It's good to be back in cultures of sit toilets and where toilet paper can be safely disposed of by means of flushing. One may ask, "What other types of toilets are there and how else would you get rid of used toilet paper?" A simple enough question but with a plethora of answers. For now, I can only answer for the countries I have traveled within. However, given the amount of nations that exist, I have no doubt there are more answers than the two case in points I will provide.
In Turkey and many parts of Greece, toilet paper cannot be flushed down the toilet.
The explanation I was told is that their older plumbing is not able to deal with wads of toilet paper. True that may be except for the fact that even recently developed areas also use this same system of disposing used toilet paper in a provided waste bin next to the toilet. I think it's a cultural thing, which is fine by me. After all, "When in Rome, do as the Romans." Often times, toilet paper is not provided at all. This occurs commonly in squat toilets, which are just as they sound. There's a hole in the ground and you squat over it to relieve yourself. Apparently, this is anatomically the easiest way to use the bathroom. For cleansing, there is either a hose and/or a small bucket of water. The idea is to splash water on yourself and/or use your left hand. Once in awhile, the hose is accompanied by toilet paper. In this situation, it's not an option of which method do you prefer. The toilet paper is there for drying and is still meant to be disposed in the allocated bin. (That's why the 'water closets' aka WC aka toilets aren't smelly with used toilet paper sitting in waste bins. The toilet paper was merely used for drying, not wiping.) Also, a small hose with projecting nozzle can often be found at the top of the bowl on sit toilets. This has the same purpose as a bidet except the washing is incorporated into the toilet bowl rather than as a separate structure.
As I said before, I'm glad to be back to sit toilets with flushable toilet paper, but am happy to have experienced something different. You know you're travelling a lot when every few days, you have to relearn how to flush the toilet. I've come across flush pedals, sensors, pull chains with raised water tanks, levers on the side of the water tank, push buttons on top of the water tank, pull buttons on top of the water tank, 2 different buttons (one for #1 and the other for #2), big hand buttons on the wall behind the toilet, little finger buttons on the wall behind the toilet, start and stop buttons (starts the water flushing, but you have to push the stop button or it will continue running), pump flushes, and of course ones that I never quite figured out. In those situations, you just scratch your head and hope there's no one waiting for the toilet after you so you can make a clean exit without anyone finding out.
After Turkey, Stacey and I intended to fly to Croatia before meeting my friend, Brett, in Prague. It didn't take us long to realize we would have as much difficulty finding transportation out of Turkey as we did finding a way in. Keep in mind neither of these feats are impossible, just difficult when you are on a time and cash budget. When we arrived to Istanbul, we went to a travel agent and basically asked where can we fly to in central or eastern Europe cheaply. Less than a week later, we were in Budapest, Hungary.
Budapest was a nice surprise. Buda and Pest are actually two cities separated by the Danube river.
There were plenty of natural and architectural sights to see as well as history to learn. We made good friends with others staying at our hostel and spent a few evenings out with them. Stace and I also saw the ballet "Spartacus" at the Opera House. For 400 Hungarian Forint (less than $2) we had balcony seats!!! Another cheap item in Budapest was beer. You can get a half liter bottle from the grocery store for $0.25! My only complaint price-wise in Budapest was a $20 cab ride to go less than 10 minutes down the street. Unfortunately, the driver had me in a tight spot. I was lost, late and it was pouring rain!There are also interesting toilets in Hungary. (You didn't think I could move onto the next country without mentioning a toilet, did you!?) At first glance, they seem normal. However, instead of the bowl being hollow with a few inches of water (as at home), the bottom of the bowl is raised to just a few inches below the seat with no water. (I think it was engineered for water conservation) So, when you "go," whatever you just "did" sits in that raised portion (without water) until you flush. When you flush, a jet of water pushes "it" horizontally forward until "it" and the water cascade into a small hole at the bottom of the bowl. However, this is not always a success. Email me if you want a slightly gross but funny story or use your imagination. I'll spare the rest of you for now. :o)
Our next stop was Vienna, Austria. Stacey and I were lucky enough to catch a ride with a fellow travelling American we met in Budapest. We hung out with Andy for the 4 days while in Vienna. It poured half the time we were there, so we found a really cool museum to pass the time. The Hausdermusik is an interactive museum dedicated to the past, present, and future of sound, music composition, and composers. We spent at least 7 hours goofing around and learning and easily could have put in a couple more. One of my favorite parts was the virtual conductor where one can conduct the Vienna Philharmonic with a computerized baton.
The faster one waves the baton, the faster the orchestra plays. If one conducts to the left side, the left side gets louder, etc. If one does not have a proper rhythm going, the musicians become angry, stop playing and start yelling at you. Check out their website (link posted above) for online fun.Unfortunately for me, Austria is heavy on meat and gravy cuisine. The only thing Austrian that I tried came out of a konditerei (bakery..mmm).
Oddly enough, we feasted on Indian, Chinese and Thai food while we were there. We actually became regulars at the Indian and Chinese restaurant. The Indian restaurant had an especially interesting toilet. When I opened the door to the stall, the light automatically came on and the toilet seat started rotating. A spray of disinfectant sanitized the seat while it rotated 360 degrees.Prague was the last stop for Stacey and I together *sniff sniff.*
We took a bus from Vienna to Prague to meet up with a Canadian friend I shared a room with in NZ, Brett. We mostly did the touristy stuff; walked around, saw the sights, got lost and went out in the evenings. We manage to escape most of the tourists for a day when we took the train into a small town callled Kutna Hora to see its ossuary, a church decorated with the bones of 40,000 people! It was a bit eerie to say the least, but also very interesting. Legend has it that dirt from the site of the Crucifiction was sprinkled on the land. They ran out of room because there were so many people that wanted to be buried at this cemetary for this reason. So the family that owned the land at the time, Swarzenberg's, hired a woodcarver to arrange the bones into chandeliers, vases, and whatever else he could think up. Crazy! 
After Prague, Stace took a train back to Italy to meet up with her mom for the last two weeks of her trip. I flew to Switzerland with Brett where he now resides to visit and relax for a week.
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