Public Toilets

So I don’t know what the deal is but public toilets in this country are the worst I have ever encountered.  It doesn't matter if it is a bus station or a fancy restaurant, they are all the same.  There is never toilet tissue.  And I don’t mean oh sometimes there is no paper because that happens everywhere I mean there is none ever in any toilet stall.  If you are lucky enough to find some its always the worst scratchy thin stuff too.  But not only is there no paper there is very often no seat.  Why?  Why is there no seat?  This is very common too.  The first time I noticed this I was at a train station so I just assumed it had been stolen (again why?) or broken or something (maybe there was a hobo fight and they stole the seats for battle).  Then I started noticing this strange phenomenon in other places like actual restaurants.  Do people not like to sit when they do their business?  There is also the issue of the door locks or lack thereof.  Most of the doors just do not have locks or they are so flimsy if someone knocks on the door the latch will come unhinged and you will be faced with the embarrassment of looking in strangers eyes while you pee.

But those are not even the worst of the public toilet mysteries.  So from what I can assume this country is big on saving electricity and only using lights and heat when absolutely necessary and honestly I can get behind that.  What I can’t get behind are the timed lights in every single public toilet.  So of course they know people will just leave lights on when they leave the washroom and that is a waste so to combat this they have made sure each light is on a timer.  So you go in a bathroom and the lights either just come on because they are motion censored or you have to turn them on yourself starting the timer.  OK fine, but then by the time you get in a stall, that hopefully had tissue and a seat, and you sit to do your thing, the light is now off.  I mean you don’t even have time to pee before you are now engulfed in darkness. So you can either flail your arms around in hopes a sensor will notice you and the light will come back on or you have to just finish up in the dark and find your way to the light switch that may or may not have a tiny red light so you do not have to touch the entire surface of the bathroom trying to locate it.

I have actually counted how long the timers stay on for in many places because I feel like it is not even close to enough time for a person to pee and certainly not enough for anything else.  I have noticed that some are generous with 30 seconds but there have been some that, I kid you not, are 10 seconds and then darkness. And I am serious it is every public bathroom. I have found a few that have back up lighting so it is not completely dark but the main lights still go off.  Now I can absolutely understand not wanting to waste the power but come on at least give us a full minute!

I make sure to carry tissue with me everywhere I go so I do not have to be faced with no paper and I think we are just lucky enough to live in the age of cell phones so we can try and light our way to the light switch or door handle.