"Interesting" Accommodations as I've Journeyed

This blog started out as a sharing between me and my book coach over a year of working on the first draft of my novel. Recently I've had questions from friends about places I've stayed while out and about researching my novel. My travels are ALWAYS about research and never about luxury (often not even about comfort). The more money I save, the more I can travel, and travel is something I need to do for my writing. Usually it all works out OK. But here are a few that were a challenge, and more than challenging, for me in one way or another.

SMALLEST

(Milan)

I certainly don't want to disparage this place, as the AirBnB owners did warn me (repeatedly) after I booked about how small it was, and asking if I was OK with that. But the price was right, and the location couldn't be beat. It might actually not be the smallest place (in terms of square footagae) that I've stayed in, but because it was an attic space, the ceiling sloped precipitously down toward the outer wall, and beyond about 3 steps into the room I could no longer stand upright.

I was impressed with how well they used the space. I've been in some slightly larger places that didn't even have any desk space, so I had to kneel next to the bed for hours to do my research, posting, writing, etc. This place at least HAD a desk - though small - and even had counter space in the bathroom! The stool in front of the desk is so short, that my knees popped up higher than my lap as I sat there, and even at that, I had to bend my head down a bit. At my (unspecified) age, that's not so easy anymore. The mini-fridge in the photo is smaller than the one I had in my office back home. I say that to give perspective on the "closet." None of my shirts were short enough to hang without dragging on the floor!

This is more counter space than I've had in many hotel rooms, so kudos to the owners on that! And, I mean, at least I had privacy. I'm not doing a hostel. I wish I were young or energetic or fit enough to feel I could to that, actually! Think of all the trips I could go on if I could travel THAT frugally!

MOST ANNOYING / SMALLEST

(London)

This may have been as small as my place in Milan, but at least here I didn't need to crouch down in order to fit in the room, and I had a reasonably large desk (once I removed the superfluous tray of coffee-making stuff off of it). But after hours of blog posting, writing. and researching, a stool (backless) is no substitute for a chair, so I switched back and forth between sitting on the stool at the desk and kneeling beside the bed to do my work. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures of this room. My first indication that all wasn't the greatest is when I opened the window for some fresh air, and the fire alarm (or some sort of alarm) went off. (Nobody told me at check-in that I wasn't allowed to open the window!) The shower had an accordion door which folded INWARD because there wasn't enough room in the bathroom (which had no counter space, by the way) for it to fold outward. That was fine, except that the when the water suddenly and unexpectedly got scaldingly hot, and I tried to get out, I got stuck on the wrong side of the accordion door and got rather burned before I could get out. And, of course, the steam from the shower, caused the fire alarm to go off, so there I was naked, wet, and slightly injured - and having people pounding on my door because *I* had set off an alarm (by running the shower?!?!). Not cool. Oh, and the mattress was massively uncomfortable, so I asked for another "sheet"? or "comforter"? (everything seems to be double-duty these days - whatever happened to a sheet, a blanket, and a bedspread so you can manage heat vs. coolness). I slept on top of the sheet/blanket/comforter/whatever that fat multi-purpose thing is that you see above and put the other copy of it on top of me.

Oh, I found a picture of the bathroom. How hard would it have been to have added some counter space? The dudes in Milan with that attic garret found a way with an even smaller place! And that inward-accordion door with the unexpected fluctuations in water temperature is a menace. The place, however,  was less than 5 minutes by foot from the British Library, so that was good. And the price was right! :-)

I suppose the saying is true that you get what you pay for. 

SCARIEST

(Edinburgh)

This probably looks OK and serviceable. Technically the spacing works, right? But that is actually VERY narrow space, and I don't know about anyone else, but having to keep my thighs tight together while doing my business isn't super comfortable. I know I could stand to lose a little bit of weight, but still . . . I don't think anyone much larger than a 7-year-old child would be comfortable in this space.

The lack of space around the toilet gave room for a big tub, and I do love to soak in hot water after a long day of pounding the pavement, but I didn't really want to take a bath in this tub!

Should I be more concerned about the blackish stuff or the pinkish stuff on the drain?

 

And I didn't really want to take a shower either, because there's this on the shower curtain . . . 

And above the bathroom door was an attic access door that was hanging slightly open. This was in a tenement building, and I imagine the attic spaces of all the flats are connected. I don't know. I had no way of latching it from my side, so whether the flats are connected or not, I pushed the dresser in place to block the bedroom door each night. At least I got to work on my arm strength!

Here's the exterior. There was more graffiti further down, but I didn't get as many pictures as I'd thought

The still photo below does this no justice, of course, but the light inside was flickering like lights I've seen in horror movies. And I was already kind of scared after walking down this street.  And then it was four floors up from there. More good exercise. But going from the scary-ish street outside to the flickering entry light to the attic access door ajar in my flat  .  .  .  mmm  .  .  .  yeah. This was when the movie "A Haunting in Venice" was out, and I wanted to go see it, but I didn't dare watch something scary, because I thought it would make me even more afraid of my living space than I already was.

DIRTIEST / SHODDIEST

(Oxford)

 I guess a spider web in the corner of the shower is less "dirty" than a moldy shower curtain, but this spider web had been there a LONG time, so I have to wonder how often they clean the rooms in any way at all. I didn't wipe it down, because I was curious to see if the maid would take care of it while I was there. Nope. So what else isn't getting cleaned that should be?

And there was mold here too, but less creepy than on the shower curtain or the drain in the Edinburgh place.

Everything was hung catty-wampus. Not that it matters, but the curtain rod wasn't straight, and the backing of the picture was hanging out. Again, I'm not paying for 4 or 5 stars, so, alright. They did provide me with the following technology(?), not that I know what it is? Maybe some sort of half-century old type of clothes press or something?

They did line the wardrobe . . . "just for me."

I wasn't a fan of the stains on the chair  .  .  .

RUNNER-UP FOR SMALL / DIRTY

(London)

More spacious than some. I had a desk, at least, but it had a stool again instead of a chair - kind of uncomfortable for hours of posting, writing, and researching.

I'm not 100% sure if the glasses had been washed, but I am 100% sure that the coasters the glasses were on had been used by some unspecified number of guests before me.

ANOTHER RUNNER-UP

(Winchester)

Another bathroom with mold issues

I think they tried to bleach something off the seat of this chair?

This is a window curtain, not a shower curtain - not sure what's up with this - 

This chair could use a little love.

OH AND ANOTHER ONE - FUNKY & WEIRD - OXFORD

This was what greeted me in the front window, and, no, it wasn't Halloween. I took this picture in APRIL.

One day I needed to kill a bit of time and didn't want to go back upstairs to the room, so I sat in the "backyard" with its Astroturf, its cracking top table, and its padded bench with weeds growing out the top. Cars came and went in the parking lot just above the level where I was seated. Oh, and speaking of seated, at least there was a chair in my room, but I sure wish there had been a desk for me to put my legs under. I alternated between working with the chair pulled up to the cupboard and pulled up to the bed. When I needed a change, I knelt by the bed to do my writing.