Wednesday, September 21, 2005
The scariest apartment in Lithuania
Remember in our last post how everything seemed to be going great, and nothing but smooth sailing from now on? What a difference a day makes. We'd arranged for a room through hostelworld.com (not necessairly an endorsement) in Kaunas. My uncle was really nice to offer us a ride from Vilnius to Kaunas, taking most of a day off work in the process, apparently.
The morning went great, finding a great breakfast place in Vilnius where we were mistaken for Germans (yay, down with American tourists!). Our $7 breakfast for two included a chicken and mushroom crepe and tea for me and a bowl of semolina porridge with fresh strawberry compote and two cups of coffee for Rachael. The problems only began before we left.
We haven't arranged for hotel rooms when we get back in Vilnius for the 23rd-26th and our current hostel is booked up. Rachael and my mom went wandering around looking for another hotel but our budget seems to be averaging out at about $100/night. But my cousin, Gytis, might be able to hook us up with some business contacts for a better rate at a centrally located hotel in Vilnius. You know, the kind of place where you get your own bathroom and stuff.
So we drive all the way to Kaunas (about 55 kilometers) and check my mom into her hotel. She walked out exclaiming "They have electronic keycards and everything!". All for $10/night less than the place we found. We figured that we'd get a nice place, too. We're wandering down the street trailing our bags like orphan children and we can't find the damn place. We're standing directly in front of the address on the confirmation email so my uncle calls the included number and they tell him they're sending a driver over to take us to the hotel.
Now, a nice notice that you're willing to pick somebody up and take them to your hotel isn't the same thing as withholding the actual address and then sending a bearded guy in a broken down car to drive to god-knows-where. Where is our hotel? Our fevered imaginations could only wonder as we waited. Is it in town? Is it at the airport? Is it on a farm? Is it an old Soviet mental hospital? Who knows?
It turns our that our hotel is only a few blocks from where we were standing, just off the main drag in Kaunas. Imagine the ugliest gray concrete building you've ever seen. Yeah, that's our place. Now, imagine the scariest lobby/stairway you can imagine. Got it? Yeah, we're walking up this non-illuminated concrete and steel stairway (four floors of sphincter-tightening fun) hoping to hell we're not going to get robbed and killed at the top, like some crazy funhouse party. We're going to take pictures of this stairway during full daylight and you still won't believe how horrible it is.
Suprise of surprises, once we get to the apartment it's actually pretty nice. We have an entire two-bedroom apartment with our own television, bath, fridge and hot water heater on the top floor (about seven floors up at this point). So things appear to have worked out.
But we haven't checked to see if the heat or water work yet, so you never know. We're off shopping for leather and fur coats for the coming Chicago fall and winter.
The morning went great, finding a great breakfast place in Vilnius where we were mistaken for Germans (yay, down with American tourists!). Our $7 breakfast for two included a chicken and mushroom crepe and tea for me and a bowl of semolina porridge with fresh strawberry compote and two cups of coffee for Rachael. The problems only began before we left.
We haven't arranged for hotel rooms when we get back in Vilnius for the 23rd-26th and our current hostel is booked up. Rachael and my mom went wandering around looking for another hotel but our budget seems to be averaging out at about $100/night. But my cousin, Gytis, might be able to hook us up with some business contacts for a better rate at a centrally located hotel in Vilnius. You know, the kind of place where you get your own bathroom and stuff.
So we drive all the way to Kaunas (about 55 kilometers) and check my mom into her hotel. She walked out exclaiming "They have electronic keycards and everything!". All for $10/night less than the place we found. We figured that we'd get a nice place, too. We're wandering down the street trailing our bags like orphan children and we can't find the damn place. We're standing directly in front of the address on the confirmation email so my uncle calls the included number and they tell him they're sending a driver over to take us to the hotel.
Now, a nice notice that you're willing to pick somebody up and take them to your hotel isn't the same thing as withholding the actual address and then sending a bearded guy in a broken down car to drive to god-knows-where. Where is our hotel? Our fevered imaginations could only wonder as we waited. Is it in town? Is it at the airport? Is it on a farm? Is it an old Soviet mental hospital? Who knows?
It turns our that our hotel is only a few blocks from where we were standing, just off the main drag in Kaunas. Imagine the ugliest gray concrete building you've ever seen. Yeah, that's our place. Now, imagine the scariest lobby/stairway you can imagine. Got it? Yeah, we're walking up this non-illuminated concrete and steel stairway (four floors of sphincter-tightening fun) hoping to hell we're not going to get robbed and killed at the top, like some crazy funhouse party. We're going to take pictures of this stairway during full daylight and you still won't believe how horrible it is.
Suprise of surprises, once we get to the apartment it's actually pretty nice. We have an entire two-bedroom apartment with our own television, bath, fridge and hot water heater on the top floor (about seven floors up at this point). So things appear to have worked out.
But we haven't checked to see if the heat or water work yet, so you never know. We're off shopping for leather and fur coats for the coming Chicago fall and winter.
# posted by Colin @ 10:37 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]