
I'm out traveling gain. This time I'm on a domestic flight on the west coast. This is one of the places I couldn't live. The town is nice, but it's too little snow in the winter. Skiing areas are too far away.
The funny thing that happened on this trip was as follows: I knew the hotels would be pretty full this week, so I booked long time in advance. Yesterday when I arrived, it turned out that the travel agency had messed up the booking, so I didn't have any hotel, and all of them were full.
But I found a solution, a small pension near the town center. It's a small and simple place. I think I'm about the only person staying here right now. Kind of scary to be alone in an old and empty hostel. Reminds me of The Shining. Bad weather and heavy winds outside, all kinds of weird and mysterious sounds ... mwuuuhaaahahaaah >:)
The price is less than 1/3 of the hotels we normally use on business trips, and the pension only has 7 rooms. It's like living in someones private house. I don't complain. This is different, and interesting.
Here are the pros and cons of a place like this:
Pros: Breakfast is very good. I'm being served by a table on my own by the lady who runs the place. Nice and cosy, and they do have a WiFi. No TV; then I don't need to waste my time on that (I hardly ever watch TV anyway. Bought a cool book in the airport yesterday; Invisible by Paul Auster). The center of the town, with bars and restaurants is a five minutes walk away. There is a library downstairs, same as the breakfast room, with books and newspapers.
Cons: No bathroom and shower in my room. I have to go down two stairs to get to the shower, and three stairs to get to the WC. Front door closes at midnight. Yesterday I checked in 5 minutes before closing time. Tonight I've got my own key to the front door, so I can come in as late as I want.
Cool place to stay. I don't miss the luxury of a high-class business hotel, not at all.
(It's my pension in the picture above. I downloaded it from the internet. It's a nice old house, in the old central part of town. I'm staying on the top floor. I have a nice view of the town center in the morning when it's getting light.)