im in a hostel

it is too warm for some reason

What are they like? Is it tons of beds in one room?

there is two ppl asleep. im pretty tired, i just want my washing to be done.

where is it?

the hostel I mean

today i hitchhiked from saskatoon to edmonton. i got a ride w/ a cowboy and a guy who was making up his mind abt whether to join the army or move to toronto and live in his car and becomea stunt man. I have his email address.

he got the toronto idea from me!

he said hollywood but i said im pretty sure they shoot a lot of movies in toronto and im p. sure he was srs

I lived in a hostel in Toronto for like six months. You really start to hate people by the end of a stretch like that. Did make some lasting friends though so it's all good.

Hitchhiking has always scared me tbh.

How much is a hostel a night usually?

this one is $25 plus tax

Can't remember exactly what i was paying but i was on some kind of long-term deal. It worked out cheaply enough for the middle of downtown and i only had to share my room with two other people both of whom i was friends with. Did have to drink a lot to stave off the boredom though.

yah there are two couples in the kitchen having the most inane meeting of minds ever.

I began to be extremely prejudiced against certain nationalities too *cough*australians*cough*

it is one australian couple and one american. they are so dumb i cant believe they know how to breathe tbh

on thing that was awesome was the cowboy guy was transporting a bennett buggy from humboldt to his ranch and he drove me right downtown w/ it towed behind and dropped me here. Also I was in a huge lorry.

should i try couchsurfing w/ "two gay nudist gentlemen"?

y/n?

yes if only for the stories!

i'm in a hostel too. In vancouver. I've been in hostels for 3 weeks, they are mostly pretty awful. There's a couple of reasonable people in thos one though, so it's not all bad.

australians are the worst

just the worst

i hope people who are in australia are aware that the 20something backpackers they are sending to europe in droves is basically making the entire western world hate them

yes I am an Australian and backpackers in europe are considered a hideous national embarrassment

the english ones in australia are just as bad though, ime anyway

hey, im gonna be in a hostel in vancouver in like two days, which one are you in?

i sent one "couch request" to someone who looked pretty cool so hopefully i can do that instead

u guys lets not for get abt isrealis ok

my friends stayed in a hostel in south america somewhere where the only males that were allowed were israelis. non israeli girls were fine though.

i'm at the HI one downtown. it's only really bearable cause i lucked out with dorm mates and I'm only here a couple of days anyway. If you can get a couch, do that for sure

tbh i really only hate manu chao types

man, israelies... always with the psytrance parties

Everyone’s socks stink after spending all day walking around the city or county side. Rather than letting that funk “air out” on the edge of your bed in your hostel dorm room, bag ‘em up.

Are you really going to wear them again? If so then you didn’t pack enough socks and need to go to C&A. By bringing a few zip-lock bags with you on your trip, you can minimize the stink you bring into an already musty/stale dorm room occupied by travelers who may or may not have had a hot shower in a couple days. Not only is this respectful of your fellow travelers, but by locking away your socks in bags you help prevent the rest of your clothes and travel items in your backpack from smelling like your nasty feet.

What's up with Israelis always selling stuff? Is there some kind of global street/mall vendor syndicate that sets up back-packing Israelis in a myriad of cities around the world?

how do i escape and head to davie village and avoid the annoying english dude who already asked me if i wanted 2 go to the pub? hes a those making friends in hostels type.

lol @ making friends in hostels types

I only stayed in a hostel once. It was in Amsterdam and it was God awful. There were like 10 ppl in the room (about 6 of whom where Australian and extremely annoying), the bathroom was a fungal infested shithole and we got stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes on the way to the airport. It was so gross. On the plus side, I was mostly too stoned to realize just how bad it was at the time.

i might just get pizza instead of cooking and head out now. i dont need to change, but i didnt want to wear this t-shirt

yeah do that then you won't have to come up with an excuse. I'm sure the shirt is fine. :D

my other one has dolphins on it tho

!!!

When I stayed with my friends in a NY hostel, our roommates were these Israeli girls who apparently thought nothing of walking aroundd totally naked most of the time. We were very British about it. I mean, it was hot.

Hostels would be okay without the people staying in them. I stayed in one in SF about a year ago and realized I was actually wayyyyyy too old to stay in a hostel.

in canada they seem to be full of weird middle aged vagranty types

on "fishing trips"

I stayed in one in SF about a year ago and realized I was actually wayyyyyy too old to stay in a hostel.

