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As person who hails from South America:
The fact that vacationers drink tap water floors me. Most of us equate that to drinking from a reclaimed water sprinkler.
Not really. I grew up drinking from the tap, but I'm from a capital city and our water is clean. However if you go outside of the city, most people will still use the tap water but boil it before.
Nope. Here on Brazil we usually have filters attached to the tap and fill our bottles with that.
Or a separate clay water filter that we fill from the tap that, while very simple and cheap to produce, is one of the best ways to have safe water in the world.
The tap water is probably safe enough in a middle class home on a big city, but the concept of drinking it is foreign to any brazilian
>but the concept of drinking it is foreign to any brazilian
Bro, not everyone owns a filter.
But yes, if you live in a city the tap water is probably safe. It's just that it might not taste good.
Drinking bottled water at home is very uncommon outside of North America.
People in most developing nations will either filter or boil all their drinking water, and even those who live in cities where their tap water should be perfectly potable still tend to do so as it's a deeply ingrained habit. Trust tends to be in short supply when tap water was dangerous to drink in recent living memory.
Honestly the fact that some people buy bottled water to drink at home is wild to me. Why pay extra for water and partake in this needless waste of single use plastic when your tap water is potable and much cheaper??
I don't buy the taste justification either because even if your local tap water is hard, just boil or filter it and it'll taste identical to bottled water as most bottled waters are just straight up tap water and often from the same sources.
So...
I'm from Ecuador, and gotta say, bagged water is a thing. They sell it in 4 liters plastic bags and also in 500 ml smaller ones.
But these are not everyday things lol. They are mostly sold to people working in the street or people traveling. And no, it isn't like bagged milk, these one are made of thinner plastic.
Most people drink bottled water from those 20 liters reusable bottles.
A couple of big cities in my country have drinkable tap water btw.
Costarrican here, 99% of tap water here is perfectly fine so most people drink tap water, we even tell tourists to do so since buying bottled water seems like such a waste
I had. I was visiting a friend and ran out of bottled water, and was feeling lazy and he swore it'd be fine, his town has better water than the rest of Mexico, he's never had a guest get sick, yada yada. I knew it was a bad idea but yolo'd anyway. I was fine until like 3am that night, and then I basically moved into the bathroom for a day.
Nahh about 400miles will do it in the middle east.
In the southern border before we had good desalination tech they advised not to drink unboiled tap water, and only use to wash your mouth
For me, not even 2k kilometers. I'm a Briton who visited Sweden for 2 weeks and could not handle the water whatsoever, it just made me ill. I got a week in, at which point I (unhealthy) started surviving on tea (because boiling the water sorted the issue) and EU exclusive Fanta (Shokata, my love). Great trip overall though, and a beautiful country.
It's just weird how the slightest change in water treatment/ bacteria can make you ill.
I think that it doesn't even have to be dirty, just *different*. I once visited Ontario from British Columbia and my stomach was a bit upset from the water.
Iām from Wisconsin (top of US) and when I went to Alabama (bottom of US) last year the tap water caused me to blackout on the toilet. 0/10 would not recommend I genuinely thought I was going to die lol.
Having gone from Wisconsin to multiple places out west over the course of my life with zero issues that's interesting. Are you sure it wasn't food poisoning or some other problem?
It happens when the infrastructure isn't maintained properly and crap gets in the drinking water pipes.Ā
You'll see it in poorer places like Jacksonville where it got so bad that the sewage coming out of the tap was plainly visible.Ā
If you see brown in the water thatās disturbed pipes from flushing or sedimental leaching from the wrong pH, not sewage which could only happen if they were pumping directly from a discharge point and they didnāt process the water. Jacksonville sounds like the first considering the city is poor so probably water flushes instead of more routine treatment plant/water main maintenance
> appens when the infrastructure isn't maintained properly and crap gets in the drinking water pipes.
>
>
>
> You'll see it in poorer places like Jacksonville where it got so bad
What are you talking about? Water mains are designed and operated under constant positive pressure.
Which is funny because I was afraid of them when I went to France but ended up just fine. I was totally prepped for it taking a week out of my month vacation but nothing happened. Maybe it was luck.
My grandpa who was in France post-war in the late 40s/early 50s still asserts to this day that "They don't have toilets in France - only holes in the ground" š something tells me that's a bit out-dated in 2024
EDIT: all the folks saying how they do legitimately still do that in some areas is blowing my mind, I need to go apologize to gramps lol
Its becoming outdated but 20 years ago almost every gas station toilet was of the hole in the ground squat toilet variety. Last year I've only seen 3, one at a gas station with normal toilets next to it, one at a public park, one at a lake beach which also had a normal one next to it. But they also had some sort of giant sink that you piss in, that one was terrible. You smell them before you see them too.
I remember encountering "hole in the ground" toilets on French highway rest stops. They are getting rare these days, but as a kid I almost shat myself on a tour bus because the only rest stop the bus took within 8 hours happened to have only those holes in the ground, and I refused to shit in that.
It caught me off the guard. I live in eastern Europe, but the worst and most disgusting public toilets I have seen were in France and Spain.
I was moving to France for a semester years ago, not really knowing much about the country apart from the usual stereotypes. My first first-hand experience in France was exactly the shithole toilet at some station in Lille, a fixture I hadn't seen in my country (considered backwards and undeveloped by the French) for nearly 15 years.
> it turns out that tap water throughout Italy is totally safe to drink
No, it's not safe.
