No pain (au chocolat)

View in cracked mirror

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did stay at the Mirabeau hotel, Brussels, in January 2013. The hotel is located in a sort of gay Arabic district on the grimy boulevard to the Gare Midi, though next to the tram stop; in all a location probably not recommended for those of nervous disposition. Presenting my booking, the clerk gave no signs of recognising it, and asked for payment in advance, though he did take a credit card. I climbed the steps to the fifth floor, rather a mistake since the intermediate floors seemed under construction with wires hanging from the walls and lights in the very narrow stairwells going on and off intermittently. The room itself was small but acceptable, and appeared recently refurbished, though the mirror had a long crack, and the flush required judicious fiddling with the cracked button-panel to stop it running continuously.
There was no bath but the shower worked. The TV channels were all in foreign languages; the beer glasses were a thin plastic. The room was not very warm, though the heating was set to maximum; there was snow on the ground outside, which may explain this. I was woken at 4am by drunken people shouting from the street below, shortly followed by rubbish collecting vans, and did not get much more sleep. Descending for breakfast I found that the elevator did in fact work, it was just that the summoning light did not illuminate. For breakfast there was self-service with several pieces of not terribly fresh bread, one type of cheese and small packages of jam, with coffee and tea. There were no croissants or pain au chocolats. But for that, I would stay again, at least during the financial crisis.