Ok, I don't know the name but it is what Don calls it. My understanding is that there are two hotels in Kirov and the nicer one fills up quickly. We did not stay in the nicer one! So when we got there the lobby was really nice. New tile floors, new front desk, new leather furniture, etc. I turned to one of our travelmates and said "not bad, I can handle this" and she agreed. We get an old fashioned key on a large wooden fob with 407 on the end but I think nothing of it, just not the typical room cards and we are in Kirov. So after checking in on Monday between visits at the baby home, Don and I head to the elevators. They are smallish and behind them are stairs that wrap around. So we wait for the elevator and the door opens but the floor of the elevator is high than the lobby floor so we step up in to the elevator. Not a good sign for my worrisome self. So we push number 4 and wait for the doors to close and wait and wait. Now between the floor and the doors I am thinking "get me out of here". But then some guys comes and pushes a button on the panel in the elevator and the doors close. I breathe a sigh of relief.
The doors open to the fourth floor however I feel like I just got off a time machine not an elevator. There is old linoleum on the floor, curling in places. Old furniture just off the elevator and a display case of goods for sale that I swear are not from this century or even the 90's! There is this long hallway of doors and we proceed down the long hall. I am not sure what I said to Don at this point but I am sure he realized my unhappiness! The doors are mostly old and have many layers of paint on them. However every now and then there are nice brand new doors and jams. We get to room 407 and just past it there appears to be some improvements being made. Don puts the key in the keyhole, yes a real old fashioned keyhole! And turns it and turns it and then turns the old round knob. Finally it opens to reveal a room from 1950, I am just guessing since it was before my time! And the smell in there was a whole other thing. It was a mixture of old smoke, old furniture, body odor and I am not sure what else. The good news was that the windows were new and opened. At this point it really didn't matter, it seemed clean and we have already met Oliver and would do anything for him. So I am not going to worry about it.
Don feels out the beds that Brynn might fit on. The polyfill pad is a couple inches thick at best and it has rough sheets that have a print on them. This is unusual to me since American hotels always have white sheets. The bathroom had old chipped tile and tub and the toliet was very odd. This is gross but all the men decided they had a landing pad in the commode and then a separate place for the water and whole at the bottom. If we go back I will try to take a picture of it. So after checking it out we leave the hotel until evening.
When we get back to the Ritz it is dark probably around 8:00 and we are all just exhausted but many want to email pictures and things to family and their international adoption doctors. Out in the parking lot and maybe in the van we are told to "not open our doors to anyone, no polica or immigration" I think we were told that twice. It scared the crud out of me and some of the other women. So we a few of us head to the internet cafe, they turn on two older than the hills desktops and you can just hear them churning away trying to boot up. So then they keyboard is in cyrillic and Don and I give up and leave. We went up to our room for a bit and went back later and tried to upload photos to email to family but no luck. Someone showed another family how to swtich the keyboard but you couldn't get any photos on there. Don and I were beat so we headed back up for the night.
The phone rang and Don answered it thinking it was one of our travelmates instead it was a girl asking if he wanted some "mu mu"! So he has to keep talking to her! Like he understands what she is saying! He hangs up and I decided to brave a bath, I carefully inspected the tub and it was clean just chipped. You have to take a bath to some degree because there is only a hand held showerhead and no shower curtain. I filled the tub and was very impressed with the pretty color of the water, kind of a pale gold! I am not kidding! But it felt good anyway, that is until the phone rang again! Don didn't answer it but it rang at least 15 times. I crawled in bed and Don put in a movie in the laptop in the sitting room. The sitting room had a lovely couch that was 20 years past its lifespan! I think it was part of the smell. Of course I keep opening windows to try and get the smell out and it is very warm in the room!
I maybe dozed off a time or two the whole night! I got up around 3:00 and played games on the laptop in the dark while watching the door! I was honestly scared but now realize I didn't need to be. I could see out in the hallway from the sitting room. The crack between the door and the jam was so wide that you could see people walk by. I was causing myself anxiety but wondering how the lock could be in the jam with that wide of space!
Finally morning came and we went upstairs to the cafe to grab breakfast! Some people had eaten there the day before and they had an English menu but not this morning! So Don orders us coffees. Some lady was eating a hot cereal, a yogurt and chocolate cake! I told Don to get me one of the those. It appears the girl understands and he order two. For 300 rubles it was a good deal. Out comes two tall yogurt drinks, then some hot cereal (later learned it is kasha), hot dogs, bread with lunch meat, little cake rolls (blueberry HoHo), coffees (2nd ones) and this green drink. All I can say is I am dreaming of breakfast on trip two. The kasha was not my thing, I don't eat hot dogs for breakfast and the green drink was not juice (Don swears it was)! Don was full and I got a granola bar from the suitcase to go with my yogurt drink! The coffee was good!
