2003-07-21 - 10:43 a.m.

Bathrooms

It seems like a silly thing to talk about, but one of the things I noticed in Europe was how different European bathrooms are from their American counter parts. When you think about it, we end up spending a significant portion of our lives in the bathrooms (be it bathing, doing your business, shaving, or applying eyeliner). So it only makes sense that our bathrooms should be a place we are comfortable in.

That said, my most favorite bathroom was the one I grew up with. It was decorated in frog wall paper. I was pretty depressed when my parents removed the frogs, but they were planning on selling the house and needed to make it look more adult. Bullshit! Frogs are adult!

My bathroom in Davis is a mess. A large part of the problem is I have shower doors. Shower curtains are so much nicer. First, you can't really enjoy a bath when you are cut off from your candles. Second, you can't possibly clean the shower when a stupid door gets in your way. (Right, my priority here is comfort, then cleanliness.)

In the Netherlands, Cricket's bathroom is even worse. It has no proper ventilation, so if you don�t leave the fan running day and night, mold will grow everywhere. Yuck. But the bathroom is so small, that you can only fit one person in at a time. Even that, it is a juggling act trying to find a place to hang your towel while showering.

Shaving is worse. Her sink only gets cold water, which is blood city for me. So I had to shave while in the shower (which had no mirror). I'm sorry, but shaving your face is far harder than shaving your legs or any other body part. You heard me, any other body part. Trust me.

But there was one nice feature about her place. Her shower head was adjustable. I think it also was on a wand that you could take off the wall, but I can't remember now.

Now the place in Bordeaux was huge. The water was hot, and though I spent little time there, it was welcomed.

JRV's place in Valencia was equally as huge. No, it was even bigger. It even had one of those butt squirting things next to the toilet. I was tempted to try it, but when I turned the knob no water came out. What a shame, I wanted to squirt my butt. However, there was one problem, JRV's water heater was small and since I took the last shower, I did so in the cold. There was blood involved while shaving after that too. ::sniff::

In Paris, I swear our bathroom was once just a dumbwaiter. I've never seen a smaller bathroom. OK, actually it was the same size as Cricket's, but the shower itself was smaller. Not fun. Now I'm curious if all Parisian bathrooms are so Spartan.

If I'm going to die in a bathroom, I want it to be in Leipzig. The hotel's bathroom was like an entire second room added to our already nice room. Plenty of hot water, but I swear I could flick the lights on and off and dance in the bathroom.

n.p. love is colder than death :: atopos

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