Finding a Place to Live

Kat handled the news like a trooper, a simple "Oh no" and then a confident, "I can fix it". We began to formulate a plan, but the plan required the internet. Luckily, the Caffe Nero advertised wi-fi access. It wasn't free, but it would do in a pinch. We grabbed a seat at tightly packed table in the corner with our bags and got out her laptop. The cafe attendants weren't very friendly or much help about getting access to the web. Kat found the log-in screen and the rates, £6 for 90 minutes, and then tried to use her card. That's when we learned it was blocked. I got mine out and it worked. We were online.

Since we had limited time on the internet we decided to find a cheapest place nearby that offered free internet for one night. We figured we'd crash there with our stuff, take a shower, and then use the internet to find a better place for the rest of our stay. I assumed I had lost the deposit I had put down on the imaginary flat already, but was taking it in stride. We also knew we needed to contact Kat's credit company to get her card issue fixed and I would need to go online to complain to the FTC and PayPal about the scam and see what could be done.

I flipped through my guide book and tried to locate cheap places to stay with internet access. This is where I learned having a used guidebook from 2004 doesn't help. Many of the web-sites didn't exist anymore. The first couple we searched for didn't pan out, so Kat decided to just use her stand-by of Orbitz. Right away we found the "Lord Jim Hotel" located at Earl's Court district, just a couple stops away on the Piccadilly line. We booked it for the night, got directions, packed up, and heading back down to the tube station.

The prospect of a shower and a nap kept us going. We climbed onto the tube and headed back in the direction we had come. We got off at Earl's court and climbed to the surface. Little did we know, Earl's Court would become our favorite station. Just a couple blocks away and down a side-street we located the Lord Jim, or as we came to call it, "The internet hole". It seemed cute enough from the outside. It was in a townhouse sandwiched between virtually identical townhouses on either side stretching the full length of the street. A crowd of young travelers were gathered out in front, the first sign that this was barely more than a flop-house. Inside things look very cramped. As we waited to check-in at the lobby, kids were constantly pushing past us. I spotted a sign behind a potted plant. I brushed aside a leaf and read "This is a 2 star establishment".

When the gal at the counter finally got to us she wasn't aware of our reservation. She double-checked the printer and her email, but nothing had come through from Orbitz yet. Regardless, she was willing to give us a key and for the night. A little concerned, but too tired to care, we headed for the lift. The lift was tiny. We could barely fit the two of us with our bags in and get the door closed. I couldn't turn around with my backpack on. Kat thought the lady had said our room would be on the 3rd floor, but I stubbornly said number 26 would be on the second floor and pushed the 2 button. The ride was claustrophobic, but it wasn't much better when we got off the lift. The hallways were narrow and crowded with extra mattresses stacked standing along the walls. There wasn't enough room to walk two abreast. We searched to floor but did not find anything higher than 21.

Once again admitting my failure we returned to the tiny lift and headed up to floor 3. We found our room there. Rooms in London run on the small side, especially at hostels, B&Bs, and any other older establishments. A double is roughly the same size as a queen bed, and it is rare indeed to find a king-sized bed and suite. At B&Bs you have to make sure to get a room with a private bath, otherwise you may be using a shared one down the hall. We had booked a double with a private bath here at the Lord Jim.

When we opened the door we were very disappointed. The room was barely bigger than the bed that occupied it. The only other furniture in the room was a shelf overhanging the bed in one corner that held a cheap plastic coffee maker. Around the corner was a tall narrow door leading to what looked like a closet. The door did not open all the way, hitting the side of the bed, and led to the bathroom. It had all the necessary components: shower, sink, toilet; but it was difficult to turn around in. It was definitely not something two people could occupy at the same time. Everything appeared to be clean enough, but it was definitely lower than our expectations. They were working hard to earn those 2 stars.

We stuffed our baggage between the wall and the foot of the bed, and in front of the hall door. Kat barely got wi-fi reception from our room, but it was enough. Now we were getting hungry, but first things first Kat and I needed a shower and to find a place to live. After we took turns using the bathroom (add poor plumbing to "Lord" Jim's list of crimes) we both laid on the bed, because there was nowhere else to sit, and started looking through the list of places to sleep in my guide book and on the internet. We threw out anything that wasn't non-smoking or didn't have internet access. Our list grew smaller. We included only those that had availability for the next night and the following 9 days. Our list grew even smaller. We paired down those that cost over £150 a night. Our list became a small handful.

