WARNING! There’s a massive chance that after reading this post you’ll find yourself more satisfied and happier with your current life situation.
So… As you already know, I live in a hostel. There’s been a lot of ups and downs in the past “few” (eight) months and I believe I now have enough life experience to actually write a post like this.
There is going to be two parts. First one (this) is the one where I’m talking about the bad, negative things about the reality of living (don’t confuse it with staying for a night or two) in a hostel and the next one will obviously be about all the good things that living in a hostel provides you at its best.
Let’s make sure everyone knows what we’re talking about when I say a hostel. As it worked so well last time when I used Wikipedia’s wise words in my previous blog post, might as well do it again. So, a hostel, what is a hostel? Where can you find a hostel? Who is crazy enough to live in a hostel? Why would you go to a hostel if there’s hotels around? Answer is simply, let me just quote Wikipedia:
“Hostels provide budget-oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available.
Hostels are generally cheaper for both the operator and the occupants; many hostels have long-term residents whom they employ as desk clerks or housekeeping staff in exchange for free accommodation. — the word hostel mainly refers to properties offering shared accommodation to travelers or backpackers.
Etymology; The words “hotel”, “hostel”, and “hostal” are etymologically the same, coming into the English language from Old French hostel, itself from Late Latin hospitale, denoting a “hospice” or place of rest.“
In addition to the one before, hostels are not (usually) scary or unsafe places to stay in. It’s just the movies such as Hostel (2005) that gives people a very bad impression. I assure you, it is nothing (and at least it shouldn’t be) like the movie; “Three backpackers head to a Slovak city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.—“
Of course, there’s always some creepy people and some strange behaving individuals, but that’s just life. Besides, you could meet that kind of people anywhere. So be realistic. They are not going to kill you, there’s nothing to be afraid of what it comes to hostels. If there’s some issues with some people, they usually get kicked out of the hostel. Once my friends were here hanging out here in the kitchen and just fooling around while cooking, when suddenly some guy (a short term resident) pulls his dick out of his pants and starts doing “the helicopter” move. Even though it was kinda “funny” (in a very bizarre and random way), he got kicked out only few minutes later. There’s cameras, you know.
Anyway, random things like this happen! That’s one of the reasons it makes it so interesting to live in a hostel. Literally anything can happen – and yes, including all the good and bad things. There’s no such thing as routine or days passing every day the same way, in a hostel every day is special. Living in a hostel is nothing like the life in a small nice apartment, located in a good neighborhood where you can practice your nice balanced life style and feel safe and secure at all times. Hostel is not a home. Hostel is a place to stay, a budget-oriented sociable accommodation. You can try to think it as a home but you need to be okay with the fact that all the time there’s gonna be someone random wondering around your hallways, using your toilet, stealing your food from the fridge, talking to you even though they don’t know you and asking you directions to the closest “exit”. If you live in a hostel, you can’t just go to the shower and leave your stuff there. It will get thrown away or moved or get stolen. You don’t just forget your laptop to the living room, you don’t just leave your stuff lying around. Every single time you eat or cook, you need to clean after your shit and wash your dishes – unconditionally. Even though there’s people cleaning the place, vacuuming etc, they can’t do everything. You need to be responsible and think about others at all times. Even though it is a lot of fun to live in a hostel, you still need to live by the rules. You are not the king of the place and you certainly can’t act like one.
We have like a huuuuge commune with loads of people from every corner of the earth.
From Argentina to Australia, from Canada to South Africa, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Hungary. Philippines, Germany. Finland, Slovenia, the US. Just to mention few of them. People from all ages, seriously, I believe the age group would be from 19 to 40-something. Over twenty years age difference, think about that. There’s people who have careers. There’s people who have children. There’s people who’s just graduated and just now flew from their parent’s protected nest away for the first time. But it’s not important. We’re all the same, we’re all part of one group here. We don’t look at the age, it doesn’t matter anymore. We’re like a big family here and everyone’s welcome to join.
So this is the place we live in. There’s people who’s live here permanently for years and years and people who are just visiting for couple of nights. And that’s hostel; A home on the road, home for everyone. Just a place to rest and meet people. Just another stop among other places.
In a hostel you share basically everything but if you’re fine with that, you’re very welcome to live in one. Although not all hostels have long term residents and in fact some hostels have ex. no more than one or two weeks long stay -policy. Just to make sure that no one keeps hanging around for too long. Then again there’s hostels like mine where you can work (clean or ex. cook Sunday dinner) for exchange to get free rent.
