The prostitute's. Actually, he might just have been an enterprising member of the hotel staff, but I'd certainly seen him around making advances to other patrons and he was certainly asking her for money. She rang me up in tears on the internal phone saying 'Come down and tell him in Russian I can't go through with this because of his pants'.
Thankfully, I didn't see the pants as he'd put his trousers back on by the time I got there, but he was still asking for money whilst my friend said helpful things like 'Tell him they have STAINS and HOLES in!'. Not remembering the word for stain in Russian and not wishing to get into a discussion of holes, I ended up saying 'She doesn't want to, she doesn't want to,' in a progressively louder and more desperate tone of voice before hitting on 'I will call the dezhurnaya' which worked.
The dezhurnaya being the lady who used to sit at a desk at each floor of a Russian hotel and take your keys. I have no idea whether they have them any more.
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Date: 2005-02-25 05:39 am (UTC)Thankfully, I didn't see the pants as he'd put his trousers back on by the time I got there, but he was still asking for money whilst my friend said helpful things like 'Tell him they have STAINS and HOLES in!'. Not remembering the word for stain in Russian and not wishing to get into a discussion of holes, I ended up saying 'She doesn't want to, she doesn't want to,' in a progressively louder and more desperate tone of voice before hitting on 'I will call the dezhurnaya' which worked.
The dezhurnaya being the lady who used to sit at a desk at each floor of a Russian hotel and take your keys. I have no idea whether they have them any more.
Improbable as it sounds, all of this is true.