Bathrooms

[indigo_rose99]

To my delight, restaurants in Slovakia usually have restrooms.  However, they each present a puzzle.

Many toilets do not have pictures on the door, but rather the written out word as to gender.  And it isn't in a language I could guess which one is women's.  I could guess in France or Japan, but I had to go grab an actual woman and have her point out which one was correct for me.  She laughed when she discovered my problem.

Yesterday's bathroom had a nob on top of the toilet.  Many toilets here are double push button (half flush vs full flush), so I tried pushing it.  Nope.  Twisting?  Nothing.  I tried each again before stopping to break out of my mindset.  What other direction could it be?  Pull!  *flush*

Today's restaurant toilet had a string hanging from the ceiling that I pulled.  My local guide tells me the this string used to be universal for all toilets in this area.

Today's bathroom also had an ad printed on the paper towels to dry your hands.  What an interesting idea!

Comments

[clubjuggler.livejournal.com]

Spain, when I was there, had toilets that you had to pull up.

One question, btw, about changing money. Why not just use an ATM card? (Or credit card, but obviously that doesn't work when you need cash.) That's what we've done when traveling in Europe (albeit not Slovakia) and it's so much more convenient than travelers checks. (Although, trying to find a free bathroom in Germany over lunchtime when the ATM was closed behind the bank door was briefly challenging.)

Using an ATM

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I've done it before (India and England), but... Last year I discovered a really annoying fact. My primary business/travel credit card does not do what I wanted with respect to ATM withdrawals. I wanted to withdraw money from the ATM and later get a bill that detailed amount in local currency, fee, and amount I pay in USD. Instead I got... none of that. The ATM refused to give me a receipt. And my monthly statement... Not a bit of it. I tried for a month to get my credit card to tell me how much each of those three items were. They simply had attached it to my money market account and taken out the money, not detailing ANY of it. *grind teeth* There were many phone calls. It was unpleasant.

Which is why I stopped using ATMs.

Yes, I'm trying to find another business credit card. But this is a slow process. I want one with no annual fee, pays insurance on rental cars even in foreign countries (especially Ireland, which my current one specifically excludes), has less than a 3% fee on foreign currency exchanges, allows me to easily print out individual receipts for purchases, and gives me zero hassles when I am questioning a dubious charge on my card. Some sort of cash back or miles or something else would be a nice bonus, but is not necessary. My current one does about half of these, which is more than any previous credit card I've encountered. Evidently I'm Asking Too Much. *sigh*