They did things differently in the past. Road signs in Poland did not always strictly conform with the strait-jacketed expectations of west European motorists. For instance, there are at least two different signs to indicate pedestrians crossing! How many accidents has that little fanebrium caused? One shows a girl (she has a pony tail) and a boy running across the road. Another shows a girl (she has pigtails) crossing the road with an outsized lollipop in her hand. Both signs are black on a yellowish orange background. The Germans too were not immune to these outbreaks of wilfulness: their sign showed a solid citizen with a pipe and a hat crossing the road.

Fortunately, this foolishness is being phased out. A bland and sexless eurostickperson with a head the size of a pea in familiar blue and white colours now bestrides more and more pedestrian crossings in Poland so that even the dullest-witted car-hire patron can figure out what’s going on around him without being subjected to culture shock.

Note: I had to rephrase the above as after another day’s research on the by-roads of Poland it appears that lollipop girl warns of a pedestrian crossing and pigtail girl warns that child pedestrians might be crossing. I’m sticking with “fanebrium,” though, word or no word.