In 2019, I spent 2 weeks in Europe for work. It was an amazing experience learning about myself, other cultures, and I took a lot of trains. I loved trains and I got to take one in all four countries I traveled to.
On one of those train rides, I was traveling with a co-worker from Germany to France. It wasn’t a long trip, but we had a layover in Stuttgart, Germany. I drank a lot of coffee that morning and the train we were on didn’t have a restroom, so I made a beeline to the ladies room when we arrived because we had a short layover. There was a lot of construction so I had to take some detours to get there, but I finally arrived and there was no queue. However, payment was required to use the restroom at this particular station which I didn’t mind shelling out for because the amenities are well kept and the stall door doesn’t have giant gap when it’s closed like it does in the States.
I was quickly digging through my purse for change as the lyrics of “It’s a Privilege to Pee” from the musical, Urinetown, played in my head, and found my 30 cents to use the restroom. The machine took my money and the light turned green, but to my dismay, the turnstile wouldn’t let me in. I wasn’t able to hop over or crawl under because the turnstile was six feet tall. I saw a lady pay and enter through the turnstile effortlessly as I walked up to the machine so I knew it was working.
I assumed I did something incorrectly because I was the one in a foreign country and I must have misunderstood something so I tried again…and failed again. At this point, a queue began to form behind me. I was full of pee and getting very nervous about being the dumb American who can’t operate the turnstile. The lady behind told me I was doing it wrong and kindly gave me 30 cents. During this exchange, another person paid and walked through the turnstile with zero issue. I put the kind lady’s 30 cent in the machine while she watched carefully, however, I was ONCE AGAIN locked out.
Baffled, like me, this sweet lady gave me ANOTHER 30 cents. At this point, there is commotion in the women’s restroom line and as I’m about to feed the machine, the lady’s husband came over and ushered both of us to the men’s restroom. He said it was fine for us to use it because no one was in there, and that this turnstile was working.
The lady put her money in the machine and walked through the turnstile with no problem. I put the lady’s money in the machine and, SUCCESS! I was in! I crossed the threshold of the restroom when the lady screamed at the top of her lungs because there was a man using the urinal. He started yelling and I laughed at the absurdity of the situation and walked away. I found my co-worker and told her the story, to which she replied, “You poor thing! I bet there’s a restroom in one of the department stores”, which blew my sweet American mind that train stations in Europe were big enough and had enough traffic to have functioning department stores.
After navigating the construction, we finally found a restroom in a store with no turnstiles and no payment required – what a relief! However, my comfort was short-lived because after using the amenities, we realized our train was boarding at the opposite side of the station from where we were. My co-worker and I ran to our train narrowly making it before it left the station and collapsed in our seats while the train whisked us off to France.
While traveling, I find that the simplest things don’t always go the way I expect them to. Sometimes the best thing to bring with you is patience and a sense of humor for the comedy of errors that is traveling in a foreign country.