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At the moment, #1 Fan and are I are working on planning a little trip to Hungary after a little trip to the Czech Republic at the end of June. She has already visited Prague and Budapest, so this is a revisiting for her, but a new trip for me. The one place that is new to both of us, is Sopron.       I know little about the town except what is written in my guidebook I checked out from the library that has since expired (yeah, I know you can renew online, but some other cheap bugger reserved it, so I'm losing $4 on this deal). It seems nice, quaint, and most importantly, surrounded by some of the best vineyards in Hungary and Austria. These are always the ingredients for a good trip in Europe for us. It seems that the only downside to Sopron is what appears to be mafia control of online hotel bookings.       I tried two hotels at first: Jégverem and then a few days later, Palatinus. I got a reply from Jégverem first, which was that they were full and that they could offer me another at 50€ a night, which was a wee tad expensive for a small room in a small town. Then I heard back from Palatinus which also told me that they were full, but there was this 'other' hotel that I could try for again, 50€. I didn't think anything of this until I realized that these were the same hotels I was being referred to. Looking closer, I saw that the email for them was from the same guy, Németh Kornél or more likely, Kornél Németh as the Hungarians always put the family name first.       I have no idea who this guy is, but he seemed hell-bent on having people reserve at this other hotel, which while a decent price, isn't that well priced and pretty much eliminates ones choice when booking a hotel. Now, if you actually call the hotels, things are a bit different. The first was indeed booked, but the second wasn't and we were able to book a room, although it wasn't that cheap in the end, so we canceled it in favor of another hotel that wasn't routed to the hospitality brokerage of the Németh family.       All of this makes me wonder what's going on in Sopron with hotels and how this small town manages to have a good number of its hotels managed by this one guy. I guess I will shortly be finding out what is going on, although I'm guessing we'll be too busy bouncing around the grape lands to really care in the end.

So, I stumble in to my hotel room outside of London proper to find the TV on and waiting for me. Okay, that's fine. I wasn't planning on doing much anyways. Why, there are even some choices for me. Oh. One of them is British Porn. Huh.       There are only a few things that I've seen in my life that I would tell someone that they need to see before they die. Watching British pornography would not be one of them. I don't think I need to go in to details, but teeth and super pale skin should come to mind in the list of no's as to why this is not good.       I think that the best part in all of this is that they're actually wanting to sell me on the fact that British Porn is indeed available 24 hours a day here. If I were desperate to watch porn, then I would probably take anything, including some dirtiness from the UK. But, acting as if it's some great gift to be able to access British Porn is just depressing. In fact the thought of this is so depressing that I want to go and watch some Irish Porn.

One year ago, I was in Croatia for the first time and ended up staying in the Hotel Astoria when I was in Zagreb. I stayed there for a couple of reasons. The first being that it was one of the few reasonably affordable hotels in Zagreb at the time; a real "bargain" at $95 a night. Another reason is that I really didn't know my way around Zagreb (it does have 1,000,000 people in it after all.) And lastly, it was pretty darn close to the train station.       Naturally, once we got there, we were gravely disappointed. The hotel claimed ot be a three star, but in reality it was a two. The room we were in was pretty dingy, yet functional. The shower was really hot, which was a nice change after the pension we were in in Opatija. It was definitely close to the train station and we were apparently lucky to get a room at all, seeing as how it was the day before Easter Sunday when we rolled in to town. But still, it was a dump and I wasn't pleased with it at all, especially for the price.       Fast forward to the current day and you'll find that Hotel Astoria was bought out by the Best Western Hotel chain. This brought with it many changes, including a complete and utter remodel a few months after I was there the first time. You wouldn't recognize the hotel anymore from the old one. The floorplan is still the same, since I think it was built out of massive conrete Socialist slabs, but everything has been replaced. What was once an aging down in the dumps place to crash for a night or two has become a very luxurious three or three and a half star hotel. It's all very fancy with card readers for the doors, motion detectors for the lights, a new elevator, and countless other improvements.       As for ammenities, the Chinese restaurant that was in the Lobby floor is gone. They took over that space and put out a hell of a spread for breakfast (which is included in the room fee.) There is also internet available. It seems expensive at first, but if you work it out, it will cost you maybe two or three more dollars an hour than one of the cafes, but it's worth it since you can always use it and it's right there in hotel with you.       Overall, it was a massively welcome change. Naturally, the prices went up a little, but only $20 a night compared to what we spent before (Zagreb is not a cheap place to stay in general.) I expect the prices to go up a bit more in the future because this is a really nice place now and it's in a very strategic area. While not right in the center of town, it's only a ten minute walk from everything.       I might want to mention that with the changes came some side effects. One is that the carpets haven't finished "out-gassing" and you'll smell that strong and horrible new carpet smell for awhile yet. I'm sure that will go away, so if you're reading this six months from when I wrote this, please disregard. The other item is that the staff is still learning the systems to some degree. This will go away with time as well I'm sure, but it had the funny result for us of going in to what was supposed to be our room and finding it not finished being built. No one had notated this in the computer, but luckily there was a spare room that happened to be on the top floor.       There are some places that are cheaper in Zagreb, but overall this is a pretty smashing deal right now. Just watch out for the motion detectors in the bathroom. When you're taking a shower, they get fogged over and sense there is no one in the room. You basically need to rub the little buggers with your fingers to get them to come back on.

The English language has developed quite a lot over the last thousand years or so, only to come to one word which describes the Regent Palace Hotel in London on Glass House Street and that word is "shithole". Essentially, the only resaon to stay in this hotel is due to its proximity to everything that is for the tourist in London. It is literally right on Picadilly Circus, which is good and bad. It's good because there are countless theatres, museums, and sights within a ten minute walk. It's bad because Picadilly is freakin' noisy. It's also bad because the Picadilly Tube is probably one of the most popular and you're going to be jostling your way through a lot of folks to get in and out of the tube.       Now, the rooms seem to run from sorta decent to downright crap. My first room was of the later. If you stepped certain places in the shower, this black stuff would flake out of it. Also the shower, toilet and what they call a "private bath" is something of a joke since it is the size of an airplane bathroom and has literally been wedged in to the room.       After complete fear of our first room (we didn't even want to take off our shoes) we asked if we could be moved. It turns out of you ask for something quiet on one of the higher floors, it gets a little better, but only slighty. The rooms are still pretty grungy, although by European standards I suppose they're liveable, especially since you won't be spending much time in them as I'd assume you'd be bopping around London. The sheets are clean, but the covers are worn and funky to say the least.       Overall, I'd say this is the place you want to stay if you're looking for something somewhat affordable (which there really isn't in London), want to be near the center of town, and don't mind the experience of riding in an elevator that feels like being in a milk carton bouncing down an aluminum roof gutter. If you want something more quiet, cleaner and better for your money, stay out in Notting Hill. If you do insist on staying at this dump, as for a room in the "Well Area". Those are apparently the better rooms, but that is a relative thing.