I’m a pretty good traveler.
Actually, I’m a very good traveler.
I’m easy going, handle changes well, rarely complain and enjoy being places different from home. Especially Europe.
But no matter how many times I go to Europe, I am always confounded by one thing: those confusing shower heads in Europe.
What Is A European Shower?
The Euro shower head – which are in pretty much all the hotels – lead to what I call a European shower. And that is everything in the bathroom getting soaked except for me!
The shower heads in Europe are not like the ones here in America, which are affixed to the wall. Instead, the shower head slides down. They dangle on their own and when you turn them on, they take on a personality their own. No matter how much I try to control them, they act as independent as a cat.
I first encountered this contraption in the Greek Islands. I had never seen one before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. After all, with water spraying out of it, where do you put it when you lather up with soap and shampoo?
, I never did get the hang of it, despite repeated trips to Greece and the Greek Islands. I would soak everything in the bathroom to the point my friends always made sure they had taken their showers first and cleared out all of their stuff because they knew I would soak everything in the room.
In European cities, and in finer hotels than the pensions I stayed at in Greece, I expected things to be more civil. But that’s not the case. I even have trouble in 5-star hotels.
Sure, the nicer places have a bar where the shower head slides up and down to different positions. But I can never ever get it to stay affixed, and it slides down the bar as I’m taking a shower, causing me to bend down further and further until I’m practically on my knees in the tub.
I also have the problem of the shower head not pointing straight ahead. Instead, it positions itself to one side and I have to continually move it over which, of course, winds up soaking everything within 10 feet – the floor, the toilet, my clothes if they are in the wrong spot.
As this is happening, I keep asking myself the same question over and over again: why can’t the Europeans get this shower thing right!?
More Issues With A Euro Shower Head
Oh, and sometimes they make it impossible to take a shower at all by having bizarre designs on the faucet that are impossible to figure out without and engineering degree. One in Switzerland was so complicated that, after carefully studying it for a good 10 minutes, I finally gave up and wound up sitting on my knees in the tub, splashing water all over me from the faucet.
I love everything about Europe, except each morning, I know I’m going to face this one challenge: taking a shower.
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