Try to check this bathroom out. The toilet sits right against the shower. Whole deal is about 3x3 ft. And the smell emanating from this room is ugly. It could be a sulfur smell...but I think not.

And I have been reminded of Alex's cataloguing of all the bathrooms and their flush mechanisms throughout the Netherlands these past two weeks. I know which places have almost clean or almost normal toilets. Most are squat over the hole types but today I used a really, really disgusting one at a media company. It was so smelly and wet and filthy that I almost slipped and fell on my butt and today, I had a suit on. My shoes slipped out from under me as I did my duty....really really really nasty. Had to laugh and Nigina, the Embassy contact and I just laughed...she couldn't believe I used it. Had to GO!

And did I mention, the hotel has a gym and supposedly a bar? NO bar but there is a gym but one cannot find it and I just heard about it today...my last day here. Basic but would have been nice.

The bed is a queen sized one...very nice except the duvet is a single with a queen bedspread. So, all night, one is fighting with the duvet trying to keep covered and the bedspread is a shiny gold thing that moves on its own. It is slippery so the nighttime antics would be worthy of a movie...Drew and I wondered what one does if two people have to sleep in one bed here? Maybe they give two duvets??

I have very much enjoyed the international flavor at this hotel...everyone here is from some other country. This morning at breakfast there was a woman from the Czech Republic, a man from India, an Iranian-American; an man from London; a guy from Germany and me....quite an interesting group to form a conversation.

Not much else to say...had fun paying my hotel bill. I was paid my travel advance in Euros and the hotel didn't have change. So, I paid partly in Euros and in dollars and then changed my Somoni into dollars. Fortunately, Drew had dollars so he took 500 Euros and gave me dollars so I could pay everything...couldn't have withdrawn enough from the ATM in one day to pay the bill which was very reasonable...only $80 per night. Next time, I want to go to a hotel that has real internet access. I have the feeling we are using some sort of dial up...it is soooo slow.

Going home in the early morning. See many of you soon.