Toilets

It's somewhat annoying to have to pay to use these kinds....

We are home from Moscow now, but there are some aspects of our trip that will always be unforgettable. One of these is TOILETS. As unappealing as this may be in a blog posting, I can't have reported completely on our trip without reporting on them.

This photo doesn't quite capture the whole picture, but it is enough, I think. At the zoo, the train station, and other locations, mainly the pay units on the street (which, blessedly, I didn't have to use) they have these types of toilets. They are simply a paved hole in the ground, and involve some gymnastics for us women to use effectively. They wouldn't be so bad, except that it seems as if 1,000 years of urine remain in the paving around the actual hole, and even with windows wide open it's horrible-smelling . There is a flush, so in theory it shouldn't be awful, but it pretty much is.

There were wonderful ones in the expensive train, complete with seat covers (yes, it had a SEAT), and pretty good ones in the cheaper train. And, of course, Zach and Julie's home had 3 bathrooms with standard Western toilets. It was a bit of a chore planning our sight-seeing around how bad the bathrooms might be.

Here is what I learned. The older the place, the more primitive the toilets. Newer museums and churches had modern and clean and FREE bathrooms, and were a pleasure to use (after paying the entry fee). The street toilets are worse than our porta-potties here in the States, and I avoided them at all costs.

Just one reason it's so good to be home.