About eight months ago I wrote a blog entitled “Things I’ve I learned About Hostels. Part One” in which I described all the things that can and probably will occur when you resign yourself to life on the road and inevitably, the hostel life – the good, the bad and the downright disgustingly ugly. Having stayed in my fair share of hostels over the years and after staying in a great deal all over Australia recently, I can happily say I have conjured up another list of findings for your entertainment. Enjoy!
7) People will partake in extra-curricular sexual activities, in your room, while you sleep…or even when you’re not asleep. Buy a decent set of earplugs and try not to be too prudish. People have sex. I’ve had sex in hostels before; it’s fun…for you…but not so much the other people in your room, lolz. This is just a fact of travelling. As long as the individuals involved don’t like to think of themselves as the Ron Jeremys of the ‘backpacking sexual encounters’ world then the noise levels are usually bearable…just.
8) Groups of non-speaking English friends who are travelling together will speak in their own language for the majority of the time. Unless you interject and attempt to make friends with a group of French or German or Dutch people then be prepared to feel slightly left out. Do not be afraid to speak to them in English though; put yourself out there! Most of the time, these people will be glad to interact with you and will be grateful of the chance to practice the English language with a native English speaker.
9) You will make friends with people from all over the globe, and their stories, their backgrounds, their cultures, will fascinate and interest you; changing or altering your way of looking at the world will enrich your life with knowledge that can’t be taught in the classroom. I tend to shy away from the groups of British backpackers when I’m travelling, not because I don’t like Brits (of course I do, we’re the best, lol) but because I’m TRAVELLING. If I wanted to mix with British people all the time I may as well have stayed in the UK. I love having so many like-minded friends scattered all over the globe: a) you never know when they may come in handy for a bed to sleep in or a restaurant recommendation should you find yourself in their home town, and b) sometimes you feel you have more in common with a 31 year old Argentinian from Buenos Aires than you do with your mates back home.
10) Hostel staff can be the friendliest people one minute, full of vim and vigour and often too much enthusiasm for the task in hand, but then the least attentive, grumpy and downright unapproachable the next. I’ve found that more often than not the size of the hostel reflects the attitude of the staff. I’ve come across hostel staff before who seem more interested in chatting to their colleagues than they do about checking you in or dealing with the bog roll shortage situation that’s been frustrating you for three days. As I mentioned in Part One of this series – the smaller the hostel, the better. Usually 🙂
11) Some hostels will advertise nights out, parties, drinking games, tours etc etc. The majority of these are great; great for info and for meeting people, but they are also designed to keep you at the hostel, in their bar, spending money. They will also have partner bars and sister hostels that will be the places advertised on the ‘best pub crawl in town’ posters. These are not the best venues to visit. Believe me. My advice once you’ve made friends or are content to go it alone would be to get out of the hostel and go find your own special little places, whether that be a café down a side street or a bar full of locals – go and experience the ‘real’ town/city you’re staying in. You’ll thank me for it later.
12) If like me, you’re a music snob, or what I would like to refer to myself as – a music fascist, the music played around the hostel pool, in the bar, and blaring out of someone’s speakers in your tiny six-bed dorm will not always be to your liking. Try not to let this affect your mood (as it has with me on several occasions), not everyone has the same impeccable taste as you, and unfortunately, not everyone likes One Direction (sacrilege).
13) People will leave their shit all over the floor of your dorm room. If you have a mischievous sense of humour and begin to get pissed off with not being able to see the carpet anymore, play a little joke on your roommates and hide their shoes. Hours of entertainment and hopefully it will teach them to organise their crap better. Teehee (never steal though – that’s just low).
14) If you’re a bookish type and still enjoy turning an actual page in an actual real life book, then hostels are great places to pick up unwanted pieces of literature. Granted, you might end up reading some amount of God awful pish but book exchanges are brilliant for skint travellers who want to unload some of that backpack weight and expand their literary minds.
15) Sometimes travelling can take its toll. Tiredness will creep in and occasionally you’ll just want to be left alone: to sleep, to read, to listen to music; to just sit in silence with a cup of coffee watching the world go by. This isn’t always possible in a hostel environment. If you can’t get a moments peace in your room or in the common area, go find it elsewhere – make time for yourself. Alone time is just as important as socialising when you are hostelling.
16) In some larger hostels, the amount of people can be a little overwhelming. Don’t expect anyone to make eye contact with you in the corridors unless you make the first move and force your irresistible smile upon their very being. If you’re an outgoing and amiable person then smiling is something that comes naturally. I was raised with the ethic that on walking down a street, whether it be to go to the local shop, or take your dog for a stroll, you wish strangers and other people a good day. It’s polite. It’s nice. Do this in some hostels and people stare at you like you’ve just sprouted a second head! What happened to the art of communication, eye contact and body language? Over the last ten or so years since I started travelling, this is the biggest change I’ve noticed. Or maybe it’s just the hostels in Australia, or the sheer size of some hostels. I know for a fact though, I spoke to and smiled at many more people in Europe, China and Indonesia than I have done in hostels in Oz.
17) While we’re on the subject of Australian hostels, they do seem different to European hostels; not all hostels in Australia, but certainly some of the ones I’ve stayed in recently have lacked a good ‘vibe’. I don’t know whether it’s the lack of atmosphere, the vast variety of people/personalities, the size, the fact Australia is an English speaking country where everything is so much more accessible and easy to deal with than in non-English speaking countries, my age (gulp, haha); but somehow they just seem different. Or perhaps it’s just a shift in times.
18) Unless you’re super-confident, have no trouble with being alone, or are travelling in a group, backpacking and hostelling can be a daunting prospect. If you find yourself struggling to connect with anyone in your hostel and can’t find a friend to hang out with; if it feels like your room is deserted and the apocalypse has already begun either move hostels (it’s not hard), or go to the place where all people these days flock to – the free wifi area!! EVERYONE and their mothers will be there, zombie-fied and bleary eyed. No-one will talk to you like, but at least you won’t be alone ;P
Chasing Amy-Lou 