Friday, December 17, 2010

Well Alexandria, things are looking up

Ugh. I'm glad we left.
 We weren't really enjoying the Hotel Acropole last night ... and this morning, I'm not sure whether the last straw was the unflushed putrescent mess that greeted me in the communal toilet, or the revolting pools of water and hair all over the tiled floor of the bathroom.

Either way, we took an immediate decision to bail on our booking and shift hotels. Luckily for us, right across the road was the Hotel Triomphe - and this time, we asked specifically for a room with an ensuite bathroom; AND, we asked to see it before we signed up. 

Room viewed and approved, we ran back across the road, collected our bags, vanished down the four flights of stairs (avoiding the death-trap of a lift, see the photos below), and promptly checked ourselves into the Triomphe. It's very Agatha Christie here, with wrought ironwork and shabby furniture and lovely ancient cracked marble floors and derelict bits of art deco architecture and two very nice old men who look after it. We are much happier.

Exhibit A: death trap.
Exhibit B: deaaaaaath traaaaaap!
 In fact, today we are much happier all around - it's been spectacular. Once the hotel was sorted out, we started things off with this - a Turkish coffee so thick you could practically have stood a spoon up in it. Now that's more like it.


More to come tomorrow. But now, it's time for beer.

4 comments:

polly pratt said...

That lift looks pure evil.
Glad your trip has got better. I`ve just had a good nights sleep after the final kris Kringle market last night busy busy busy. I`m so over markets one more to go and i think that might be it for me.
I`m off to the shop today to cut into 8 new bolts of Kaffe fabric.

Anna

willywagtail said...

I would mind some of the wrought iron from the death trap. Very cute but not my idea of a ride either. Cherrie

Isabella Golightly said...

Mmmmm Beer. Beer is a vegetable. Mmmm.

KraftyKat said...

Loving these posts - Now how do you fit in work?

What do you actually do for a living? Are you a travel writer? Very jealous of your nomadic working lifestyle. Keep up the missives.