Plumbing - it's hit and miss

Our adventure so far has been one with highs and lows. The biggest high, of course, has been walking out of the orphanage for the last time with Stasik. The lows have somehow often revolved around plumbing issues. One such low involved Stasik's internal plumbing. There was a time today when we were concerned that it was not working and that a hospital visit might be necessary. But, by midnight all systems were go! Thank goodness!

On a less serious matter and contrary to Jared's previous post, I have found TP abundant in the Ukraine. The location in which one uses the TP is another story! We Americans are so used to a McDonald's, a convenience store or some other such establishment every so often on the freeway. I will never take one of those places for granted again! In the Ukraine, there is no such place on the side of the road. Every once in a while there is a gas station but that doesn't necessarily mean they have usable facilities. Also, if you do not speak Ukrainian or Russian, you can really embarass yourself. For example, if you walk into a Ukrainian gas station and use your translation dictionary (that you so diligently downloaded on the iPhone so it can speak the word for you) to ask for a "bathroom" you will receive strange looks, a shake of the head no, and laughter as you walk out! Yes, I did this only to find out from our Driver that I had just asked them if they had a place for me to bathe my body.

If you do find a gas station that does have toilets (I've learned to just call them that when in a foreign country), the are often frozen and unusable or they are a hole in the ground... cistern style..and no, there is no TP there.

Our final adventure with plumbing to date, was our hotel in Preluky. The room was so nice, really like a Jr. Suite. The odor emanating from the toilet, however, was so bad that we had to keep the bathroom door shut and a room window open the entire time. When finally, out of necessity only, we had to go into that room, we literally had to hold our breath. Good thing we were only there one night.

We did find a great restaurant that we quite accommodating in the plumbing area. They did take the term "going green" very seriously with their obviously recycled (rough) GREEN TP! We didn't care. It was warm, free of smells and there when we needed it. We ended up eating there twice and having coffee there once.