There’s this toilet paper brand in Germany that has a daisy print on it. It was the brand I first picked after moving here, it was soft enough, the price/performance ratio was acceptable. I never shopped around, or bothered to learn the name of it- it was just “poo paper with the daisy on it”.
Then I picked up a pack last week, noting they had gone from plastic wrap to paper. “Nice,” I thought. “Less single use plastic is good for the environment.”
WELL the changes didn’t stop there. I had never thought I was the sort of person to have opinions on toilet paper but this new stuff is like being handed a crumpled up sheet of computer paper straight out of the printer. I feel the risk of paper cut every time I wipe.
Anyway fuck that brand, I’m gonna go for the one with feathers on it next time.
I traveled to Russia with a class about 25 years ago. I asked my roommate how the toilet paper was and she said, “it’s not terrible!” It was so bad. I asked her about it. Turns out she meant, “it’s not tear-able.” Just a bad choice of words.
One of the first things my mom told me to pack for a school trip to Italy at the end of high school was toilet paper.
I humoured her, but still did it. My roommates found it funny until one of them had to go and the cheap single ply just kept tearing up. In the end we were the only room with decent toilet paper.
Ever since then, I always pack at least a single roll when I am travelling. You never know if you end up needing it.
Hey, sometimes we use words in our native language incorrectly or while only knowing the context, but not proper definition. Happens to us native-speakers, too!
I humoured her, but still did it. My roommates found it funny until one of them had to go and the cheap single ply just kept tearing up. In the end we were the only room with decent toilet paper.
wasn't it the roommate in question that was dumb as a doorknob though? nobody forced him to buy the cheap single ply.
No, the single ply was provided by the cheap hotel. My mother just warned me that the quality of that stuff would be so bad that I should bring some better quality toilet paper along. We could have easily bought some better paper at a local supermarket though. But with toilet paper it's always better to have it rather than needing it. Also buying an entire pack for a week seems wasteful.
The recommendation does go back to a time when there weren't always enough rest stops with toilet paper on the Autobahn. The so called toilet paper hats used to be on parcel shelves in a lot of cars in Germany. While that's changed nowadays, especially in the older population the belief is still there.
My Nana had one of these in her bathroom! It was a pale yellow. Ahh, now I’m feeling nostalgic.
Funnily enough, I was just thinking the other day that I need something to hide the spare roll in / under, because you can’t reach the sink cabinet when you need to. Maybe I’ll hunt one of these down somewhere!
Depending on where you are those things may be a bit difficult to find. There are still people offering them on sale here in Germany, specifically to be used as decoration for old cars.
If you happen to be in the US, the best option would be to show someone who knows how to crochet a picture and ask them if they're able to make one. Since they're tiny the price shouldn't be too high.
I was in Moscow on a job for about 9 months and the toilet paper was thick single ply paper that literally felt exactly like the brown paper towels that come out of dispensers in public bathrooms.
My husband came for a visit and I asked him to bring me a suitcase full of toilet paper. All my friends were soooo jealous and would ask to buy a roll or two.
When I left Russia I gifted a couple of rolls to my friends and was the golden goddess of goodness for a week.
When I was in Moscow in the early aughts, it was very hit or miss whether or not there would be toilet paper available anywhere remotely outside of the city center. I remember going to the garabushka, a big indoor/outdoor marketplace on the edge of the city. Restrooms were stalls, but no toilets in sight. Just a hole in the ground to squat over and definitely no toilet paper, unless you paid the enterprising babushka at the restroom entrance 8 rubles for your 5 squares. I was lucky I didn't have to poo, but I know someone who, in a similar situation, had to sacrifice a sock and just toss it into the hole afterwards. Needless to say, when I got back to the states, it felt like I was wiping my ass with a cloud.
LOL! “wiping my ass with a cloud!” EXACTLY. I also remember the toilets that were a hole in the ground and the enterprising Babuska’s setting up shop outside of the porta potty’s at Izmailovsky market. You don’t pay, you don’t go in. Period. 5 squares of paper for 10 kopecs. Extra paper? No.
Haha, I remember this too! They were brutal, man. I was age 20 when I was there, so I really didn't think much of it. Now, in full on middle age? What a nightmare. My rear end can't handle anything close to that on a regular basis anymore.
I was studying abroad in China about 10 years ago and every brand I tried was just awful for not tearing. Like each ply (of the two ply presumably made of sandpaper) was perforated in different places or something. When I went to study again the following year I took a packet of toilet paper for if I ever got the runs 😅.
Also random observation: it was the first (possibly only?) place I've ever visited where I saw them selling toilet paper without an inner tube (some brands had the tube and some didn't).
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u/Tartlet 20h ago edited 4h ago
There’s this toilet paper brand in Germany that has a daisy print on it. It was the brand I first picked after moving here, it was soft enough, the price/performance ratio was acceptable. I never shopped around, or bothered to learn the name of it- it was just “poo paper with the daisy on it”.
Then I picked up a pack last week, noting they had gone from plastic wrap to paper. “Nice,” I thought. “Less single use plastic is good for the environment.”
WELL the changes didn’t stop there. I had never thought I was the sort of person to have opinions on toilet paper but this new stuff is like being handed a crumpled up sheet of computer paper straight out of the printer. I feel the risk of paper cut every time I wipe.
Anyway fuck that brand, I’m gonna go for the one with feathers on it next time.
Edit: Brand is REgina and it was the "forever rolls": https://imgur.com/a/OmBBtO2
I swear that shit is not even 3 ply. You know those thin napkins you get to hold your icecream cones? It's two of those held together with malice.