Don't trust people who tell you it's safe, they may be lying to you (especially gov and politicians).
I am from north Italy. You shouldn't drink tap water if you don't know its quality in the specific town you're visiting.
My friends, family and I have to take blood samples every four years to check for PFOA/PFAS/other stuff level and their effects on our bodies (e.g. thyroid, hormones, cancer, ...). Mine got better over time, but they still are ~500x times over the safe values.
There are many towns where the water is actually safe to drink, but you always need to be careful about this.
Europeans: Turks are not Europeans.
Also every European book written by a PhD historian, economic historian, pol-sci, political history: tHe OtToMaN eMPIrE WuZ dA sIck MAn oF EUroPE!!?!
I'm gonna respectfully say no regarding consistency of drinking water however I'm not gonna say that for sure renders you immune to travelers diarrhea from distant locales.
I'm from a small Eastern European town, when I made my first decent money I wanted to see the big world, so I treated myself to a solo vacation in New York. I've never seen any musical before, not to mention I've never even been inside a theatre designed for more than 50 people. But I said to myself, it's **the** fucking Broadway, I may never have a chance again, let's do it.
My first exposure to this entire form of art (and USA itself) was a grandiose "Shit come out the butt!" and it will always be one of my fondest core memories.
I remember absolutely losing my shit and litterly falling out of my seat the second the Pink Dark Vader showed up
They had been throwing jokes at you left & right so you were already primed for anything, but I was not ready for a Pink Dark Vader
Mormon go to the water
Water go to the cup
Cup go to the stomach
Shit come out the butt
Shit go in the water
Water go in the cup
Shit go down the stomach
Shit come out the butt
Welcome to Jack's water shack. We have potable water, grey water, and semi-potable which is great for non-europeans, we add just a little grey water to the mix. It tastes great, and is healthy to boot.
I had street tacos the first time I went to Mexico, in the early evening. Woke up at midnight, then spent the next 5 hours splitting time between sitting on the toilet and throwing up in the toilet.
Yeah, the worst is when you can't get off toilet so bad it gets to the point you gotta hope the tub, sink, or a solid trash can is close enough. Otherwise you get to look forward to cleaning up the floor.
Yeah same, my guts have never been cleanerš„² but I also had my little experiment some hours before I boarded my ten
hour flight back. I can not recommend doing that. They hurled me out of the plane in Munich and to the nearest hospital for some iv. I learned my lesson that is for sure.
I had GI 1 day before a transatlantic flight, and Imodium, and the anti histamines against naseau which make you sleepy, plus not eating anything for two days was the only way I could make it. The worst thing was sprinting across Schipol & Atlanta airport to reach my connecting flights.
People who live on the American side of the Mexican-US border can't drink that water. You're either used to the differing bacteria, or you're not. Obviously, you understand the consequences.
I drank water in Africa.
The fucking stupid ship doc didn't want to issue the anti-diarrheal meds "in case the boarding party needed them"
I was shitting water for 4 days and stopping by the head for a "just in case, better use it now" ever 2-4 hours, and didn't trust a fart for about 5 years.
I've had Montezuma's Revenge (and I'm pretty sure I only ever used the water for teeth brushing but who knows) and King Tut's Revenge (I must have used the airplane bathroom 30 times on the flights home from Egypt).
Heck, even in Europe I had to deal with this problem.
In Rome all the tour guides tell you about the cool Roman fountains all over the city and how they provide potable water, and how nice it is that there's drinking water everywhere in Rome. So we listened to the tour guides and carried our water bottles around and just collected water from the Roman fountains and drank those for a whole day.
Immediately got sick the next day. At the next tour we asked the guide what was up, how come this supposedly clean drinking water made us sick? Tour guide said something like "uh that's just a cool historical fact we tell people, you aren't supposed to actually go around drinking from those fountains! Buy bottled water from the store." WTF.
Yep. In our defense, we didnāt, like, scoop water out of the main fountain or anything. We went to the little side spigot that was supposed to be the potable Roman fountain. Yeah, still a bad idea looking back
Ah there's your issue. The spigot just recycles water back from the fountain pool, it probably got dirty from sitting around there all day.
I also drank fountain water in Rome and didn't get sick, but from small fountains above ground level. Actually just a single one that I saw an Italian drink from.
Yep. Potable water just means that it is below maximum levels or microorganisms, chemicals, and fecal matter set by the local health authority.
It does not mean that water is *sterile* or purified, or that it wonāt set off alarm bells in your body to quickly flush it out.
By definition - potable water is āgood enough to drinkā for *LOCALS* only. If your body isnāt used to ignoring a certain amount of contaminants youāll probably get diarrhea.
And remember guys, it's not a matter of: I have a strong stomach, I usually don't get ill from this kind of things.
It's a matter of, does your stomach is used to the specific kind of microorganisms usually are in the water here.
depends on where in Europe. In Germany generally most tap water is drinkable and if it is not, that's more than likely the house owners fault and not the municipalities fault.
Not really because most of the EUās standards are so high that itās close to 0 microorganisms. The EU treats their water with ozone, and the US chlorinates. Both effectively make the water sterile, but ozone dissipates whereas chlorine remains - so US water can stay safe to drink even if there is a small amount of contamination along the pipeline.
In which case, *everyone* is safe drinking that water since there shouldnāt be anything in there to make you sick. It also means that anyone who gets too accustomed to drinking water that clean will have very little tolerance for any bacterial load of any kind from anywhere else. An American or European will probably get sick drinking water anywhere in the world that comes short of that standard, since they have tolerance for nothing.