Rather than take a chance on getting another tiny room we decided to take our list of possibilities and visit them before deciding. Now that we had showered and had somewhere to leave our bags we felt better about exploring the city. We were also very hungry and needed to find something to eat soon. We wrote down directions to each of the places we planned to visit and headed out again. A couple of the options were near the Lord Jim in the Earl's Court district so we started there. First order of business however was to get to a pay phone and fix Kat's card problem. We found one at the end of the street, called collect to the number on the back of the card and Kat straightened everything out after a few minutes on the phone. Feeling accomplished, we moved on.

The first option looked similar to the Lord Jim from outside and we had no way to contact the owners, their offices were located elsewhere. We decided against pursuing it further and went to find "Think Apartments". Online they looked pretty modern and swanky and claimed to have a stocked kitchenette and other amenities. We were a bit skeptical, having already been burned by a similar pitch. They turned out to actually exist and the front desk clerk was very nice and walked us up to see a sample room. We were pleasantly surprised by them.

The rooms seemed to be straight out of an Ikea catalog. Everything had a slick ultra-modern look to it. There was plenty of room, and it seemed like it would do the trick very nicely. Our only concerns were that the bed was a futon and might not be the most comfortable, there seemed to be a lack of storage space, and it was a bit on the expensive side of things. We thanked the clerk and moved on to the next stop.

Next was the Copthorne Terra Hotel. We discovered that the Earl's Court station was actually a crossing point between 3 major Tube lines; Piccadilly, Circle, and District. We could easily get anywhere we wanted to go from there. That made the Think Apartments option even more tempting. We took the District line to the Copthorne Terra Hotel. This place we even more expensive, but was a full luxury hotel. It was busy with travelers so it took them awhile to get us up to see a room, but the attendant was very nice. The room we were interested in was nice and had plenty of storage space, but did not have a kitchenette and we would have to pay extra for broadband access. We asked the attendant for a suggestion on dinner nearby, because we were both starving at this point, and he pointed us down the road to the Devonshire Arms pub.

We found the pub and sat down to have dinner. We ordered bangers and mash and a beer each and discussed our options. We only had one other place we wanted to check out before deciding, but we were already heavily leaning toward the Think Apartments. Kat was exhausted, and I had twisted my ankle on a low curb just a few meters up the street and was starting to worry that I'd messed it up for the rest of the trip. The food and drink helped rejuvenate us a bit however and we decompressed over the events of the day. I apologized again for the situation and Kat graciously said it could have happened to her as well.

After dinner we went in search of the Comfort Inn at the end of the District Line near Edgware Road. This area was the seediest we had seen yet and it had begun to rain in earnest on us. We found the place on a retail strip squeezed in between what looked like a hardware store and a pharmacy. The lobby reminded me of my days working the counter at the 66 Motel. Cheap, no frills, no questions. We asked if we could see a room and the clerk told us they were all booked up for the night. I was kind of relieved as we left.

We returned to "the internet hole" and sat on the bed together to make our arrangements. We'd decided by that point to go with the Think Apartments, and I had had enough of the hole and wanted to go ahead and book for tonight as well, even if it did mean paying two places for the same night. Kat said she would be up for that, but wanted to look for deals first. Kat began to use her powers of internet deal searching. I watched in amazement as she worked. By the end she had scored us 30% off the basic rate for the next 9 nights and 10% off the rate for the current night. All told it was going to be cheaper than what I had planned to spend on the flat that didn't exist. We made two separate bookings, the best deal through ebookers.com and the single night through Think Apartments' own website just so we could avoid the issue we had at the Lord Jim with reservations not showing up in time. We packed up our belongings, I even took the toilet paper and other bathroom supplies, left a poor review, and headed downstairs to check-out. Our reservation to the Lord Jim had come through by then so they didn't give us any grief about payment.

The walk to Think Apartments was short, but in the dark and the rain. From this direction we passed a Tesco supermarket, right next to the apartments. That made it even more convenient. We checked-in with no problems and went to our room. It was a different layout than the one we had seen, but we were just so happy to not be in the hole anymore that we didn't make a fuss. We got settled in and took stock of our new home for the next few days.