So who wants to stay in a hostel then? Budget travelers, backpackers, adventure seekers. Hostels attract “the same kind of people” and so when you think about a hostel you often start thinking about crazy parties and young people. But that’s not the whole truth. Hostels can be so much more. For me, I choose to live in a hostel because of all the people I knew I would get to meet. Everyday new people, so many stories, so many different type of travelers. I found it incredibly interesting and I was certain that I’d like to live in a hostel, instead of getting an apartment. And it’s been a good choice, got to admit. Even though there’s a LOT of negative things also what it comes to live in a hostel. That’s why I’m here now, writing this post. Hostel life is not for everyone, and you really need to be pretty open minded and okay to be exposed to many “uncomfortable” things one could say – especially if you’re used to live in a nice and neat little apartment where everything is shiny and new. You need to be okay with the fact that there’s reasons behind the fact that you are paying really cheap rent. (BE AWARE that these are all based on my own experiences. I’m not trying to set up any universal laws, every hostel is its own unique place and they have their own rules to follow there. I’m not saying that every hostel would be like mine, but the main parts ex. what it comes to living with many other people under the same roof, the problems are usually the same or at least similar.) 🙂
So now that you all know what is a hostel, I can move on to my actual topic: Living in a hostel, part uno.
I’ve been living in a hostel for a while now and I experiences all those phases from being the one who likes to talk to everyone and is interested about everything (the excitement of the beginning) to the one who’s become so called furniture of the hostel. “The old one”, “the one who’s been here for far too long”. You start realizing that you’ve lived in a hostel for too long when you just come home, take food from the fridge and go somewhere away from people. After a while hostel becomes just like your home would be, the place you’d like to come after a long day and just be silent for a while. Be with yourself, not with twenty other people. (Yes, I admit, it is also very Finnish of me to want to be alone and care a lot about my own space and privacy. I don’t want anyone to come close to me if I just want to be silent – just like anyone else.) So as I started feeling more home, I started to became more and more quiet. Nowadays I don’t really get to know the short termers as I used to. Not unless they are very special and interesting people. 😀 But otherwise (95% of times) I’ll just pass them, maybe say hi and continue to somewhere else, wherever’s most quiet.
Some days are good, some days (mostly nights/evenings/mornings) can be really bad. Let me tell you why.
Here’s ten reasons why not to live in a hostel.
1. Privacy
First thing that comes to my mind is definitely privacy. I’ve seen so many confused, even a bit amused faces when I’ve told people that I live in a hostel. Why? How do you manage? How is it? Isn’t it quite… Blablabla. Yes, mostly you’re right. No, I don’t have any privacy. I stay in a long term room with five other people. Yes, it is a mixed dorm. Yes, I have three guys, three girls there. Yes, there used to be a time when I was the only girl there, alone with FIVE other guys. Yes. I managed quite well, got to admit. Pretty proud of myself. 😀
What if you don’t feel like talking, if you just want to be alone and silent? Well… you just need to be okay with the fact that someone might come and disturb you somehow. But then you can just say: “Please. I’m trying to read.” or “Please, I don’t like to be stared at when I’m trying to paint.” or “Please, I’m just not feeling social right now I’m sorry.” 😀 Or anything!
But you just need to know that if you’re sitting in the TV-room on a couch with your laptop, listening music or reading, there’s plenty of people who has the same rights as you do. They can just come to the room and totally disturb your concentration by putting on an action film. But it is not your room, it is not your space. You don’t have any privilege what it comes to the common areas – nor even your own room. There’s always people around you, liked it or not. You can ask them to turn the volume down or go somewhere else, but you have to know that that’s exactly the price you pay for living in a city center so cheap.
If you don’t want to talk to someone, then don’t. You can close down, put your earphones on and go somewhere less hectic, more quiet and try to find your peace there. But it’s never assured. It’s never for sure. You just have to live with the fact that the way of life is different what it comes to hostels. You share everything. I mean, how scary is that. Except of course your personal stuff, obviously. I love practicing yoga but as I am very private person who enjoys her own space, there’s not really a place for me to calm down and feel the energies around you when all the time there’s people passing you by and making all kinds of noises, some of them even stay there and stare at you, laugh at you. It is not fun! I find it extremely disturbing, especially if it’s just some random guy. “I am trying to live here! I am trying to concentrate on my breathing because while practicing yoga it’s pretty essential! You make it very difficult when you just stare there laughing. Idiot.” So I decide not to practice yoga here at “home”, just because I can’t. People make it impossible.
