Bathrooms Abroad

In my last article, I started to talk about how my wife and I traveled to Greece to celebrate our honeymoon. I want to continue by explaining to all of you about the bathroom situation in Greece. First off, the toilets are not the same circular shape as the ones in the states. In Greece, the shape is more like an oval, or an egg. Pretty interesting. Since I spend most of my time in the bathrooms, I couldn’t help but notice that there is a small trashcan by the toilet. I just thought it was a regular trashcan that every bathroom has. I was wrong. I started to notice that things were different when the toilets weren’t’ flushing fully on the first try. I went down to the main desk to find out why...

Unable to flush toilet paper in Greece

Apparently they told me that I was not allowed to put toilet paper in the toilet! Are you kidding me? This is what a Crohn’s patient does not what to hear. And on another note, where was I going to put the toilet paper? I was to put the toilet paper into the small trash can next to the toilet. I had to clean myself and then remember not to throw it in the toilet. Very gross, and it is something that I needed to get used to.

What boggled my mind was the thought of the maids going into the bathroom to clean up after us. And of course, naturally, the more times you go to the bathroom, the more times you have to put the paper into the can. Let’s just say that the trashcan filled up quite frequently.

When we went to Mykonos and Santorini, the hotels were a lot nicer than the ones in Athens. For this reason, the toilets had a better and more forceful flush. I was able to put the paper down the toilet with no problem. Of course, I was not allowed to do such things, but you won’t tell anyone, right?

Asking for bathroom locations abroad

There were a few times on our tours that I had to correct myself when asking where the bathroom was. I have to ask where the “water closet, was.” Mostly, all places had a big sign in their bathroom informing patrons not to flush paper down the toilets. Sometimes I followed directions, and sometimes I didn’t.

Ensuring access to a bathroom

The tours we booked were really good about stopping to use the bathroom. We avoided tours that would be just hiking in the mountains because there were no bathrooms. I really liked our food tours because we stopped in many restaurants. Of course, they came with a bathroom. On our sunset tour in Santorini, I was really struggling with urgency. I actually just waked into a small hotel while the rest of the group went ahead. The workers at the small hotel totally understood and didn’t bat an eye when I asked where their water closet was. All and all, the bathrooms were not too bad. If you can get past throwing your soiled paper into the trashcan next to you, then you should be fine. I do agree that Crohn’s patents will have no issues going to Greece.