So I decided I would do a little reflecting on something that I tend not to talk much about on my blog....HOSTELS! I figure normally they are really not that exciting compared to the places and people I get to see, but really hostels are a huge part of my trip! So I thought I would just put together some random thoughts and highlights concerning my hostel stays!
Originally I booked all my hostels on HI, Hostelling International. They guarentee a certain quality of Hostel, plus I am a member so I normally save about 10% on any given night. My Trips to Ireland and Spain have forced me to switch to www.hostelworld.com, which I must admit is WAY BETTER! It still lists any HI hostels but also lists tons of independant or other associations. I also have found that while some of the hostels I stay in are not as nice as HI locations, they are often much more fun!
The other night I actually used my spanish....to talk to a Czech Girl, she does not speak english and I do not speak czech so we were able to use spanish as a common langauge, granted he both had limited vocabularies!
Often going out to eat will cost between 10 to 15 Euro if one wants a decent meal. One thing I do quite commonly as do other hostel people is go the store and buy food to make your own dinner. For half the price you can get twice the food! About a week ago in Ireland I made a bunch of people really jealous when I made BBQ Chicken wings, which were amazing by the way.
Finding your hostel is always a bit of an adventure, especially in Spain. Normally I get directions and allow GPS on the Nokia to lead the way! That of course assumes though that you get the right directions/location. Here in Barcelona I wrote down directions to the wrong hostel, whoops! I had to find a local internet cafe to correct my mistake.
What is that I hear? Is someone else speaking English??? Well chances are they are probably an Aussie! It is absolutly unbelievable how many Australians there are backpacking (especially considering their population), and they are hard core lots of them are going for close to a year! Their are also plenty of people from Canada and England as well at the hostels.
The truth is you never know what you are going to get till you show up at the hostel. A good or bad hostel makes a huge difference on how much I enjoy any given city! I have had plenty more crazy hostel stories and I am looking forward to many more over the final three weeks of my trip!
If you would like to see some of the last few hostels I have stayed at check out these links!
Barcelona http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/SantJordiDiagonalHostel-Barcelona-13017
Dublin http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/DublinCityBunkhouse-Dublin-23896
Killarney http://www.neptuneshostel.com/
And this is where I am going tomorrow in Madrid! http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/MadHostel-Madrid-13326
1 comment:
nice posting...you mention a lot of good things about hostelworld - have you ever tried hostelbookers? Have mosst of the same properties, but all available with no booking fees. WOuld definitley recommend them as the best booking service out there.
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