Queues in Poland - everyone in line is sandwiched

I thought Polish people were decent, but now you're trying to tell me they have gangbangs in the supermarket??

xD

I have a lame sense of humour sometimes, sorry.

Its a lemming thing......

Merged: Standing in line & personal space in Poland

I'm Polish but was raised abroad and have at times spent time living in Poland (for 1 year or two) and am back again for about 2 years. It's nothing new to me, but this time around the bizarre invading of personal and even intimate space is driving me bonkers. People get *way* too close when I do transactions, I can't even keep my pin private. They move so close sometimes I feel like bending over butt-naked in prison would be more pleasant. Recently in a post office, a place where these violations are the norm, I moved a few steps to the left to weigh a package, and a guy actually moved right in front of the window where I was doing my business. I asked him to move, and he moved just enough centimeters so I could fit in - even though this is the post office where I can be exchanging plenty of personal information (cheques, IDs, addresses, etc.) and no one has any business being that close. We got into a verbal fight, with him not budging and me feeling like I wanted to jump his throat.

I've stayed extensively in many countries, from the US to China, but Poland seems to really take the crown when it comes to invading personal space. Any thoughts on why this is so pervasive and severe?

This is particularly so with old folks. How many times do I have people litterarly glued to me!!! I make comments and/or show them that I'm not too happy so they move a bit away. It is really unpleasant.

We had a particularly weird experience in Croatia last year. We went down to the pretty empty beach armed with all the usual stuff, set up and got comfy in the sun. About an hour late, a couple of Poles turned up and decided to set up about a metre away from me - on a mostly empty beach. Strange, but ok. Then the rest of their family turned up and decided to come right next to us - including one teenage girl that was lying with her face at my feet. The bloody beach wasn't crowded at all, but because we could understand their conversations (but they couldn't understand us...) - it transpires that they had been 'going there every day' and that 'those English people are in our space'.

No, I don't understand it at all. It's not like it was a prime spot on the beach or anything other than just a random place.

..... or they come to sit right with you on the bus/tram/train or at restaurant/café when the whole place is empty or almost empty (I have often seen Germans doing so too). It really bothers me! I don't like to sit with strangers when we don't have to be together ;).

Yes and dont ask anyone how they are. Often in the UK when you say "hello, how are you?" its met with a "fine thanks" or something similar. In Poland the greeting is taken as a question and a license to start talking about their problems.

I assume they were hoping to make you uncomfortable enough that you would relocate...

Yes space invasion in Poland is most annoying, its annoying that the next customer is pushing into your back at the checkout or when in a queue .

In a queue I turn around and ask them to give me space.. this works.

In the Supermarket I keep the trolley behind me when unloading, so that the trolley acts like a buffer, but they still get too close to the trolley when I bend over to reach the furthest items they then end, they the usually get a dig in the ankles from the trolley if they are too close.

It looks like it, but it was absolutely surreal. They were the classic 'idiots abroad', or should I say 'buraks abroad' - even down to the fact that one of them left early to prepare the rosół. For the next few days, we were killing ourselves laughing as they sent someone down early in the morning to place towels in the Germanic fashion ;) It was a shame that their towels didn't mysteriously end up in the sea :(


Yes! I've had this on the bus before - an large, mostly empty bus, and I'm fond of sitting at the front of the bus. I'm sitting there peacefully when some middle aged guy gets on with his wife, and he sits right next to me with his wife sitting on the seat across. It was painfully obvious that she wanted to sit where I wanted to sit, but of course, it was better for her to make rude comments than to simply ask nicely if she could have the seat.

"lol"! Ah the ....so famous German towels!!! We all have experience with them!!! ;). Just like Germans standing in line in front of door to restaurant (in hotel) and running like mad people to the buffet as soon as the employee opens the door ;). I have never seen Poles doing so ;).

Germans have a truly amazing talent for antagonizing people. How many other nationalities can drive people to rage with nothing more at hand than towels?

Germans justify their rude behavior by rationalizing that they alone have been Europe's eternal "Land in the Middle", bereft of borders and thus of the luxury of privacy. Therefore, when finding themselves on the open road or in a buffet-style situation, they overcompensate by driving like maniacs or, respectively, storming the bleedin' joint! After WWII, most returning from war had known years of hunger in a way the Allies, even the Russians hadn't to the same degree. Scenes of ordinary German citizens, Nazi or not, rummaging through rubbish bins for food and licking the sides of the lids is enough to make even the most hardened (Jewish much less!!) Germanophobe wring tears from their eyes.

when each German uses 3 or 4 seats by throwing a towel on each seat and then other hotel (paying) guests cannot use hotel seats, sorry, this is not acceptable. It must be cultural (or genetic?) since Germans do it everywhere.

@Lyszko: I don't care whether they have "excuses" and I am sure other hotel guests don't care either. Tourists pay and they all have the right to use hotel facilities.

Stick to the topic please