I stayed one night in this costly hostel wannabe.
Things started on a sour note and never crescendoed to a more melodious ending. After a little difficulty finding the door, the young Briton, Mr Tumnus, and I lugged our luggage up the stair and into the makeshift reception. Whether because I was black or just because I was American the hostel charged me a $100 room deposit while the Brit was required to pay only a quarter of that. Same key, same room but somehow I was a "greater liability". Any deposit twice the price of the room is certainly NOT geared towards budget travellers and, it seems to me, against the spirit of youth hostels.
But when in America...turn your head and cough two times.
After that temporary rectum we lugged our bags up another two flight of stair to our room, a dormitory that included well over the advertised six bunk-beds. Cough, cough! I took the bottom bunk, and Mr Tumnus took the top. On the upside, the rooms include free linen, free Internet computer (fast service) and bathroom with shower, and by being right on Venice Beach a cool breeze came through the windows at night.
Unfortunately, the night also came with bloodsuckers. (For other types of suckers, venture to downtown L.A. or east Hollywood and Sunset Blvds.) I awoke and closed the window, thinking a mosquito had gotten in. Yet when the "mosquito" kept biting me under the sheet cover I sprang clear and saw the tiny dark culprit scurrying along the white linen. A bed bug. Argh!
About thirty minutes later I was bitten again and killed another bed bug.
The last time I experienced these bedfellows was in a flophouse on 8th Avenue in NYC. With slumber shot to hell I did the next logical, convenient thing: surfed for porn on the Internet. Poooooorn...!1515 Pacific Avenue, Venice
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment