Polish loos have made great strides....

If any area has made great visible progress since the demise of PRL it is the public lavatory. The toilet facilities in schools, out-patient clinics, public offices, etc. were atrocious - poorly equipped, dirty and odoriferous.

Now - WOW! Modern fittings, sparkling tiles, scrubbed floors, air-fresheners and usually loo paper to boot. Dunno if this holds for every provincial train and PKS station, but in major cities this is usually the case.

Back in the days of commie-era paper shortages, a babcia klozetowa (loo grannny) dispensed 2 sheets of very rough loo paper and it cost 2 zł or so.

In the outback such as rural train and coach stations there were these scoot-down toilets which were something else. They had two skid-proof foot rests and a pull chain for after the deed was done. I had one bad experience. The toilet was clogged up so when the chain was pulled the none-too-aromatic liquid backed up and flooded the cubicle. The user had a choice of one of two basic options: bolting out of the cubicle with his trousers down or pulling up the by-now drenched trousers before leaving. I chose the latter option.

Thanks for all the details! ;) My first trip to Poland was in Spring 1990 and I've experienced all this ;). In a lot of public buildings including hospitals even in Warsaw, it has not improved much and in Polska B, it's still very "exotic". Fortunately, we can now go to McDo!

And what about the grey paper? ;)

Apperances can be deceiving. I go out of my way to get the grey loo paper for the following reasons:
1) It's cheaper;
2) More ecological (its made of makulatura or scrap paper -- no additional trees have to be cut down);
3) It's healthier. Grey is how scrap paper comes out when soaked, dried, whirled and pressed into paper. The snowy white stuff may look a lot better but it has been chemically treated so you are basically rubbing bleaching chemicals into your #%?$!&! The choice is yours!

Sorry but grey paper does not clean anything and it hurts.

InPolska, check out the award-winning toilets at Białystok railway station. (But don't check out the subteranean hellhole beneath the pks station nearby.)

I once point blank refused to pay for the toilet in one PKS station on the grounds that it was diabolical.

Meanwhile, I know of a PKS station that was actually used as a toilet. The station shut down, but they reopened the waiting room as a waiting room during daylight. It then became a toilet.

Still, worst one that I've seen was in Krzyż Wlkp. station - just some standalone shack at the end of the platform, complete with evil toilet attendant and paper towels laid out on a table. I wonder if it's still there?

The last time I attempted to use the PKS loos in B.Stok I did a runner after hearing two men having vigorous sex in one of the cubicles. I later saw one of them coming out. I wonder if the Mac Shack opposite knew how he spent his lunch break. Hope he washed his hands.

You are right about this. Bleach is not a butt friendly chemical!

OooOoo! I thought this gray demon paper existed only in the former USSR...

I do like the idea that it is sustainably made from recycled newspapers and cardboard (sometimes you could even see the odd letter within the paper), but it definitely ripped up your anus like nothing else.

I see the toilet evolution in Poland has been more or less parallel to what was happening in Russia.

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@Bobko
It looks like sandpaper.

More importantly - it feels like sandpaper.

Sure...Imagine you need to go Sunday morning at the intersection of Aleje Jerozolimskie and Nowy Swiat. Good luck...Paper quality will be your last problem.