This weekend, I'll be saying goodbye to the highs and lows of hostel living. Don't get me wrong; hostels are a great place to stay and meet people and see what's happeing in a place. However, after being in a 16 bed dorm, connected to a 12 bed dorm with 2 toilets and 2 showers for that many girls, for 4 weeks, I'm ready to move out.
The best things about hostels and the intricate goings on and 'Days of our Lives' type saga's that happen when 200 odd people are living under one roof. I swear the people that live in these places long term and the type of people that loved school camps and sharing dorms with 20 other people. There's this one older English guy who sits on the radiator underneath the telly, comandeering the remote control all the time. He sort of half watches the tv, half watches the goings on of the dining room. If there's a young group of people sitting around having a drink, then he'll put MTV on and bop away to music he clearly doesn't like but thinks the young ones will. At 6pm you can be guaranteed the news, then top gear. Everyday. Unless there's a soccer match on somewhere in the world (which is quite often), then that will be on. He sits with his coffee mug for of cider and just watches. He never leaves, and God forbid should someone try to change the channel.
Then theres the string of relationships that happen amongst the staff and people staying there. When I first arrived there was a French girl who had lost her job before Christmas but had stayed on in Ireland, courtesy of mum and dad, for the Spanish love of her life. They would sit in the corner and canoodle, looking adoringly into each others eyes. Then he dumped her for a string of Spanish girls that came to stay. She was devastated and when home to France. There's also the other French girl, who doesn't speak much English and doesn't appear to have a job. We were all baffled as to how she could still be staying in the hostel without working, and she kept really strange hours, hardly ever staying a night but sleeping all day. Then we worked out that she's on with the bloke who works there - quite the scandal really!
Will I miss the soap opera-esque goings on of the hostel; No. Will I miss the rattle of the very, very, very old building as any traffic goes past, or when people walk past your bunk beds; no. And I certainly won't miss the people who come into the room at 2 or 3am on a week night and turn the light on, or drink in the rooms until all hours before going out. Or the push button showers that are scalding hot.
I will miss hanging out the bunch of cool people that become like a family. We come home each day and talk about what our various work days were like, we debate the positives of each others travel appliances (normally something to do with hair), and bitch about the noisey people (the group of spanish girls next door that always have music going , but talk really loud over the top).
But they give me breakfast, do my laudry and are providing me with a bed, so I can't really complain. Although I am looking forward to a wardrobe, my bed and my own bathroom!!
