The Unexpected Alley Encounter
So my Sweetie and I enjoyed a two night stay in Victoria, B.C., this past weekend. It was a wonderful get-away. We roamed the streets quite a bit at night given that we walked and walked and walked everywhere as much as possible.
Since the drinking age is 19 and since there seems to be a lot of young folks working the tourist season in Victoria, the bars are crammed full of the young and beautiful at night, with lots of lines spilling onto the streets.
Ah, spilling onto the streets. Remember that.
So we’re walking along and come along Bastion Square and it seems like a pretty popular, well-lit alley and we walk along it, down towards the harbor. We pass a museum’s outside exhibit of a lighthouse bulb (big). Then we pass by another outside contraption that I could not quite figure out. Was it art? It was far taller than me, chained to a nearby post, and looked to have four outcropping – like receptacles – at various heights.
We talked momentarily, and my Sweetie said what it was.
“No!” That couldn’t be.
“Look at the ‘Men’ symbol on the side.”
“So you mean…” Yes. It was a stand-alone outside urinal in the free and open air. A classier name being: pissoire. See, that makes it seem elegant.
We walked back to our hotel and came across another one near the multi-bar complex The Sticky Wicket. Given the sound coming out of the dark alley nearby, it was not in a preferred location.
The next night we again found ourselves walking down Bastion Square. Armed with my camera, I was ready to take a dark, shaky late night picture. We walked pass the lighthouse bulb and I looked around and around.
No pissoire. Was it a dream? A really icky, awkward dream?
We stumbled across Camille’s at that point and walked in to check it out. Truly, you should ask to be seated in their second dining further back. Very romantic.
We walked back out and a government utility truck was making its way along the square. And what was tucked in the back but pissoire #3! I was going to get my picture!
The guys quickly had it out and chained up to the neighboring post and I walked around the corner to set up the shot and – what the heck! They hadn’t even left and it was already being put to use!
I waited. The truck left. During a spare, lonely moment for the pissore I snapped a shaky picture. I later learned that the bigger plan is to have under-ground pissoire’s that rise up at night. For now, they get trucked away during the day and then come back at night, as all the young party goers are spilling out onto the streets. Keeping the streets dry.
An older article: Victoria goes for pop-up urinals
A snapshot: 
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