I am spending the holidays in the Polish city of Wrocław. It is Poland’s most dynamic city (along with Warsaw of course). Every time I come here, I see a new shopping mall, new large foreign-owned businesses setting up shop, new hotels, new construction. All of this has given Wrocław and the whole region of Lower Silesia the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest economic growth in Poland.
Wrocław is a fair-sized town with about 650.000 inhabitants, a major university, an international airport and all the other trappings of a major European city. It will host some of the games of the European football championships in 2012, which will lead to still more modernization of the infrastructure: new roads, a new stadium etc.
The people of Wrocław like to compare themselves to Western European cities, and there is a general feeling that, while tremendous progress is being made, there is still a long way to go. But this week, I have discovered one area in which Wrocław leads the world (at least the world as I know it): the cost of using a public toilet.
I was exploring the central station (a classic example of early 20th century railway station design) with my camera when my bladder informed me that it would like to be emptied. No problem: I was in a big train station which of course has public toilets. So I went, relieved myself and all was well. But then I thought about the price of this simple pleasure, 2.50 złoty, and realized that I had just enjoyed the most expensive pee of my life. During the past several years of living and travelling around Europe, I have peed in all the major cities of this continent: London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Copenhagen etc. Wrocław easily beats all those cities when it comes to the cost of a public pee. The price I paid here is equivalent to 0.60 €. In comparison, a cost of doing the same at London’s Victoria Station is 20 pence, or 0.21 €; in Copenhagen’s Central Station you can pee for 2 DKK, or 0.27 €. The most expensive toilets I had seen before this week were those in Amsterdam, at 0.50 €. Still, the Netherlands has a much higher per capita income than Poland, so relative to earnings, a Pole has to pay at least twice as much for the privilege as a Dutchman. Another way to look at this is to compare the cost to pee to the cost of a beer (since intake of the latter usually leads to the need for the former). In Poland one can easily buy a 0.5 liter can of beer for the 2.50 złoty it costs to pee. At the other extreme, in England you will never find a beer for anything close to 20 pence.
I shall continue this important research during my travels in 2009. In the meantime, let me wish all readers of this blog a happy and prosperous New Year.