Las Duchas Horribles

While many people may rank their favorite restaurants or hotels while travelling, the thing that comes to mind that can make or break a place is the SHOWER.

Here I will rank the showers at the places I've travelled to in order from best to worst.

Enjoy.


BEST SHOWER THUS FAR: Hotel Abril, in Sevilla.
Pros: It was a private shower, in other words, I didn't need to wear flip flops in fear of catching some viral disease. But it was super nice. Hot water, great water pressure, and the stream spanned the distance of most of the shower's length.
Cons: NONE.

Close second: Hotel Regina, in Madrid.
Pros: This hotel that we stayed in during the Madrid tour was really cold. The benefit was HOT SHOWERS. The only place to be warm the entire trip. The cold really sucked. I mean, we'd go on cold walking tours of the city and large cathedrals that are just as cold as it is outside, then we come back to our hotel hoping for warmth, and the hotel is about 50 degrees inside. It sucked especially since the heater only works when the keycard is in the light switch, which means you have to be IN the room to heat it. So, yeah, it never got warm. But I digress...the shower was hot, nice pressure, and just nice overall.
Cons: It wasn't my own PERSONAL shower, like the one in Sevilla (in Madrid I had a roomie)


Next: Black and White Hostel in Lisbon
Pros: The showerhead was an overhead rain showerhead. RAIN. It was glorious gallons after glorious gallons of water. Even though right next to it the placard said it was energy efficient, it sure didn't feel like it.
Cons: A shower CURTAIN. Ugh, when this was paired with a small square shower space, I had great fear in touching the possibly moldy curtain. Also, the bathroom was co-ed. Luckily I didn't have issues. And, since it was public, it warranted flip flop usage.

Next: Hotel Codina in San Sebastian
Pros: This hotel we stayed in during orientation was REALLY nice. Read: heated towel rack. The water was super hot.
Cons: No shelves for the soap and shampoo. And the shower was a tiny tiny square. Smaller than the one in Lisbon. Like, this was 1.5 feet by 1.5 feet.

Next: My host family's shower in San Sebastian.
Pros: It's in a home, so obviously no flip flops required. And the water is nice and hot.
Cons: The door is this weird accordian thing that never stays closed...it always slowly opens, and it opens inward, toward the tub, so when I am standing there it seems to slowly close me in. PLUS, the water pressure is like that of a garden hose with holes in it. It doesn't SHOWER you, it's more of a dribbling. And because of this, the hot water isn't as effective since there is a HUGE space in front of you for cold air to circulate while your body tries to adapt to the temperature of the water.

Next: Porto Downtown Hostel in Porto, Portugal
Pros: This was a ONE-MAN BATHROOM. It was great. I could lock the door and not have to worry about walking through the hostel with a towel wrapped around me when I returned to the room to change. The water was hot, the pressure was great.
Cons: The drain wasn't very effective. The rubber foot grip thing was also covering the drain, which made it even MORE ineffective. Plus, it was public, which meant flippy floppys. While the water was hot, the temperature couldn't be adjusted..it was just on or off. Oh, and to conserve water, the water button turned off every 15seconds or so. Which meant you had to press it a LOT.


Second to worst shower this semester: Hostel Kabul, Barcelona
Pros: Erm, the one stall I was in had a door?
Cons: The rest of the stalls didn't have doors. The pressure was not very concentrated, which meant the water seemed to be in a HUGE circle, but not anywhere in particular, so it was a light rinse as opposed to a stream of water. The water button was also like Porto's...it turned off every 10 seconds, so it had to be pushed like 3 times when I was just washing my face. The water was also pretty cold, but it did warm up to a reasonably warmish temperature that was bearable. But, the water was NOTHING compared to...

THE WORST SHOWER EVER (not just in my lifetime, but probably in history): The Rising Cock Hostel in Lagos
Pros: It was a one man bathroom, which meant I could change in the bathroom.
Cons: The drain did not drain water. The water came out of a hand-held showering spout thing, but there was no holder for it, so you couldn't hang it up...you had to hold it. The stream was pretty bad, too. Oh, and the TEMPERATURE, or lack thereof, was the most memorable thing. Seriously, if you gave the people who froze in the ocean after the Titanic sank an option between that and this shower, they would choose the former. Okay, maybe not, but this water was COLD. I thought Barcelona was cold, until I felt this. I think icicles were forming on the showerhead as I bathed. Seriously, it was unbearable. SO unbearable that my showers were approximately 30 seconds long. I would do a swoop with the showerhead, shiver, put on body wash, swoop the water over me, shiver, get my hair wet, shiver, think about shampooing, then decide not to, then turn off the water. Seriously, if I had to shampoo I think I'd lose like 20 degrees of body heat by rinsing my head under that stream. The two days we spent in Lagos, all of us had dirty hair. Shampooing just could NOT be done. I actually filled my water bottle up (a 1.5 liter bottle), then let it warm up, then rinsed my hair over the sink. At least then I could get my hair completely wet without shivering as though I was having an epileptic seizure.


And there you have it.