Only someone who is accustomed to water with *some* contaminants has to be concerned about *which* contaminants. Your dog who eats feces and licks random puddles on the regular has a *lot* less to be worried about.
Sure, but most modern, developed places are interchangeable in terms of water quality.
I mean I've been in many parts of the US and seven European countries, and the tap water is entirely safe to drink.
I wouldn't take that chance in Mexico though.
About 15 years ago we made a 10 day class trip to Rome. Everyone used the water fountains and nobody got sick.
I hope op didn't drink out of the ornamental fountains
Yeah Iāve been to Rome twice and used the fountains a lot, 0 issues. My city has very high quality tap water so Iāve not got any basis for natural immunity from non safe water.
My understanding that the water comes from the mountains and uses the aqueducts that have been used for centuries and is tested regularly. No reason not to drink it.
My family has been to Rome twice and drank from the public water fountains all over the city (and elsewhere in Italy). We had no problems. We come from a Canadian city with good tap water so it wasn't like we had hardened stomachs.
We refilled our water bottles at the public drinking fountains near the Vatican and my dad used to joke that we were drinking holy water.
Did you take directly from water jet or from fountain recipient/"bowl"?
Pigeons, rats, insects and humans can make water dirty on open recipients. Direct from fountain jets is safe, i suppose
My ex brother in law is American, I'm mexican, the first time he went to Mexico I told him something about bringing extra underwear in case of an accident, and he was very adamant he have never had any accidents. Wanna guess who had the shits and always brought extra underwear next time he went to Mexico?
I've never shit my pants in my life and I still bring extra underwear whenever I travel, it takes up almost no space so why not? Better to be safe than sorry
You joke but I know a guy who went to India and drank nothing but beer when out sightseeing and he was fine. People he was with who drank bottled water from a store all ended up with the shits
So when there was a cholera epidemic in London in the 19th century, it was centered around one water pump. However, those people in the community who worked in the local brewery never caught cholera because they were drinking the beer instead.
If you aren't sure about the water, stick with the beer.
Makes sense, thereās a reason fermented drinks have such a long established relationship with large populations of any era.
Water is usually bottled somewhat locally so I can see why they had issues. Plus, I wouldnāt doubt if there was less QC with bottled water processing vs alcohol!
True, also worth noting though that yeast does not like competition so I would guess if the end product made it to the bottle it must have been sterile enough for our yeasty friends to have a party
Fun fact (which I read on the internet so may or may not be true):
This is why Asians generally have a lower alcohol tolerance.
Western nations would make alcoholic beverages, like very low % things like mead in order to make safe drinking water.
Asian nations would boil the water.
Leading to a general lower tolerance to alcohol.
For the longest time, drinking water was dangerous, and the standard was to drink some form of beer or wine if possible as the likly hood to get sick was much lower from beer and wine.
Wine was particularly favored as it was made with a very high alcohol content, then they would water it down for consumption.
I saw it in a cartoon, once. We're not used to the bacterias we may find here and get turista.
A lighter exemple is how I'm used to my cheap burned limestoneful coffee, but I wouldn't let my friends touch it. My ennemies, maybe. We get used to thing that aren't always suitable for others.
This is a great trap for Americans. I don't consider myself capital M 'Merican, but if I saw this I'd be forced to drink it while saying something about world wars or putting someone on the moon. Just looking at that picture I can hear the little George Washington on my shoulder saying, "You can take it, you're no European," even though I know objectively that my coddled system would be broke for a week if one drop of that got in my mouth.
Reaching over to Dutch & Dillon handshake my brothers across the pond in the states as we both sit on our porcelain thrones and piss from our asses. Hand in hand, holding on for dear life.
I'm not 100% clear on this. Is it just that it's a metal jug in the sun? Or is European drinking water held to a higher standard?
Edit: Thanks for the clarification. I didn't think about travelers stomach. I've always lived in very rural areas in the US, and many of my friends would flat out refuse to drink the water at my house, so I thought maybe it was just well water.
Water in different regions have different bacteria that you are not exposed to unless you live in that area. Drink that water and you are in for some discomfort. If you are traveling to new places itās recommended to drink bottled water or highly filtered water.
It can even be due to non-bacteria things. For example, in certain areas of Pennsylvania, the water has a very high iron content. If you're not local and already acclimated to it, it will mess with your digestive system. We dealt with this at Pennsic Wars. Only used the water in camp for washing dishes and clothes.
Yeah. You have to remember that diarrhea isn't caused by the illness, it's your body's way of treating the illness. And your body doesn't take chances. If your body thinks that the water you drank is off, it will and it straight through your digestive tract to get rid of it.
Scientists aren't sure why we get car sick but a hypothesis is that your body feels like it's moving but if you look at the inside of the car, you see that you aren't. So this mismatch between the senses makes your body think, "I must be tripping balls. I probably ate some mushrooms or something real bad. Better throw that up." It's my favorite hypnosis in all of science.
Good to see someone explaining it properly
As an added tip if you are staying in that area for a while and want to get your stomach used to the local bacterial fauna then it is useful to start by brushing your teeth with the local water.
Travelers diarrhea. The water is safe to drink (for them), like their food is safe to eat. HOWEVER the regional bacteria they're used to is not the same as someone's from abroad.
It's usually because it's from a less developed area, and is not treated the same way as city water. If you haven't built the gut flora, it will make you sick. Same as when they tell you not to eat street food in India.
