Things that made me go hmmm...

Toilets! First of all they are few and far between, and I mean far! Second, they are not free! If I was lucky enough to find one, I had to dig around to find coins, then I'd have to dig around to find my glasses to see what coins I had. By the time I did all that I was dying! No two toilets work the same. Some flush on the wall, some flush on floor, some times it's on the right and sometimes it's the left. Some just left me completely baffled, and I gave up.  Some toilets are just a pan in the floor. I already covered that though; it was a dark moment. Many restrooms are shared by men and women. That took some getting used to. I was always startled and thought I was in the wrong place. Faucets were crazy too. Cold on the right, then cold on the left. They all turned on differently, some I couldn't get to turn on at all. Thank god for hand sanitizer!  Showers were so tiny! I mean barely shoulder width. If you dropped the soap, too bad. Want to shave your legs? Good luck! Some showers were just level with the floor. There was water everywhere! Some only had half a door. Still water everywhere. Every day we saw examples of extraordinary architecture and engineering, but the plumbing left us so confused! 

Blow dryers were offered in most hotels. Some were just tubes that came out of a wall like a vacuum cleaner hose. They barely blew out any air at all, but the end got insanely hot so you couldn't even hold it. Strange. 

Water is expensive. It comes two ways- fizzy (gas water) or still (flat water). It took us a while to get used to ordering "still" water. 

Potatoe chips are everywhere! They are served with every drink you order! We even saw old Italian men sitting at tables drinking red wine and eating potato chips for breakfast! The potato chip salesman in Italy is living large! 

Trains confused us. We purchased tickets for our longer rides from home and brought paper copies. I think we took  8 or 9 trains and our tickets were checked only 2 or 3 times. Anyone could have ridden for free. In fact, we unintentionally rode several street cars and buses free. We wanted to pay, but couldn't figure out how, and no one asked us. I honestly don't know how they stay in business. Maybe all the pee-pee money funds everything! Also, there was no security at all in any train station, but we felt completely safe.

There's no tipping at restaurants, but it costs money to sit in a chair. It took us forever to figure out the extra charge on bill each time. They finally explained it was a "chair charge". Some chairs are more expensive than others. Very interesting...

It was truly fascinating to see how another country lives, but this girl needs her American hair dryer!