All I wanted was a place to sleep

My husband and I arrived by train and discovered that the hotel room we had booked had been given to someone else. We had nowhere to stay, so we found a cheap hotel online and took a taxi there.

The hotel was difficult to find. A young man in a tracksuit came out to meet us and led us through an alley into a run down building. The elevator took us to an unfinished upper floor with bare concrete walls and exposed wiring. He guided us through a confusing hallway to a small hotel with only a few rooms.

At first I tried to ignore the poor conditions, but the room immediately made me uneasy. There was no sink, only a bed and a glass enclosure containing a toilet and shower. A small uncovered window beside the bed opened into the hallway. While the young man argued with my husband about charging more than the agreed price, I noticed that the door did not have a proper lock.

My instincts told me to leave. My husband wanted to stay because we were exhausted and the weather was cold, but I insisted. That was when the situation became frightening.

When we arrived, the building had seemed empty apart from us and the young man. As we started walking away, he followed us and begged us to stay. Then several more people appeared from rooms and passageways that we had not noticed. They followed us down the hall, shouting and pleading with us to remain. Some of them touched us as they tried to block our way.

We pushed past them and left the building. We spent the night in a busy restaurant and paid much more for a safe room elsewhere. The cost was worth it.

I never found out what the people intended to do. Perhaps they wanted our money or belongings, but the hidden building, the missing lock, and the way the group appeared from nowhere made me feel that the danger could have been much worse. I still remember the moment my instincts changed from discomfort to certainty that we had to leave.