We'd travelled by coach for several hours, planning to visit Bojnice castle (look it up, tis nice) before carrying on to the airport the next day and flying home.
We stopped in the three star hotel magura located not two miles from the castle, and a reasonable distance from the train station for the remaining journey we planned to take the next day.

It was 32C, unreasonably humid and due to the lack of air conditioning on the coach we really just wanted to stow our luggage and do the touristy thing.

We entered the hotel, an old building with a large oak reception desk and cubby holes filled with keys, the atmosphere and location made me think of the film Hostel, because it was shit.

Slovakia is a beatiful country that seems to struggle to escape its communist history, the tannoys that were previously used for propaganda still litter the country, but are now used to announce major events such as elections, and in the smaller villages, minor events such as weddings and funerals. The hotel itself had a large courtyard surrounded by these things and I joked that it was probably a re-education centre. My wife nodded with a serious look on her face, making me think I was probably a little closer to the mark than I would have liked.

The room itself was unnecessarily basic, a single eighties style sofa bed that folded out to become the most unstable double bed ever created, a table, an ashtray and a plug socket.

We didn't need to set the alarm, as it seemed that someone had set a 6am alarm call and they decided that rather than knock on the guests door, they'd get everyone up for breakfast by announcing it at full volume over the speakers that surrounded the place.

The shower had exposed electrical connections coming from the light fitting and we decided that showering with the little light that seeped through from the rest of the bathroom would be sufficient.

The lift in the building was also an interesting affair. It was small with barely enough room for luggage and one average sized human, the door was missing, so rather than take it out of service, they instead disabled the safety mechanism and allowed it to be used anyway. It really is quite an unnerving experience using a lift like that, but one I'd have recommended over the stairs.

Unfortunately, another hotel wasn't really a possibility, and the room despite being basic and a bit of a death trap was clean, so we endured a nights sleep there, reasoning to ourselves that no matter how bad it seemed at the time, it was still better than a budget Ibis.
( Muns, Thu 4 Dec 2014, 14:43, 5 replies)

click for "still better than a budget Ibis."

( Locus213 Slightly to the left of Bakunin, Thu 4 Dec 2014, 15:28, closed)

Are you sure that castle isn't from disneyland?

(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Thu 4 Dec 2014, 15:53, closed)

Brave mods would love the adjoining zoo.

( Muns, Fri 5 Dec 2014, 9:17, closed)

that castle is fucking ace
(chovnik, Thu 4 Dec 2014, 16:28, closed)

I'd love to have seen it with the original copper roof.

( Muns, Fri 5 Dec 2014, 9:15, closed)