We're planning a trip to Vienna over Halloween, and we're doing things a little differently this time. We have less than one year left in Europe, and we still have so many places we need to see. So, we're prioritizing and budgeting. When we travel, we never stay in the hotel room for long, so we thought this was the obvious place to cheap out. I started looking at pensions in good neighborhoods... hotels on the same block charge upwards of $500, but pensions have dated furniture, uncomfy towels, and sometimes shared bathrooms, and therefore, are MUCH less expensive (to the tune of $85 per night). I had my eye on a pension in particular with a great breakfast. I emailed my request, and the response had me cracking up. "I can only offer you a small budget room with shower, bed size 140 x 200 cm (translation - 4 x 6.5 ft), and toilet on the floor." Toilet on the floor??? I've heard of them. One time I went to a restaurant in Italy and there was just a tiled floor with a hole in the middle. I didn't end up going, but told our Italian friends about it... they said they'd seen that sort of thing before.
But, I'm committed to our plan. I emailed Ryan to see if he could use a "toilet on the floor." That's when he pointed out the second option - there's a bathroom on our level (i.e. one on the 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor). That was an aha moment right there.
So, knowing I don't have to pee on the floor sort of solidifies it - I think we've found our pension! It actually looks really cute - even the pictures of the room (although it looks like the deluxe option was photographed - not the budget 4x6). And if it means we can go on an obscene amount of vacations this year, I see a lot more pensions in our future.
Squat pots. A common thing in Asia. In fact, so common that regular toliets will have shoe imprints on the seat from those who only like to squat.
ReplyDeleteGood to know! Isn't it crazy, what you learn when you're abroad? I could have lived my whole life without knowing about squat pots.
ReplyDelete