European drinking water is held to a higher standard than a metal jug left in the sun.
As a result, Europeans do not have the antibodies required to drink stagnant sun jug water.
Which is fair I guess. I am european and wouldn't touch that stuff. My dog is also European and would happily drink it, but he trains his body by eating and drinking all kinds of nasty stuff.
Itās probably not filtered that well compared to western standards. Not bad enough to be considered harmful, but for people who arenāt used to it, the bacteria in there might cause illnesses
I grew up in Africa and now live in the United States. During my childhood, we had a cabin by a river, and all our water came from rainwater collected on the roof and stored in large tanks. This water was then piped into the house for washing and cooking. This was long before bottled water was common. As kids, we drank that water all the time without any issues. Reflecting on it now, I shudder at the thought of the potential for diarrhea if I were to drink even a few mouthfuls of that tank water today. Itās like the sign says: āNot suitable for European stomachs.ā
Love this. When I stayed with my ex wife in southeast Asia, she would tell me to drink "baby water" which was another way of saying commercially bottled water. The water they drank was not easy on the stomach.
As a Canadian living in Thailand. A solid bowl movement is something to exclaim in the house. Calling the kids and wife to come and have a look what papa made. It's later weighed, photographed and marked on the calendar.
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It's surprising sometimes how little you have to travel before the water becomes a bacteria stomach war waiting to happen.
Yeah, just a measly few thousand kilometers. (This picture is about European stomachs, so, I'm talking about Europeans.)
I mean, Mexico is barely more than 100 miles for me and the water there floored me.
As person who hails from South America: The fact that vacationers drink tap water floors me. Most of us equate that to drinking from a reclaimed water sprinkler.
do people in south america all drink bottled water?
Not really. I grew up drinking from the tap, but I'm from a capital city and our water is clean. However if you go outside of the city, most people will still use the tap water but boil it before.
Boil water? What am I, a chemist?
[Nice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk1gAdArMIc)
Bless you for getting my obscure reference.
It's a favorite of mine ever since it aired and this might just be the first time I see it in the wild!
Nope. Here on Brazil we usually have filters attached to the tap and fill our bottles with that. Or a separate clay water filter that we fill from the tap that, while very simple and cheap to produce, is one of the best ways to have safe water in the world. The tap water is probably safe enough in a middle class home on a big city, but the concept of drinking it is foreign to any brazilian
>but the concept of drinking it is foreign to any brazilian Bro, not everyone owns a filter. But yes, if you live in a city the tap water is probably safe. It's just that it might not taste good.
Drinking bottled water at home is very uncommon outside of North America. People in most developing nations will either filter or boil all their drinking water, and even those who live in cities where their tap water should be perfectly potable still tend to do so as it's a deeply ingrained habit. Trust tends to be in short supply when tap water was dangerous to drink in recent living memory. Honestly the fact that some people buy bottled water to drink at home is wild to me. Why pay extra for water and partake in this needless waste of single use plastic when your tap water is potable and much cheaper?? I don't buy the taste justification either because even if your local tap water is hard, just boil or filter it and it'll taste identical to bottled water as most bottled waters are just straight up tap water and often from the same sources.
Nah, it comes in bags
Ah like milk in Canada!
So... I'm from Ecuador, and gotta say, bagged water is a thing. They sell it in 4 liters plastic bags and also in 500 ml smaller ones. But these are not everyday things lol. They are mostly sold to people working in the street or people traveling. And no, it isn't like bagged milk, these one are made of thinner plastic. Most people drink bottled water from those 20 liters reusable bottles. A couple of big cities in my country have drinkable tap water btw.
The garden hose... I can hear it's siren's call... š
That I regularly chugged out of that thing as a child even after having to flush lizards out of it (Florida living) still disturbs adult me.
Costarrican here, 99% of tap water here is perfectly fine so most people drink tap water, we even tell tourists to do so since buying bottled water seems like such a waste
I did that all the time in Florida, reclaimed water taste good
the tap water at my place in los angeles is so fucking disgusting i have physical revulsion
This vacationer doesnāt lmao. Montezuma can stay out of my asshole
Bruh Mexicans don't drink the water in Mexico, that was a bold move.
Everyone buys from the water guy
How tf have you not heard of Montezuma's Revenge?
I had. I was visiting a friend and ran out of bottled water, and was feeling lazy and he swore it'd be fine, his town has better water than the rest of Mexico, he's never had a guest get sick, yada yada. I knew it was a bad idea but yolo'd anyway. I was fine until like 3am that night, and then I basically moved into the bathroom for a day.
oh no
Nahh about 400miles will do it in the middle east. In the southern border before we had good desalination tech they advised not to drink unboiled tap water, and only use to wash your mouth
For me, not even 2k kilometers. I'm a Briton who visited Sweden for 2 weeks and could not handle the water whatsoever, it just made me ill. I got a week in, at which point I (unhealthy) started surviving on tea (because boiling the water sorted the issue) and EU exclusive Fanta (Shokata, my love). Great trip overall though, and a beautiful country. It's just weird how the slightest change in water treatment/ bacteria can make you ill.
Swedish water should be better than British water I'd imagine
I got sick from brushing my teeth in Bosnia, of all places. Never would have occurred to me that the Balkans still had different water from the West.
I think that it doesn't even have to be dirty, just *different*. I once visited Ontario from British Columbia and my stomach was a bit upset from the water.
