Flush or Not To Flush…

Who would think that something like toilet paper would become a memorable part of a trip. Not sure what to expect on Mt Athos in terms of accommodations and related "services" I brought along some supplies.  I had Imodium (in case someone got some bad food), cough syrup, antacid, Tylenol with codeine, and a small roll of 100% recycled paper toilet paper. I had heard stories of people traveling in Eastern Europe where toilet paper was ripped up newspaper, I would have none of that on this trip. Fortunately our accomodations were great and a scrap of newspaper was not to be found in the bathrooms.

A day after we were got to Greece I came down with a cold; not a bad one but still the usual sneezing, coughing and requisite nose blowing. Now if I were at home this wouldn’t be a big problem but since I was up at odd hours of the night standing in long church services my trusty roll came in handy. Stuffed in my vest pocket I had an almost endless supply of nose blowing material. If you’ve ever used 100% recycled toilet paper you know that it is a bit on the abrasive side.  With ample facial hair and a tough schnoz a little abrasion perhaps worked better than the soft perfumed stuff designed for the ladies. 

The problem was I’m not a dainty sneezer, I’ve never been able to quelch a sneeze as others do.  The beautiful services were occasionally punctuated by my "full body sneezes". I can just imagine another pilgrim telling his friends " the services were marvelous, very peaceful and uplifting, except every once in awhile some American dude would sneeze and blow his big nose… Americans!".  I was perhaps the only person in the entire 1000 year history of the Holy Mountain to stand in church with a prayer rope in one hand and a roll of toilet paper in the other! 

Now comes the fascinating part of my toilet paper tale: In Greece (and perhaps elsewhere in Europe) rather than flushing the paper down the toilet one disposes of it in a small garbage can next to the toilet. I’m not sure why but perhaps it is due to the old plumbing in many buildings or bad paper that won’t degrade. Try flushing newspaper down your toilet sometime and see what happens! Anyway, it was very strange and disconcerting. Down the toilet is almost a reflexive act, in the garbage takes some thought. Complicating things further some places wanted you to flush it.

Truth be told, my lower GI tract doesn’t take well to major time zone changes and it’s a bit shy about strange bathrooms, especially ones where one is required to squat. So mix in the flush or not to flush quandary… well you know what I mean.  I have to confess, there were a few times I flushed when I should have thrown.  Once or twice ( OK , three times) I’ll admit I did flush in a spirit of defiance; "I’ll be damned if I’m going to open that garbage can with all the other "used" paper in there… it’s un-American!"

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