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The main reason for staying in hostels is supposedly financial, but that’s not quite true. Among other things—as shown in the featured photo—I’ve seen the funniest signs in hostels.
First of all, it’s worth noting that some hostels offer single and double rooms, which—even if they don’t always have private bathrooms—can be better than many hotels or apartments. I’ve chosen this option several times, even when traveling with others. For example, at a beautiful hostel overlooking Lake Bohinj and nestled beneath the peaks of Triglav National Park in Slovenia.
So, the real inconvenience may not be so much sleeping in hostels as it is sharing a dorm room. But for certain very expensive destinations, like Canada and Australia, I’ve had to adapt even recently. Even though, at my age, I need my own space much more than I did when I was younger.
Hostels these days aren’t the shacks that some people imagine. They’re often modern and highly functional. They frequently have great common areas where you can prepare your own meals or meet interesting people.
In my early years as a traveler, I always stayed in dorm rooms. It’s become harder and harder to meet people, partly because everyone is always so busy looking at their cell phones.
But also because these days, in hostels, I could be the father of almost everyone there. In fact, in Banff, Canada, while I was doing a paper Sudoku puzzle sitting in the common area, the guy sitting next to me on the couch—thinking he was being funny—said to me, “My grandma does that all the time, too.”
Staying in hostels leads to lots of new acquaintances
Especially during my first trip—a solo Interrail journey in September 1996—I met so many wonderful people at hostels. The world was opening up to me, and as a kid from the provinces, I was curious to meet people from all over the world. Now I’m much less so; I mostly mind my own business, and that’s pretty common these days. I remember this American woman who insisted that pizza had been invented in the United States. Her reasoning was that since it tasted so good, it had to have been invented in her country. Nowadays, I could do without ever having met her, whereas back then I was excited by everything.
How could I ever forget my roommate in Inverness, Scotland? Thinking I was asleep, she changed her underwear right in front of me.
In Dublin, no underwear—just romantic kisses on the bridge over the River Liffey, so often mentioned in songs and poems. Too bad she talked all evening about her boyfriend in the U.S., and the next morning she disappeared without even saying goodbye.
Another river that has stayed in my heart is the Clyde in Glasgow. I was recruited and placed in a multiethnic group: a German, a Frenchman, and a Swiss guy. We went to an amazing dance party at a dance hall set up on the river, where the Scots—all strictly in kilts—even got us, the only foreigners there, involved in fun group dances.
In Jerusalem, I found myself at another party—yet another multicultural one—and this time, in addition to the usual German guy, there was also someone from New York and a woman from Colombia. It was one of the most fun New Year’s Eves of my life, and I celebrated it in the hostel’s packed bar.
Sleep Problems in Hostels
I can’t deny that, especially in the past, I’ve had a few negative—or nearly negative—experiences. On one of my first trips, in Rotterdam, I remember staying in a large room with 18 bunk beds. Obviously, even though not all of them were occupied, the situation wasn’t very sanitary.
In New York, I’ve always slept terribly, even when I had a private room. But I remember my first time there as a nightmare: a crowded, sweltering room with a fan blowing an annoying gust of air along with an eerie squeak—it was impossible to sleep.
In hostels, you sometimes find workers staying there—perhaps people who’ve just arrived in the city—and they may be less willing to share the limited space with others. For example, in Cairns, Australia, in a six-person room, two people had scattered their belongings all over the floor. Different schedules (even among travelers) often cause problems. In that case, I left very early in the morning; the others were still asleep, the light was dim, and to get out of the room I had to step over their clothes.
One night in Milan, my roommates took turns keeping me awake.
- First, there was a Chinese woman who wouldn’t turn off her laptop (you always have to wear a mask to cover your eyes—and your ears, too!)
- A French man was snoring really loudly; he woke me up for the first time
- Another Italian guy woke me up because the guy who was snoring was complaining
- The Frenchman had left, but now it was the Italian who was snoring
It happened that I was the one causing the trouble. I arrived in Copenhagen with a bad flu, and I think I snored really loudly the first night—so much so that during the remaining two nights at that lodging, without saying a word to me, the front desk staff moved the other guests to another room.
The Most Memorable Hostels
At both of the hostels I consider my most memorable, I didn’t get a wink of sleep, but I rank them that way for very different reasons.
In Ottawa, Canada, I was in a picturesque and well-organized former prison. I had a strange feeling. Maybe I was influenced by the stories that said it was haunted by ghosts—former convicts.
In Dubai, I couldn’t sleep because of the noise and smells in the crowded room; I didn’t even think about going into the bathroom, but the most unforgettable part was the front desk. When I arrived, around noon, I barely managed to figure out who I could consider the assistant to the hotel manager. The first one was sprawled out on one of the beds playing with his phone, while the second was sleeping in the bed next to him and wouldn’t wake up. It took me a while to figure this out; in the meantime, I waited a long time in my room (on another floor) for them to bring me the change from when I’d paid.
Links
In this list, you can learn more about some of the anecdotes mentioned:
This more institutional website also contains some equally interesting examples. Finally, here are the links to the general topics under which I’ve grouped the articles
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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