Slavyanska Beseda

Not One I'll Ever Stay At Again

As cheap central hotels go this one initially exceeded my expectations. The imposing building, located on a corner just behind the National Theatre, was easy to find and therefore as central as I could have wished for. Reception was swift and friendly, having booked through booking.com, and so was merely a matter of handing over my passport in exchange for my room key (my passport was returned later after the formalities had been done).

My room was decidedly battle-scarred, there were cigarette burns in places where even I wouldn't have thought to leave one, and even though the furnishings and decor were probably untouched since the Communist days (I was especially enamoured by the 60's-style telephone) it was at least clean.

I was particularly impressed with the well-stocked mini-bar which was very reasonably priced - 2 Euros for a 50 cl bottle of vodka - but then maybe that too was former Communist era stock. The internet worked (though I think I was picking up the public signal from the square rather than that of the hotel) as did all the light bulbs.

However it all went downhill from there. The bed was particularly uncomfortable with the bottom sheet refusing to keep company with the coarse, and uninvitingly-stained, matress whilst the top cover seemed to be a blanket wrapped in what looked like a fitted undersheet and so sort of bunched in the places it wasn't needed and emptied where it was. Fortunately (or maybe not) it was a warm night.

Unique Quality: My room turned out to be next to the lift shaft which didn't actually bother me that much as I can sleep through anything (and a few beers beers and a glass of wine helped). The lack of AC meant I had to leave the window open (with the curtians drawn) and when I woke in the morning it was to the sound of a pile-driver on the next door building site (once again that wasn't a problem - it didn't actually wake me up, it was simply the first sound that I heard before the lift joined the dawn chorus).

Then breakfast - that was a total scrummage. There was far too many people for the space available, the food, coffee, cutlery and crockery weren't being topped up fast enough, tables weren't being cleared and the couple of staff that were around were just nodding there heads (not a good thing in Bulgaria) and waving their hands around in surrender.

I managed a plate of what I needed and wrung the last half cup from the coffee thermos and squeezed onto an already clutttered table with a couple of other guys but most people were just filling a plate and heading back to their rooms with it.

OK such is life and it was cheap and the friendly receptionist apologetic.

The story's not over though. As my day progressed, first wandering around the city and then getting the bus down to Skopje, I became plagued by an increasing number of unrelievable itches, several of which grew blister-like and maddeningly irritating. By lunchtime several had grown to almost golfball proprtions and had begun to weep. I'll give the hotel the benefit of the doubt on that one - it could have been a mosquito or two that got to me through the curtained open window but it could just as easily have been fleas and I'd a shower that morning (a tale in its own right) before I left and so there was no physical evidence.

Anyway I'll give this one a miss next visit.

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Budget Travel, Beer Tasting
• Written May 26, 2011

Slavyanska Beseda Photo: Basic but Clean

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