We then got to check out and all I can say is I was very happy to leave. Don who thinks Super 8 and Travelodge are nice even said "can't they find us something better than this". We are hoping the better hotel is available next week. My stomach churns thinking of going back but I will stay there if it means getting Oliver home! I would stay in a tent in Siberia for that matter.
The doors open to the fourth floor however I feel like I just got off a time machine not an elevator. There is old linoleum on the floor, curling in places. Old furniture just off the elevator and a display case of goods for sale that I swear are not from this century or even the 90's! There is this long hallway of doors and we proceed down the long hall. I am not sure what I said to Don at this point but I am sure he realized my unhappiness! The doors are mostly old and have many layers of paint on them. However every now and then there are nice brand new doors and jams. We get to room 407 and just past it there appears to be some improvements being made. Don puts the key in the keyhole, yes a real old fashioned keyhole! And turns it and turns it and then turns the old round knob. Finally it opens to reveal a room from 1950, I am just guessing since it was before my time! And the smell in there was a whole other thing. It was a mixture of old smoke, old furniture, body odor and I am not sure what else. The good news was that the windows were new and opened. At this point it really didn't matter, it seemed clean and we have already met Oliver and would do anything for him. So I am not going to worry about it.
Don feels out the beds that Brynn might fit on. The polyfill pad is a couple inches thick at best and it has rough sheets that have a print on them. This is unusual to me since American hotels always have white sheets. The bathroom had old chipped tile and tub and the toliet was very odd. This is gross but all the men decided they had a landing pad in the commode and then a separate place for the water and whole at the bottom. If we go back I will try to take a picture of it. So after checking it out we leave the hotel until evening.
When we get back to the Ritz it is dark probably around 8:00 and we are all just exhausted but many want to email pictures and things to family and their international adoption doctors. Out in the parking lot and maybe in the van we are told to "not open our doors to anyone, no polica or immigration" I think we were told that twice. It scared the crud out of me and some of the other women. So we a few of us head to the internet cafe, they turn on two older than the hills desktops and you can just hear them churning away trying to boot up. So then they keyboard is in cyrillic and Don and I give up and leave. We went up to our room for a bit and went back later and tried to upload photos to email to family but no luck. Someone showed another family how to swtich the keyboard but you couldn't get any photos on there. Don and I were beat so we headed back up for the night.The phone rang and Don answered it thinking it was one of our travelmates instead it was a girl asking if he wanted some "mu mu"! So he has to keep talking to her! Like he understands what she is saying! He hangs up and I decided to brave a bath, I carefully inspected the tub and it was clean just chipped. You have to take a bath to some degree because there is only a hand held showerhead and no shower curtain. I filled the tub and was very impressed with the pretty color of the water, kind of a pale gold! I am not kidding! But it felt good anyway, that is until the phone rang again! Don didn't answer it but it rang at least 15 times. I crawled in bed and Don put in a movie in the laptop in the sitting room. The sitting room had a lovely couch that was 20 years past its lifespan! I think it was part of the smell. Of course I keep opening windows to try and get the smell out and it is very warm in the room!
I maybe dozed off a time or two the whole night! I got up around 3:00 and played games on the laptop in the dark while watching the door! I was honestly scared but now realize I didn't need to be. I could see out in the hallway from the sitting room. The crack between the door and the jam was so wide that you could see people walk by. I was causing myself anxiety but wondering how the lock could be in the jam with that wide of space!
Finally morning came and we went upstairs to the cafe to grab breakfast! Some people had eaten there the day before and they had an English menu but not this morning! So Don orders us coffees. Some lady was eating a hot cereal, a yogurt and chocolate cake! I told Don to get me one of the those. It appears the girl understands and he order two. For 300 rubles it was a good deal. Out comes two tall yogurt drinks, then some hot cereal (later learned it is kasha), hot dogs, bread with lunch meat, little cake rolls (blueberry HoHo), coffees (2nd ones) and this green drink. All I can say is I am dreaming of breakfast on trip two. The kasha was not my thing, I don't eat hot dogs for breakfast and the green drink was not juice (Don swears it was)! Don was full and I got a granola bar from the suitcase to go with my yogurt drink! The coffee was good!
We then got to check out and all I can say is I was very happy to leave. Don who thinks Super 8 and Travelodge are nice even said "can't they find us something better than this". We are hoping the better hotel is available next week. My stomach churns thinking of going back but I will stay there if it means getting Oliver home! I would stay in a tent in Siberia for that matter.
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