Where Does It Go

Okay, so I know you all are probably sick of hearing about toilets but I have one more post for you. So have you ever been on a bus, train or plane and wondered…where does it go? I mean does it get flushed from the toilet to the ground? I mean you don’t see toilet paper in the streets or human poop falling from the sky, so most likely common sense tells you that it is like a porta potty; deposited in a basin and the sucked out (as seen on Dirty Jobs). Anyway, today I learned that the Italian trains do it differently.

After traveling for about 4 hours I decided to stretch my legs again and find the restroom. I found the male one first, turned around and found the female one. It was locked at first so I waited, and waited and waited. I left that area and was just looking out the window when another girl came and waited and waited and then left. Finally, I went back and knocked…nothing. Was the girl too shy? Nope, the door was just hard to open; why there was red by the lock, don’t know!

I look in the toilet as I prepare the paper to go on the seat and see the ground. Not the ground of the train, the ground of the tracks flying by. What happens in the winter? Poor Italians…Anyway, I go to leave and cannot unlock the door. Like the lock moves and it sounds like it opens, but it doesn’t. I am stuck in an Italian train, knowing not a lick of Italian, with the ground passing me by. I took more than my anticipated 60 seconds, took a deep breath and thought of how I would call for help (it being in between trains and all). I tried again, and again, and again. You know, this trip is really all about the practice makes perfect….

The door finally opens and an older lady is standing outside. She laughed and said something and I replied with “be careful!” She said yes and headed in. Perhaps I will cut back on the water intake until I get into Florence.

PS – I really really wanted to go back and take a picture of this hole in the train but figured I wanted to never go back there again….ever.