London again

Anyhow, we checked into the worst backpackers known to man... alright, slight exageration perhaps... it's not the WORST but I do think it's close too it, I certainly won't be back again nor will I ever recommend the place to anyone I like (but I could drop it's name to those I don't... ;) Kidding!) We're in a dorm room of 9. We arrived, took ages to check in as staff were slow and incompetant. Finally checked in, were given our bedding to take with us, upon finding our room found that there was only 1 bed available, went back told staff of this, they came down and had a look and said "Ummmm, it should be okay, just make up this bed and if the person comes back and wants there bed back tell them to come see reception" HUH?! We did try to point out that this was not really a good solution but staff assured us that they had looked at the bookings and it should be free... right... okay...

So, we made the beds up and then went to pop our valuables away in our locker where we found someones dirty sheets... hmm, not nice. We had to pay for a locker (per night value too, not just a one off fee) and upon removing the dirty sheets, popping our bags in the locker and closing it we found it didn't bloody lock. Right, okay. Back to staff. They had the "back in 10 mins" sign up once more, I ignored this and lined up and just talked over the lady that was telling me that they were 'closed' (rude I know, but I was so so so over it!!) Was told by an older man "I'll fix it in 5 minutes, just wait here" Right. Okay. We waited and true to his word, 7 minutes later he arrived saying he'd 'fixed' the problem, we thanked him and then head down to the room to grab a few things.. only to find that yes the locker did lock now, but it also wouldn't bloody open. Unimpressed. We were over it though, we'd been stuffing about with the back and forths of trying to get our accomm. sorted for over an hour now so we left, headed towards the Portobella Markets which stated it was open 7am-7pm. I love a good market so I was quite excited about heading here, especially as we had 2 hours to wander along and discover it at a leisurely pace... and we did find it, packing up at 5.15pm. I felt so ripped off! We had a bit of a look at the stalls that were still a little displayed as they packed up before deciding "you know what? We're tired, we're getting cold, we want to sit down and we want to eat" So we head back towards the silly backers, then realised we'd forgotten to look for the book store from the "Notting Hill" film that I love so much. Infact, when we consulted the guide book it stated that we'd walked right past it while at the crumbling markets. Oh well. Next time (if there is one!)

We had a half decent pub meal, another cider and then back to the backers to try and find some cups for our hot drinks (rare as hens teeth here!) and hopped on the p.c to blog etc etc. Will head back to the room soon (in common room at mo, more like a pub here tho, wine and beer everywhere!) and TRY not to wake the jet lagged room mates as we climb a gazillion small ladder steps to our bunks that are high above the clouds... I'm sorry to say that the excitement of backpackers and share dorms is long gone on me, I'm getting old, enjoy my own space and want to be left alone, not have young party animal room mates keeping me up. I am officialy a grumpy old woman tonight! :)

written by  Chris and Emily on April 24, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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