Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Dangers of Hostel Living

People in Miami seem to have a love hate relationship with South Beach. People that live there have their local places they go and seem to know how to avoid the crowds. And many people that I have talked to seem to care less about paying $20 to park and then walking around with tourist, and paying way to much for a drink or a meal. And I have a tendency to fit into both of these categories, but I kind of like walking around there. Mainly because it is a great place to people watch. There is this one bar that, to get there, takes you by one of the sketchiest hostels I have ever seen. It's not dirty, the building looks modern, but if you look closely at the people that are hanging around it, and inevitably, staying there, you would have second thoughts about booking your cheap, Miami vacation there. Neon floor lights and house music turned up, gives it away that this is a party hostel. And for lot of visitors to Miami, why wouldn't you stay here. It's always packed to, full of internationals and people looking for that 24 hr party (check the hostel here). But, in my experience, this type of place is the exception. There are a lot of good hostels in Miami, or so it seems. I checked a couple of visiting Italians into one and the place was much more relaxed.

Outside the former Hammock House Hostel, Vieques, PR 


But all in all, this idea of hostels is still pretty foreign to me. Growing up in a small town in Alabama, hostels were not something present or considered when we traveled. Even in college when you are trying to go cheap. A quick search through the hostels available in Alabama yields very few results. There is one in Selma for $20 a night and another in Birmingham starting at $44 a night. And really, you can find decent rates at places so hostels are not really needed. When you split the cost, it can actually be cheaper than renting one tiny bed in a room full of strangers.

Leave the great state of Alabama and hostels become a more needed form of lodging, and now are becoming kind of a staple in international travel, at least in my cohort. In my last post I mentioned that Jess and I will be mostly using hostels in Costa Rica. For 12 nights we are paying $325 dollars. It's hard to beat  $10 a night to wake up with a view of the Pacific Ocean.

To date, every hostel that I have stayed in has been great with great people. I could write a lot more about the many experiences that I have had but one stands out, demonstrating that you do have to be wary of certain people though in a hostel. I'm talking about me.

I was staying at a hostel in Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. This was the second night of my trip and the first night in this particular hostel. I checked in around 2 in the afternoon or so, met my roommates, then went out to explore the forts. I made a brief stop at the hostel to change before I met up with Mark and Sabrina for dinner. At this time (late evening) , there were only two people in the room, me and one other girl. So I went out and returned to my room around 2:30. Now staying in a hostel you have to put up with people coming and going. I crept in silently as I could into my bottom bunk. Laid down....as quietly as I could and settled in confident that I had not wakened anyone in the room. At this point, I still thought it was me and one other girl in the other set of bunk beds.

Now the pillows in hostels are usually pretty thin, so I was laying there pondering how I could fix this problem when a brilliant idea came over me, get another pillow. And after creeping through the room to not wake anybody, I decided that the best action would be to take the pillow from the bed on top of me. Once again silently, I reached up and found what I was looking for in the dark room. I grabbed it and gave it a quick tug, didn't budge. No worries, it was a weird angle that I was pulling at and decided that the remedy was to pull harder. I did, and the pillow came with it,  I had acquired what I was looking for, sleep was about to become much more accessible. Almost as instantly as this feeling was coming over me, an alarming realization that sometime between between dinner and the night out, a third resident to our room had moved into the bunk above me. I had just ripped the pillow out from underneath someone at 2:30 in the morning. And hear I was, someone that this girl had never met, standing next to her bed, pillow in hand.

What do you say in that moment? In my case, "here's your pillow." She grabbed, and for may sake went back to sleep without saying a word. I woke up 4 hours later, checked out of the hostel without ever seeing her. So, yeah, sorry about that. If it wan't for me, hostels would be great.

But I have learned my lesson, and I have every indication that where we will be in Costa Rica will go smoothly. As long as I don't need more head support.


Here is a link to some of the places that we will be staying in Costa Rica. Most of the beds we booked have no AC but either did PR. 

Beds on Bohio  , Jaco

Cool Vibes Hostel  , Dominical

Tucan Hotel  , Uvita

Casa Mariposa  , Chirripo

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