Well, here I am at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport sleeping in one of their very comfortable chairs. Am I trying to pretend I'm a teenager again, backpacking my way around? Nope - I did the adult thing and checked into the Hotel at the International Departures Gates. It was over 100 Euros, but I was OK with that. I walked in and sat in the chair, turned on BBC - Coronation Street, of course, and fell fast asleep sitting straight up for 3 hours. Woke up and went into the bathroom, lifted the lid and found that the maid been very negligent....very, very negligent, and that the last person in that room had been a pig. Because I was a Hotel Maid in the Summers at South Lake Tahoe, where I finished High School, I know that the dirty toilet was probably just the tip of the iceberg. (Now, there's an image.) So, since they had no other rooms left, I got a refund, (we'll see if I ever get that credit!), and went to check out my other options like the "Yotel". On my way, I had lunch courtesy of the first hotel, since they were so embarrassed. (10 Euros worth - very generous.) After looking around for a couple of hours, the chairs won. It's just a 23 hour layover, courtesy of Hurricane Irene's rebooking fiasco, and there's only about 10 hours left. After all the walking in Prague, I can use the rest!
You might check out Ruby Slipper Journeys for a report on a successful night in Yotel.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Terri! I will have to write about the rest of the night at that airport, which was actually very nice, quite similar to hers, minus spending $100 to sleep in a closet with a toilet. Here's her blogpost: http://rubyslipperjourneys.blogspot.com/2011/09/pod-life.html
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