This is how I feel when I’m practicing yoga in the hallway. Just hoping no one will see me when I look absolutely ridiculous with my downward dog or tree or warrior pose. Here’s me, just repeating to myself Dalai Lama’s wise words and trying to find the peace and balance…
But oh well, that’s life. You just have to get used to the fact that there’s no actual privacy (except in a bathroom) when you’re living in a hostel. 😀
2. Lack of sleep / poor sleep
The second problem would be the lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep.
I might just be staying in the worst room of the hostel. Because it’s an old building, we have a lot of problems. My room is located just above a very popular bar / music venue and because there’s no air condition and sometimes the smell of people can be unbearable, we kinda have to keep the window open, even a little bit. Just for the smell. But then when there’s drunken people literally just under your window… you can only imagine. In fact, just imagine it; You lying on a bed, tired but unable to sleep because of all the noise that comes from the street. People who live in the city center on a busy street probably knows this feeling. Drunken people who can not sing sings, there’s people who scream and just talk very loud. And you can hear everything in your bed. Plus the music from the bar, especially the base during the weekends and concert nights. Ugh
Then when you finally fall asleep, someone wakes you up by entering the room and climbing to their squeaky beds, after – of course – a while searching for things in the darkness. Plastic bags are the worst. No, the garbage trucks are the worst! Plastic bags comes second. There’s loads of garbage bins outside on the street and every morning and evening the trucks come to pick the garbage – otherwise that’d be okay but because of the bar there’s LOADS of bottles in the bins. Seriously, you can’t even imagine what kind of a noise the bottle bins create. It’s horrifying! For real. It gives you the creeps and most of the time it somehow always surprises you so that you’re real close to have a proper heart attack. Whether you were sleeping or watching a movie, the sound of bottles breaking just hits your ears and scares the hell out of you. No matter if the window was kept open or not. Doesn’t really change a thing. That’s how loud it is. Every single time a short termer hears the sound they’re like “What the f*** was that?!” And we answer: “Oh, that. Just one of the lullabies we get to sleep on.” No, seriously, thank god for earplugs!
Also by keeping the window always a bit open, the cold air comes into the room. This so called “air condition” would be ideal if we were living in some other part of the world but unfortunately Scottish weather is really not the most ideal weather for keeping the window open. Cold, usually pretty humid weather can make the room temperature so low, almost freezing that if you’re not wearing at least two blankets and wool pants and shirts, in addition to few pairs of thick socks when you sleep, you will freeze. I’ve woken up so many times just because of the cold. Now that the winter is coming and the weather is getting colder and colder every day, it’s getting even worse. Thank god the heating is turned on during the evenings, even though it doesn’t really help if it’s not turned on all the time. A few hours during the evenings is nothing. The window will be open and cold air will come to the room and cool the air back to what it was. And then you’ll be freezing again.
Then, addition to all that before there’s always someone who snores, speaks in his/her sleep or just randomly makes strange sounds. It is always dark in the room, especially in the night so people either hit themselves to whatever’s on the floor or then they use very bright lights (once a guy pointed accidentally me in the eye with a flashlight and I woke up not too happy).
So snoring, flashlights, squeaky mattresses, loud people (both in and outside the room) and other disturbing sounds such as the base or just normal human sounds such as cough but in a right place at a right time, especially if you’re super tired and can’t sleep, they really can drive you crazy. We are all just human beings, I know, but if a person sleeping in your room is snoring so bad that he wakes up the whole room every night… It just simply starts to annoy you very, very much. But what can you do. It’s a price you pay for living that cheap. And then you wake up in the middle of the night thinking “Oh not again…” with a face like that one in the photo.
Also… the mattresses. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to sleep on the floor? Well, floor would probably be more comfortable. My mattress is really old and some of the springs hit my back in a very uncomfortable way. There’s two options; One, you sleep however you feel like and wake up with a sore back or you don’t sleep in a certain position that would expose your back to the strings and you live happily ever after.
You kinda get used to it all, the noise and the mattress, but I would still pay anything just to sleep in my own bed for a night or two with my own pillow and clean sheets. Here, all the pillows and covers are billion years old and covered with dont-even-want-to-know strange looking brownish stamps. “Just close your eyes and don’t think about the fact that there’s probably been more people sleeping in this bed that you can ever imagine. All those germs, all those disgusting bacteria you can probably and pretty easily find from this bed…” One does not simply think about those things. That is as simple as it goes. No science needed, just… if something looks okay, it’s probably okay. Or at least that’s what you keep telling to yourself…
3. No space just for yourself
The common “I have no space, where should I put all this stuff?!” goes into a whole different level when you live in a hostel.
