Accommodation Roundup

Over a few months in Europe I stayed in a variety of places that ranged from personal homes, rented apartments, buses and bus stations, trains, hostels and even a couple of hotels.

In order of usage:

The Generator - London -- In the Russel Square area, cheap party hostel. You either love it or hate it. Personally I felt the police coming every night was a bit excessive. I wasn't a huge fan but under different circumstances I would likely feel differently.

The Globetrotter - London -- In the Ravenscourt Garden area, was a bit quiet back in January. Fairly social (I believe there was a bar downstairs) but it was out in the suburbs in Zone 2. I personally got a better deal by booking online than what they offer at the desk (6.50 GBP vs 19GBP)

Hostal Suizo - Seville -- I think this Hostel was also an Hostal. Centrally located off Plaza Nueva right near Calle Sierpes. It was fairly decent but there are better options

Hostal Santa Maria de la Blanca - Sevilla -- A one star pension on la Puerta de la Carne. Right on the edge of Barrio Santa Cruz closest to Mendez-Pelayo. It was about 40 Euros which is roughly the price for two people at a local hostel. a decent bet for people that want a cheap well located hotel in an authentic setting for poco dinero.

Samay Hostel - Sevilla -- One of the nicer youth hostels I have ever stayed in. Nice deck upstairs with a great view of the Giralda. Best kitchen I have seen. Two thumbs up. Around 18 euros a night. The only downside is that between the deck, kitchen and common room it divides the meeting place up a bit.

Rising Cock Hostel - Lagos -- This may be the best hostel in the world...it is definitely my favorite. Mama's crepes, comfortable clean hostel, with an impressive movie, TV show collection and a big screen plasma. Great eats in the neighborhood. Nanabar (Toucan burger! I recommend ordering it Medium Endangered), chicken man etc. Awesome city, cool beaches, and ubersocial common room make this place top most people's list.

Hotel Olissippo Marquês de Sá - Lisbon -- A kick ass 3 star hotel gotten for us by the Tios. Centrally located (5-10 minutes to two metro stops). Just down the street and to the left (keeping the hotel behind you and on the left) is a tasty Chinese restaurant (I went with lucky #127 on the menu).

Sant Jordi Arago - Barcelona -- Right off of Passeig de Gracias, you can't get a better location if you tried. Small hostel run by a friendly trio. Only downside is the ratio of beds to showers is a little tight so you may have to wait.

Salvia Hotel - Andorra la Vella -- A three star hotel at a hostel double room price. Right in the middle of town (although pretty much any hotel would be). Recommended

Wira Hostel - Hamburg -- Cheap place (10 euros?) but massive refundable key deposit (50E!?!). It is more or less central. Em and I were literally there for a day so the nearly absolute silence and sterile atmosphere wasn't too important.

Circus Hostel - Berlin -- Practically inside the Rosenthaler Platz metro station. In the former East Germany, 24 hour eateries abound some for less than 3 euros. The hostel itself is clean and modern, shared bathrooms are plentiful. There is a bar downstairs with things like a Wii , Karaoke etc. A great option for those wanting to hit up Berlin.

The Wombat City Hostel -- Munich - I have always wanted to be able to say "Everytime I come go to Europe I stay at "X" " The Wombat ist meine haus in Munchen. It seems to be showing slight signs of wear over my last visit but still among Europe's best. The Wombar is usually pretty hoppin downstairs although I didn't use it much on this past stay.

Sir Toby's Hostel - Prague -- Out in Prague VII so you are 30 minutes from the old town and Wenceslas Square (imo a bit overrated) by foot. The hostel itself has great breakfasts for 100 CZK, and a cool basement/bar area.

Flamingo's Hostel - Krakow -- We went from being far from everything to being on top of everything. 50m at most from the main square. Smallish hostel with a TV with cable (handy for those days where it rained from morning until evening) everything is clean, board games the usual. Nice place...

Hostel Ruthensteiner's - Vienna -- We stayed at the Summerhouse but the original is equally nice (if not nicer). Right down the street from the Wombat Lounge and across from Mozart Stuberl.

Hippo Hostel - Budva, Montenegro -- Very cool place along the Adriatic. The hostel is relatively tiny (20 beds?) and like Lagos, the main attraction is the beach and old town so you tend to hang out with the same people all day. Kotor is a good day trip. One of my top 5 hostels for sure. It is a seasonal place and as of now Dave and Nadya appear to be closing shop in November 2008 for good. Get there while you can!

Palmer's Lodge - London -- Big "sleep factory" style hostel (not that there is anything wrong with that). Clean, convenient to Zone 2 metro station Swiss Cottage. 15 minutes or less to Green Park.

--Joey

London (Temp Blog)

I made it safe and sound. The wireless connection here is not the greatest so my first real update will probably be on Thursday morning when I get to Spain. My hostel is decent but kind of loud and I am trying hard to get on a normal sleep schedule. My flight over gave me an hour sleep, and night one was about 4-5 hours. To make up for it I went to bed at 8:30 but woke up at 1:30 unable to get back to sleep.

