I happened to remember that the girl who called me an a-hole (as described in a previous post) was my roommate when I lived in Moscow that summer. It wasn't awkward or anything afterwards (if there was sarcasm font I would be using it right now). I was in a shared hotel room with four other girls; two girls in a smaller room and I and two other girls in a slightly large room; we all shared one bathroom. Fortunately the girl who didn't like me was in the smaller room. The housing was basically like a dormitory, though it was called a hotel. The name "Gostinitsa Metallurg" translates to "Hotel Metallurgy" in English. You can tell by the name that it was a fine establishment. It's actually still a working hotel in Moscow; $57 a night, although an online review I saw in Russian said simply, "Nightmare". I found this picture of it on the internet :
Soviet architecture at it's finest. It turns out the hotel was built in 1988. When I was there in 1994 it incredibly run down and dumpy and the elevators never worked. I blame this hotel for making me steal the only thing I have ever stolen in my life-- toilet paper. If I ever have to take a lie detector test and I'm asked the question, "Have you ever stolen anything?", it really pisses me off that my answer will have to be toilet paper. The reason I stole is because the hotel didn't provide us with toilet paper. The famous toilet paper shortages of the Soviet (and even post-Soviet) era were not exaggerated. Also, the humor about the bad quality of the paper is true. For a long time I had saved some Russian toilet paper to show people that you could actually see pieces of wood pulp in it, but I don't know what I've done with it. Here's a photo I found online that will help give you an example of what it looked like:
One of the girls in my room made a brilliant discovery. There was a nice foreign hotel within walking distance. They had public restrooms (for foreigners to use; if you were Russian you'd have a hard time getting through the door) with real luxurious, white toilet paper. And it was there for the taking. Which is what we did. We all carried big bags and we waltzed in and loaded up with TP. I'm not proud of this, but desperate times call for desperate actions.
The hotel also didn't have air conditioning, which was common for most buildings in Moscow since it only really got hot in July and August. Of course those were the two months I was there. We had to open the windows at night (no screens that I remember) and the mosquitos were HORRIBLE. Even though I would slather myself up with "OFF" repellant every night, nothing worked. Everyone was bitten but only I and the one other vegetarian in the group were absolutely covered in bites every morning. Supposedly we were/are sweeter tasting because of being vegetarian and therefore attract more mosquitos. I don't know if this is actually true (is someone out there licking vegetarians and meat eaters and making comparisons?). OK, just googled it and yes, apparently there is quite a bit of tasting going on and the consensus is that vegetarians taste better. If you are at work reading this, DO NOT do a google search with the keywords "vegetarians taste sweeter" because you will be directed to many NSFW websites. You've been warned.
One last (moderately funny) thing about my time spent at Hotel Metallurg. My roommates told me that when I slept at night, I put both of my hands together under my cheek and slept like a child. At first I was like, "Awww, that's nice. So glad I'm not drooling or otherwise embarrassing myself." Then I was like, "Wait a minute you weirdos-- quit watching me sleep". Seriously, don't watch me sleep. It's kind of creepy.
You'll note that this is my second post for today. I was going to save this and post it tomorrow but then thought, "What if die in my sleep? The world will never know the truth about bad Russian hotels and my life of crime." In advance--you're welcome.
The hotel also didn't have air conditioning, which was common for most buildings in Moscow since it only really got hot in July and August. Of course those were the two months I was there. We had to open the windows at night (no screens that I remember) and the mosquitos were HORRIBLE. Even though I would slather myself up with "OFF" repellant every night, nothing worked. Everyone was bitten but only I and the one other vegetarian in the group were absolutely covered in bites every morning. Supposedly we were/are sweeter tasting because of being vegetarian and therefore attract more mosquitos. I don't know if this is actually true (is someone out there licking vegetarians and meat eaters and making comparisons?). OK, just googled it and yes, apparently there is quite a bit of tasting going on and the consensus is that vegetarians taste better. If you are at work reading this, DO NOT do a google search with the keywords "vegetarians taste sweeter" because you will be directed to many NSFW websites. You've been warned.
One last (moderately funny) thing about my time spent at Hotel Metallurg. My roommates told me that when I slept at night, I put both of my hands together under my cheek and slept like a child. At first I was like, "Awww, that's nice. So glad I'm not drooling or otherwise embarrassing myself." Then I was like, "Wait a minute you weirdos-- quit watching me sleep". Seriously, don't watch me sleep. It's kind of creepy.
You'll note that this is my second post for today. I was going to save this and post it tomorrow but then thought, "What if die in my sleep? The world will never know the truth about bad Russian hotels and my life of crime." In advance--you're welcome.