Flight out - the Generator hostel London

Getting up at 3:30 am to drive to JFK for our 7am flight to London was no less than brutal. It was mostly a blur until the airline counter person at JFK, who spoke with a thick islands accent, informed us we would have to break our luggage up from our original 6 compact pieces to 9 disorganized and completely random pieces due to weight and other insane beuracratic restrictions. Basically it was the same weight and volume but split into smaller pieces. The logic of it all escaped us completely (not hard to believe at 5am) and Dave was able to summon his hawdline powers of 'get shit done' to produce an extra bag out of thin air. Flying into London from NYC is kind of like being shot from a spring loaded cannon, there's a real long wait as you get shot out into the London underground (or the tube) and it is insane for first timers like me. The flight was uneventful and we thought that we were within reach of setting a record for getting into our hostel and settled before 9pm in London. That record went down in dissapointing flames when the Piccadilly line came to a depressing grinding halt and some woman started speaking in tounges over the PA system about severed limbs on the track ahead. The underground emptied onto the street and we hailed a cab to get us to the Generator Hostel. Wow. It's as if someone saw a need and tried to fill it by converting a minimum security correctional facility into a hostel, bar and cafe. The floors are sticky, the bunkbeds are suspect, and we were completely thrilled to be sitting in an industrial neon themed bar having delicious (real) Bass beer and plotting our overthrow of the London music scene.The hostel is located in the Russel Square district of London - sort of residential. The reason I can tell is that the russian proprietor is running around in a mock whisper/scream telling people not to smoke, not to be noisy and to keep the luggage off the cobblestones.