In Switzerland, there are a wide variety of toilets and facilities. At the best, you have mcClean (no, not owned by the Golden Arches). You have to pay. One Swiss Franc for men. Two for Women. But they have attendants and are extremely clean. At first glance, the toilets basically look familiar. Flushing is the obstacle here. How do you flush? There generally isn't a handle. You become accustomed to looking for the flushing mechanism as soon as you enter a bathroom. Some toilets have buttons on the top of the tank. Some have large buttons on the wall behind the tank. Some have pedals on the floor that you step on. I had a serious preoccupation with the toilet system. Second to McClean's were the self cleaning toilets. At a cheese factory in Gruyere, the toilet seat actually did a full rotation into a sanitizing/cleaning machine behind the toilet. Has Walmart heard of this?
In a public park in Bern, there is a toilet that, at first glance, resembles a torture chamber. (See picture above) The 'seat' is actually flipped up against the wall and you have to pull it down to sit upon it. It has side handles. Think movie theater seats. And how annoying it is to try and sit on one when your hands are full and it flips up before you can get seated. Yep. And for this one, flipping up starts the flushing process. I think I wasted about 20 gallons of water just trying to get on. I kept expecting someone to ask me for a ticket for the ride. It was actually an amazing work of function once I started studying it. And there was a convenient repository for syringes, razor blades and other sharp objects, or so the pictoral sign indicated. In the restroom-in the public park.
My least favorite experience is what they call 'Squat and Aim'. Think two slightly elevated runner's blocks with raised grooves to prevent slippage. (Oh, dear) and a hole in the floor. That's pretty much it. I kept thinking that if God had intended for me to aim, I wouldn't be a girl. I don't hang with people that are obsessed with writing their name in the snow or hitting targets. Add to that a backpack, a purse and a couple of shopping bags and you have EPIC FAIL for this klutzy girl.
I do have to say,though, that finding a facility in Switzerland was far easier than in Italy.
In Italy, there are hardly any public restrooms. If you find one, it is usually in the back of a shop or in the basement. And, generally, there are no toilet seats. Only the bowl. The extremely cold bowl. I think at some point, apparently Italian women griped a little too much about men not putting the seat back down, so they were banned. At first glance, you think, um....naked toilet....and something else is off, but you can't place what it is because you're also looking for how to flush. You find the button on the wall and push. And push. And push and then furiously start pumping with your palm. Then, you are rewarded with this hugh rush of water that frightens you because it is 3-4 feet over your head. Ah....that's the other thing that was odd, you realize. The tank is on the wall at the ceiling.
I can, as you see, pondered all of this a great deal. Euro-peein' isn't for the faint of heart or unadventurous soul. And, I know the answer to the age old question, "Does a bear shit in the woods?"
Why, yes, I believe he does. He tried European toilets and found the woods to be easier. Just saying.
