Hotels.com

On Saturday morning Mark and I drove up to San Francisco to see friends for the weekend. We didn’t really plan ahead; so right before we left we got on hotels.com to search for a cheap place to stay. There was a quaint little walk-up in Union Square (ok, maybe Tenderloin adjacent) for only $50 a night. Sold. We’re only there to sleep so who cares if the paint is chipped and the ceiling’s stained. For reference, Mark and I have stayed in some of the world’s worst dives--$1/night hostel in Cairo, genocidal border crossing between Congo and Rwanda, and many defunct former Soviet Bloc hotels. However, after waking up at 7am on Sunday and strolling into our “shared bathroom” at Hotel Olympic, we knew this was something different. The toilet room was covered in urine. Not just the seat, the whole room. And to accent the wetness was a used condom. Hot. The shower was even worse though. In European style, the shower and toilet were separated, but this arrangement must have angered or confused some anxious guest in the night, because in the absence of a commode someone had simply shit in the trashcan. And to crown his achievement, a cigarette butt was neatly extinguished on top, like a cherry. Nothing says good morning like a hot cup of coffee, a used condom, and a pile of shit next to your shower. Worth every penny….