Shifting standards
Friday, 27 November 2009 | 8:38
It can be difficult to appreciate one’s surroundings, under the circumstances.
I’ve spent the last 5 days in a 3.5-star hotel in the heart of downtown Montreal. Virtually all expenses were taken care of – the cost of the room, every meal eaten on the premises; there were free newspapers and coffee waiting for me every morning, and access to free wine and beer every evening; my room was equipped with a king-sized bed, Internet access, and more toiletries than I could possibly use – also all free of charge, of course. My room key acted as a pass to the hotel’s ‘club’, where a breakfast buffet was available (again, free of charge) every morning, an array of newspapers in both English and French were available for the taking, and comfy armchairs, big-screen televisions, and computers and printers were set up and waiting to be used. Access to the penthouse apartment, normally reserved for the most exclusive hotel guests, was also granted in this exceptional case. In exchange for all of this, I had to put in a few 13-hour workdays whilst there, and of course had been working on this project for several months. Still, it somehow feels unbalanced – like I’ve gotten away with something… But it is what it is. We worked hard and pulled it off, and were rewarded for it.
Now, sitting on a very bouncy bed, many kilometers away in a ragtag hostel, with peeling walls and a cobweb-draped washroom, the sounds of other travelers so very audible through the paper-thin walls, it’s easy to feel nostalgic about my fluffy comforter and complimentary bottle of wine downtown. But, this is what traveling is all about. Besides, it was time to start paying my own way again – and at $55/night for a private room, as ratty as it may be, it’s a steal… 
lol, well there is always that $3.50/night place on st. catherine’s, although i have a feeling i’d demand at least hundred fold to spend a night on those premises.
do you know why it’s so cheap? cause no one made it alive through the night yet, and they take dead people’s wallets.
oh yeah, and… matisyahu!
[Pointing at poster outside the theatre] “Hey, isn’t that that guy that you listen to?”
“Um… that’s him right in front of us. Isn’t it?”
D’oh!
Oh, and I had a thought: perhaps it doesn’t *cost* $3.50/night to stay at that place… maybe that’s what they pay guests to come and stay there! Wonder if those two elderly-looking tourists decided to go in, or pass on that offer after all…