Yeah, I think that was part of the problem with the one in AMS. If I'd been 18 it might have been a different story but I was like 24/25 at the time.

when i was inter-railing my way through the 90s, I paradoxically always enjoyed Eastern European hostels more. but yeah that social universe is definitely, err, peculiar.
thinking how weird it'd be for me to stay now in a hostel, well in my thirties, during the Fall off season.

in the early 90s stayed in a hostel on the outskirts of florence, in the hills overlooking the city, that was absolutely magnificent, like an ever so slightly rundown mansion, approached through a treelined path. shared a small room w two absolutely sweet irish guys, the weather was glorious, and one evening they screened 'stripes'!

Best part of the world for hostels: Eastern Europe. Spotless, cheap and friendly.

Worst: Australia.

I've heard the ones in the UK are pretty shit too, but I've never had cause to go into one.

Worst hostel I stayed at was in Barcelona. It was disgusting. But, free internet! So not all bad.

i stayed in hostels when i was traveling last year at 23 and i felt too old

it was all either 18 year australians in groups or lone mid-40s germans

and once an entire class of swiss high school students who were very respectful and friendly

How do you think I felt staying in a hostels in Oz and NZ at 31? At one I fell into quite an enjoyable older brother role, but generally I had to adopt an attitude of aloofness to stay sane.

I'll be hostelling it round South America next year hopefully, but I'd imagine it's a bit of an older crowd there.

i stayed in one once in zaragoza in spain which was huge and brand new and really clean and nice and it was eerily empty until about 3 in the morning when it suddenly filled w/ approx 150 laughing and shouting six year olds w/ their teachers. The teacher that was staying in our dorm decided that he should do all his coralling at the top of his voice w/ our dorm room open. i ended up not being able to have a shower bc they kept trying to get in the stall w/ me (!!!) and i couldnt even find one of their adults to kindof complain that maybe that meant they needed more supervision.

I lived in a hostel in Toronto for like six months.

Was it Canadiana? I stayed there once with a band when we got a slot playing at the North By Northeast music festival and decided it was cheaper than paying for a hotel room.

When I stayed with my friends in a NY hostel, our roommates were these Israeli girls who apparently thought nothing of walking aroundd totally naked most of the time. We were very British about it. I mean, it was hot.

― Tweeker Bongdanovich (admrl), Wednesday, October 6, 2010 11:34 PM

that does sound hot

i stayed in hostels all throughout my europe vacation two summers ago. most fun one was probably krakow, where the proprietress and her friends, who were buskers and usually at least a little drunk, gave me some of their vodka and asked me to chill with them. i taught them that 'strong enough' by sheryl crow is in 3/4, which caused some confusion.

worst one was maybe prague? it wasn't unbearable but just kinda dumpy and i had about eight roommates. i had some really rude canadian hostelmates in vienna who got snippy with me for leaving my shampoo bottle in the shower ("other people have to use that shower, you know!" - oh? and whose loofa is that, guy?) but the hostel itself was party central (not the rooms themselves luckily but the lobby/bar underneath - everyone who stayed got one free drink ticket at the hostel bar and i came close to sleeping with someone, but obv in a hostel that would've been super-awk)

ugh wait actually my amsterdam hostel was terrible because a) right smack in the red light district, which is the worst, and b) every room in the hostel was movie-themed, and my room's was 'lord of the rings', which meant i woke up to a GIANT PICTURE OF GOLLUM ON THE OPPOSITE WALL EVERY DAY

I stayed in a hostel in New York and left my shampoo in the shower. I went back for it, and, while someone was using the shower, actually saw the bottle through the crack in the door. It wasn't there when dude came out; I asked was there shampoo there, and he totally denied it.

I'm also curious, as a Torontonian, as to where people stay when they visit Toronto.

Was it Canadiana?

Nope, Hostelling International on Church Street. I was working at the CN Tower when i stayed there so it was pretty convenient really.

