Okay, okay, okay! I really, truly meant to show you my hotel room before I moved out, and I tried equally hard to never apologise for late posts, but I’m breaking both those resolutions in one fell swoop. It’s Sunday, and I’m feeling indulgent.
Right, then, on we go. Let me introduce you to Hotel Holiday.
All the BCSP students were assigned to stay in this hotel, which the Italians pronounce like “OH-tell OLL-ee-day.” It’s a three-star hotel on Via Bertiera, one of Bologna’s many side streets, which one student’s Bolognese friend described as un po’ sketch (a little sketchy!). The hotel itself is actually quite nice inside, with free wifi, awesome breakfasts, and nice views (which you have already seen).
Like all European hotels, Hotel Holiday’s first floor is actually floor #0, so my supposedly third-floor room is deceptively four flights of stairs to get to, not three. False advertising! This also is unfortunate news for my wifi connection, which often isn’t quite strong enough to get internet in the room—unless you tilt your laptop just so in just the right place.
My room. Just kidding--next picture is my room.
I share room 304 with two other girls, Becca and Nicole. Funny how these things work out—Nicole’s dad is from Invercargill, NZ, so we have fun using NZ idioms and super-thick accents.
Our room is lovely and big, with a giant bathroom and plenty of space, especially compared to the other rooms (all the rooms are decorated and shaped differently, which is a revelation to those of us who have accepted the perfectly calibrated hotel rooms in America. The only thing that stays the same is the linens). The room is NOT supplied with an iron, like Mum had promised me, but the bathroom is full of all sorts of unexpected commodities—the showerhead is one of the massage-y sorts, and the water gets awesomely hot—and some things that are distinctly absent: the shelf comes stocked with shower gel, shower caps, shoe shine, and “intimate cleanser,” but no shampoo. There never seems to be any toilet paper.
But look how big it is!
It took us a while to figure out what the apparatus on the left was for. Then suddenly, we understood why the hotel never gave us any toilet paper...
Coming and going gets a bit dicey with three people, because there’s only one key per room. When you leave, you have to give the key to the porter at the door, and ask for it when you come back. And heaven help you if you lose it! Luckily the porters are nice; if your roommate has skived off with your key (or has fallen asleep and won’t answer your furious knocking), they will come all the way up the stairs to unlock the door for you. They’ve gotten to know us well since we’ve been staying there, even so much as to know our room numbers. One guy is so cute—he’s at least forty or fifty years old and always guesses wrong, then tells us he can’t remember because there are too many beautiful girls to keep track of. :)
Still not sure why there are doorknobs on the mirror... Edgy decor? Impromptu coathangers? Door to Narnia?
A neat fit! I told you my suitcase was going to become organized.
Via Bertiera is very close to Via dell’Indipendenza, the backbone road of Bologna’s downtown, so it makes getting around very easy. There are tons of restaurants around: pizzerie, trattorie, osterie, ristoranti, even things like creperie, nutellerie, and yogurterie (restaurants specialising in pancakes, nutella foods, and yoghurt, respectively). The problem is not finding food, only paying for it! I have eaten extremely well this past week, and recorded a good part of it via camera, but haven’t gotten around to posting.
We’ve taken three official tours of Bologna by now, and I have hundreds of pictures; rather than dumping them all on you at once, I’m trying to space them out a bit.
Right, then, on we go. Let me introduce you to Hotel Holiday.
All the BCSP students were assigned to stay in this hotel, which the Italians pronounce like “OH-tell OLL-ee-day.” It’s a three-star hotel on Via Bertiera, one of Bologna’s many side streets, which one student’s Bolognese friend described as un po’ sketch (a little sketchy!). The hotel itself is actually quite nice inside, with free wifi, awesome breakfasts, and nice views (which you have already seen).
Like all European hotels, Hotel Holiday’s first floor is actually floor #0, so my supposedly third-floor room is deceptively four flights of stairs to get to, not three. False advertising! This also is unfortunate news for my wifi connection, which often isn’t quite strong enough to get internet in the room—unless you tilt your laptop just so in just the right place.
My room. Just kidding--next picture is my room.
I share room 304 with two other girls, Becca and Nicole. Funny how these things work out—Nicole’s dad is from Invercargill, NZ, so we have fun using NZ idioms and super-thick accents.
Our room is lovely and big, with a giant bathroom and plenty of space, especially compared to the other rooms (all the rooms are decorated and shaped differently, which is a revelation to those of us who have accepted the perfectly calibrated hotel rooms in America. The only thing that stays the same is the linens). The room is NOT supplied with an iron, like Mum had promised me, but the bathroom is full of all sorts of unexpected commodities—the showerhead is one of the massage-y sorts, and the water gets awesomely hot—and some things that are distinctly absent: the shelf comes stocked with shower gel, shower caps, shoe shine, and “intimate cleanser,” but no shampoo. There never seems to be any toilet paper.
But look how big it is! 
It took us a while to figure out what the apparatus on the left was for. Then suddenly, we understood why the hotel never gave us any toilet paper...Coming and going gets a bit dicey with three people, because there’s only one key per room. When you leave, you have to give the key to the porter at the door, and ask for it when you come back. And heaven help you if you lose it! Luckily the porters are nice; if your roommate has skived off with your key (or has fallen asleep and won’t answer your furious knocking), they will come all the way up the stairs to unlock the door for you. They’ve gotten to know us well since we’ve been staying there, even so much as to know our room numbers. One guy is so cute—he’s at least forty or fifty years old and always guesses wrong, then tells us he can’t remember because there are too many beautiful girls to keep track of. :)
Still not sure why there are doorknobs on the mirror... Edgy decor? Impromptu coathangers? Door to Narnia?
A neat fit! I told you my suitcase was going to become organized.Via Bertiera is very close to Via dell’Indipendenza, the backbone road of Bologna’s downtown, so it makes getting around very easy. There are tons of restaurants around: pizzerie, trattorie, osterie, ristoranti, even things like creperie, nutellerie, and yogurterie (restaurants specialising in pancakes, nutella foods, and yoghurt, respectively). The problem is not finding food, only paying for it! I have eaten extremely well this past week, and recorded a good part of it via camera, but haven’t gotten around to posting.
We’ve taken three official tours of Bologna by now, and I have hundreds of pictures; rather than dumping them all on you at once, I’m trying to space them out a bit.
Another street view from the window.
Finally, as a parting gift, I give you this: http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/. This blog is a journal of a man’s sleep-talk as recorded by his wife. It’s gotten quite a bit of media attention lately, and for good reason:
“Don't leave the duck there. It's totally irresponsible. Put it on the swing, it'll have much more fun.”
“Since when did my underwear look good on you? Take it off. Take it off your face.”
This is the kind of stuff I live for!
“Don't leave the duck there. It's totally irresponsible. Put it on the swing, it'll have much more fun.”
“Since when did my underwear look good on you? Take it off. Take it off your face.”
This is the kind of stuff I live for!
So...where are the pictures of your hotel room?
ReplyDeletePictures are now live. :)
ReplyDelete