The picture of this text is that of the bus tickets to Warsaw within the late 90s … Extremely-thin paper and surreal punching … However public transport additionally had different surprises …
In my final article on Polish folklore of the 90s, I instructed you about my keep in a small village in jap Poland the place you continue to needed to undergo a phone alternate to name a landline phone whereas the primary telephones laptops had been rising.
In spite of everything these wanderings in Poland, I wished to see what it was prefer to stay in that nation, so I received my closing internship in Warsaw on the finish of 1999.
Handy tickets …
Earlier than buying a month-to-month transportation card, I purchased a weekly ticket. And short-term tickets weren’t magnetic in any respect like right this moment. And so they weren't cardboard both, however product of very skinny paper. They needed to be inserted in a punching machine which was within the technique of transport used and the holes made indicated the day and the hour in addition to the place of punching. It was an actual headache. The controller took fairly a very long time to decipher the knowledge, which left ample time for the fraudsters who weren’t but managed to maneuver away after which decamp on the subsequent cease.
Widespread corruption
Consequently, being a controller in Warsaw on the finish of the 1990s was removed from simple, and it was rattling badly paid. However in return, corruption reigned there, sufficient to place butter within the spinach. I paid for it twice, the primary time as a result of I discovered to my amazement that while you had baggage, you needed to pay further, a rule that luckily has been eliminated since. And the second time as a result of I forgot my scholar card at house once I had a diminished fare transportation ticket.
Neither one nor two, the controllers every time received me out of the tram. The primary time, they exaggerated, they pretended to name the embassy to report the incident, I feel it could certainly have actually them … However hey, all this was to generate a state of concern earlier than to take a look at one another after which say:
– I want to drink vodka. How a lot does vodka value, Marek?
– Properly, simply 40 zlotys…
Earlier than taking a look at me, questioning.
– You need 40 zlotys, proper?
– No, we aren’t allowed to ask you, nonetheless, you’ve gotten the appropriate to suggest …
– It's costly 40 zlotys.
– Ah OK. Marek, we might take 2 coffees, with cream, all that. How a lot does 2 good coffees value?
– Oh, nicely 20 zlotys…
Pickpocket paradise
Lastly, once I was doing my internship in a big German firm in Warsaw, I used to be stunned when the final day of the month, one of many workers from the ground above got here into our workplace, all smiles to announce that the pay had arrived . Everybody then deserted their process and left the workplace … Besides me who didn’t perceive what was taking place. Stunned that I stayed at my job, the announcer of the excellent news requested me why I didn't need to go and get my wage. I adopted him then and after standing in line for fifteen minutes and displaying my passport, I acquired a dozen inexperienced tickets in alternate for a signature. There was no extra envelope … Certainly, on the time, many individuals didn’t have a checking account. It nonetheless amazed me. It was a very long time in the past that in France wages had been not paid this manner.
Like most workers, I returned house by tram with my month-to-month wage in money. I instructed myself that for a well-informed pickpocket, it was sufficient to work solely on the final day of the month…
That is the top of this sequence of articles on 90s folklore however I invite you to learn or reread the earlier ones!