God, a LOTR hostel... It would totally scare me off ever staying at a hostel in Amsterdam, except I knew someone that stayed/was going to stay at a houseboat there, which kind of even things back out.

there were also godfather and reservoir dogs-themed rooms iirc

the other hostels i stayed in:

cologne: extremely bare-bones and difficult to find from the street (didn't even have a working lock). roomed with a sullen romanian construction worker my age who thought that the only hot women were other romanians and american girls, made weird noises with his mouth in his sleep and taught me how to play backgammon. a british pop-punk band on tour in europe were staying down the hall when i was there; i can't remember their name now though

warsaw: located in a really gorgeous part of the city. got locked out one one evening (guests had to be buzzed in by someone at the front desk), flagged down a guy walking past on the street who kindly jimmied the window open for me after my attempt to call someone using his cellphone didn't work. bunked in a room with two friends who were traveling together, one british and one mexican; got drinks with them at one point so we could watch the euro cup match where poland got knocked out, neither was very bright

budapest: this was kind of on the outskirts of the city, in a very beautiful part of town. very convivial vibe and a cute dog. don't remember much else about it though.

i don't get the Aussie hate here. i've traveled alot and stayed in alot of hostels and the Australians are normally pretty alright. they also count for over half of my vacation sex!

and the Canadiana is the closest hostel to the cn tower that i'm aware of!

I didn't choose my hostel based on CN Tower proximity as i hadn't gotten the job when i arrived in Toronto. It was like a 15 min walk though.

in the early 90s stayed in a hostel on the outskirts of florence, in the hills overlooking the city, that was absolutely magnificent, like an ever so slightly rundown mansion, approached through a treelined path. shared a small room w two absolutely sweet irish guys, the weather was glorious, and one evening they screened 'stripes'!

Me too. Except without the Irish Guys or Stripes. I think we saw When Harry Met Sally.

I went back for it, and, while someone was using the shower, actually saw the bottle through the crack in the door. It wasn't there when dude came out; I asked was there shampoo there, and he totally denied it.

To be fair, unattended toiletries in a hostel shower are pretty much fair game.

My favourite hostel in the world is in Budapest, BTW.

How do you think I felt staying in a hostels in Oz and NZ at 31?

I stayed in hostels while touring around New Zealand and Australia at the age of 32, with my bloke. We only stayed in high-rated BBH hostels in NZ, though, which are mostly lovely, particularly the more rural ones. Also, possibly because they're slightly pricier, don't have bars or (usually) televisions, and tend to be small, they are populated by slightly older people a good bit of the time. That was in 2002 though. It could all be different now.

now im in a hostel in tokyo. its great! best ive seen, clean and comfortable, and at 25, i seem to be one of the youngest here

being in my early 30's and using hostels still when i travel, i find ones without bars usually have people closer to my age. i'm also going less to known party cities.

I still definitely like to stay in hostels that facilitate meeting people and getting drunk, just with a slightly older more restrained crowd.

crazy czech guy keeps finding ways to compare hhe EU to the third reich

ime irish and germans are just as bad as the aussies in terms of euro backpacking tourism

Australians not from either of the two largest urban centres are especially bad with the constant amazement about shops being open after 5pm, on a Sunday etc. It's not like they're from Bhutan for fucks sake.

Fuck, I even see people from Perth say that when they come to *Melbourne* let alone when travelling, lol.

I haven't stayed in a hostel since we stayed at a few in France in 06 which were gernerally horrible. there were dbags from all walks of life iirc.

there was a guy watching a basketball game and some woman asked if she could switch stations, now we are watching a time life commercial

she just realised it was an ad

I stayed in a hostel in Melbourne the other month, it was pleasant and quiet but I had to get two single beds instead of one double. this can't be universal? surely enough young couples travel together that a few rooms would be equipped. even if they don't want people to pick up, which also seems to miss part of the travelling experience.

I like hostels in cities which don't really get many visitors of the kind that might stay in a hostel, often felt like there wasn't really anyone else staying there. The hostel Houston was really quite nice in this way

the one in Philadelphia was a bit much, seemed to be about 30 people in the dorm and it was enormous. A few people seemed to be semi-permanently living there

the hostels in SF were kind of terrifying. I went to the Green Tortoise and it was the worst place I'd ever been. the door wouldn't open, and when i finally managed to get it open the room was filled with australians and the most luggage i had ever seen, there wasn't actually room on my bed to get into it, semi-comotose groaning meant i couldn't shift anyone to get to the bed. i decided to leave and stay at the HI where there was a dude in my room who thought he was being tracked by the government on his phone and then threw it extremely hard against the wall just as i was finally managing to think about sleep

ith: douchebags who think miming to "wannabe" is funny

"i've never heard of this nina simone person"

harsh'd

I only heard of Nina Simone from the American remake of Femme Nikita.

Honestly, I might have missed the joys of Nina Simone if it wasn't for Cunnilingus in North Korea

that is totally bizarre to me. nina simone is everything

Isn't she the crazy lady with blue hair who sang a song about new york?