One does not simply buy any stuff because there’s just not enough space even for your already existing property. No shopping, no unnecessary purchases. You can’t even buy loads of food because there wouldn’t be any space for it. We share (obviously) our fridges and basically they’re pretty much full at all times. We also have a basket system in our kitchen so that all the dry groceries we buy, we can place in our own baskets on the shells. But you simply can’t have five baskets per person. We need to think about the short term residents also, we need to save some space for them, both in the fridge and on the shells.
It’s nothing like it would be at home. The same situation comes to freezers. In addition to all that, some people are selfish and don’t care about other people’s belongings and so it’s very possible that they might steal some of your food. That’s happened to me and probably to every single one of us.
The lack of space goes also outside the kitchen walls. The worst case scenario is when there’s no space for yourself. Where can you put yourself when there’s no room for you to sit down or eat or watch a movie? On the floor, yeah. Just take a pillow, close your eyes and pretend to be in a meditation retreat in India, that’ll do it. Haha. Especially what it comes to popular Sunday dinners, there’s an actual possibility that you don’t have space to eat or a chair to sit on. It would be so nice always go to the TV-room and lie down on a couch – just like what you would do if you’d be alone in your own apartment. The whole room, just for yourself. Oh, what a beautiful idea.
The dorms we’re living in are also pretty small. Most of the rooms have a pretty low ceiling, not much of a floor space so everything’s packed. Imagine, two or three bunk beds placed close to each other. I’m very lucky what it comes to my room because I could not stand living in a tiny room. My room is the biggest and widest room of them all. Shitty location (because of the bar below) but loads of space to breath. But that’s as far as it goes. Where are you supposed to put all of your things (clothes and other belongings) when there’s not really any closets nor shells nor drawers around. Well, in Finnish we say: “Emergency will always find its way!”, which means that if you have a problem, you will always find the solution. I was very lucky to get the lower bed (of a bunk bed), because then I can hang my clothes and wet towels and etc of it. Some previous long term resident who used to sleep in my bed also had left me a nice little night desk so I can put some of my things in it. But not everyone’s been that lucky. Each of us we have a little box under our beds and that’s where most of us are supposed to place all their stuff. Of course that’s not the case for everyone, the box is not that big, you can’t put all your belongings in it. So then they have to keep their stuff in their backpacks or suitcases. That’s what most of us do. There’s just not simply enough room for everyone to have a closet when there’s five other people living in the same room with you.
You also need to be careful with your stuff at all times, even though if they would be placed in your own room. Especially when there’s more travelers in the hostel during the high seasons. You never know what kind of people there’s going to be visiting. Of course, most of them that I’ve met have been cool guys but then again as I said earlier, there’s always exceptions. You can never know what kinda guy the next one will be. So you need to be careful. Never leave your stuff anywhere without someone’s observance, never trust too much. We don’t have any locks in our rooms and in my room there’s not even lockers.
We have “our own beds” (for two people) but that’s it. We share everything. How many of you could say that they’d be okay living like that? Not too many, I believe.
4. People (existence)
After privacy and your own space, the question about all the people surrounding you will rise.
What to do when you want your privacy and just be by yourself?
Sometimes you just want to be alone. Everyone knows this feeling. But when living in a hostel there’s always someone and sometimes it starts really annoy you when you feel like you just can’t go anywhere, there’s no place to hide when there’s people around you all the time. Whether it was your room or some place else. There’s always someone. Every situation is a social situation. You just have to learn not to care. Whether you were in your pyjamas just walking around the hostel and there’s bunch of short termers checking in and they all look you in a weird way. “It’s three o’clock in the afternoon what are you doing here in your pyjamas?” Oh well, I don’t care anymore. This is how we look with my long term friends:
And this is how we feel like:
In the end – hostel is pretty public place to be at. Sometimes you go to the dining room just after waking up and you realize there’s no long termers, only short termers all staring at you with a funny face. It’s a public place and you’re in a social situation at all times, whether you are in a toilet and someone’s waiting for his/her turn outside the door or whether you were in your room, changing clothes. Sometimes you just forget that. Haha. 😀 Then you just have to simply deal with the situation. 😀
What it comes to being alone, it makes it easier of course when you know the people and (usually) they understand if you don’t feel very social and just want to be alone. One of the reasons I started playing guitar and painting here was because I needed to “get away” inside the hostel walls. I needed my own time just with myself and there’s not too many places to get that. One would be making art, whether it was painting or playing guitar. That’s something you can just focus on and people will (most of the time) understand that you want to be alone. Another place and time would be when you have just woken up. Everyone’s asleep and everything’s so quiet. Of course, you can’t turn the light on because there’s people sleeping but still… It is so peaceful that you would just love to stay there forever. And not go all the way upstairs to get a cup of tea and then return back downstairs to drink it. (Although it is quite a journey to walk all the way from upstairs through at least five different doors and four staircases [yes, this building is a labyrinth] until you reach your floor and finally a couch to sit on. 😀 Haha) Just the thought of that makes you exhausted right away when you wake up. Oh no, not again. I don’t want to get up and start doing exercise right away… The worst is when you have to walk all the way three floors up to the laundry room. Your just-woken-up body is not ready for that kind of extreme sport at that hour of the day!
