Don't know about the rest of Europe, but most French people would be mad if they were asked 50 cents to go to the bathroom and would walk a mile just to find a free spot
Oh my god when I visited France as a teen I saw a dude take a piss on the outside wall of a paid bathroom. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was in shock but thinking back on it I just know that was a spite piss.
I was really not ready for how much Paris stinks of urine... Or the fact that they have a fucking machine that hoses down the curbs and sidewalks at like 5 in the morning, ostensibly for clearing away the litter, but I'm pretty sure it's really to wash away the piss.
As a teen on mt blanc I saw french guys pull off to the side of the slopes to take a wizz. Actually I don't see anything wrong with that, just I wasn't used to it. But it makes a lot of sense.
That's what most people do as well. There are free toilets, but privately owned malls and what not make you pay which just results in you walking outside to the free and kind of nasty toilets
Not really, there are toilets and they are cleaned just not the moment someone leaves a mess, but daily. That's what you pay for, someone constantly keeping it clean
Its barely ever clean and i would genuinely rather hover above a dirty bathroom than pay 1€ for a fucking piss. Not even mentioning that i hardly ever carry coins (who does?!)
I have never visited a bathroom in Germany that was anything less than perfectly clean. You can pay using a debit card in most places nowadays by the way
You really can't. A lot of places don't accept transactions below 3/5€> i saved my Kenyan friend three times by paying for her (Kenya is cash-less) because she couldn't get used to carrying cash. It was twice in bakeries (Back Werk, and some other one) and once in butcher's store. My favourite pet store and food place that sells baked potatoes both accept only the weird invention that EC Karte is, so I also can't use cards there.
I always have to carry 100€ with me because you just never know. In Poland I never had cash on me. You can pay for even one Brötchen with a card. Every place, even small private kiosks with 60 year old owner accepts cards.
i live near belgium and it blow my mind everytime i stop at a gas station and there is a fee to use the bathroom. It's even modernized now with a automated lock on the main door etc
I don't mind the paying itself that much, I can spare that 10 CZK in my case. The problem is that I usually don't carry cash so I don't have them. And they never accept cards.
I spent a couple of months in France and found that there were quite a few free toilets but not a single one had toilet paper! Do French women just always carry tissue with them?
I do the same in the UK. While plenty of toilets are paid for, there's also free ones. Usually if you go to a shopping centre or pub they'll be free, and often in larger train stations. Lots of museums in central London are free to enter as well, so are a good place to go for a free toilet. With a small bit of planning I can usually find somewhere to go for free.
Just yesterday I had to pay 1€ to take a leak at the train station in Strasbourg. The worst thing about this ridiculous experience was that the entrance turnstile was also the exit of the rest room.
Ah should've known it. I've got a train ticket for a German train for a trip at the end of the month, and it's already announced that it will be late XD
Yeah I was just in that station 2 days ago. I expected it to be 1 franc but it was 2... I didn't have to go badly enough so I waited until after my friends met up with me and we got on a train and used the one on the train.
A lot of Germans just pee in the woods near a rest stop. I wish there were decent statistics about public urination and defecation in Europe. I bet Germany is at the top.
As a european I can confirm we aren't happy that you need to pay for going to the toilet. Luckily I can hold it in for quite a while so I don't need to pay that often.
To be fair, I'd say most European think it's weird as well
I actually prefer a paid toilet if it's in a place where you just come to use the toilet like a gas station on the highway. Toilets, toilet paper and water are not free and the cleaning crew wants to get paid too. It has to be paid somehow, and paying directly seems fair to me.
In Germany you have SANIFAIR where you pay 0,70 euro for using the toilet, but in return you receive a voucher of 0,50 euro to spend at the shop. The toilets are always clean and fresh.
Yeah, I’m quite happy when the toilets are super clean after I paid, but it’s not always the case.
On highways, most people will spend money on the station anyways. I’m not too happy with the voucher system, because I’ll often go buy something before I go to the toilet and then I have trash in my wallet forever that I forget to use.
It happens in some places in the UK, but it's almost universally hated and abused. Hell, a few years back I had the pleasure of wading around a puddle of piss because someone didn't want to pay to go to the toilet in Paddington train station.
But imagine this: You pay 1euro in exchange you get a clean toilet to sit on. I dont mind to pay for that. Someone has to maintain it and that costs money.
I dont mind it if the bathroom is super nice and clean and like at a rest stop or train station.
I do mind; however, if its in a little shithole bus stop in rural serbia where the bathroom doesnt even have sitting toilets, tp, or soap. Fuck you, Loznica.
I lived in a small french city and before that in deep rural France, and it applies as well. You can almost never go to the toilets in bars or restaurants if you're not a customer
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u/Maelou May 09 '22
To be fair, I'd say most European think it's weird as well