Thursday, June 21, 2007

Sign of the Apocalypse #48: Retro communist chic

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As the BBC is reporting, a new hotel in Berlin, Ostel -- Das DDR Hostel, "offers guests a choice of rooms in the style of the old eastern bloc". You can even stay in the "Stasi Suite". (No word if you can pay to have Katarina Witt -- "the most beautiful face of socialism," as Time once called her -- report your reactionary capitalist goings-on to Stasi personally.)

How charming. Perfect for that totalitarian family vacation you've been planning.

And when you're done in Berlin, why not try out these related destinations:

  • Killing Fields Holiday Inn (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
  • Goebbels Third Reich B&B (Nürnberg , Germany)
  • Gulag Archipelago Fantasy Camp (Novosibirsk, Russia)
  • Il Duce Golf & Country Club (Naples, Italy)
  • Franco's Fascist Naturist Resort (Madrid, Spain)
  • Baath Bathhouse (Baghdad, Iraq)
  • Hilton Hermit Kingdom (unknown)

For more information, Google.

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Update: My tourism contact in Cambodia e-mailed me a recommendation this morning. In addition to serving a mighty fine "continental" breakfast (continent unspecified), the in-house restaurant at the K.F. Holiday Inn in Phnom Penh, the Khmer Khafé, offers a "Pol Pot Luck Special" every Saturday from 10-2. It's a variation on dim sum, with each dish served, as authenticity would seem to require, in a human skull.

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