Balkans Bathrooms

We're home now & wishing we were still on the road! I'll make the most of the trip for the blog & post a few thoughts & more photos over the next week or so.

The bathrooms out there fascinated me. Not one of them worked perfectly! In Albania & Montenegro all the showers leaked. It wasn't surprising at our first hotel in Saranda as one of the shower surround panels was missing but the others all looked to be perfectly good. But no! However carefully you closed the doors when you emerged, freshly scrubbed, there would be a pool of clean, not soapy, water on the floor! It was very intriguing. Croatian showers were different, they didn't leak. They didn't drain properly! You'd end up paddling in 2" of dirty water by the time you finished.

The toilets were fine. They all worked but Montengrin ones quaintly had high level cisterns. That brought back some memories! I always remember Mum admonishing "Don't forget to pull the chain" when I was little. Sadly these had no chain but a bit of string which seems rather mundane.

Then there were plugs. Our 5* hotel in Shkoder didn't have one! All the others were the annoying modern ones with a plunger hidden behind the tap to lift them. Of course these barely worked so I'd end up prising out the plug & attached black gunk with my fingernails. It was only really a nuisance when swilling out our clothes.

Our bathroom in upland Montenegro, at Zabljak was interesting. When I went to open the door the handle came off in my hand! Someone did come & fix it the next day, however. More strange was the fact that the water went off during the night, on the two nights we stayed there. We noticed it first on getting up to the loo & finding no water in the cistern to flush it. Then at about 6.00 all sorts of strange clanks & gurglings emanated around the building as the water returned. Very odd!

Finally the towels. They were clean & adequate but often small, thin & sometimes hard. It was rather nice on returning to Italy, where we stayed in a small hotel/b&b in the Dolomites, to have luxury in the bathroom. It was bright & shiny& looked new. No cracked tiles or grubby grouting. No leaks or blockages & thick soft big white fluffy towels. Bliss! It's nice to travel but sometimes wonderful to return to home comforts!

Elvie