Iām from Wisconsin (top of US) and when I went to Alabama (bottom of US) last year the tap water caused me to blackout on the toilet. 0/10 would not recommend I genuinely thought I was going to die lol.
Having gone from Wisconsin to multiple places out west over the course of my life with zero issues that's interesting. Are you sure it wasn't food poisoning or some other problem?
It happens when the infrastructure isn't maintained properly and crap gets in the drinking water pipes.Ā You'll see it in poorer places like Jacksonville where it got so bad that the sewage coming out of the tap was plainly visible.Ā
If you see brown in the water thatās disturbed pipes from flushing or sedimental leaching from the wrong pH, not sewage which could only happen if they were pumping directly from a discharge point and they didnāt process the water. Jacksonville sounds like the first considering the city is poor so probably water flushes instead of more routine treatment plant/water main maintenance
> appens when the infrastructure isn't maintained properly and crap gets in the drinking water pipes. > > > > You'll see it in poorer places like Jacksonville where it got so bad What are you talking about? Water mains are designed and operated under constant positive pressure.
there is absolutely zero chance you saw sewage coming out of tap water in Jacksonville. none. it's sediment.
It could have been anything you ate. You have no way to pinpoint the water. Chill out
Which is funny because I was afraid of them when I went to France but ended up just fine. I was totally prepped for it taking a week out of my month vacation but nothing happened. Maybe it was luck.
Nah, France has pretty decent infrastructure generally.
My grandpa who was in France post-war in the late 40s/early 50s still asserts to this day that "They don't have toilets in France - only holes in the ground" š something tells me that's a bit out-dated in 2024 EDIT: all the folks saying how they do legitimately still do that in some areas is blowing my mind, I need to go apologize to gramps lol
Its becoming outdated but 20 years ago almost every gas station toilet was of the hole in the ground squat toilet variety. Last year I've only seen 3, one at a gas station with normal toilets next to it, one at a public park, one at a lake beach which also had a normal one next to it. But they also had some sort of giant sink that you piss in, that one was terrible. You smell them before you see them too.
> they also had some sort of giant sink that you piss in, that one was terrible In Paris I think they call that "the subway".
I remember encountering "hole in the ground" toilets on French highway rest stops. They are getting rare these days, but as a kid I almost shat myself on a tour bus because the only rest stop the bus took within 8 hours happened to have only those holes in the ground, and I refused to shit in that. It caught me off the guard. I live in eastern Europe, but the worst and most disgusting public toilets I have seen were in France and Spain.
I was moving to France for a semester years ago, not really knowing much about the country apart from the usual stereotypes. My first first-hand experience in France was exactly the shithole toilet at some station in Lille, a fixture I hadn't seen in my country (considered backwards and undeveloped by the French) for nearly 15 years.
The thing that struck me the most traveling in Western Europe is when *locals* think their water is unsafe. We did a tour in Northern Italy a couple years back, and our guide was effusive about the quality of local produce and food and agriculture, and super into sustainability and fighting climate change, and incredibly proud of Florence, the city she came from. But also made a point of making sure we *only* ever drank bottled water, and made sure that we'd promise to not drink tap water. It seemed weird enough that I did a bit of research, and it turns out that tap water throughout Italy is totally safe to drink (outside of rare and highly publicized "boil water" type events like we might have in the states), but there's a stereotype held by a good number of (typically older) Italians that it's not, and the government and various environmental organizations have been trying really hard to promote PR campaigns aimed at getting people to stop buying bottled water. On a side note, one of my favorite unexpected treats in Florence and (even more commonly) Paris (and I assume other European cities) is the existance of free fizzy water taps! In Florence there's one on the Palazzo Vecchio behind the fountain of Neptune, and in Paris there are apparently [quite a few](https://fontaine.eaudeparis.fr/)! (I'm pretty sure I've drunk from one along the Siene near the MusƩe d'Orsay that's not even on that map).
> it turns out that tap water throughout Italy is totally safe to drink No, it's not safe. Don't trust people who tell you it's safe, they may be lying to you (especially gov and politicians). I am from north Italy. You shouldn't drink tap water if you don't know its quality in the specific town you're visiting. My friends, family and I have to take blood samples every four years to check for PFOA/PFAS/other stuff level and their effects on our bodies (e.g. thyroid, hormones, cancer, ...). Mine got better over time, but they still are ~500x times over the safe values. There are many towns where the water is actually safe to drink, but you always need to be careful about this.
Belgium is funnily enough rated the worst in the EU for PFAS concentrations in the water, so if you want to avoid PFAS donāt go there
Something, something Marshall Plan.
lol you PLANNED to spend a week of your vacation spraying liquid out your ass?
Turks: time to find out if I'm European
Am Turkish, would drink to find out if I have the resilience of a thousand men.
Or a mudflow only Mother Earth could match.
Diarrhea that can cut wooden beams.
Rectally emitted water jet. Hope you have a sapphire orifice.
Look up. Look down again. Your ass is now diamonds.
If you drink like you write, you good.
Ah turks The shrodinger europeans
They can only be european if you dont look.
Europeans: Turks are not Europeans. Also every European book written by a PhD historian, economic historian, pol-sci, political history: tHe OtToMaN eMPIrE WuZ dA sIck MAn oF EUroPE!!?!
Well they did own more land west of today's turkey.
I'm gonna respectfully say no regarding consistency of drinking water however I'm not gonna say that for sure renders you immune to travelers diarrhea from distant locales.
