I was trying to sleep in the Goodbye Lenin Hostel in Zakopane, Poland. Earlier that day, the owner of the place offerered me drugs and got angry with me when I refused. Another guest came into the room, and started shouting at the top of his voice. This was nearly midnight. I told him to be quiet, but he shouted abuse at me. I walked away to complain to the staff, but for no reason, three members of staff pushed me to the ground, and punched me several times in the face. They then told me to leave. When I asked them why, they said I was "attacking anothern guest" which was totally untrue because I was walking away from the person. I complained to the police, but because they spoke bad english, I couldn't get my point across, and eventually gave up and dropped the charges. I'm wondering how to warn other travellers to STAY AWAY from that hostel. This I have written accounts on Tripadvisor, and hostelworld, but I'm wondering whate else to go to warn travellers of this place.
2007-07-26 12:05:02 · 9 answers · asked by jmtredford 1 in Travel ➔ Europe (Continental) ➔ Poland
You could see if its on Holiday Truths.
What about TV like Holidays from hell, or Watchdog|?
2007-07-27 02:11:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Was in Zakopane earlier this year. Sorry your stay wasn't a better one. Not sure if you are taking the p*** or not as Zakopane is of course near the border with Slovakia (the Hostel movies). We didn't have any problems when we were there. We stayed in the Orla Perc hotel Poland is quite inexpensive just now & we got a quality room for very little money, so where you just being mean staying in a hostel?
2007-08-01 17:26:27 · answer #2 · answered by Jock 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, feeling sorry for your experience there it is still difficult to believe you. It's rather daft stupid for someone owning a hostel with interesting name and located in such crowded place as Zakopane to beat anyone up, especially sb from abroad. Seems that everyone there just wanted to hurt you for no reason which is hardly believable.
It's more believable that you were involved in a fight with another guest and the staff couldn't find any other way of sorting it out. You do hear about drunk foreigners making trouble on national telly. Or perhaps you were beaten up by some Polish drunks, which also sounds very probable, but you've mistakenly taken them for staff members.
Leaving alone the credibility of your account, you should contact your embassy as soon as possible and ask them for help in arranging everything i.e. translator, lawyer, right medical treatment.
2007-07-26 20:11:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Contact the nearest US Consular office, located in Krakow, the same region of Poland (Malapolskie) in which Zakopane is located.
There is only one embassy of the US in Poland and that's in Warsaw---hundreds of miles away.
Make sure you have these things when you contact them:
Your passport and ID; the name of the hostel in which you stayed; the names of the people with whom you had a problem.
Also, try contacting locally this entity:
PTTK, the Polish National Tourist Agency; some offices are located in area hotels
The website of the US consular office is here:
http://krakow.usconsulate.gov/
their phone number is:
(48) 22-405- 2784 from 8-4 pm or ask for the duty officer, after hours, at (48) 22-504-2000.
Good luck!
2007-07-30 17:20:28 · answer #4 · answered by bookratt 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this is an unfortunate situation. posting online reviews to warn travellers is about all you can do; taking legal action is pretty much impossible. obviously if drugs were mentioned, offered for sale, etc, you have a reason as to why someone went berzerk. zakopane like all cities has a dark underbelly, so it's not surprising. this type of thing is exactly what they warn people about when they stay in hostels !
2007-07-27 14:11:34 · answer #5 · answered by discoballz82 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they are in any guide books or they are listed with any organizations I would contact them and file an official complaint. Maybe someone will then check them out. Maybe it was better that you got "kicked out" as if someone local complained of the drug problem you could have been blamed and would be sitting somewhere awaiting your trial. The embassy is always a good place to start if you are where you don't speak the language.
2007-07-26 22:53:16 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dame that's a very bad experience to go thro, id say warn all travel agent of this hotel and show them proof if you can or contact the British embassy and explain to them that the police did not help you because there excuse was there English was bad, considering there was drugs at this hotel and the police did nothing and u getting assaulted is totally disregard for ur safety as a holiday maker.
good luck..
2007-07-26 19:14:09 · answer #7 · answered by glen w 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It sounds to me like maybe instead of checking into a Hostel, you mistakenly checked into a Hostile! :]
Oh those subtle differences in language. As they say, the devil is in the details...
2007-08-01 08:45:36 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would go to the embassy and get the incident looked at again.
you could try writing to every tour company who uses that hotel. I'm sure that they wouldn't want to send guests to an unsafe venue.
2007-07-26 19:10:13 · answer #9 · answered by val f1 nutter 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