Total Chaos

I awoke at 4:30 AM. The smoke detector in my room seemed to be malfunctioning. It was a beep every 5 minutes and I thought the battery may need changing. I tried to turn the lights on in order to find my clothes and get dressed, however, no lights came on. I was going to tell them the battery required changing.

After a few minutes, I finally found some jeans on the floor and was putting them on as the detector started to completely wail. "Fuck if this is a fire drill, I will not be happy" was my thoughts. I grabbed my laptop and phone and threw it in my backpack to take with me as I wasn't going to leave it in my room for someone to steal when they were checking.

I opened my door and as I was about to walk out checked to see if I had my wallet. It wasn't in the pocket of my jeans. I went back inside but looking for a black wallet in complete darkness is impossible. I felt around on the desk and couldn't feel it. I looked around the dim light from the hotel door and could see nothing. I decided to use the light from my phone screen to scan the room.

I saw it sitting on the table next to the bed and quickly grabbed it then headed out of the room. As I walked out of the room there was water dripping from the ceiling in the hallway. It was early and I was still under the influence of the beer from the night before, so I assumed some idiot smoked in their room and set of the detectors or something similar.

Some guy in the hallway was going back to his room and spoke to a few of us in the hallway. He said "There's a water leak and if it doesn't affect you, just go back to your room." My room wasn't leaking but the water outside my door concerned me so I decided to go downstairs and see what was going on.

The lift obviously wasn't going to work, so I headed down the nearest staircase. I descended the 2 flights of stairs and when I reached the lobby, I found hundreds of people milling around. There was no information but both receptionists were busy on the phone. I went into the bar area and it was full of people. I got in a line of people to get some orange juice.

I turned away and a young couple told me my bag was open. I closed my backpack and headed outside for a cigarette. There were people talking but it was in dutch and I couldn't understand it, so listening to their conversations didn't help the situation. I went back inside and took a seat at the computer terminals in the lobby. I saw some people coming down with all their luggage. "Fuck, what's going on?" I thought.

Water started leaking through the lobby ceiling and one of the receptionists placed some waste bins underneath the drips. "It had been raining, so maybe the rain was coming through.. that must be the problem", I started to think. I sat a few minutes then something urged me to go upstairs and check my room. I headed up the stairs and was shocked by what I found. The floor outside my room was a puddle. The water was now streaming out like a tap.

A woman saw me approaching my room and told me I should go downstairs. I said "That's my room, my stuff is inside, it's dark and I can't see anything in order to pack". She apologised for whatever was happening and told me to do what i could. She apologised again because she couldn't stay and had to help other people.

I said, "that's fine" and went in the room. I put the chair against the door to use the little light from the hallway to try and pack my things. Water was dripping on me from various points in the ceiling. Some of my clothes were soaking wet. The desk where I had my laptop was covered in water. I went to collect my toiletries bag from the bathroom and it was completely soaked. I couldn't see it but I could hear and feel the water coming down the walls like a gentle waterfall.

I started to sweat as I was trying to locate and pack everything. There was no air conditioning and it was like a sauna. I just through everything into my pack as best i could. It was hard to close. I struggled with it for about 10 minutes, then finally got the zippers done up. I am sure I got everything that mattered. Anything left behind was inconsequential. I headed back downstairs and there now appeared to be a line of people at reception.

I lined up with all my luggage. I didn't want to put it down as I couldn't lock it because it was very loosely closed as it was. I waited in line and listened to a lot of people who were unaffected wasting time by complaining about the lack of information or asking when the alarms would be turned off, only to be told simply and repeatedly by the staff "If you are not affected, please step aside and let those actually affected be dealt with".

The problem with situations like this is everybody has an opinion or wants to feel important by having some input. The problem with that is they don't help the situation being resolved. They just get in the way and add further stress to those who are actually impacted by the event. You know who you are... you are the people that just want be angry or complain about minor things when people with real problems are trying to reach a resolution.

There were 2 people in front of me, when all of a sudden the power went out. At this point I wasn't sure I was ever going to see a resolution. The female receptionist started to move and as I didn't want to be behind another long queue I anticipated her move and left the line. She was stopped by another person wanting to offer advice and informed her she wasn't affected and to go back to her room. I saw her intentions and pushed through some people (who hadn't anticipated the line was shifting) to be at the front when she stood behind a counter in the cafe.

She asked me what room I was in and I handed her my key. "Is your room affected?" she asked. I said, "It is like a swimming pool". She told me I was being moved to another hotel and there is a taxi out the front waiting.

I thanked her and as I headed outside a taxi driver met me in the doorway. He took me to the new hotel  free of charge and on the way, we talked about the events a little. I mentioned that the people complaining to the staff only made matters worse. It's true...! A water mains bursting is nobody's fault. These things happen. IIt happened and no amount of whining and complaining will ever change that fact. Do these people think that if they complain enough time will suddenly turn back and their complaints will seal the leak?

I heard one girl who was told she had a room at the new hotel complain that it was too far from where she wanted to be. I wanted to slap her and say "Bitch, give me your room and you can sleep in a boat on the canal, is that close enough for you?" I wish her all the best but she should start to think beyond herself. I thought the staff handled the situation fairly well. The staff didn't really know how widespread the impact was until everything was inspected and couldn't give anyone much information.

I arrived at the hotel. It was about 6:00 AM. There were a few others waiting at the reception. It was a slightly slow process for some reason. They weren't doing a full check in process, but still it took a long time. There were people wandering around complaining that they couldn't find their room. I felt a bit 'astonished' by their display of ingratitude.

Anyway it came time for me to check in. I spoke a little with the receptionist and the guy next to me in line about what happened. The receptionist said "Check out is at 12:00 PM tomorrow but call reception to find out what is happening". I said "I highly doubt we will be returning, there was a lot of water." Some general hat followed and he gave me my key and told me "Go left and take the elevator down 1 floor".

I wondered around the corridor and reached the elevator well. A woman was sitting on the stairs. She asked if I was looking for the rooms too. I said "Yes". As I approached a set of lifts she told me "They only go up". She was right. We looked around confused for a bit and discussed the dilemma. I asked her if she was American. She replied "South African". She was black but didn't have any accent. She said, "Let me guess, Australian". I said "Yes".

We tried to figure things out together for awhile and then someone came and we found a staircase at the end of along hall of rooms. Our rooms were down there. The woman found her room but the numbers went up in 2's. She was in room 19 and I was in room 20. Me and an Irish guy wondered around and found another hall where the numbers went up in 2's again only this time with even numbers.

I went in the room, it was huge. It was like an apartment. I got myself set up then went for a cigarette.  On my way out the front of the hotel, I ran into the South African woman again. She was dragging a suitcase behind her and asked if I had found the 'mystery lift' because she had a heavy suitcase. I said "No, but let me help you". I took her suitcase down to her room and we chatted some more. She was showing a film in Amsterdam. I guess she is some kind of filmmaker. I was tired and needed a cigarette, s I didn't have time for too much conversation, but said "I guess I will see you tomorrow or something", then headed outside for a cigarette.

It was now about 6:30 AM and I really couldn't sleep. I hung all the clothes that got wet on various benches and furniture to dry and logged onto the WiFi. At about 7:00 Am I finally got tired again and went back to sleep.