Anyway, back to the people! Just like I mentioned before, some people just simply gives you the creeps. I know you know what I mean. You just tend to find some people a bit suspicious in a way. They can act or look a bit strange and that’s what makes your natural instincts to wake up and make you not too willing to get too close with people like that.
And I mean that’s fine for me – I’m not saying people would need to change, of course be what you are, I don’t care. It’s just that… Here, you can never hide. If someone doesn’t really get the message that you don’t want them to come close to you, that you don’t feel like communicating with them. And it’s so awkward! You can’t just be like “go away, I don’t like you”. In a normal situation you’d just walk away and continue your life, but here you have to actually live with the people. And you don’t want to be rude (at least I don’t), so you just have to live with them and swallow your what ever feelings you are feeling.
But once again, I believe this is a very Finnish thing to behave like this. We have our personal space and we don’t like strangers just to “intrude” into it without our permission. Our personal space is almost visible and it certainly is very clearly there. That’s why we don’t kiss each other on the cheek in our culture. We have a hand shake, that’s it. So it’s just a cultural and personal thing I think, nothing more. We can just be very socially awkward and shy. We never start a conversation “just because”, we talk if we have something to say. We don’t do small talk, we don’t care about talking about the weather or so. Finnish people are very honest what it comes to that and we don’t like faking. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so awkward and uncomfortable in a situations like that. But it’s just that in a hostel don’t have a choice. You live with whoever is paying rent there. Whether it was your friend, a short termer or a creepy guy who talks to himself in the toilet or anyone else. 😀 You have to find a way to be okay with all things and situations like that.
You cook with the people who are in the kitchen when you’re there, you eat with the people who are in the dining room when you want to eat. The cultural differences might be huge but there’s nothing you can do about it. In the end I gotta remember that that’s one of the reasons why I moved into a hostel in the first place; To live with other people, to meet new people. To learn valuable life skills. 😉 And to play guitar! That’s like me in the photo. 😀 Just on the floor, chillen
Of course you can try to find a hiding place from a “remote corner” in the hostel and avoid social situations with anyone if you don’t feel like talking to. It’s all about the attitude. You will always find a way, even when living in a hostel.
5. You are a part of the group, the community and you need to respect it – Playing by the rules
Just like I said earlier, you need to be willing to live under certain rules and with certain people. You are one of them and you can’t just do whatever you like wherever you like at whatever time you feel like.
There’s for example silence after 11pm. There’s other people using the same premises and facilities. There’s a queue for laundry and you need to pay for it. Sharing is caring. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. Always clean after your shit, always do the dishes after using them. If you want to watch a movie, you shouldn’t be selfish if there’s others who want to watch a film also. You make decisions together. Compromises. You got to live together in peace.
But we’re all adults so it’s alright. Most of the time people don’t care and they’re okay following the rules but then always once in a while there’s these exceptions. I once knew someone who had massive issues with a lot of people and a lot of things here at the hostel and after a while he couldn’t stand it anymore and so he decided to move out. Probably a good decision for him.
You got to know how to behave in a group. Hostel life is not for everyone. What it comes to my room, there is always someone sleeping. It is so annoying, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Others can hang out in their rooms if they feel like it but for us; me and my roommates it feels impossible. It is always too dark or cold. It’s unbelievable, maybe once a week there’s actually time when we can just “hang out” in the room with lights on. How many people can actually say that?! I mean, I can handle a lot of things but the fact that 99% of all times you go to your own room you need to use a flashlight or wonder in the darkness (because it’s rude to turn the lights on if someone’s asleep) really annoys me a lot. So many times I’ve wished to have my own apartment for that. No matter if you had just woken up or coming back from work, there’s no sunlight coming to the room because of a huge grey building in front of our window so it is always dark. I hate it. I need my daylight.
Now how often does that even occur to your mind that you could be happy about the fact that you have your own room, your own space and peace just for yourself. How many times you actually question the fact that it’s not that simple to have your own space, your own apartment and everything – just for yourself?
How many times you actually find yourself appreciating the fact that you can just go to your own apartment that you can call home and just breathe the weight of the world away from your shoulders. You’re home now, everything’s fine. Cry if you like, do whatever. Drink wine, watch TV-series from the TV. You can be silent or sing, pet your cat, feed your fish and sit on your comfortable couch. Feels good, doesn’t it?
