i just had a quick sacramental smoke before leaving my hotel room...hey, there's an ashtray in the room, and i stayed in this hotel before and could smell smoke every nite, and smoked without thinking in my room before...its the city garden on the pc hoofstraat...well, the fucking smoke alarm goes off in the hallway, but i think, it can't be me, but i put my bong away and quickly stash my sacrament...and then, exit the room, i'm leaving anyway. this arab dude asks me, but all kinda stressy, if i was smoking in my room, i say, not me...and go out. there's a pile of glass from a broken bottle by where i park my bike outside the hotel so i clean it up & go inside to throw the glass away. mind you, there's a lot of people milling around in the lobby wondering why the alarm, and the desk dude is callling the fire dept. to tell them its just someone smoking...when i ask for a trash can to throw the glass away, the guy at the desk asks me again if i was smoking in my room, which i deny again, and leave...shit, now i feel bad because i lied..not because i was smoking in my room. i really don't quite understand it...why i lied, why the smoke alarm went off when there's an ashtray in the room, what if i decided to sit and enjoy a cigarette? would it go off? would i get in trouble? will i still get in trouble? they've actually been pretty nice to me...but, i can't help feeling like i really don't belong in my hotel room..i mean, this afternoon when i was napping, mind you naked, two men entered the room and said, oh sorry, sorry, and poked at both beds looking for a number or something, i mean, walked right in my hotel room without asking, and then when i'm still there they still go about their business...strange!

the other hotel i stayed in last nite was a definate hazzard: the hotel groenhof on the vondelstraat, the place was so worn and threadbare, the staircase bannister was falling right off the wall, inside the bathroom the window was so rotten and falling apart that it would not close and was stuffed with toilet paper obvoiusly by a previous demure hotel guest, it was small, narrow and the ceiling hung at a low and odd angle, the t.v barely worked with wires hanging, after one nite with the mosquitoes i moved out...the manager, Ms W, was less than sympathetic about the bugs and almost threatened me when she gave me my money back, she even tried to blame me for my bike getting dirt on her floor, in the place where i had been told to put it last nite, it was moved to the place i had asked to put it, outside in the back...
now, i don't understand why the groenhof has three stars and the city garden only two...the city garden is clean and well maintained, the breakfast is great in compairison to others and the staff actually friendly, in a dutch sort of way...stay at the city garden, it was cheap, clean, no b.s.
but still anyway...
hotels suck!