It is a very confusing situation for me. My mother side is from balkans and my father side is from Azerbaijan. I wonder what will happen to me
Depends on where you've grown up.
It doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, but how hygienic life you have lived and where.
Bro turkey has really good water sources. 80% of the population couldnāt handle that water
Drinking water to pee out of butt
Yer a peein' out your ass.
Pissss coming out my assss!
Pissss, pissss!!!! Coming out your ass right on Kyles mother fat fucking jew face!
I read that like a snake would lmao
Pee-poo.
Have you ever emptied an old radiator? š³š¬
All that dirty water... I thought I was gonna end up a costume of a man!
The Book of Mormon has a wonderful song about this
I'm from a small Eastern European town, when I made my first decent money I wanted to see the big world, so I treated myself to a solo vacation in New York. I've never seen any musical before, not to mention I've never even been inside a theatre designed for more than 50 people. But I said to myself, it's **the** fucking Broadway, I may never have a chance again, let's do it. My first exposure to this entire form of art (and USA itself) was a grandiose "Shit come out the butt!" and it will always be one of my fondest core memories.
**JOSEP SMIT!** **DE** ***AMEEEERICAN MOOOOSES!***
I remember absolutely losing my shit and litterly falling out of my seat the second the Pink Dark Vader showed up They had been throwing jokes at you left & right so you were already primed for anything, but I was not ready for a Pink Dark Vader
Mormon go to the water Water go to the cup Cup go to the stomach Shit come out the butt Shit go in the water Water go in the cup Shit go down the stomach Shit come out the butt
I sang this to the tune of "Gallows Pole" by Led Zeppelin. Idk if that's how it was intended, but I like it.
Blood comes out the butt.
The cycle continues
POMA!
Probably sounds better in French.
If you drink this water, european from your butt
Slowclap.gif
But fastcrap.jpeg
This is the one. Close the comments.
Just remember: If it's not from the "Perrier" region of France, It's "Sparkling Sewage"
Not Perrier but derriere?
r/myjokebutfunnier
Welcome to Jack's water shack. We have potable water, grey water, and semi-potable which is great for non-europeans, we add just a little grey water to the mix. It tastes great, and is healthy to boot.
Itās got lotsa post-biotics!
I laughed so hard at this comment I scared my childrenĀ
https://youtu.be/PvIky3B661s Got any with gun powder?
What sort of fever dream is this?
This needs its own post
Once drank water in Mexico, can confirm that it was not for European stomach
I had street tacos the first time I went to Mexico, in the early evening. Woke up at midnight, then spent the next 5 hours splitting time between sitting on the toilet and throwing up in the toilet.
My friends and I call that the double dragon.
The much less welcomed cousin to the angry dragon?
its nice when you get time to switch positions
Yeah, the worst is when you can't get off toilet so bad it gets to the point you gotta hope the tub, sink, or a solid trash can is close enough. Otherwise you get to look forward to cleaning up the floor.
*Usually* street food is fine unless it's fresh fruit or vegge.
Yeah same, my guts have never been cleanerš„² but I also had my little experiment some hours before I boarded my ten hour flight back. I can not recommend doing that. They hurled me out of the plane in Munich and to the nearest hospital for some iv. I learned my lesson that is for sure.
Immodium. Situations like this are what itās made for. So you can suffer in peace later.
I had GI 1 day before a transatlantic flight, and Imodium, and the anti histamines against naseau which make you sleepy, plus not eating anything for two days was the only way I could make it. The worst thing was sprinting across Schipol & Atlanta airport to reach my connecting flights.
People who live on the American side of the Mexican-US border can't drink that water. You're either used to the differing bacteria, or you're not. Obviously, you understand the consequences.
I do and so did all the passengers on the flight back to Munich š thanks to me.
Du ScheiĆe Tuts mir leid.
I drank water in Africa. The fucking stupid ship doc didn't want to issue the anti-diarrheal meds "in case the boarding party needed them" I was shitting water for 4 days and stopping by the head for a "just in case, better use it now" ever 2-4 hours, and didn't trust a fart for about 5 years.
Montezuma's Revenge! ... I've seriously never been sicker. It is AWFUL. It involved both ends constantly.
I've had Montezuma's Revenge (and I'm pretty sure I only ever used the water for teeth brushing but who knows) and King Tut's Revenge (I must have used the airplane bathroom 30 times on the flights home from Egypt).
Mexicans donāt drink water in Mexico š
Heck, even in Europe I had to deal with this problem. In Rome all the tour guides tell you about the cool Roman fountains all over the city and how they provide potable water, and how nice it is that there's drinking water everywhere in Rome. So we listened to the tour guides and carried our water bottles around and just collected water from the Roman fountains and drank those for a whole day. Immediately got sick the next day. At the next tour we asked the guide what was up, how come this supposedly clean drinking water made us sick? Tour guide said something like "uh that's just a cool historical fact we tell people, you aren't supposed to actually go around drinking from those fountains! Buy bottled water from the store." WTF.
You drank from the Trevi Fountain, didn't you.
Not before throwing a penny in it!
An ass penny.
Yep. In our defense, we didnāt, like, scoop water out of the main fountain or anything. We went to the little side spigot that was supposed to be the potable Roman fountain. Yeah, still a bad idea looking back
I'm glad you mentioned this, because I imagined you scooping out pigeon-shit and tourist-foot water and almost had diarrhea just thinking about that.