No “CLOSED FOR CLEANING” sign on the door to your kitchen when you’re hungry as hell. No signs on the bathroom doors when you really need to take a shower or pee. No rules. No video cameras in your kitchen or dining room. No waking up because someone comes to your room and starts vacuuming. No disturbing when you don’t want to be disturbed. You can be as relaxed as you like. You’re free to do whatever you feel like whenever you feel like. Think about that.
It’s been eight months now and I’m really starting to miss that feeling. You can do whatever you like. No one cares. You can be alone. You can watch TV! And not just old VHS’ which you always need to rewind. You can use your laptop on your bed, no need for seeking the wifi connection somewhere in the hallway. God I miss the feeling when you could just be silent without feeling bad about not being social because there’s people around you who’d like to talk to you. Just not make a sound, listen to music from my speakers and lie on my own, warm bed in a not-smelling room. Just sleeping and waking up in silence, looking out of the window and actually being able to see some nature and light – in stead of using the flashlight all the time. Having all of your stuff in a closet instead of a box on the floor and somewhere around it. Practicing yoga without anyone random staring at you!!! Oh that’d be heaven for me.
Having your own room, fridge and couch is not something to be taken granted, okay!
I know it sounds silly but try to give it a perspective. You will start enjoying everyday life lot more when you realize that not everything is so simple and shouldn’t be taken granted. 🙂 Traveling gives you perspective, they say – the same thing with living in a hostel. 😉
6. The goodbyes
Hmm… This one is a tough one. My fellow travel mates, you know how it is. When you’re traveling (or living in a hostel full of travelers…) you keep meeting amazing people (It’s just unbelievable how many people you meet when you go traveling. Also if you’re lucky, there’s these few special ones that I like to call the pearls you meet among the other people. So many heroes of mine I’ve met, so many inspiring people I’ve had an amazing time with during my travels.) and every single time you get to the point when you have to say goodbye… You would think that you would get used to the feeling when you have to say bye, but no, if it’s a significant person enough with whom you’ve got to spend time, with whom you’ve created wonderful memories together it is not easy to say goodbye. Never.
You don’t just get used to the feeling of letting someone that remarkable go. You’re not ready to yet let go, oh how many times I’ve thought myself “I wish he/she didn’t have to go…” And it all feels like a big paradox because you’re kinda feeling both sad and happy at the same time. You can’t really decide whether to be happy about someone continuing their travels (and life) or to focus on the sad part, which would be the fact that this amazing person is now going away, meaning leaving you. Or you might as well be the one who’s leaving them and going away. Your time with that person is now ending and even though you always say “see ya” instead of “goodbye”, you both know that there’s a great chance that you’ll never see each other ever again. And that’s what breaks your heart.
So. Goodbyes. All those memories. It hurts to let people go but oh well, “that’s life”, we keep telling ourselves. That’s how it goes. But at least the great memories will stay with you, and that’s something you shouldn’t ignore.
7. Poor living conditions
Because our hostel is located in an old building, the walls are basically falling down. 😀 There’s holes in some of the walls and even one of the bathroom’s door is broken and you can actually pretty easily and accidentally peak in by simply touching the right part of the door with a bit more force. 😀
As you already know, I come from Finland. Our buildings there are well built and well insulated, especially the newer ones. We have all the fancy stuff from underfloor heating to what we call double windows. We don’t want to freeze during the winter so obviously we built our houses properly. There’s laws we must follow what comes to building houses. But Edinburgh is an old city and the buildings are mostly very old, made of stone and colored by coal. So they don’t have any underfloor heating here – not to mention proper plumbing system. The plumbs are old and the cold weather obviously affects on them. There’s no-fire -policy at the hostel so there’s not even any fireplaces to warm this place up. No candles, nothing. Some taps (ex. all the taps on my floor) pours only very cold water. Just like the laundry – we need to wash our clothes with cold water (you can only imagine; after eight months washing my white towel with a cold water in an old washing machine… let’s just say that it is definitely not white anymore). Once I was in the toilet and I saw little black bugs coming out of one of the holes on the floor. It was not fun. I hate insects and bugs and everything little that can come to your skin and bite you. Hahaha, now I know what they mean when they say to be careful, that walls might have ears. 😀
Some of the room’s walls and roofs are covered with mold (mainly the rooms with high humidity level such as laundry and bathrooms with shower) and for example there’s a broken lamp in “my” shower (I call it mine because it’s the closest one to my room), so basically every single time I’m showering the lamp just magically stops working and the whole room turns into a dark cave. Hahaha. That’s where I am, desperately trying to find the exit. So far succeed every time!
