Don't flush the paper?
May 4th 2008 09:30
I guess most of my worst toilet experiences would be in areas not trampled by the usual tourist armies. However, when tourism suddenly holds a country's economy afloat, the locals go out of their way to make their sensitive guests feel more at home, especially with bathroom facilities (most westerners don't even realise that their hotel bathrooms are different from what the locals use). But there are many countries or areas that either don't care about what you are used to, "we do it like this here", or can't afford or bother to update a unique sewage system. So not surprisingly, the strangest toilets I've come across have been in Europe, mostly because I went there believing (rather ignorantly) that things would be exactly as they are in the UK. I soon discovered that a lot of things were different and my biggest toilet education came when I was on the Greek island of Corfu. When I first arrived on the island, we were warned that the sewage systems can't handle toilet paper so we shouldn't flush it. I think it's safe to say that all my fellow travellers, a collection of Aussies, Kiwis, Americans and English, were horrified at the thought of placing the used bog paper in the little "open" baskets next to the toilet. Of course at first this doesn't seem so bad for the guys since most of their toilet usage doesn't involve wiping, but a time comes when everyone needs to do some wiping.
My first experience of throwing the paper away came after breakfast in a MacDonalds (sometimes travelling on a budget requires eating at such establishments), I went into the ladies and was immediately aware of the open basket of used tissue next to my toilet. I was disgusted at the thought of fellow bathroom users wet paper next to me, but I had to go and I dutifully followed suit - when in Greece right? Of course the anoymousity of public bathrooms makes this practice a lot easier, it's a tad bit harder to share a room with friends knowing that after you use the bathroom your leftovers will be on display for all to see. We started the practice of using a rather large amount of paper to cover up the used paper.... not economical in the long run. However, the day come (for almost all of us) when we fell back into old habits and accidently flushed the paper away. Sometimes you got away with it, but other times you weren't as luckily and neither were those who had to share a bathroom with you. In the worst case, your menacing toilet paper and a lot of sewage would reappear out of the drain in the center of your bathroom, flooding it. In the budget accommodation and motels we stayed in, the showers heads were usually stuck randomly on the side of a wall in the bathroom and the water would just run to a drain in the center of the room. So not only would you have to walk through sewage to use the toilet or sink but you would have to shower in sewage. Showering of course only made the situation worse. By the time we crossed over mainland Greece, which has the same system as the islands, we had all experienced an overflow problem.
Of course the toilet experience, albeit a bit unpleasant, is a small price to pay for the beautiful Mediterranean beaches with crystal clear water. When you see the majestic ruins of one of Europe's most influential civilizations, the last thing on your mind is throwing toilet paper away instead of flushing it.
My first experience of throwing the paper away came after breakfast in a MacDonalds (sometimes travelling on a budget requires eating at such establishments), I went into the ladies and was immediately aware of the open basket of used tissue next to my toilet. I was disgusted at the thought of fellow bathroom users wet paper next to me, but I had to go and I dutifully followed suit - when in Greece right? Of course the anoymousity of public bathrooms makes this practice a lot easier, it's a tad bit harder to share a room with friends knowing that after you use the bathroom your leftovers will be on display for all to see. We started the practice of using a rather large amount of paper to cover up the used paper.... not economical in the long run. However, the day come (for almost all of us) when we fell back into old habits and accidently flushed the paper away. Sometimes you got away with it, but other times you weren't as luckily and neither were those who had to share a bathroom with you. In the worst case, your menacing toilet paper and a lot of sewage would reappear out of the drain in the center of your bathroom, flooding it. In the budget accommodation and motels we stayed in, the showers heads were usually stuck randomly on the side of a wall in the bathroom and the water would just run to a drain in the center of the room. So not only would you have to walk through sewage to use the toilet or sink but you would have to shower in sewage. Showering of course only made the situation worse. By the time we crossed over mainland Greece, which has the same system as the islands, we had all experienced an overflow problem.
Of course the toilet experience, albeit a bit unpleasant, is a small price to pay for the beautiful Mediterranean beaches with crystal clear water. When you see the majestic ruins of one of Europe's most influential civilizations, the last thing on your mind is throwing toilet paper away instead of flushing it.
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Another thing I remember is having to turn on the heat before taking a shower, otherwise there is no hot water. Taking a shower becomes a task in itself as you have to remember to turn it on, leave it for awhile to heat and then turn it off before you head into the shower.