PAYING TO TAKE A PISS IN POLAND, it's BIZARRE

when travelling around europe i found this paying for the toilet bizarre...in australia we never have to pay to use restroom facilities. and we have signs up in bars/pubs to stop people coming in and using restroom.

and the funny thing is, that the public toilets in europe are not even close to to being as clean as australia's public toilets.

I don't buy it. In Toronto there's loads of bums and beggars. They don't all crowd public toilets. Public places like shopping centers all offer free pee service. If there's a problem with bums then security just kicks them out or the owner will do it. When I go to Poland I can never get used to this idea of paying to urinate. It's a basic human function. What if you have one or two złotys and you have to decide between peeing or for a ticket home?? Or what if you've got a weak bladder? You'd go broke ehehehehehe.

Places in Poland where you can just go in and use a free clean toilet:
-shopping centres
-McDonald's
-pubs and restaurants
-public libraries, culture centres, university buildings etc.
In a city you can always find a free toilet if you know where to look for it.

I've tried the pub technique. You need the toilet, so you go to a pub. You feel as though you ought to have a drink. So you get a drink, use the toilet, then enjoy your drink. By the time the glass is empty, you suddenly need the toilet again. If it doesn't happen then, then it happens when you get outside, so either way, you need to do the same thing again and find another pub, or you just stay in the first one and order another drink.

Drink shorts rather than beer. There's less to recycle.

Just to be awkward. I can think of at least one shopping centre in Wroclaw where one has to pay.

The best is when the toilet lady asks you "number 1 or number 2?" Sometimes it costs more to **** (50 groszy or so more) and you have to tell her or she won't give you any toilet paper!!

Anyways, it doesn't make sense why they have old babcias charging to use the bathrooms!?! Proceeds from sales should be used to keep the bathrooms clean. Heck, raise the price of everything a few pennies to help cover the costs of cleaning. I think it's a ridiculous and extremely weird/bizzare custom. They should think about the tourists.

Building and maintaining a toilet so that someone could come and take a pisss for free - bizarre!


It's not exactly free. It's paid for by the vendors, who charge a little extra so they can meet the bottom line, so in fact it is paid by the shoppers.

Now, as or the Toronto's pisssing heaven, you haven't really told us the full juicy details :).

Did they finally vote that new law allowing people to take a leak anywhere where there is a toilet? Or do people still have to buy a coffee and a donut (or a breakfast) first if they want to pisss?

how so?

Easy. This is pretty much similar to any amenity in any place.
Want a free bed in a hotel? Breakfast to come along? Or perhaps care to watch the latest movie in my rec room?

The fact is that this way or another someone pays for the "free" pisss.

i understand what you're getting, but does this also mean that we should pay to **** at work? going by your logic, it is an amenity and someone has to pay for it.

what was the situation in poland under communism?

at work we get paid a wee bit less so we can take a leak ;)


Most public toilets were paid.

Now, I understand the protest against paid peeing. I even got embarrassed one time in Worclaw railway station when I simply forgot to toss that coin before leaving. The woman ran after me like she was running for her life :))

Still, in an average North American city I'd be happy to pay some small fee for a public toilet but ... are there any?

i used the toilets in warsaw in the central station and the state of the toilets was horrible, like they hadnt been cleaned since the end of ww2. i dont think i ended up paying and cant remember being chased for a zwolty.

railway stations are usually the worst, and considering the traffic and the urgency some visitors feel I guess one might have to employ a "babcia" for every stall. In North America many toilets in highway service area could do with those too.

OK fair point. Some- and I stress "some" places lock their bathrooms and only open them if you're a paying customer. Usually these are mom and pop businesses. But I'd say 90% of public places like airports, train/bus stations, shopping centres and big chain restaurants/coffee shops don't give a damn if you use their facility to pee. I always manage to sneak into a Tim Hortons for a leak. If it's night and everything's closed than I find a brick wall hehehehe. The girls though don't have that option unfortunately.

it wasnt just poland, it was all over europe as well.

just looks like some ole babcia's have setup shop and started charging people for pishka and their penchant for cleaning was up the dupa.

That's true, you just have to look but I'm not sure about pubs and restaurants. Here most pubs/restaurants want you to be a paying customer before using their toilets so that isn't really free. Many department stores have customer toilets.

You have to pay to take a pee in most cities and towns in Ireland also. It makes sense when you think about it, public urinals encourage anti social behaviour, grafitti etc . . . at least if you have to pay to pee in a star trek style pee pod, well you can pee hygienically in peace

"and the funny thing is, that the public toilets in europe are not even close to to being as clean as australia's public toilets."

Not sure about Poland as I never needed one, but I havent seen a public toilet in ireland for over 10 yrs, they are almost all gone. Although I do remember my gf paying to have a pee in Mc Donalds / Krakow recently, she didnt seem to mind and the alternative might have been tragic :|

Some McDonalds in PL now have a system where you have to buy something, because the bathroom had a keypad entry system, and this is given to you on the receipt. (I've seen this at McD's in Poznan, and also ran across it in another fast foot chain in Spain).

I can remember pay toilets in the USA when I was small (let's say, in the early 70's). It was quite common to find bathrooms in which you had to insert a time into a gizmo and it unlocked the stall. (Urinals were free.) You'd find this in shopping centers, airports...

Somewhere I heard that this disappeared due to some legislation prohibiting pay toilets? I remember some years later they were trying to put those self-cleaning toilet kiosks on the streets of New York, and there was some problem due to the inability to charge for it.

See what happens when you steal toilet paper..

iść pod krzaczek

I went to Poland and had to pay for using the restaurant's washroom. Paying for a public washroom is one thing I don't like, but paying for the use of a bathroom at a restaurant where you just paid for services....well..isn't that against sanitation laws or something? Shouldn't each full services restaurant provide a washrooms for free? That's Poland for ya! Pay up or pee yourself..lol

I remember I had to pay for a **** at McDonald's in Warsaw by centrum.

it's BIZARRE how p i s s is censored in the thread but not title

that's why i always like to 'take it home'...
;)

what is even more bizarre is that earlier posts with p i s s were allowed uncensored.

It looks like ****s is ok, **** isn't.

Oh nevermind.

well obvious the original owner of the toilet is making a fortune off euro's-peeing

ahh bad joke.. ;D j/k folks, j/k

The other issue is bacteria and viruses.

If people have to pay extra for washing their hands, some won't.

Their hands will come in contact with other people and items, and will spread viruses and bacteria which comes from feces.

Washing hands should be free.

They have it in many many Europeans countries, it becoming more common in the UK too - Im happy if the toilets are kept clean not exactly a large price to pay.

actually one must pay to use public restrooms (WC) all over europe but here stateside too. NYC and other places on the east coast charge for bathroom use as well as showers etc.. all coin operated just like in EU.

it is like every where else, unless rychlik has some other experiences.

In McDonalds (Warsaw anyway) they check you have a receipt before letting you into the bog.

The thing that gets me isn't paying the Babcia Klozetowa (no problem there) but is when bars keep the key behind the bar, as if it's some kind of great tragedy if the wrong person uses the loo. In a busy bar, the staff don't remember who's a customer anyway.

I've only seen this here - there must be a reason or at least some underlying cause.