There’s so many things that are broken and need to be fixed. Whether it is a window or a hole in the middle of a wall. And no, a poster on it is not a solution! 😀 Even though I think they did try it for a while but then the poster just disappeared. Have no what happened to it. 😀 Probably the ghosts of the hostel… 😉
But everything’s so old so I understand and I don’t really care, at least I have a roof over my head and clean sheets. 🙂 There’s a lot of people here in Edinburgh that doesn’t have the same privileges. (And of course not just in Edinburgh)
Anyway, it’s all about focusing on the positive site instead of the negative. The solution to everything hides in that. 😉
Fancy a shower?
8. It’s not really a place you would like to ask your family to visit you
Hey dad, I’m staying at a hostel, wanna come and stay here with me? We can put you in a four-bed-dorm or six or twelve, which ever you prefer? If your dad or mom’s not the most open kinda type, I wouldn’t ask them to live under the same roof with you if you’re staying in a bunk bed in a shared mixed dorm. They’re face expressions would probably be very close to these ones over here…
9. Wanna climb up to the Kilimanjaro? Just climb up to the hostel, it feels almost the same
Now, imagine climbing over 80 steps up, 80 steps down every single time you want to get out of the hostel. Yes, I have thought about just jumping from the window, but I don’t think it would help much. Oh yes, and of course in addition to that 80 steps (that’s only to the reception = middle floor), I must first walk up wee stairs and then all the way down USING TWO different staircases. So it takes a wee while for me to actually first go into my room and then get out of there. Usually I just prefer either stay in my floor the whole day and not going out at all, or be outside in the town the whole day, and not getting back at all. Hahhaa
Obviously it’s good for your body but when you’re tired / drunk / exhausted after work / you have a HUGE backpack / something else such as just feeling very lazy, you don’t usually feel like climbing up to the Kilimanjaro – as it feels like. My fellow hostel mates can prove that I’m right!
There’s even artwork on the walls that tells you how many steps you still have to climb up until you reach the top! I feel so bad for the smokers…
10. There’s an actual possibility for you to become an alcoholic
Hostel life is known of its parties.
Almost every night there’s someone going out, especially during the high season when the hostel is full of short termers. Backpackers are freaking crazy, I’m telling you. There’s drinking games, singing on the street and dancing in an Irish pub. It’s lots of fun – I’m not denying that, especially if you meet some cool people who you know that are traveling and spending only a night or two at our hostel. You want to make sure they’ll have the time of their lives and that they’ll get to know the Edinburgh you know. So you take them to your favorite places and have an awesome night, spend a lot of money and have a horrible hangover the next day. That’s the circle of hostel life as its worst / best (can’t really decide). The time you spend with those people is going to be amazing just because of the fact that you both know it’s gonna end soon and you want to get everything out of it – and that’s what gets you in its hook. Nothing’s permanent, every night is different because there’s always different people. Also if you are as weak as I was during the first months, you go out and have fun. All the time. No matter if its Monday or Tuesday or Friday. Every day is a day, no one cares about the name (or time) of the day 😀 But after a while it’s really not good. Not for your health nor your wallet.
So stay strong! Once a week is okay amount of going out. Not more. 😀 Especially if you’re working six days a week and the people at work wants to go out too…
(Btw none of these photos are taken by me, except the one that’s taken in a dark room and there’s a bed. That’s my bed.)
So there’s “ten” most negative things about living in a hostel (or at least living in my hostel 😀 ). How does it sound like? Did you think something else?
It’s all about getting used to it, I believe. If you’re not open for necessary changes what it comes to your daily life after living in a quiet nice apartment, you unfortunately are not suitable for living in a hostel – or at least as a long termer. Of course it’s not impossible but just like they told me before moving in that living in a hostel as a long term resident is not everyone’s cup of tea, and you need to know that. But I knew it was my thing, I knew I wouldn’t care. It takes A LOT to get me annoyed or pissed about something. I just simply don’t care and I’m okay with a lot of things. The worst parts about living here for me have been exceptionally loud and scary snoring, the smell of some people (you can never hide what it comes to smell – for example if it’s in your room, the smell WILL STUCK in your clothes and like once, into my wet towel and when I used it the next time I started to smell the same. It was not fun.) also the non-existing privacy has become a problem after the first half a year. First five-six months were fine. But then, after a while I just couldn’t handle it anymore. There’s limits for everything. I don’t understand how there’s people who’ve lived here for several YEARS. I think the longest period of time is over ten years for couple of guys. In a hostel?!
