Polish passion for sunflower seeds

When I was a child I would feed my rabbit something that resembled muesli with many bits and bobs in it that I did not recognise. One thing I remember Bosco particularly liked were these striped seeds that were the first thing to run out as I used to feed them individually to him (I had a lot of free time as a kid). It was when I came to Poland and I saw people with bags of them or carrying round a huge sunflower that I realised these striped seeds were sunflower seeds and also realised they were edible (I used to pick out some for me before the rabbit could gobble them all out of curiosity. Also most striped things are poisonous or dangerous so there was a tinge of adrenaline charged excitement as I continued to up my dosage with my increasing courage).

Anyway I found out they were sunflower seeds on my 30 hour coach ride to Poland when only one of these was my food for the entire trip (I got that feeling I had forgot something originating from my stomach!). Furthermore they are an incredibly powerful aid when giving up smoking probably because they are so fiddly to open and not filling at all that people's minds are taken off wanting to smoke. I see people everywhere from bus stations to pubs resembling my rabbit as they battle with and nibble at them. Of course becoming addicted to these is a problem also, it's only a substitute. Instead of ashtrays or the floor being saturated with fag butts, there are millions of the empty seed cases which look just as bad. I gave up smoking while living in Poland and I am thankful that I did not take up the sunflower habit because I would hate the thought of robbing more rabbits of the most tasty part of their meal in the future to literally feed my habit.

Who came up with these signs?

When I first arrived in Poland I ran into some trouble straight away when I had to go to the toilet. I was confronted with images similar to those in the photo and I used my higher brain function to both logically try to figure this little puzzle out and subdue my urge to release. After what seemed like days and no native poles noticeably male or female needing to enter, I needed to bite the bullet myself. I had just seen and read the Da Vinci code and in this moment thought I was extremely clever for remembering the bit about the 'Sacred Feminine' symbol which was a triangle and represented a woman's hips and womb (the one in this photo is upside-down by the way). In my moment of revelation while confidently marching in to the opposite door I didn't even notice the lack of urinals and needless to say soon after there were a few shocked and red faces especially on my part.

I think these signs are unique to Poland but I have yet to find out why they are used or where they come from. If anyone knows who reads this please comment as it is one of those things that continue to niggle me especially on those occasions when I still find myself going into the wrong room (usually on a night out). Is it just me that finds this hard? Otherwise I hope I don't have a subconscious preference for women's' toilets and use this as an excuse!

I might as well talk about an experiment I done at uni since it's related, well kind of. I studied microbiology and one thing I remember was having to measure the amount of microorganisms, namely bacteria, in the air of the male and female toilets in the department. Hence we were measuring the cleanliness of each and guess which toilet was filthier? The women's'!!! Ha. All that time that women spend doing their hair, make-up and holding board meetings in there contaminates the air. Of course I realise the floor is a different story as men like to hit everything apart from the urinal but that is not part of this experiment and therefore irrelevant :)