Bathrooms...

When you got to go, you got to go. Unfortunately, in Europe you have to pay a toll. Here in America I am not used to having to reach into my wallet every time I visit the porcelain bowl and it caught me off guard when I noticed a toll counter outside the public bathrooms. The worst part about these obstacles is that I had to fumble though my money pouch to get the correct amount of change and dropped at least fifty pence out of it each time. Least to say, I felt like such a tourist. One time I did not have enough change on me so I made the devious choice to sneak in with one of my friends. Shortly after unzipping at a urinal I heard my friend getting yelled at by a security guard for letting me in. While my friend was standing in a stall he had to reach in his fanny pack to pull out fifty pence to pay the guard. Nevertheless, it surprised me how needy they were over their fifty pence to take the Browns to the Superbowl (If you know what I mean).

Even in the most American restaurant, McDonalds, you are not safe from Bathroom obstacles. In order to use the bowl in places like McDonalds and Starbucks you have to enter a bathroom code into the door that is listed on your receipt. Basically, you have to buy an item from the store to have access to the bathroom. Unfortunately for me I had many tourist episodes with this dilemma. For example, I would wait in the exuberant bathroom line and once I got to the door I noticed that it was password protected and I would have to perform the walk of shame all the way out of the store. However, now that I think about it, the receipt passwords are actually a superb idea. First of all, it prevents the line from getting too long due to the fact that not everyone wants to buy something to go to the bathroom. If these bathrooms were not password protected the lines would be unfathomable! Secondly, it certainly helps out the store because it gives people more of an incentive to purchase something.

On the topic of purchasing, I would love to buy a European toilet! The coolest part about their toilets is that the water and flush are two separate buttons. This is helpful because if your load is quite massive than no worries because you can add more water to the toilet to make the flush more powerful than the great flood of B.C. This also saves water too because you can estimate how much water you need for each flush without going full force every time.

The only aspect that really bothered me about the bathrooms were the urinals. There was absolutely no privacy at all everything was in plain view since there were no separators and the urinal literally looked like a bowl sticking out of the wall. I do not know the reason for this, but it was extremely uncomfortable going to the bathroom knowing that the guy next to you can clearly see your genitals. If I ever become a billionaire I would certainly go to Europe and install little walls between urinals to prevent awkward situations. In conclusion, it was quite an experience on how such a simple necessity such as a bathroom can be so different.