Hotels are lame. Let's all just admit it. Number one reason being: noise complaints.
If I'm in a hotel, then I'm more than likely on vacation - which means I want to get rowdy.
Pretty please, fellow hotel residents, let me have a bit of fun? Psh yeah right, I am not 10 years old anymore and this is not an all-girls soccer tournament, so I'd like to do whatever I want.
Number two reason hotels suck: you never know which one of your neighbors will be cooking meth next door to you at the Motel 6.
Thankfully, a solution has been found to these hotel imperfections. The solution is hostels - where debauchery and tom foolery run rampant; two of my very favorite things.
Sure, some hostels claim to "maintain order" past midnight, blah blah blah. For example the hostel I stayed at in Barcelona, Spain wrote on hostelworld.com, "You'll have a nice time here and enjoy the city. In this hostel we won't allow disrespectful people who disturb the rest of the guests. No football supporters are allowed here."
Joke's on you Backpackers BCN Diputacio. Your hired night aid was the one who was up until 5 a.m. rallying together the guests and playing drinking games - and I loved every minute of it.
Before this summer, hostels were an abstract thing to me. I figured anyone who stayed in a hostel ended up with their eyes burned off like in the disturbing, yet popular, film Hostel. Yes, I partook in the idiotic stereotypes of hostels thanks to American pop-culture. Sue me.
The important thing is, I got over it. When my best friend, JD, and I decided to backpack around Europe we knew the cheapest and most logical accommodations were hostels.
"How bad could it be? The worst thing that could happen is we'll get our achilles tendon sliced in half," I chuckled, nervously.
Nerves or not, I was not going to let a silly film stop me from wandering around Europe.
I stayed in five hostels on my month-long trip and each and every hostel impressed me.
It wasn't the quality of each hostel that impressed me, it was the quality of the people who worked and stayed at the hostel that impressed me. And honestly, for approximately $30 a night, I could care less how "classy" my sleeping arrangements were. I was so tired from being a tourist all day, all I cared about was taking a shower, drinking a few beers and having my own bed to fall down on.
The best part of it all, I was surrounded by individuals I actually wanted to drink a few beers with.
My first night at Astor Hyde Park Hostel in London I thought I had met my future husband (and by future husband I mean day long interest). He was foreign, handsome and going to law school. What else could I want? Well, he left the next day.
The next night my 12-person dorm room cleared out and 10 new bachelors entered; once again I thought I had met my future husband. As this continued to happen night after night, I realized these weren't future husbands at all - I was just finally surrounded by people who didn't annoy me. Shocking.
Every person I met at a hostel was there with a common interest - education. Each and every one of us wanted something more out of life, rather than sit in our home town and do the regular nine-to-five, monotonous business. It was refreshing and made me regain my appreciation for humanity.
Not only that, but every person was willing to offer their advice and help. A big change from a hotel front desk aid smacking his or her gum in your face and telling you "I dunno, I'm no tour guide."
For those people who don't like meeting fascinating individuals, gaining quality insight and being a little more exposed than usual - don't stay in a hostel. I understand that it may not be every person's style, but, nonetheless, I think you would be a lot happier person if it was your style. So, maybe just try it anyways.
Dig it. Travelling suits you. So does Writing.
ReplyDeleteHokey-smokes Bullwinkle! Where to start?
ReplyDeleteThis column has all the elements, but bounces around like Tigger on too much coffee.
Maybe Tigger on meth that he got staying at a Motel 6.
It begins as a dig at hotels (four paragraphs), swings through the need for the columnist to party without reservation (sorry about the pun) and then does a passing attempt at endorsing hostels.
What does the column need?
Well, a nice straight -line organization to keep the reader on track, even if the writer isn't.
Lines like: "Number two reason hotels suck: you never know which one of your neighbors will be cooking meth next door to you at the Motel 6."
are clever, but distracting. If the column is supposed to be humorous, ok, but it has to be consistently funny.
The meth sentence doesn't fit with the concluding paragraph:
For those people who don't like meeting fascinating individuals, gaining quality insight and being a little more exposed than usual - don't stay in a hostel.
Back to drawing boards for the writer here. If this column is to sell someone on the advantages of hostels, then it should talk about hostels: how much do they cost, what are facilities, where are they and on and on and on...