Harrowing Hotel & Dinner Disaster

Okay, okay, so it hasn't all been great. When I checked into the Hilton at the Mexico City Airport, it was the perfect location. Right by International Departures, beautiful lobby, and I had already pre-paid for my room, so ahhhhh... nothing to do but sit and relax, right?

Well, when I got into my room yesterday I immediately noticed a strange smell. After a couple of minutes I didn't notice it again, so I didn't say anything to the front desk. Plus, I was totally exhausted and Ted was with me and he was leaving in an hour and I didn't want to spend that hour complaining. And after he left I just wanted to go to bed.

Anyways, when I got back to my hotel room this evening after my day tour, I couldn't get in. My key card didn't work anymore. I went up to the front desk and they said that it would take a few minutes to fix. The concierge let me into my room with his own key, but I quickly remembered that the key card actvates the lights in the room and I didn't really want to sit in the dark. So I told the front desk that I would be in the business center and they said that when the key was ready they would come and bring it to me there.

The business center is located right by the front desk. I sat in there for AN HOUR writing emails and the like, waiting for my bloody room key. Finally, the concierge brought it to me. I finished what I was doing and headed down to my room. Nope, this key card didn't work either. GREAT. Back to the lobby I go.

I see the concierge, tell him, and he tells me to please speak to the front desk. Well I would love to but now they are helping multiple customers and nobody has time to acknowledge me. I am just tired and hungry and I want to get into my room, for crying out loud! So I wait and wait and wait. Finally, they talk to me and I get my new card in about 20 seconds. Why have I been waiting for an hour and 20 minutes?

I get into my room. Oh, RIGHT. The SMELL. It's even worse and now I am choked enough to say something about it. Turns out that it's coming from the floor drain beside the toilet, which housekeeping has now covered with a wet towel. Yuck. I figure that for my last night in Mexico City, I will take myself out for a nice dinner (there are several nice resturants nearby) and even though I am not keen on eating alone, it sure beats hanging out in my smelly room!

So I stop by the front desk. I tell them about the smell. They want to change my room, but I don't want to since it will mean a lot of hassle and I am checking out at 4am anyways - that's only a couple of hours from now. They know I am unhappy and they are duly apologetic. To be fair, the front desk staff and concierge have been pretty great. It's all the rest of it I am not pleased about. I would have expected a discount on my room for all the trouble but since I prepaid that's not likely.

Anyways, so off I go to find some dinner. I settle on Casa Avila, a nice looking if-slightly-fancy-for-my-taste kind of place. I do a quick check on the menu to make sure I will actually eat something and in I go. I am almost happy to see that there's no-one else in there, so I feel less dumb eating alone.

The waiter asks me what I'd like to drink. Well, that's what he means anyways - his English isn't super great. I want some juice, they don't have any. He keeps suggesting all these alcoholic drinks, but I'm not interested. Finally he suggests lemonade, or so I thought. What actually came is the bitterest carbonated lime drink that I have ever tasted. It was so bitter that I actually winced. Convinced that trying to explain what was wrong would get me nowhere, I said nothing. I settled for the bitter drink. I would survive.

I ask about the Casa Avila salad. I ask what's in it and I specifically ask if there's meat in it. He says no. Sounds great - bring it on. In the meantime he brings out bread and sliced radishes.

While I wait for my salad, I try some bread (pretty good) and some radishes. I had imagined that the radishes would be cool & fresh with a bit of a kick, like they are at home. But these were just covered with salt. More wincing. More bitter drink to wash it down. More wincing.

So now a family of 5 comes into the restaurant, which is fine except that they could have sat anywhere but choose to be only 2 tables away from me so that their kids can stare at me wondering why I am sitting there by myself. It got even better when the father went ballistic and started yelling. Now they are staring at me because they are embarrassed about the scene their father is making. Get me out of here!

Salad comes. Initially it looks great - has endive, mango, avocado, tomato, and ... what's this? Crabmeat? That definitely qualifies as meat in my books. Oh well - it's not like I am vegetarian, I just won't eat the crab. No big deal.

I start into the salad and soon realize that it's drenched, no, DROWNED in salad dressing. It's so bad that I put my spoon under the edge of my plate so that I can get most of it to pool on one side of my plate (the side where I have put my crab). I actually want a paper towel to pat down the greens so I can have an easier time of choking them down, but why bother when I can just wash it down with this bitter carbonated lime drink?

I do my best with the salad. I decide that before I head back up to my room I am going to have some dessert. I saw chocolate mousse on the menu and that's what I want, please. Who cares if it was listed under the "low-calorie" part of the menu? How can they possibly screw up chocolate mousse?

By adding coffee. I don't drink coffee, never have, and generally abhor coffee-flavoured items (aside from an occasional Coffee Crisp, that is). So yes, the menu failed to mention that it was coffee/chocolate mousse, and here I am stuck with yet another consumable that I don't want.

Anyways. I paid. I tipped (it's not their fault they didn't quite have the English down, and they can't read my mind!). And I got the heck out of there. Now I am going to bed in my smelly room and will be home in a few short hours to a place that is all sorts of welcoming!!