Last Updated on March 17, 2023 by PowersToTravel
“Is the water safe to drink?”
That’s one of the first questions I ask the Internet when I investigate a country to visit. I am very sensitive to microbes in water, getting the runs and vomiting even with the “filtered water” available in quality eco-resorts. For me, bottled water is the only safe approach to a vacation of a lifetime. To me, every trip is a trip of a lifetime.
For our Eastern Europe odyssey, with seven countries to visit over 33 days, the research took a bit longer than usual.
The overwhelming consensus on the Internet was that water from the tap is safe and potable in all the countries we would be visiting: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Of course I trusted Austria and Germany to be healthful, but less developed countries such as Romania and Bulgaria? I was suspicious.
Perhaps I was just remembering my year abroad in southern France, thirty-five years ago. France is a most developed and culturally established country. Thirty-five years ago, after my ignominious return after months of stupid, risky health issues, everyone asked, “You drank the water in France?”
Of course I drank the water in France. No one told me not to. I believe I almost died there, no lie, as a diabetic so many years ago, a dumb college student before the days of blood testing. Vomiting and dehydrating and delirium for days on end as I consumed my cultural French microbes.
Getting back to Eastern Europe of 2018…
I decided to be bold and trust the overwhelming experience of expats and other travelers.
I chose to drink bottled water in all the restaurants and at the hotel, but I thought, “Let’s be bold!”
I brushed my teeth with tap water!
I went even further – I ate salad throughout the trip!
What a luxury and what a pleasure to say, “I’ll have the Caesar Salad.” Someone overhearing my order may have thought me dull, not trying the local cuisine, but for me, it was the ultimate!
On most trips, in restaurants and hotels, I have to avoid all lettuce, and all fruits or vegetables that aren’t peeled. I even avoid peeled fruits most times, realizing that the knife had to first penetrate the microbe-contaminated outside skin in order to touch the flesh. Just think of a peach. Yes, I am not eating the peel, but that knife was running all over the skin as it touched the fruit underneath. Maybe if I peeled it, and rinsed the final product in clean water afterward, but elsewhere? Who knows. I’ve even gotten sick from fresh-squeezed orange juice, in Cambodia.
Salad in Romania, several salads in Bulgaria, salad in Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic and finally Germany. Germany? I’m not too sure. Yes, Germany; the Caesar Salad with Chicken at Sausalito’s Mexican Restaurant in downtown Munich was wonderful.
After that experiment, I’m sure that I could have drunk the tap water as well and would have been perfectly fine, however by the time I achieved that confidence, we were on to a new country and a new water system to test.
Check out my country-specific travel blogs and tips
Romania Travel Blog – Itinerary, Planning and Diabetic Travel Tips
Bulgaria Travel Blog – Itinerary, Reviews and Diabetic Travel Tips
