I’m sure it’s pretty obvious to most people already, but when you carry around a limited number of clothes and you’re constantly walking around cities, you tend to get a little stinky. Kevin and I are trying to avoid this by periodically washing our clothes at an actual laundry mat instead of just in the sink of whatever hotel we’re staying in.
Our most recent experience was in Bordeaux on last Monday, and I can’t say it was one of our best. There was a washing facility not too far away from our hotel, so we thought we could finish our “chores” before the vineyard tour we signed up for at 1:30PM. When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was the severe smell of cigarettes, so I thought, “Great, we’ll wash our clothes only to have them smell like an ashtray afterward.” If only that were the worst part of the situation.
There was only one seating area in relatively small place, and a very stinky, somewhat scary looking bum was sitting there. Rather than stay there, standing for a hour washing our clothes go around and around, we decided to run to the post and run and grab croissants across the road. Kevin mentioned how he was worried the bum would steal our clothes, I was just worried about the smell. When we returned, the stench was much, much worse. It smelled like a port-o-potty, but without the pleasant chemical smell of sanitizer. At that point, we should have grabbed our clothes and just air dried them in the hotel, but we put our clothes in the one of two dryers. It worked for about 30 seconds, then nothing. Kev put a few more coins in – nothing. We checked the seams, played with the dials, but absolutely nothing we could do would get the machine to start up again. Kevin was livid. He had a few choice words for the situation, which he yelled toward the machine, and I couldn’t figure out why he was so upset. We only wasted 2 euro on the machine, no big deal. Then it dawned on me. Our clean clothes were going to have to go into the dryer that the bum was using.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was a bit upset when we first got in there and it smelled of poop, but I couldn’t hold it against him – he was trying to clean up, he was washing his clothes! But that was before I realized that he pooped his pants while we were standing waiting for the dryer. I kid you not, he got up from the bench, and left a puddle of poop, and with each step, another puddle was left behind. I will spare you some of the more grotesque details, but to give you an idea, I was gagging for the next 20 minutes while we waited for our clothes to finally dry.
Our most recent experience was in Bordeaux on last Monday, and I can’t say it was one of our best. There was a washing facility not too far away from our hotel, so we thought we could finish our “chores” before the vineyard tour we signed up for at 1:30PM. When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was the severe smell of cigarettes, so I thought, “Great, we’ll wash our clothes only to have them smell like an ashtray afterward.” If only that were the worst part of the situation.
There was only one seating area in relatively small place, and a very stinky, somewhat scary looking bum was sitting there. Rather than stay there, standing for a hour washing our clothes go around and around, we decided to run to the post and run and grab croissants across the road. Kevin mentioned how he was worried the bum would steal our clothes, I was just worried about the smell. When we returned, the stench was much, much worse. It smelled like a port-o-potty, but without the pleasant chemical smell of sanitizer. At that point, we should have grabbed our clothes and just air dried them in the hotel, but we put our clothes in the one of two dryers. It worked for about 30 seconds, then nothing. Kev put a few more coins in – nothing. We checked the seams, played with the dials, but absolutely nothing we could do would get the machine to start up again. Kevin was livid. He had a few choice words for the situation, which he yelled toward the machine, and I couldn’t figure out why he was so upset. We only wasted 2 euro on the machine, no big deal. Then it dawned on me. Our clean clothes were going to have to go into the dryer that the bum was using.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was a bit upset when we first got in there and it smelled of poop, but I couldn’t hold it against him – he was trying to clean up, he was washing his clothes! But that was before I realized that he pooped his pants while we were standing waiting for the dryer. I kid you not, he got up from the bench, and left a puddle of poop, and with each step, another puddle was left behind. I will spare you some of the more grotesque details, but to give you an idea, I was gagging for the next 20 minutes while we waited for our clothes to finally dry.
This is Kevin's "angry" face
I am happy to report that Kevin and I can look back at this now and laugh*, and neither of us have seen any adverse effects of the bum dryer.
*Just kidding, I showed Kevin this post before I put it on the website – he’s still upset.
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