Places to Stay When You're Alone

...except I wasn't really alone, it was just the last night in London before catching mein flugzeug nach Muenchen. Given that the flight was supposed to leave at 6:20am and the gate was closing at 5:50am, I decided it would be best to sleep at the airport. Now, I was fully intending to pull an airport hobo stint and actually sleep on the terminal seats, but you know, Gatwick isn't as clean as Franz-Joseph Strauss, and I decided to book myself into one of the hotels. 

I considered going into the Sofitel (haha snort) but ended up deciding on the adventure that would be the YOtel. Upon arriving, everything seemed alright with gentle purple-tinged lighting to help ppl feel sleepy. The staff were friendly and asked if there was anything I needed - I requested a wake up call at 4:30am and was handed an alarm clock. Fair enough.

Upon arriving at my pod, I burst into laughter - the layout was...interesting. The purple lighting continued and in that small windowless pod, it made me immediately think of shooting up. I quickly had to turn on the big lights which somehow made the room seem smaller. It was about 2m x 3m? and divided by a glass wall indicating the bathroom with the bed pod built into the wall. I naturally did what we'd normally do in this situation - take photos!

 

Standing at the (closed) door looking in

 

Sitting on the loo, looking towards the bed!

Lying in bed, looking towards the door and toilet

 

Flatscreen tv at the foot of the bed! Handy! Also, take note that the walls and edges of the pod are padded to stop one from smashing themselves on it.

 

And sitting at the TV, looking towards my bags and the shower half of the bathroom.

I hope the pics give an indication of how it lived up to its tiny reputation! I probably could have touched wall to wall. That might be an exaggeration. Despite the small size, it was kinda cool and since it was only me, the lack of size wasn't so bad. I took a shower repacked my luggage, keeping my flight clothes out, hopped into bed, turned the tv on for some nightnoise, and availed myself to the free wifi. 

My sole complaint was the alarm clock didn't go off and I ended up waking at 4:50 and furiously had to get myself out in 10minutes. Would I do it again? Hell yes - it was 50 quid for 8 hours. But next time I'll bring a proper alarm with me.