Monday 12 January 2009

View Through a Glass Bathroom


Look closely at the image above. Yes, its a hotel bedroom. The Continental Forum Hotel in Sibiu, a beautiful medieval city in Transylvania, where we stayed for two nights in September 2008 as part of our Tour of Romania. 

See that glass apparition  on the right? That is the glass bathroom.   Can you see the lavatory on the left? Sort of hanging with no visible means of support.

This was our third hotel as we travelled through Romania, Transylvania and Moldavia. The previous hotels had been Stalinist Soviet Cement Blocks, Romantic Castles once belonging to Aristocratic Romanian Gentry and a converted post office in Bucharest. Quite a variety, all charming and comfortable, but we were looking forward to a couple of nights in a prestigious modern hotel for the contrast. 

First impressions as we entered our room were great. The room was large, clean and very comfortable looking with good lighting and mirrors everywhere - and then we saw the bathroom. The bathroom was made of glass. Some of the glass walls were slightly frosted, but not all of them. What were the architects thinking of?

We were a group of sixteen. When we met the others in the hotel lobby bar before dinner the main topic of chat was The Glass Bathroom. The two elderly gays who'd been a couple since the 1960s were distressed at the lack of privacy. Two blokey mates said they thought they knew everything about each other until then. The couple who'd been married for forty years didn't like the concept even after all thsoe years of sharing.

One man travelling on his own had his glass bathroom situated in the centre of his single room and because of all the walled mirrors  could see himself from all angles as he sat there and was grateful for travelling alone.

Modesty and Morty aren't usually words used in the same sentence but that night after dinner as he ventured into the Glass Lavvy even he said 'Don't look!'

I tried not to look but wherever I settled my eyes there were mirror images all reflecting images of personal ablutions. I hated it. I imagined this being our first travelling experience together; charged with the secrecy and excitement of getting to know each other intimately. No chance of that in a Glass Bathroom. There were no secrets.








5 comments:

Gail Is This Mutton? said...

Can't imagine many of us liking that! But your travels through Rumania, Moldavia and so on sound fascinating. Would love to hear more.

maddie said...

Mr Grigg always leaves the door open and it's like a concerto with all the actions. But with all that glass and mirrors it would be like a bloody orchestra!

Buggles Balham High Road said...

Gail, I used to write detailed Travelogues on our journeys based on the memory, notes and images but lately I haven't bothered.

I shall try harder as we are going to Vietnam and Cambodia later in the year so I shall rev myself up and make the effort.

Buggles Balham High Road said...

Mr Buggles is the same as Mr Grigg at home but there was something about the bright lights, the mirrors and semi-opaqueness - the shadows that made this experience an uncomfortable one.

At the base of the glass door into the toilet was a letter-box kind of opening. We didn't even dare to imagine what that was for. More toilet paper? A magazine? Stop!

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