Emergency meeting

Part of the fun, or frustration, of visiting a new foreign destination is figuring out the basics. We never think twice at home about everyday practices such as turning on a light switch, using an electrical outlet or using the bathroom. But traveling abroad will challenge everything you think you know about the basic operations of life.

Traveling in the U.S. is tiring enough, but when you arrive home you don’t have to think what to do. You may use the bathroom, have a snack or take a shower. Traveling abroad is much more strenuous. On top of the usual weariness of travel you can’t rest at your destination; the physical part may end but the brain must kick into high gear.

On the way to the hotel we had a lengthy discussion about tipping. At this point none of us had ever even seen the Turkish Lyra before much less understand its value. On top of that, tipping customs vary from country to country. We didn’t want to underpay but we don’t want to overpay either. We had the same problem at the hotel when the clerk took our bags and escorted us to our rooms. Do we tip or not and how much.

After finding our rooms, then next order of business was a visit to the bathroom. But we couldn’t just barge right in, there were no lights and no working light switches in the room. We have had enough experience abroad to know that hotels don’t always work the same. The room key card not only lets you in the hotel room, it is also sometimes used to enable the lighting. We looked and located a slot on the wall that the room key fit in and that did activate the lights. Now we could move on to the more important necessity, the bathroom. We have learned from experience that this is not always a one person job. Well, USING the facility we can do by ourselves, but figuring out the facilities is another story.

We called an immediate impromptu meeting and the three of us piled into the bathroom together. Our conversation went something like this:

“That is obviously the toilet but how do you flush it?” “I don’t know, there isn’t anything attached to it to push or pull.” What do you think that knob on the wall is for, could that have something to do with flushing the toilet?” Well why is it over there instead of on the toilet?” "What do you think those large metal discs are for, perhaps that somehow flushes it.” "How can a metal disc flush it?” “I don’t know, do you maybe push them?” “No it must have something to do with that knob” “Well that looks more like what you would use on a bidet.” “Well this isn’t a bidet is it?” “No of course not, there isn’t anything inside the toilet where the stream of water would come from.” “Well there is a plastic stopper against the back.” “Well how would a plastic stopper spray water?” Well there has to be some way to flush this thing, we can’t be expected to just fill it up and let the house keeper bail it out.” “I still think it must have something to do with that knob, I’m going to turn it and see what it does.” “But wait, what if this is a bidet and we all get sprayed!” “Oh come on, there isn’t even any way to spray the water so it can’t be a bidet, so yes let’s turn that and see what happens.” “Whos gonna do it?” “I don’t wanna do it, I still don’t know what it will do.” “Oh come on, it’s a knob, what’s it gonna do? Move out of the way I’ll do it.” “Well turn it slowly just in case.” “In case of what? Its just a knob.” “Well you never know, we could all get wet.” “Well I don't know about you guys but I can’t wait any more, someone turn it now or I’m going to have to go in the sink.” “Alright alright, I’m turning it. See all that fuss was all a waste because it doesn’t do…” “TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF IT’S A BIDET IT’S A BIDET, TURN IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!”