The Best and Worst Thing About Europe
August 5th, 2010 | Categories: Travel | 11 CommentsThe best: that even though there are so many countries with widely varied languages, cuisine, and culture, it’s so easy to zip over to another country and/or major city to do some sightseeing. How cool is it that you can live in Germany and say, “Hey, how about let’s go and visit Austria and Switzerland for the weekend!” Much cooler than living in Chicago and saying, “Hey, let’s go visit the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend.”
The worst: why the hell do they charge for going to the toilet here? I understand paying ten or twenty cents if the toilets are really clean and well kept, but when the toilet is smellier than a public toilet in the summer heat of NYC and I have to pay thirty cents to use it? I do not understand.
It’s hard to type on a German keyboard as the keys are different than what I am used to and I’m so busy going from place to place that I find myself checking the Internet only sporadically. I can’t believe that a week of my vacation has already passed – the remaining two weeks are sure to fly by!
Tags: europe
Subscribe Feed (RSS)
Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
I’m really jealous of the Europeans’ ability to zip through countries like that. And oh man, I remember having to pay for the bathrooms. Most of the ones I used were pretty clean, thankfully.
Wow, I’d never heard of bathrooms that you have to pay to use before! But then again, I’ve never been to Europe…
Ah, I had to configure someone’s French laptop at work a while ago, and the different keyboard made it a bit hard, so I can empathise with you there!
Have fun on the rest of your trip :-)
The thing about the paid bathrooms is that someone has to come and clean them, even if you think they haven’t been properly cleaned. Getting people there to clean them costs money, so it’s no surprise that you have to pay to use them.
You can also say: Let’s visit Holland for the weekend :P The best part about living in Europe though is that you have access to the shops of these different countries as well. My brother needs a special kind of wheat, which is much cheaper in Germany, so we always buy it there. :)
I get your point, but I still don’t believe in paying for bathrooms if it has obviously been left unclean and unkempt. If there’s no toilet paper / grime on the floor / no soap / no hand towels or a working dryer, then obviously the bathroom attendant has not been doing the job and I fail to see why I should pay.
Oooh yes, my friend who only moved to NZ in 5th form from Englands talks about her past trips to several European countries “oh you know, just on the weekend” ALL THE TIME! And it drives me crazy thinking… soo uh how about Rotorua where we can smell sulphur everywhere, huh?
I’ve only ever had to pay for the use of a “public toilet” once, at some very popular waterfalls, where there was a queue despite the 20c charge. They were well kept so it was fine … apart from the fact that we didn’t have coins… But what the heck at dirty, charging toilets!
And can you pleeease take a picture of what german keyboards look like? I’ve always been curious. Oh dear, I just had a *face palm* moment – there’s something called google (images). Gahh!
I’m in the UK, down south about 30 minutes away from France but haven’t been in ages :( you still have to pay 50p for toilets in the train stations, crazy!!
In a way paying to use the loo makes sense if they are clean, and we pay for other necessities like food, but when you’re desperate and needing to find some coins…
From the UK you can go for weekends but you have to allow for queues on transport. Traveling from within the continent is easier.
W woahh wait, there are countries where you do NOT have to pay for using the bathroom? I’m used to paying € 0,50 to use the bathroom, ok sometimes it’s € 0,30 if you’re lucky. But… I live in The Netherlands … so … *coughs*
One cool thing of The Netherlands: we use US keyboards if I remember correctly ;)
I agree and disagree on the best thing. I don’t think it’s necessarily cooler, but I agree that it is very interesting. While I do love big countries with diversity and various regional cultures, I find Europe fascinating. It is home to so many similar yet different cultures, so close to each other.
The superloo is a funny thing, especially when you don’t have the exact charge – then trying to go becomes the hardest thing. :D
[...] gotten a little more used to paying for bathrooms now, but I still can’t stand those who unabashedly beg for money by the bathroom even if they [...]
[...] a break from my recent Europe-themed posts to pose a question that I have pondered for a [...]