I spent today at the Tate Modern Art museum and enjoyed the surrealist exhibits...everything else... meh. I more or less ended it, with a rainy run across Millenium bridge with some other Tampans from Eckerd College. The kids thought it was quite a coincidence to meet someone from Tampa abroad...how cute ;)

Pictures and flushed out entry to come.

--Joey

Youth Hostel Supplement

In keeping with my tradition of listing my accommodations...

Sakura Youth Hostel (Tokyo) - Great way to arrive in Tokyo (man that feels like it was a long time ago, way more than two months!). Clean, friendly place in the "old" part of town, Asakusa. Great atmosphere in the common area. Only downside is that it is difficult to find your first time there. 2940 yen.

Backpacker's K House at Mount Fuji (Kawaguchiko) - Possibly the best hostel I have EVER stayed in...ever! Mellow place, lots of "long term" guests, full kitchen, nice common area with large HD LCD. Seriously a wonderful place to be (it is very new) and as luck would have it, right next to a quality (and cheap!) onsen. 2700 yen.

Warakuan Guest House (Kyoto) - Very cool traditional place that will give you the Ryokan experience in this cultural center for a decent price. The rooms are 3 or 6 people on tatami mats. Centrally located (although, since we only spent one full day there, I never got a feel for Kyoto's layout) 2500 yen.

Asakusa Capsule Hotel (Tokyo) - Across from the Asakusa metro entrance, this capsule hotel may not be exactly representative of a Shibuya or Shinjuku capsule hotel but it was fun none the less. The clientele appeared to be more of an older men, smoking watching sumo wrestling demo than the young drunk salaryman who missed the last train. Not exactly great but it worked for the night (not available to book online...4000 yen)

I'll have to work up my favorite hostels all told a little later.

Next up: Probably Toronto. I am meeting a few folks for a camp out in Algonquin national forest.

--Joey

Rising sun

After Disney we settled called it a night with the intention of waking up early. That we did, about 0430. Our roommate (a Swedish girl) was out hanging with a couple of English guys when she decides to head back to the hostel. She was apparently quite drunk when she hailed a cab in Akihabara. That should be a short ride (30 minutes at most). She said he drove her around for almost two hours not letting her out and demanded 10000 yen when she finally got out otherwise he would have called the police. It shows you bad stuff can happen to you when you are drunk, female and alone... even in Japan. We thought she should have called his bluff, not paid him anything and allowed the police to arrive. He would be in a lot of trouble. Although since she was mispronouncing the name of the area as Asah-Koo-sa instead of Asock-sah he may have thought she was trying to go to Akasasa which could take that amount of time. It would also have taken her through Roppongi the "unsafe" area of Tokyo. Of course all of that doesn't explain why he was touching her leg.

SumoMasen

With that craziness the night before we didn't get up until about noon. We woke up and began arranging our Sunday night's stay. The hotel was in Narita so we would probably have to leave around 4p to beat nightfall. As we started talking we found out that we could probably reclaim the points to have another night in Tokyo. Capsule hotel here I come. With that same late start we weren't able to buy Sumo wrestling tickets but we did see some of the participants outside.

Em suggested we head to the Tokyo tower in Roppongi which is featured heavily in Anime. It began the start of our Japanized European Icons tour of the night.

The Tokyo Tower, stands 13m, or roughly one nanny-nanny-boo-boo, taller than its Parisian counterpart.



In Shinjuku, they have a skyscraper clock looking just slightly like Big Ben.



Of course in Asakusa you have the Tourist board Seiko Glockenspiel.


Em wanted the extra night to go to a Jpop club. Should be easy enough right? I mean this is Tokyo. Our guide book (Let's Go) suggested the Jpop cafe. Perfect! The directions led us a bit astray as it uses landmarks rather than streets for guiding you in. We arrived a full 30 minutes before it closed. I think. Upstairs it was entirely empty save for two Japanese girls smoking in a dimly lit room.

Hard to call Shibuya a bust that night. We found a bizarre store specializing in unusual condoms, a Tshirt store that has an "if-it-is-in-English-we'll-sell-it-regardless-of-how -nonsensical-it-is" attitude, and an arcade with a video game that is best described as a drum version of Dance Dance Revolution.

We took the 2nd to last train from Shibuya up the Ginza to Asakusa. Capsule hotels for the uninitiated are places for drunk business men to fall asleep when they miss their last train out for the night. At roughly 25 bucks a night, they don't come that cheap but are frequently an indication of a helluva good evening. Since most are segregated based on sex and Em's tendancy towards claustrophobia, I was on my own. It was surprisingly comfortable considering I was essentially sleeping in a decent sized refrigerator.

--Joey