Years of practice during the cold war era has meant that the Poles have truly mastered the art of the queue: more to the point, the art of queue barging. Whether you find yourself at a ticket counter, or your nearest KFC, do not make the mistake of being patient. ‘I’m late for something, can I go first’ is a common ploy used to fool foreigners into giving up their place in a line. Old people in particular seem to assume that they should by rights be able to take position at the head of a line. The only time when the common rules of etiquette seem to apply are in banks or outside ATMs, at which point the natives will assume a stance as far as possible from the next man, often leading to confusion who is and who isn’t queuing in the first place. Note that some municipal offices and post offices employ a ticket system to help organize queues.
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