Hotel Rooms Are Nightmares – Travel
Hotel Rooms Are Nightmares
David Leonhardt
Ever since I began working for that Florida vacation rentals website, I have been plagued by recurring nightmares. I am haunted at night by the spirits of hotel rooms past.
There was a time when I traveled quite a bit on business. Thankfully, I dont hotels hop any more. But at night I float off to a hotel room far away in time...
The days work done, I phoned home to check up on the kids. It seems there was a shouting match going on in my absence. It sounded like Pandemonium was winning, but Total Bedlam was making some noise, too.
"Can you just quiet down a bit," I said into the phone.
"YOU shut up," I heard the man in the next room growl.
I chose to ignore him. "Come on guys. Cant you just stop fighting for a minute"
"Ill show you what fighting means" I heard through the wall.
"Geeze. I cant even here myself think," I complained into the phone.
"Hey! Ive had just about enough of you," the guy on the other side of the wall screamed.
Suddenly I got very scared. I pictured a burly, six-foot-two weightlifter smashing his fist through the wall. I hung up the phone, wondering how thin the walls were.
Nothing happened. No fist. No smashed wall. No burly, six-foot-two weightlifter.
I decided to go downstairs for a stress-relief stroll. As I was closing my door, the man from the next room emerged.
Fortunately, he was no weightlifter.
I was about to ask him why he had shouted at me through the wall while I was trying to discipline my kids, when he called to me, "Hey you. I was on the phone with my wife. Why did you have to heckle me"
All of a sudden, I knew how thin the walls were.
In fact, I discovered that hotel walls come in two thicknesses:
If youre lucky, you get "Turn down the volume on your TV!" walls. If you are less fortunate, you get "Turn down the brightness on your TV!" walls.
Fortunately, hotel rooms are immaculately clean. Its true. The sign says so. Just as long as you dont look under the mattress to find a 1976 copy of Businessweek Magazine and theatre tickets to a 1982 showing of The Music Man.
I dont know why hotels pretend to be so spotless. All that junk under the bed could be used as a marketing tool. "Stay at the Hilltop Hilton and join in our under-mattress-scavenger-hunt."
If the hotels dont catch on, sooner or later the motels will. They can turn anything into a sales pitch. Like, for example, "Color TV" Ooooooohh.. And "Outdoor Pool" I think the "outdoor" feature is a nice added touch, dont you And how about "Free Parking" which is really a way of saying, "You dont have to park your car in your room.".
What worries me most about hotels is what they keep in the drawers. Did you ever notice there is always a bible in the drawer Why
When you buy a car, there is no bible in the glove compartment, although the road is where you need prayers the most.
When you dig for the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box, its never a bible.
Even in hospitals, where a prayer might be all you have left, there is no bible in the drawer.
Only in hotels and on death row do bibles come as standard equipment.
And why just the Bible I have had plenty of spare time to search for Torahs and Korans in hotel rooms, and I have never found any. Do Jews and Muslims not stay in hotels What do they know that I dont
Fortunately, I dont have to stay in hotels anymore. I dont have to endure shadow-puppet shows from the guy on the other side of the wall. I dont have to keep from reading over his shoulder. I dont have worry about what he ate for dinner.
And I dont have to listen to his snoring. I can enjoy my own nightmares in peace.
About The Author
David Leonhardt publishes The Happy Guy humor column:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/positive-thinking-free-ezine.html
And A Daily Dose of Happiness:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/daily-happiness-free-ezine.html
He also writes personal growth articles:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/self-actualization-articles.html
And sells liquid vitamins:
http://www.vitamin-supplements-store.net
Info@thehappyguy.com
Ten reasons to move to the Costa Brava – Travel
Ten reasons to move to the Costa Brava
Christopher Longmore
After France, Spain is Europes most popular holiday destination, and the apparent dominance of France is to a large extent due to visitors in transit elsewhere. In 1996 between 1.2 and 1.3 million European tourists visited Spain. It is therefore not surprising that many of them become interested in buying a home there. Spains property market generally has enjoyed strong growth, with the Costa Brava enjoying a particularly large rise in values. About 20% of foreign owners are more or less permanent residents of Spain, while the remaining 80% bought their property for either holidays or investment purposes.
The Costa Brava is particularly attractive because
Summer heat is less intense than further south,
Scenery is spectacular,
There are beautiful well-preserved mediaeval towns like Pals and Peratallada everywhere,
Catalonia is well run with good roads and railways
The A7 motorway is never more than a few minutes drive and connects to the French network
Barcelona is easily accessible
Golf courses are numerous and of the highest standard all year round
In winter, there is good skiing in the nearby Pyrenees
There are cheap flights to Girona/Costa Brave airport and to Barcelona and Perpignan.
Eating out is inexpensive and a real pleasure
The cost of living generally is reasonable.
That is an impressive catalogue of benefits. Add that attractive property is still fairly freely available and competitively priced and you will quickly understand the popularity of the region.
Many different nationalities settle here, but unlike further south they are all intermingled, with no "English" estates or "German" estates. The whole atmosphere is much more cosmopolitan. That does not suit everybody.
Before buying anything, do visit the area in and out of season. Resorts that are a buzz in summer often die completely in the winter. To most Catalonians, the Costa Brava is where they go for their summer holidays; they dont live there, and they dont even visit at week-ends out of season. If you are buying just for summer rentals and/or your own summer holidays, that does not matter, but if you are thinking of permanent residence, it is a critical factor. Never assume that you may be able to rent your property in winter. It is most unlikely.
If you are thinking of semi-permanent or even permanent residence, you may be concerned that you will find it hard to make friends here, and therefore be somewhat isolated. This is generally not so. Most residents are retired or semi-retired and it is fairly easy to meet new people, particularly of course if you play golf. Incomers tend to be of a similar age and background, even if from different countries. They too want to make new friends.
This may be an advantage or a disadvantage! You will also suddenly find that you have many friends in England wanting to visit you. Some of them may be friends that you thought of only as acquaintances. It can also be difficult for visitors to understand that you are not there just to entertain them, but have your own life to lead as well.
All in all though, the Costa Brava is a terrific place to holiday or live as long as you have thought through your purchase correctly. Our experience comes as part of the package, and our job is to make sure that you make the right decision for you. This is not the Costa del Sol either in terms of weather or life style, but it is culturally rich, welcoming, and offers a great life to those that respond to what it offers.
This article and more can be found at: Costa Brava Homes
About The Author
You can found the original article at http://www.costa-brava-homes.com/index/eng/life.html.
© Costa Brava Homes www.costa-brava-homes.com & Christopher B. Longmore 2004
How Car Rental Agencies Can Make Your Trip That Much Easier – Travel
How Car Rental Agencies Can Make Your Trip That Much Easier
Mike Yeager
Car rental agencies, along with many other factors, have played a vital role in increasing the easiness of travelling by providing a service through which travelers can easily rent a car of their choice. One can rent a car of any color, shape and model at reasonable prices from these car rental agencies. A rented car, which has been rented from an office sited in one city, can be easily dropped at another office situated in a different city. Besides manual reservations, most car rental companies have developed interactive websites to assist in making online reservations and helping travelers.
Being able to rent a car is a service as the number of companies providing car rental services has greatly increased in the last few years. National car rental, Enterprise car rental, Budget car rental, Thrifty car rental, Alamo car rental, Cheap car rental and many others are all recognized for providing admirable amenities and services to their customers. Initially, many of these intended to capture the American market only, but now almost all have open sub-offices in many different countries of the world.
It really doesn