Polish Toilet Paper

Ten years ago, Polish toilet paper was pretty rough.  I mentioned it as one of the things I liked least about Poland back then, and I brought home a sample:

PolishTP92.jpg (20949 bytes)

A sample of Polish toilet paper from 1992.

Staszek reminded me that in 1992 I had said Polish toilet paper was like sandpaper.  He pointed out that it has improved greatly, and I agree it has.  But the next bathroom I used after this conversation with Staszek, in a restaurant in Nowy Sacz, had this TP:

PolishTPRough.jpg (24963 bytes)

Industrial grade TP from a restaurant.

This stuff is about the same grade of paper as the 1992 TP, but has a lot of little bumps embossed onto it; the back side is a little softer, but the front side (shown above) is even more like sandpaper! So I commented to Staszek again, and he guessed that this must be the last place in Poland still using the old stuff.   Modern Polish toilet paper is of very good quality.  It is soft, comes in 2-ply, and can be found in colors.  Here is a sample  that is more typical of today's Polish TP:

PolishTPSoft.jpg (20254 bytes)

Modern Polish TP is soft and 2-ply.

I think I collected this sample of colored, 2-ply TP from Poland, but I'm not certain.   In any case, it is similar to TP found in Poland today. The raised dimples are rounded and smooth.  This particular sample has one purple ply and one white ply, and I have separated the plies at one corner to show this:

PolishTPPurple.jpg (20707 bytes)

State of the art: 2-ply, purple, soft bump TP.

I have discovered that TP makes a good background for web pages, providing a pattern and  muted colors, and so collected it for that purpose from each of the countries we visited.  You will find it used on a few of these pages.

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Page last updated May 02, 2004