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Brief intermission – Pee Pay
(actually, after a long pause of how many days, weeks or months, if not years, I forgot)
Won’t it make you feel as if you’re cheated that you have to pay for your urination? We take it for granted, don’t we, that we can pee for free. In train stations in Japan, you can find toilet almost always. So, I was a bit taken aback when I heard the call of nature after strolling through Jardin du Luxembourg and entered a cottage style loo I found, where, inside, a young Middle Eastern looking man stopped me by calling to me “Monsieur” as I hurried towards a urinal to relieve myself. He asked me to pay 0.5 euro so that I could take a leak.
Incidentally, it will be regarded as a matter of course that in tourist spots, resorts, or playgrounds, you have to pay extra, double, thrice or probably more sometimes for whatever you get, such as something to drink or eat. In the Jardin, as I ran out of water, I had to buy a 500 ml bottle of water for 3.5 euro. In supermarkets, I could have bought one dozen or so bottles for the same amount of money. I should’ve been better prepared. For a poor, old traveler like me, this was a good lesson.