Bebo

Wendy L <WendyL38>

"The Memory Maker"

	Shock to the system	541 jours il y a
	We arrived in Ljubliana late on a wet afternoon without prebooked hotel or prebooked hire car. In the tourist info centre at the train station the woman was incredibly patient and persistant as she rang every place on her books. She made it clear that two grandparents with a grandchild needed somewhere to sleep for one night. The line of other customers was growing and I was embarrassed at holding them up but still the woman at the counter persisted on our behalf. Finally she had success and gave us directions. The price was unbelievaby reasonable considering the whole city was full of tourists. (Still can't fathom why it would be so full) and it was in walking distance with free internet & hot buffet breakfast included. We set off, map in hand, dragging our wheeled suitcases behind us. Across the road , around a corner, passed a building covered in coloured graffitti with barbed wire on top of the brick fence, we kept going until we reached a low chain that spanned a muddy parking lot with plastic and paper blown against more graffittied walls. This couldn't be the place. It was. With no choice - and night closing in, we entered the building. The receptionist was friendly and the place seemed to be clean, There were regular people as guest, well dressed, maybe some a tad eccentric and obviously literate as the row of computers was fully occupied. Our 'cell' the girl called it was on the first floor - down the long, narrow corridor and up the stairs. 'The door on the stairs is always looked so you will need to use your key and please return your towels and sheets to reception in the morning.' There were two sets of stairs to climb and we came into another long narrow corridor . The floor drained into the centre. At one end were the showers - men's opposite the women. Thick doors lined each side of the corridor. I began to feel claustrophobic. Some doors stood open to reveal locked iron bars behind which I saw wooden benches and mattresses against the wall and a tiny port hole window. We found our 'cell' at the very end and unlocked the door and the iron gate. The third bench-bed was reached by a ladder. It was difficult to spread the sheets when one is crouched under the roof. Anyway we dragged the other mattresses onto the 'beds' and made them up, locked both gate and door and determined to be out of there by daybreak. There was no question in my mind we were in jail. When we talked about it to our cousin, later, he said, "You were in Celica - the most famous and best hostel in Europe. They have maintained the atmosphere of the old military prison. So we must have had a great experience, afterall, but one I wouldn't have opted for and possibly once was enough.
	posté par Wendy L

1 commentaire:

	Rosalie Skinner a dit...	Il y a 541 jours
	What an adventure. The sort of memory that will stay with you long after the brochures are crumpled and torn. It's the odd things that happen that make travel so exciting. The places you stay, the people you meet.
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