I’m spending a few days in St. Petersburg, Russia to visit Quest’s office.  Sure, I have the regular touristy photos, like myself in front of old buildings:

But what I really like about overseas travel is that everything looks and feels different, and it forces me to look at the design and user interface for everything.

Take toilets, for example.  American toilets have the button on the side, and Russian toilets have the buttons on the top.  That’s right, buttons – more than one:

My first thought when I saw this in my hotel room was, “Ah, that’s interesting.  Now what would be the advantages or disadvantages of putting the button on the top?”  I guess you can’t leave things on top of the toilet if the button is on the top.  With American toilets, you can just pull the lid off, and the button remains on the side, so it’s probably easier to design the lid.  This particular toilet lid doesn’t come off at all, which is an advantage in hotels – tourists hide all kinds of stuff in toilets.  I know this from my years of working in hotels.

My second thought was, “Two buttons?  I’m screwed.”  I’ve been in Europe just enough to have seen bidets, and heard about toilets with built-in bidet attachments.  I half expected water to come shooting up and hit me in the eye, so I stood to the side when I tested the buttons.  Turns out the two buttons have two different amounts of water: regular, and Niagara Falls.  I think I could flush a small cat down this toilet.  Now that’s cool.

Are American toilets better than Russian toilets?  No, they’re just different.  The differences continue throughout the bathroom, like the hooks on the wall:

These have a fun, playful design language, very mid-century-modern.  These would look awesome in an American 1950’s ranch-style house, but I’ve never seen anything like them before.  I certainly wouldn’t expect to see them in a traditional hotel like ours where the paintings on the wall are framed with mock gold leaf.  The hotel is very conservative, and then these bathroom hooks say BAM!  Bathroom fixtures seem to be more modern-looking in Europe and Russia, and more traditional in America.  Dunno why.  Not better, just different.

But wait – there’s more.  Check out the toiletries in my room, but look closely and see if anything looks odd:

In the white box, there’s a nail file.  A nail file!  Wow.  I’ve never seen that before.  I’d be curious to know how often people need a nail file when they travel.  Different.

Plus, the labels are all in English.  Not Russian, just English.  Know why?  Because only Americans are dumb enough to travel without all of their stuff.  And I should know – last week I went to California without any socks, and this week I came to Russia without my electric razors.  Which brings me to this:

It takes a big man to admit he’s scared, and I’m a mighty big man, so I don’t mind telling you: razor blades scare the hell out of me.  There must have been some terrifying experience in my childhood involving razor blades, because I never touch them.  When I was old enough to shave, I bought an electric razor, and I’ve always used them ever since.  Normally, if I forget my razor when I travel, I go buy another one.  But here I am in Russia, and if I bought an electric razor, it’d have their electric plugs, and I wouldn’t be able to use it at home without an adapter.

I said to myself, “You’re so interested in things that are different – why not give it a try?”  After all, I’ve seen Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  I know how the concept works.  So with shaking hands, I lathered up my face and used a sharp piece of metal to scrape hairs off my face.  (Can you tell this concept bothers me?)

And you know what?  I liked it.  It gives a really nice, close shave, and as long as you lather up with warm water and use a sharp razor, it doesn’t cut your face.

That’s why I like travel.  Different can be better.  I might even stick with razor blades.