Minorita circle of hell

15.12.06

Well I think it's fair to say we have stayed in the worst hotel of our journey. It's already seeming kind of amusing, because we're outta there now, but geez, nothing can depress you like bad digs!

Isco and I have just spent the past half hour online writing complaining emails and reviews so no one else makes the mistake we did... so for your enjoyment, here's my/our summation of Hostel Minorita - a scam and a joke, surely, even in Bucharest accomodation:

The hostel is located inside an office building, with no windows onto the outside world. Plumbing is a joke - there's no proper shower, just curtains and a drain in the middle of the bathroom, which floods after 30 seconds of the water being on. The flimsy setup also means you're left with a choice while showering - either your towels get soaked or the toilet paper ends up a soggy mess. We were informed by the helpful staff that 'all the rooms have plumbing problems'. I guess they could advertise this as 'water views'.

We booked a double room for two people and only after we checked in were we informed that the 'breakfast included' was just for one person. Ridiculous.

In desperation we looked at a couple of other nearby places in a similar price range (50euros/night) and they looked quite OK, which leads me to conclude that the Hostel Minorita is some sort of scam set up to fool unwary tourists.

On our arrival, a huge, shuddering racket was heard of drilling somewhere else in the building. We were informed that this was going on 'today only' but were woken the next morning by the same grinding noises, punctuated by some hammering, just to mix it up a bit. On occasions when other sounds could be heard, the dulcet tones of the receptionist screaming at someone over the telephone would also float into our stuffy little room.

Returning to the room after dinner, we found the light had blown in our watery abode's washroom. It was fixed eventually but that didn't help much when, in the middle of the night, on using the conveniences, they started protesting with a loud groaning noise, which we could only stop by fiddling with the taps - now wide awake at 4am. Getting back to sleep was not helped by a noisy airconditioning unit, which had two settings - blowing loudly or clicking audibly every 10 seconds.

Needless to say, this morning we found somewhere 3 times more expensive but 10 times better and are feeling VERY relieved.

Still liking Romania though ; )