Aren't them foreigners weird...

[Crackle]

The other thing our continental cousins are want to do is reverse the way locks work. So what looks like the yale is the deadlock and what locks like the deadlock is the yale.

I know this now but I didn't the first time a young and naive me left a continental flat with the rubbish bag heading for the basement. When I got there I couldn't get in, not having the wit to try the locks the other way around, so headed back to the flat to find... I couldn't get in.

My rising panic at being locked out all day with a bag of rubbish in hand prevented me thinking clearly and when a neighbour came out I gabbled at him and waved the keys and the rubbish bag in his face. He calmly took the keys out of my hand and let me back in, handed the keys back and left, all without a word or a backward glance.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

The other thing are continental cousins are want to do is reverse the way locks work. So what looks like the yale is the deadlock and what locks like the deadlock is the yale.

I know this now but I didn't the first time a young and naive me left a continental flat with the rubbish bag heading for the basement. When I got there I couldn't get in, not having the wit to try the locks the other way around, so headed back to the flat to find... I couldn't get in.

My rising panic at being locked out all day with a bag of rubbish in hand prevented me thinking clearly and when a neighbour came out I gabbled at him and waved the keys and the rubbish bag in his face. He calmly took the keys out of my hand and let me back in, handed the keys back and left, all without a word or a backward glance.

Well if that isn't reason enough...

 

[Profpointy]

On my first ski trip to the French Alps as a boy in the 1970s, the toilets in the restaurants on the slopes were simply a hole in the ground, but there were handles on either side of the door frame for you to hold onto while doing the deed.

Apparently a favorite trick of French boys was to carry a screwdriver with them to loosen the handles and so you would fall backwards into said pit. Nice!

Ah but those squatting toilets are more hygenic .... at least to those who thinking shitting on your shoes is more hygenic.

Handy hint no 245 - open the cubicle door before pulling the flush !

 

[swee'pea99]

I made the trip from Piraeus in Greece to Brindisi in Italy. It all started well with we deck class hippies sharing as we spread out on blankets, the Greeks off to the Volkswagen factory in Germany were more than generous, we had chicken and bread and figs and retsina. Sometime later a visit to the toylut was necessitated and a trip 'down below' was the real adventure. By this time many passengers had yet to find their sea legs and the metal floor was greased with pre digested chicken bread figs and retsina. I made it to the loo only to find a hole in the floor two footprint imprints and two handles on the wall all covered with the generally donated food.
So now that I have painted a tasteful picture for you and you can see where I might have a problem, you know, you put your feet in the footprints right and hold on the the handles right? But excuse me, you can't do the business because of trousers. I took my trousers off and put them around my neck so I was naked from waist down taking a tommy and a girl walked in, there was no door, and spewed the contents of her stomach all over my well, me . In case there are any makers of porno movies out there - no this is not a turn on.
Furriners eh?

And they say travel broadens the mind...

 

[swee'pea99]

I tell you what is weird - electric kettles are unknown in America. If people over there want to boil water, they have to heat it up on the hob.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Or this one.

I know what's wrong, the seats have been left up.

 

[sight-pin]

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/blog/articles/pissoirs-the-history-of-public-urinals-in-paris

 

[Cubist]

I have, this evening, seen:

Naked men in a public park.
A statue of the Renaissance composer Lassus reused as a memorial for Michael Jackson.
A tour guide in a cassock carrying a halberd and wearing a hat with a feather in it.
A group of young and very small Japanese women dressed up as cartoon cats and cartoon geishas accompanying a tall German with a Heavy Metal T-shirt on the steps of a cathedral.

Pontefract?

 

[Hill Wimp]

[QUOTE 4333645, member: 259"]And for anyone not familiar with working in the Netherlands, that's a litre glass![/QUOTE]
So that's why they are so tall ?
They drink gallons of milk so that is where I went wrong.

 

[martint235]

I came across the Greek version of a toilet at the bus station in Chania. I was suffering an upset stomach but there was no way I was using that footplate/hole in the ground setup

In Vienna there was just a wall with shorter side walls

And in Calais well, it wasn't pleasant.

 

[ColinJ]

I came across the Greek version of a toilet at the bus station in Chania. I was suffering an upset stomach but there was no way I was using that footplate/hole in the ground setup

I went into some underground toilets in Corfu town. There were no signs in English, but I spotted lots of men disappearing down some steps, put 2 and 2 together, and got ...

... a footplate/hole in the ground setup which had clearly been recently visited by someone who had eaten the entire crop of an olive grove, couldn't aim properly, and didn't understand how to use the hose to clean up after him!

Every other stall was occupied so I had to clean up after Olive Man in order to be able to get within striking distance of the aforementioned hole.

 

[Fnaar]

Holiday on a Greek island in the 1980s. If you went for a poo, you had to put the used bogroll in plastic wastepaper bin (with no lid) next to the loo, strict instructions in loads of languages NOT to flush it down the loo.
That's just wrong!

 

[martint235]

Holiday on a Greek island in the 1980s. If you went for a poo, you had to put the used bogroll in plastic wastepaper bin (with no lid) next to the loo, strict instructions in loads of languages NOT to flush it down the loo.
That's just wrong!

Still the same even on big islands like Crete

It's one of the few joys of coming home - I don't have to touch the sh**y bin anymore

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I tell you what is weird - electric kettles are unknown in America. If people over there want to boil water, they have to heat it up on the hob.

Italy is similar - In fact, tea is so unusual there, they don't have a clue what to do with it and I have had it made for me using what appeared to be hot water from a tap more than once!

Considering the amount of Coffee they drink, this is all rather ironic.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I have, this evening, seen:

Naked men in a public park.
A statue of the Renaissance composer Lassus reused as a memorial for Michael Jackson.
A tour guide in a cassock carrying a halberd and wearing a hat with a feather in it.
A group of young and very small Japanese women dressed up as cartoon cats and cartoon geishas accompanying a tall German with a Heavy Metal T-shirt on the steps of a cathedral.

What ARE you smoking tonight?