Are westerners being robbed of TP when we get the hollow rolls? Is communism the right path after all?
Don’t go to Russia. Every once in a while you can encounter this atrocity. Yes, it has holes right out of the roll, no perforation whatsoever and not even a hole that you could hang it on and therefore outer layers are always dirty. And, of course, feels like a sandpaper, tears when wiping, but stretches when you actually try to get a piece. Please don’t tell me that this exists outside of Russia, that’d be way to much assrash for this world.
when you take brutalism so far that your toilet paper looks like concrete
Don’t go to Russia.
There’s a very tall list of reasons to not go to Russia and their toilet papers isn’t very high on it.
I don’t know…
My list goes:
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Their toilet paper
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I might criticize Putin
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I might criticize the government
Well, I wouldn’t worry about 2 and 3 that much. It’s just that as a foreigner, especially if you are from the US, you will most definitely fall under the surveillance of FSB and the cops will look at you twice, but they’re not paid half-decent enough to actually give a shit and do their job properly. They might harass you here and there but if you don’t do anything stupid like protesting in red square or doing selfies in front of military bases, then they’ll have nothing against you. I imagine that’s not that much worse than living in the US under CIA’s umbrella and trigger happy cops. Other than that, it’s not nearly an extreme hellhole like NK, Afghanistan or Syria that people make it sound like. In fact, you can get by in Moscow or St. Petersburg without a guide or translator just fine. I’d rather advise to watch out for the tourist traps(the usual), and to avoid getting out of the city limits and into the suburbs because of the much increased crime levels.
Ah, and put the fact that for every dollar you spend there, you put 20 cents straight into Putin’s pocket into that list…
And also that you’d probably need a visa and it’s a hassle…
And that you’d probably need a Russian friend to get you hooked up with the basics and avoid going through the bureaucracy - like with currency exchange, credit card, carrier plan, etc…
Also that weather is rather harsh there…
And also that it’s probably the dirtiest country on earth because city planners didn’t zone out lawns and parks properly therefore the mud gets spread absolutely everywhere…
And that internet is half-broken, with half sites censored while the others block everyone from Russian IP’s because sanctions…
And that Ukraine might not let you in afterwards…
And that you’d for sure be questioned by your homecountry’s intelligence services…
And that’s about all that I can think of.
I encountered this in Ukraine, often combined with those toilets in the floor and/or extremely rickety, extremely “well-loved” outhouses. Once, we stopped in what appeared to be a stranger’s yard and my hosts advised we were at the rest stop. I asked where the restroom was. They all started laughing. They are a hearty bunch.
The one that’s just like a concrete block with few holes in the floor? God that shit’s terrifying. Grew up in Russia and luckily never had to use one of those as they were never the only option. But if I had to, I’d rather shit my pants instead. Had to use shoddy garden toilets, squat toilets and toilets with no stalls before a few times each, all were awful experiences, but this thing, it combines all three for the ultimate discomfort.
You see these in Poland every now and then, just with an actual central hole. I remember seeing these in my school, we used to call it srajtaśma (“shit tape” is the best translation I can think of), and it was just as bad as you described it. It also had a very particular smell to it.
Funny how I could probably understand what you mean if you said it without translation. Sounds very simillar to срать тесьма, which is also shit tape, though it’s not a correct grammatically in Russian. To my knowledge, we don’t have a specific name for it, but if there were I’d say it’d either be студенческая/солдатсткая (student/soldier) paper because they’re so poor, or жоподёрка (the assripper)
These exist and are widely used in rural Romania. Even public institutions like schools and town halls use these there. They’re not the worst you can get though. About 10-15 years ago you’d also stumble across houses that had no toilet paper, just newspapers. You were supposed to wipe with those. Not a fun experience!