So what can I say – to some people living in a hostel would be a nightmare with bugs lurking out of the hole on the bathroom floor and then again to some people this place is the best place they’ve ever lived at.
“You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.”, they say. Because then again, in the end, nothing beats hostel life and that’s how we get to the next post.
See you soon! 😉
My plan was basically that I don’t have a plan. I had just returned home but I knew I couldn’t be there for any longer. I have always known that Finland is not my home so now that I had once left the place, it didn’t really feel like a big issue to leave it again. I did some calculating and I decided that if I don’t get a job in Scotland, I’ll just come back home after when my money run out. The only thing I was certain about was that I just couldn’t stay in Finland anymore. I had lived my days there and I didn’t have to go back. At least not yet, not in a long while.
First of all; You don’t have to clean. A hostel is a perfect place to live if you’re a person who hates cleaning. We have our own cleaners who keep the hostel nice and neat. Toilets, showers, dorms and common areas are cleaned and vacuumed once a day, the kitchen properly cleaned twice a day. I can’t remember the time I’ve actually vacuumed the last time – and still everything is clean! It’s amazing. Although, gotta admit, it still doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything. You need to wash your own dishes 
Reception is sooo handy! It’s the best invention ever. (At least almost.) You can go there if you feel like something sugary such as KitKat or if you’re hungry and you want some noodles. You can also go there if you’ve forgotten to buy a milk from the grocery store, they have everything! Or you can just go there and hang out with your mates. Also if you have a question or two about something that’s happening in the town, you can go there. They’ll know. Or at least Google will. They are there for you. It is a hostel so there is a lot of short termers always who want to ask the same questions as you. Where is that? How to get there? What’s on tomorrow? Reception is perfect for you if it’s a new place for you to live in. You get to know the city better, they have all the maps and knowledge you need and you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Living in a hostel doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to cook, watch TV or do the laundry. The facilities we have are exactly the same as you would have at your home, they’re just shared with other people. Our kitchen is fully equipped and there’s free coffee and tea so you can help yourself when you feel like it. We also have a free food section where you can find ex. buns and cakes always once in a while because few of the long termers work at cafes and bakeries so always after work they take some of the dainties they can’t sell the next day back home for us. 🙂
There’s also games you can borrow, guitars and other instruments you can play and plenty of books you can read. Not all people (especially if you move into another city or country) have all the great nostalgic old board games to play at their new apartment. Those are the kinda special things only your childhood home usually provides – and even though if your apartment did have the games, how often do you actually have enough people there to play with? Not too often, I dare to guess. But think about when you’re living in a hostel… Only the sky is limit. You can play games in different languages, you can teach your craziest drinking games and funniest childhood card games to your fellow mates or – my favorite – you can make people say something in your utterly strange language when you play some card game such as “King’s cup” or some other game where you need to come up with a rule. I love it. I love Finnish language. It is so strange. 😀 The most memorable moment for me was when I was in Iceland just a few weeks ago and it was Finland’s independence day and I made the guys yell “HYVÄ SUOMI!!” with an attitude. I told them to mean it and wave their hand in the air with rave. It was awesome. It means “GO FINLAND!!” 😀 So that’s hostel life. It’s not house life in a normal home – it’s better. Oh, such a good times.
Just think about it. You’re living in a place where first of all there’s people from all around the world. The people change all the time and chances for you to meet someone actually interesting and important increases a lot. And it does happen, more often than it would if you’d live alone in your own apartment. It really moves my heart to even think about all the inspiring and such a great people I’ve met during my nine months there. All the people I’ll remember for the rest of my life. All the people who I got to know and who got to change my life, every one a bit. It’s such a richness you can never get with money. People. Love.
As much as I learned to love the short termers, I could’ve not lived in the place without all my mates. All the people you live with, all of your friends.
Sunday dinners are the best things ever. We all gather together, everyone in the hostel. Some long termer cooks for about sixty people and we all go to our dining room and eat and chill together. It’s great. You remember those times when you used to live with your family and always when you were celebrating something you gathered and dined together. It’s like a Christmas dinner with all your family and friends, except it’s weekly and there’s bunch of random travelers in addition to your friends. It’s really nice. You get to see everyone and just eat. 😀 🙂 And often after that you all go out and drink some beer, dance, listen some good a live music and just have fun, enjoy life. That’s our Sundays. Every single Sunday of the year. It’s beautiful! Who wouldn’t love to dine and just hang out with their friends after a long and exhausting week at work? I thought so too. 😉
Your life turns upside down when you move into a hostel.
wild world - my route 