forgotten memories of Poland...

well first let me tell you that bathrooms in Poland are WIERD! First of all you have to pay to use almost any bathroom at a public place - the train station, tourist attractions, the mall, etc. It's usually 1 or 2 zloty and the first time I didn't understand. I was in the train station waiting for my train when I went and I walked in and there are two old ladies in the men's bathroom. They put out their hand and the only word I understood was zloty (the Polish currency). We then started talking and they told me that I had to pay them to use the bathroom. It was so wierd cause they're just milling around the bathroom while I'm in there - odd place.

Polish people are very cognizant of homeless people or other beggars in Warsaw. The shop people go a long way to "protect" tourists from them. Twice at outdoor kiosk shops and once in an outdoor cafe I was approached by beggars and every time the same thing happened. At the restaurant the waitress put herself physically between me and they guy and then just proceeded to stare the guy down with a look that could kill. He left. At the shops the same thing happened - the male salesmen placed themselves physically between us - but they said some things in Polish that I could tell by body language and voice level were not nice. It seems like they want to "protect" tourists or something from this occurrence. It was a little offputting actually - cause they were all so mean to people who obviously were in need.

I was in a hurry on my last night in Warsaw and wanted a quick bite so I jumped into a McDonald's. I was almost out of Zloty so I just used my card. The bill was 11.02zloty. They have the system where the card is slid through a separate machine and the cashier inputs the amount to charge. He handed me my receipt and turned around to get my food. I looked at the receipt and realized he only charged me 1.02zloty forgetting to type in the extra one. I pointed it out to him to give him a chance to correct it, but he looked at it and said, "Oh well it's not my fault." I thought to myself how is it not your fault? You typed in the number wrong stupid! So I thought, oh well, it's your boss that will yell at you and not me! I tried!

Beware taxis in Warsaw, especially from the airport. The travel book I had warned me about it. It should have only cost about 30zloty from the airport to the train station according to my book - but it warned they will try to charge you more. One trick is they hit a button on the meter that switches to "night mode" and charges extra. Tariff 1 is daytime and Tariff 2 is nighttime. It recommended I get a taxi from the taxi stand in the airport just outside baggage claim. I tried - but they told me just go outside and catch a taxi, it should cost about 50 zloty! I realized they were probably aware of the fact that I was going to get overcharged and just didn't care! So I got a taxi and sure enough he changed the meter to Tariff 2, so I cleared my throat to get his attention and pointed at it - he immediately changed it back. My taxi ride was 29zloty. Thank you Lonely Planet Travel Guides!