An Uncomfortable Situation

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know by now that I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal who loves to wing it and figure out where I want to be when I want to be there rather than ahead of time.  It is important to know this as on one of my trips to Switzerland, this would work against me.

Geneva is not the kind of place that it is easy to just stroll up to a hotel and say "I'd like a room, please."  First of all, they will look at you funny and second, they will charge you ridiculous rates.  Whenever you stay anywhere in Switzerland, I strongly recommend you book ahead of time and regardless of the time-frame.  This will save you money in the long run.  Walking into a hotel seems to be something that isn't quite normal in Switzerland, so if you don't want to stand out... You get my point.

On this particular trip, we stayed in Geneva over a weekend and then went down to Italy for the week.  Since we were flying back out of Geneva, we decided to head back to the same hotel we stayed at the previous weekend.  The same guy was even behind the desk!  I thought, for sure, I would get a buddy discount, but alas no.  They were booked up because of a weekend event, so we went to the next hotel down the street.  They were full too, so on the search went, stepping into lobbies asking about vacancies and pricing.  Then comes a unique and uncomfortable experience.  

Through the doors we walk and into the elevator, we go.  Up to the next floor to reach the lobby we go and when the doors open, we were met with a man behind a glass wall staring at us through thick glasses.  The older gentleman who was quite round in the middle looked at us through his safety glass and asked if we were looking for a room.  At this moment, we noticed what was behind him. 

Propped up on shelves, strewn about his desks, and scattered atop every cabinet and bookshelf was what looked like hundreds of stuffed animals.  Big ones, small ones, beanie babies, and dollies were everywhere. Taken aback, we failed to answer him right away, but I got it together and told him we did need a room.  As usual, he told us the price and asked for our passports.  We handed them over and he led us up to the room.

He left us at the room and we were taking stock of our surroundings. There was the usual: a bed, a window, a bathroom, but then we saw it… There was an extra door across from the bathroom. I tried to open it, but it was locked. It felt odd. We looked at each other and wondered what was behind the door. We continued to take measure of the room and after staring at the green carpeting, we determined that we were decidedly uncomfortable. I looked at him and asked point blank, “Do you want to leave?” He may not have said it, but his face screamed, “YES!”

We opted to depart this establishment with the quickness. The rotund gentleman downstairs was not pleased when we came down and demanded our passports be returned so that we could leave. After what we assumed were several curses in French, we retrieved our passports and left. We chose to move on to a cafe with Wi-Fi to find another hotel.

Sometimes you come across strange people during your travels. Don’t let that turn you away from traveling the world. I hope you enjoyed this story. Until next time:

Thanks, y’all!