The adventures of Jill and Lisa: Part 4 – Does this room come with electricity or is it extra?
We return to our heroines after a lovely not-really-Spanish lunch and an inviting trek through Grand Via and some not so enticing side streets. The time came to unpack.
We must flashback to when Jill and I first entered the hotel room. You see, the hotel itself is probably a few hundred years old, which means the elevator was a retrofit and originally installed for the little people of the hills who own child-size luggage. That’s right, the elevator could only fit one American at a time with one overstuffed piece of baggage. Of course we approached this challenge with ease, or rather the elevator decided for us. You see, I entered the elevator and by the time I was able to pull, grab, yank and generally cajole my bag into it, the doors swooped closed and I saw wide-eyed Jill standing in the hallway with a look of “what’d ya do that for?”
Luckily, the elevator was so small and the walls were so thin that when I said, “I’m sorry. It just closed. Besides, I don’t think all four of us would fit.” I could hear her laughter follow me up the elevator shaft. As any good friend would do, I waited in the hallway to our hotel room and listened to the familiar sounds and curses of an American trying to convince an oversized claustrophobic piece of luggage that it must get onto the elevator or else.
We got to our dark and stuffy room with windows covered by electric metal shutters that can only be moved via a switch on the wall. And, the lights were out.
All of them.
We tried to turn on the air conditioning unit, sticking out of the wall and close to the ceiling (Did I mention that Jill and I are 5’6” and 5’7” respectively?) We reached for the controls on the air conditioning unit. After moments of futility, I grabbed a chair and started playing with the knobs to get some air circulating. Meanwhile, Jill was turning the switches on every light in the rooms; to no avail.
“Is electricity extra?”
“I don’t know. Can they do that?”
“Do what?”
“Charge extra for electricity.”
“Maybe that’s why the room was so cheap on hotels.com.”
“Maybe”
I am electing not to divulge who said what in the above exchange to protect the guilty and pathetic.
After forcing the air conditioner to spew some air and a little bit of coolness, we plopped on our beds to relax.
“What’s that?” Jill pointed to a slot next to the door.
“Dunno.”
Jill got up and examined the above mentioned slot then pulled out her hotel room key and inserted it.
BLING
And Jill said let there be light, and there was!
Maybe it wasn’t quite this dramatic but the room was well lit when she was done.
“That’s it. I’m taking a nap,” I mumbled into my pillow.
Return next week to see our heroines find their way around a 1500 year old village in the mountains of Spain and find out why they went there in the first place.
We must flashback to when Jill and I first entered the hotel room. You see, the hotel itself is probably a few hundred years old, which means the elevator was a retrofit and originally installed for the little people of the hills who own child-size luggage. That’s right, the elevator could only fit one American at a time with one overstuffed piece of baggage. Of course we approached this challenge with ease, or rather the elevator decided for us. You see, I entered the elevator and by the time I was able to pull, grab, yank and generally cajole my bag into it, the doors swooped closed and I saw wide-eyed Jill standing in the hallway with a look of “what’d ya do that for?”
Luckily, the elevator was so small and the walls were so thin that when I said, “I’m sorry. It just closed. Besides, I don’t think all four of us would fit.” I could hear her laughter follow me up the elevator shaft. As any good friend would do, I waited in the hallway to our hotel room and listened to the familiar sounds and curses of an American trying to convince an oversized claustrophobic piece of luggage that it must get onto the elevator or else.
We got to our dark and stuffy room with windows covered by electric metal shutters that can only be moved via a switch on the wall. And, the lights were out.
All of them.
We tried to turn on the air conditioning unit, sticking out of the wall and close to the ceiling (Did I mention that Jill and I are 5’6” and 5’7” respectively?) We reached for the controls on the air conditioning unit. After moments of futility, I grabbed a chair and started playing with the knobs to get some air circulating. Meanwhile, Jill was turning the switches on every light in the rooms; to no avail.
“Is electricity extra?”
“I don’t know. Can they do that?”
“Do what?”
“Charge extra for electricity.”
“Maybe that’s why the room was so cheap on hotels.com.”
“Maybe”
I am electing not to divulge who said what in the above exchange to protect the guilty and pathetic.
After forcing the air conditioner to spew some air and a little bit of coolness, we plopped on our beds to relax.
“What’s that?” Jill pointed to a slot next to the door.
“Dunno.”
Jill got up and examined the above mentioned slot then pulled out her hotel room key and inserted it.
BLING
And Jill said let there be light, and there was!
Maybe it wasn’t quite this dramatic but the room was well lit when she was done.
“That’s it. I’m taking a nap,” I mumbled into my pillow.
Return next week to see our heroines find their way around a 1500 year old village in the mountains of Spain and find out why they went there in the first place.
posted by Lisa Diane Kastner at
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
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