Living in hostels itself is a culture. For those who have traveled in Europe at all before, they're really common in pretty much every city in Europe. Finding them is easy enough, often you get recommendations from other travelers for the places you're going, or just research on the internet a little and read people's reviews or read your tourbook. (I've been using 2 tour books Lucie and I scored for 2 euros apiece at a bookstore back in Rome. One is called Let's Go! Eastern Europe, and the other one is called Let's Go! Western Europe. They were 2 euros because they're a year old, and in English, they've become my bibles, telling me what I need to do and see and eat and drink everywhere)
What is a hostel like, you might ask? A good hostel is clean, in a good location, has free wifi and computers and has lots of comfortable communal areas for people to hang out in. Oh, and a nice kitchen. Other perks of a lot of hostels include a bar, a musical instrument room in the Vienna hostel's case, hammocks in the summer in the Budapest hostel's case, pool tables, bikes, etc. The people that work there can usually tell you all kinds of stuff to do, places to eat, etc and usually give you a map of the city. In Budapest, Prague and Vienna I had this amazing little map called a SpyMap that I think is made specifically for backpackers and has all the public transport info on it, and recommended restaurants, cafes, bars, shops that backpackers would be interested in. These maps also give you useful phrases in the language, such as “I'll have one of those”, “Have you washed your hands?” and “Please, may I fondle your buttocks?” which I said to a waiter as a joke in Hungarian because of a bet. (He cracked up when he saw me reading it off my map.)
Basically a hostel is a hotel you come to to make friends, meet other travelers, sleep in the same room with a lot of people. (That's the part that can get annoying...some people spend like an hour rustling their crinkly plastic bags around packing their stuff at 6:30 in the morning. Actually a lot of people do that.) Ear plugs and an eye mask prove quite useful in hostels. In a good hostel, you always meet people so easily, often within the first hour of being there. And being alone, you actually meet and go out of your way to make friends and find people to do stuff with much more easily. And I love hostels because everyone is traveling, everyone is from different places, everyone has stories to tell and everyone is very open to just making plans for dinner or the next day with the friends you met an hour ago. I've met some of the most interesting people on this trip, and I'm genuinely sad that I will probably never see the majority of them again, especially because, although I've gotten many people's contacts, there are so many I hung out with that I didn't get.
I've met opera singers from the UK, parachute packers from Australia working in Berlin, chefs, musicians, biologists, carpenters, sailors, med students, expats, commercial divers, engineers, photographers, a girl from Australia who left home at 17 and has been working all over Europe for the past 2 years, and many many many more. Lots of students, and lots of professionals as well. The people traveling for a long time are the ones I often have the best conversations with. People from Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Albania, and probably so many more than that as well as people from all the countries I've been in, and right now I believe the count is at 12 countries, hopefully to 18 by the time I leave.
This is something that can never be replicated in one's own country. I almost venture to say its kind of a political act, and one that certainly brings countries and cultures together, you're constantly learning and trying and experiencing, and you have so much fun in the process. The culture of true backpacker hostels is one I am fully in favor of and that may even build more peaceful societies in our highly global world. Anyone who knows me, knows travel is under my skin, that it has grown to form the basis of so much of what I believe in and the discovery and understanding of other cultures should be a part of every educational curriculum.
Travel is not, as someone has suggested to me at one point in time, an activity for the rich, or even for the middle class. Backpackers are not rich. These hostels I speak of? Could be $5 per night, depending on where you are. Most good hostels you can find for under $18 per night, but of course it depends on the city. Its not something you have to have friends in other places to go to and be cheap. Ever heard of Couchsurfing? (If not, check it out) Free places to stay, by normal people, and a built-in tour guide to give you the insider's view of your surroundings. I've realized on this journey that I have a lot more under my belt in terms of traveling that most people. I want more people to travel. And I don't mean isolating yourself in a 4-star hotel bubble where you get the tourist-catering and types of foods you're used to in your own country. Travel is getting in there, experiencing something DIFFERENT from your norm and learning the things you love and don't love about it. As well as challenging yourself and fine tuning and thinking and rethinking. In short, I have a sense of freedom and hope like I've never had before.
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