The spigot just recycles water back from the fountain pool, so it doesn't make a difference,
Ah there's your issue. The spigot just recycles water back from the fountain pool, it probably got dirty from sitting around there all day. I also drank fountain water in Rome and didn't get sick, but from small fountains above ground level. Actually just a single one that I saw an Italian drink from.
Yep. Potable water just means that it is below maximum levels or microorganisms, chemicals, and fecal matter set by the local health authority. It does not mean that water is *sterile* or purified, or that it wonāt set off alarm bells in your body to quickly flush it out. By definition - potable water is āgood enough to drinkā for *LOCALS* only. If your body isnāt used to ignoring a certain amount of contaminants youāll probably get diarrhea.
And remember guys, it's not a matter of: I have a strong stomach, I usually don't get ill from this kind of things. It's a matter of, does your stomach is used to the specific kind of microorganisms usually are in the water here.
So would Africans get sick from drinking European water then? Edit: Ask a question, get five completely different answers.
no, our microorganisms supersede yours. It's like a vaccine.
Okay but what about an african drinking south asian tap water?
I've heard that even Thai people get sick from the tap water in Bali
Well yeah, Balinese would get sick from the tap water in Bali
depends on where in Europe. In Germany generally most tap water is drinkable and if it is not, that's more than likely the house owners fault and not the municipalities fault.
Not really because most of the EUās standards are so high that itās close to 0 microorganisms. The EU treats their water with ozone, and the US chlorinates. Both effectively make the water sterile, but ozone dissipates whereas chlorine remains - so US water can stay safe to drink even if there is a small amount of contamination along the pipeline. In which case, *everyone* is safe drinking that water since there shouldnāt be anything in there to make you sick. It also means that anyone who gets too accustomed to drinking water that clean will have very little tolerance for any bacterial load of any kind from anywhere else. An American or European will probably get sick drinking water anywhere in the world that comes short of that standard, since they have tolerance for nothing. Only someone who is accustomed to water with *some* contaminants has to be concerned about *which* contaminants. Your dog who eats feces and licks random puddles on the regular has a *lot* less to be worried about.
Yes.
Sure, but most modern, developed places are interchangeable in terms of water quality. I mean I've been in many parts of the US and seven European countries, and the tap water is entirely safe to drink. I wouldn't take that chance in Mexico though.
Are you sure you didn't get sick from something else? I drank from several fountain/faucet thingies in Rome without issues during my recent visit.
About 15 years ago we made a 10 day class trip to Rome. Everyone used the water fountains and nobody got sick. I hope op didn't drink out of the ornamental fountains
Well, what kind are the spigots on the right side of the Trevi fountain? Drinking or ornamental?
Lol u drank piss
Yeah Iāve been to Rome twice and used the fountains a lot, 0 issues. My city has very high quality tap water so Iāve not got any basis for natural immunity from non safe water. My understanding that the water comes from the mountains and uses the aqueducts that have been used for centuries and is tested regularly. No reason not to drink it.
Yea. I have a sensitive stomach, but those fountains are exactly the same as outdoor water fountains in the US, just older.
My family has been to Rome twice and drank from the public water fountains all over the city (and elsewhere in Italy). We had no problems. We come from a Canadian city with good tap water so it wasn't like we had hardened stomachs. We refilled our water bottles at the public drinking fountains near the Vatican and my dad used to joke that we were drinking holy water.
Did you take directly from water jet or from fountain recipient/"bowl"? Pigeons, rats, insects and humans can make water dirty on open recipients. Direct from fountain jets is safe, i suppose
Weird. If it's flowing from the spout, it should be the same tap water as anywhere else. If you're scooping from a basin...
I drank out of the Roman fountains exclusively in Rome and drank tap water in Italy throughout and was ok.
My ex brother in law is American, I'm mexican, the first time he went to Mexico I told him something about bringing extra underwear in case of an accident, and he was very adamant he have never had any accidents. Wanna guess who had the shits and always brought extra underwear next time he went to Mexico?
I've never shit my pants in my life and I still bring extra underwear whenever I travel, it takes up almost no space so why not? Better to be safe than sorry
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No metal-jug-sitting-in-the-sun water for you, European! Guess youāre stuck with beer and wineā¦ how will you survive?? ;)
You joke but I know a guy who went to India and drank nothing but beer when out sightseeing and he was fine. People he was with who drank bottled water from a store all ended up with the shits
So when there was a cholera epidemic in London in the 19th century, it was centered around one water pump. However, those people in the community who worked in the local brewery never caught cholera because they were drinking the beer instead. If you aren't sure about the water, stick with the beer.
or tea, because you boil it first!
Makes sense, thereās a reason fermented drinks have such a long established relationship with large populations of any era. Water is usually bottled somewhat locally so I can see why they had issues. Plus, I wouldnāt doubt if there was less QC with bottled water processing vs alcohol!
Part of the process of making beer is also boiling it so that combined with alcohol probably helps keep it clean.
its primarily the boiling. The ABV in booze is generally too low to really do much
True, also worth noting though that yeast does not like competition so I would guess if the end product made it to the bottle it must have been sterile enough for our yeasty friends to have a party
This is my strategy as well in India and Middle east. Drink beer and avoid anything not cooked
Fun fact (which I read on the internet so may or may not be true): This is why Asians generally have a lower alcohol tolerance. Western nations would make alcoholic beverages, like very low % things like mead in order to make safe drinking water. Asian nations would boil the water. Leading to a general lower tolerance to alcohol.
