you’re working, you need to złożyć wniosek o wolne. Złożyć means, “to put together” like the literal meaning is “to put together” but here we use it as “submit something” and wniosek o wolne is just the form to get vacation. So altogether, we can translate as “to request vacation time” but literally it just means “to submit for vacation.”

And for example, you can say,

Złożyłeś już wniosek o wolne? “Have you already requested vacation time?”

Złożyłeś już wniosek o wolne?

7. Zarezerwować noclegi “to book accommodations”

The next phrase is zarezerwować noclegi.

So zarezerwować means “to book” and here we are talking about noclegi. Noclegi is a plural form of nocleg which just basically we translate it easily to accommodation.

So zarezerwować noclegi means “to book accommodation.”

And if you’ve already done this, you can say,

Zarezerwowałam nam wszystkie noclegi. “I have booked our accommodations.”

Zarezerwowałam nam wszystkie noclegi.

And actually the same here. Well, zarezerwowałam is for girls. So that’s the feminine form. Zarezerwowałam, the ending while guy would say zarezerwowałem. So the ending is lem.

Zarezerwowałam, feminine and zarezerwowałem, masculine. So choose your form, choose the one to use. And I guess you know, you’ve got a wide range of different types of accommodation in Poland. You can choose very cheap hostel which we basically call the same, hostel or you can choose a hotel. You can go for Airbnb or any kind of this stuff like the kind of blah blah blah again. So you can go for hotel or hostel or Airbnb kind of accommodation and usually I guess the accommodation is not that expensive in Poland, although it depends on the season and surprisingly enough for Warsaw, the middle of summer is not high season. So if you want to, like, visit Warsaw or even Krakow, the middle of summer, it should be on the lower season part because people are going to see... mountains, just taking a break from big cities. So it’s maybe a good time to go to big cities as well.

8. Uzyskać międzynarodowe prawo jazdy “to obtain an international driving license.”

Also, a very important thing to do if you want to drive around Poland is to obtain an international driving license and in Poland, we say or in Polish, we say,

Uzyskać międzynarodowe prawo jazdy.

Uzyskać means “to obtain” or “to get something” or “get profit” is the same uzyskać

międzynarodowe, it means “international” między and this inter is kind of the same part of the word and national or narodowe is the same part. So it’s kind of like a literal translation.

Prawo jazdy, “the driving license” Prawo jazdy, “the right to drive.” Prawo jazdy but of course, it’s driving license.

So uzyskać międzynarodowe prawo jazdy means “to obtain an international driving license” and it’s a very important step to do because if you don’t, you will not be able to rent a car and just drive around Poland which is a very nice thing to do.

For example, you can say,

Aby prowadzić samochód w innych krajach, należy uzyskać międzynarodowe prawo jazdy.

Oh, that was long but it literally means or actually it means,

Aby prowadzić samochód w innych krajach, należy uzyskać międzynarodowe prawo jazdy.

“To drive in another country, you need to obtain an international driving license.”

9. Odnowić paszport “to renew your passport.”

Okay. This is something really not to forget and that’s Odnowić paszport.

Odnowić means “to renew” and paszport is “passport” and please, please, please don’t forget that because I personally once did forget or actually my boyfriend did. So we were almost going to Philippines and that was like almost going to Philippines. We are at the airport and they were checking our passports and they are looking at his passport and it says, “only three more months valid” and to go to the Philippines, you need six months which was basically like well, you lady you can go but he can’t and I was so furious. So please don’t forget to do that. That’s like the stupidest thing you can do. So one thing you can say is,

Muszę sobie odnowić paszport. “I need to renew my passport.”

10. Spakować się “to pack”

Now, when you are almost going, you’ve got your ticket. You’ve got your passport. You’ve got your accommodations. Another thing you can do or you have to do is, Spakować się as a reflexive verb and it means, “to pack yourself.”

Well, actually it literally means, “to pack yourself” So we can say, “to pack” as well.