"Americentricity" by Itchy Feet

[u/tinyviewcomics]

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[u/Gentle_Snail]

Just a heads up for tourists in the UK, if you ask for ‘tap water’ in Britain its completely free. If they offer you mineral water say no you want tap.

Tap water is completely clean in the UK and recommended even for tourists.

[u/Jhud6669 → u/Gentle_Snail]

My UK friend asked for tap water at a restaurant while visiting me in Poland and I had to break it to them that we don’t do this in Poland (aside from a few restaurants)

[u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat → u/Jhud6669]

Why not?

[u/SavvySphynx → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

When I was in Poland a decade ago, I was told it would make me sick, as I was not used to what was in the water. Maybe the bacteria?

Apparently it doesn’t bother the locals.

My grandparents well water (US) was similar, but it was more high iron content. It didn’t bother them, or me when I was younger when I stayed with them a lot. Coming back as an adult, it was pretty noticeable in taste.

[u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat → u/SavvySphynx]

I got bored waiting and Googled it, I can't find any mention of this from reddit threads a decade ago or official information. Decades ago, you were right. But obviously that sentiment has remained.

There's a public perception that tap water is bad for you, but especially in touristy cities the tap water is perfectly safe to drink. There is just a bad public image of it, asking for tap water in a restaurant is allowed but they want to make the money off selling you bottled water - which apparently is basically no different to tap water in Poland.

There was even a recent attempt to make allowing tap water mandatory, but restaurants lobbied the government to not allow it.

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7786/artykul/3717132,polands-plan-for-free-tap-water-in-restaurants-runs-dry

[u/icansmellcolors → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

big restaurant strikes again

[u/SavvySphynx → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

It was a trip for college, and the one leading it was an older Parisian lady. It would track that the advice I got might have been out of date then.

I definitely don’t speak polish, but definitely do recommend visiting.

[u/Dealiner → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

There was even a recent attempt to make allowing tap water mandatory, but restaurants lobbied the government to not allow it.

Not really, the government just decided to make it a separate piece of legislation and not bundle it with other not really related laws.

bottled water - which apparently is basically no different to tap water in Poland.

That depends, the legal distinction between mineral, spring and table (pretty much tap) water is clear and you usually get only the first two in the bottles.

[u/just4nothing → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

It’s safe, but more chlorine than e.g in Germany. Very comparable to UK tap water though

[u/DenKHK → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

It's not really just a perception. If you've done any kind of plumbing work on water piping in an old building you'll know some of the stuff you can find in there. Sediments (with bacteria, dirt etc), biofilm, rust or other oxidation, deteriorated/broken rubber/silicone from washers... unless the city and building have a programme where municipal and building water supply pipes are cleaned and/or replaced periodically.

In short, the water may be safe to drink when it entered the water supply system. But by the time it comes out of the tap into your glass, maybe not so much.

[u/korpisoturi → u/SavvySphynx]

Visited Poland 10 years ago and got diarrhea from tap water so thats correct

[u/cpMetis → u/SavvySphynx]

It's not bacteria, it's the general not water stuff in tap water.

Iron, calcium, various additives like fluoride. It's all in varying amounts and the difference can be extreme even when you don't taste it.

The practical effects on your health may be identical, but your body will still freak out when it starts to process it and everything's different than it expects.

[u/Myownprivategleeclub → u/cpMetis]

Well. That's some broscience right there.....🤔

[u/Myownprivategleeclub → u/[deleted]]

Utter bullshit. Otherwise no one could ever eat anything new. You're taking out your ass.

[u/AndronixESE → u/SavvySphynx]

It depands on where. Most bigger cities have perfectly fine and mostly filtered water(though it's still better to put it through a filter, just to be safe). But some smaller cities and villages lack that and can make your stomach upset

[u/autistic_homo → u/SavvySphynx]

They told me this about the water in Mexico. Doesn't bother me at all. Turns out that most people get sick not because Mexico water is disgusting, it's cause a lot of Americans don't drink any tap water at all. If you drank US tap water after 20 years of drinking bottled, it would do the same thing as the Mexico water would.

[u/Blank_bill → u/SavvySphynx]

When i worked on the railroad in the 70's we would get a new tank car of water every month give or take where they loaded it from i don't know but whenever we got a new tank I'd have the dire rear for a few days then I'd be good.

[u/Budget_Avocado6204 → u/SavvySphynx]

Tap water is suitable to drink everywhere in Poland. It's required by law and it's getting tested. But ppl have this conviction that it's bad for you, especially older ppl. But it's not true

[u/CL0n3_pl → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

Government was actually just about to pass the law mandating them to like a couple days ago, but they decided to scrap it and "rework" it after consulting with interested businesses or something like that. Fancy way of saying the gastronomy lobbied them not to

[u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat → u/CL0n3_pl]

Yeah, got bored and Googled it. Basically Polish tap water is perfectly safe and meets EU standards (which are very high) but the restaurants want to make more money off customers. Shocker.

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7786/artykul/3717132,polands-plan-for-free-tap-water-in-restaurants-runs-dry

[u/feel_my_balls_2040 → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

They can't change for it. It was the same in Romania. They prefer that you buy an ordinary plastic bottle of water.

[u/Waffenek → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

Greed

There was even a parliamentary project that, among other things, included a requirement for restaurants to provide 0.5L of tap water without charge with your order when requested, but it was removed from the bill. It was lobbied away by a business owners' association, as it would harm the profits of restaurants.

[u/livelaughlinka → u/TrumpGrabbedMyCat]

Lead poisoning