The WC

Instead of writing about places and experiences that will force me to overuse words like surprising (Dubrovnik hailstorm), spectacular (Plitvice Lakes), delicious (Budapest eateries), charming (Gyor), etc., I'm going to write about something thought-provoking: the WC.

Haven't we all had a thought-provoking WC occurrence?  How do I flush this?  How do I turn the water on?  How do I tell the owner of this room that it's flooded?  Surely, you have.

To be quite honest, the best shower I've had of two years in Eastern Europe inspired this WC exploration, so that's where I'll start: the shower.  So many factors go into a satisfying shower.

Privacy:  Believe it or not this can be an issue.  I've been in a hostel with a glass shower in the room.  Luckily, it was just myself and a friend, so diverting our eyes was not too difficult, but privacy is important to a comfortable shower.  That shower wasn't so comfortable for this reason and another . . .

Hot water:  Sometimes there's none at all.  Sometimes there's not enough.  Sometimes the knob is backwards.  Sometimes you have to turn the water heater on and off, which is fine, if you know, as long as you have hot water.   A cold shower is like a heart attack (for someone who has never had a heart attack).  Once I thought I had to turn the water heater on, but it turned out I was pulling a silent emergency cord that only my roommates could hear.  In Albania, supposedly, it is also important to consider electrocution when considering showering with the water heater on.  Conversely, it's also important to have cold water.  Only hot water is just as bad as only cold, and it happens.  I should know.  Then, you need to think about other location specific issues like . . .

Water Pressure:  This may seem trivial, but over the past two years I've been on a water schedule.  I had water 6-10 am and 3-6 pm (more or less).  At different times I had and then didn't have a functioning reservoir on my roof.  When I did, I had pressure like the water was falling from three feet above my head-- because it was.  So when I did have and when I didn't have a functioning reservoir, the result was more or less the same.  Showers were during scheduled hours, which was only a problem when I didn't have a hair dryer and couldn't go to work with wet hair and taught classes three days a week during afternoon hours and wanted to exercise any time except right before the water comes on.  Mind you I was happy to have running water.  I did just finish Peace Corps.  It just made the shower I had in Croatia that much better.  Another excellent feature of this shower was . . .

Containment:  In certain places, Albania included, containment isn't considered an issue.  Full bathroom showers are the norm, and everyone wears bathroom shoes to walk on the wet floor.  I used a squeegee to clean the floor in mine.  The good news is there's no impossible to reach mildew.  The bad news is wet socks occasionally.  Then, there are bathrooms that always need shoes because of the . . .

Location:  This is important for reasons other than privacy.  Sometimes showers are not only in the bathroom, they are over the toilet, the Turkish toilet.

Clearly, showers are complicated business, but the most basic taking care of business would seem simple by comparison, but even this can be fascinatingly complicated.

The familiar French toilet has infinitely diverse and complicated variations leading to anatomically awkward shapes, occasionally requiring "the sled."  "The sled" was discovered by a Peace Corps Albania volunteer.  Essentially, "the sled" means that sometimes putting toilet paper in the toilet before business makes the transaction go more smoothly.  Then, disposal itself requires numerous ropes, switches, levers, and buttons of varying sizes and in various locations.  The most difficult disposal activator I've found was in the shower.  Other models feature separate buttons depending on what is being disposed.

Now, moving on to the more exotic Turkish toilet, also known a hole in the ground or a porcelain hole in the ground.  These make disposable simple, as these are often flushed by washing one's hands where the water drains via water hose into the hole.  Sometimes these are also flushable outside when they are located over running water.  Sometimes they don't flush at all.  Issues relating to Turkish toilets involve dirty floors and splash back, requiring rolled up pants, accuracy, a low level of entry, and a wide stance.

Finally, let's talk about the fountain of cleanliness, the bidet, which can be used relatively easily, although I'm still confused why one towel accompanies bidets used by more than one person.  Bidets are an evolving development and are often used for washing feet or filling buckets to manually flush a French toilet.  In such cases, using the bidet as a urinal is ill-advised.

Keep in mind these are only a few possibilities.  My last trip to Tirana revealed one of the bridges was also a convenient WC for old men.  Women should be aware it was not a unisex location, nor is it wise to loiter in the vicinity of the bridge, and I'll leave it at that.