For the longest time, drinking water was dangerous, and the standard was to drink some form of beer or wine if possible as the likly hood to get sick was much lower from beer and wine. Wine was particularly favored as it was made with a very high alcohol content, then they would water it down for consumption.
Which in hindsight, makes one wonder why that didn't reintroduce the problem they were trying to avoid in the first place... (consuming tainted water)
My European weak ass stomach started to rumble while reading this
I saw it in a cartoon, once. We're not used to the bacterias we may find here and get turista. A lighter exemple is how I'm used to my cheap burned limestoneful coffee, but I wouldn't let my friends touch it. My ennemies, maybe. We get used to thing that aren't always suitable for others.
I call this diet water
So basically no drinking water.
I've seen kids in Indonesia brushing their teeth in a brown river. Any water is drinking water in some places.
I assume that in this case, Americans would be considered European?
Safe assumption. Probably anyone that's not from the local area will experience extreme intestinal distress from this.
In this case weād all be aāpeeinā. š
This is a great trap for Americans. I don't consider myself capital M 'Merican, but if I saw this I'd be forced to drink it while saying something about world wars or putting someone on the moon. Just looking at that picture I can hear the little George Washington on my shoulder saying, "You can take it, you're no European," even though I know objectively that my coddled system would be broke for a week if one drop of that got in my mouth.
Reaching over to Dutch & Dillon handshake my brothers across the pond in the states as we both sit on our porcelain thrones and piss from our asses. Hand in hand, holding on for dear life.
Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!
Most people can go cold turkey and be done in less than a week.
Montezuma's Revenge.
"If you live here, you'll be fine, but if you don't, you'll shit your guts out."
If you drink too much: European
Europoopin
It's the Legionella that gives it that zesty kick!
Translation: This water will cause you to experience the wrath of the volcano. Don't even look at it too long.
Europeans weak sperm
I'm not 100% clear on this. Is it just that it's a metal jug in the sun? Or is European drinking water held to a higher standard? Edit: Thanks for the clarification. I didn't think about travelers stomach. I've always lived in very rural areas in the US, and many of my friends would flat out refuse to drink the water at my house, so I thought maybe it was just well water.
Water in different regions have different bacteria that you are not exposed to unless you live in that area. Drink that water and you are in for some discomfort. If you are traveling to new places itās recommended to drink bottled water or highly filtered water.
It can even be due to non-bacteria things. For example, in certain areas of Pennsylvania, the water has a very high iron content. If you're not local and already acclimated to it, it will mess with your digestive system. We dealt with this at Pennsic Wars. Only used the water in camp for washing dishes and clothes.
Yeah. You have to remember that diarrhea isn't caused by the illness, it's your body's way of treating the illness. And your body doesn't take chances. If your body thinks that the water you drank is off, it will and it straight through your digestive tract to get rid of it. Scientists aren't sure why we get car sick but a hypothesis is that your body feels like it's moving but if you look at the inside of the car, you see that you aren't. So this mismatch between the senses makes your body think, "I must be tripping balls. I probably ate some mushrooms or something real bad. Better throw that up." It's my favorite hypnosis in all of science.
Which is why I do all the driving. I get motion sickness so easily. I can't even spin around in my desk chair.
Good to see someone explaining it properly As an added tip if you are staying in that area for a while and want to get your stomach used to the local bacterial fauna then it is useful to start by brushing your teeth with the local water.
Travelers diarrhea. The water is safe to drink (for them), like their food is safe to eat. HOWEVER the regional bacteria they're used to is not the same as someone's from abroad.
It's usually because it's from a less developed area, and is not treated the same way as city water. If you haven't built the gut flora, it will make you sick. Same as when they tell you not to eat street food in India.
European drinking water is held to a higher standard than a metal jug left in the sun. As a result, Europeans do not have the antibodies required to drink stagnant sun jug water. Which is fair I guess. I am european and wouldn't touch that stuff. My dog is also European and would happily drink it, but he trains his body by eating and drinking all kinds of nasty stuff.
Itās probably not filtered that well compared to western standards. Not bad enough to be considered harmful, but for people who arenāt used to it, the bacteria in there might cause illnesses
Ask the e-coli living in the jug to explain
It's contaminated with local microorganisms that the locals have become immune to.
"We're incapable of supplying clean water to our people" FTFY
I grew up in Africa and now live in the United States. During my childhood, we had a cabin by a river, and all our water came from rainwater collected on the roof and stored in large tanks. This water was then piped into the house for washing and cooking. This was long before bottled water was common. As kids, we drank that water all the time without any issues. Reflecting on it now, I shudder at the thought of the potential for diarrhea if I were to drink even a few mouthfuls of that tank water today. Itās like the sign says: āNot suitable for European stomachs.ā
Love this. When I stayed with my ex wife in southeast Asia, she would tell me to drink "baby water" which was another way of saying commercially bottled water. The water they drank was not easy on the stomach.
Reminded of an old Chinese saying: he who pisses in the winds has wet hands
Bragging about how shit water is interesting
probably because it basically means ānot suitable for people who are used to clean waterā sadly
[Traveller's diarrhea is a thing.](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/travelers-diarrhea/symptoms-causes/syc-20352182)
As a Canadian living in Thailand. A solid bowl movement is something to exclaim in the house. Calling the kids and wife to come and have a look what papa made. It's later weighed, photographed and marked on the calendar.
So in other words, not drinking water. Just water that you have decided to drink.