When exiting the airport you will find my
favorite Lithuanian hotel just across the street: “The Hotel formerly known as
Skrydis”. Currently named AirInn. Although commonly trashed by reviewers, I
find that this place offers all you really need. Superb location, cheap rooms,
food and drink, and an overnight stay that becomes memorable.
In this case,
the experience is that of staying in a soviet style hotel. A functionalistic
concrete building erected to serve a useful purpose – to give decent shelter to
travelers. The hotel has no swimming pool, spa area, meditation garden, fitness
center with personal trainers, rotating restaurants or in house stylists. If
it does, then these facilities are well hidden. Instead, it offers such things
as:
-
TV with no western channels and
no batteries in the remote control
-
Empty minibar (even before you
arrive)
-
Vending machine with instant
coffee so bad it almost makes you feel sorry for the manufacturer
-
A breakfast so modest that you
suspect the staff of being concerned about your weight
-
Rooms that remind you of your
old student dorm – with authentic furniture
-
Bathrooms so small that you can
reach almost any surface in the room while seated on the toilet
-
Soviet elevators that sometimes
remind you of how fragile life really is, and how it all can be over in an
instant.
-
Ridiculously long preparation
time for food in the restaurant (no, the chef has not suffered a personal
tragedy – he is just waiting for your Chicken Kiev to defrost)
-
All the rustic details, like a
dry wall screw, sticking up from the carpet in the middle of the room.
Apparently placed there for no other reason than to snag your socks as you
pass by.
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