The feeling of walking into a shared dorm room hostel in the middle of the night, after arriving on a late flight or bus, has got to be universal amongst budget backpackers. Clambering in the dark, tripping over bags, asking yourself "Is that bunk bed free or have they just not returned from their night out yet?" because it's not quite clear whether the bed is taken or not. Eventually finding a free one, only to find out it's the type of hostel where you have to make your own bed. I guess when it costs next to nothing, you can't really complain too much.
It may not have been the first hostel I ever stayed in, but that was my first experience at the first hostel I ever stayed in in Vienna in the summer of 2019. After navigating my way through Vienna's metro system I arrived on the wrong side of midnight at the Wombats City Hostel, paid my fee, including the dreaded city tourist tax, and made my way to bed.
I'd like to consider myself a somewhat considerate traveller and, alongside my own social anxiety of waking others up, I didn't even get dressed, make the bed, and simply climbed up onto the uncovered mattress to get some sleep. It was June in Vienna so the sun rose early and the room quickly warmed up through both the sunlight coming through the window and the body heat of twelve travellers twisting and turning in their sleep.
My late arrival meant I was one of the last to wake up in the morning, but I still managed to get downstairs in time for the hostel's free breakfast. For those not accustomed to the hostel free breakfast, it's not quite omelettes and scrambled eggs; instead it took the form of boiled eggs, stale bread, some salami and juice. When you're 22 years old, you don't really care about that though - free food is free food after all.
Upon returning to the dorm, I meet my bunk mate from the previous night, an English chef on annual leave. We quickly chat, exchange pleasantries, what we've done so far. It's the last day of his trip, the first of mine.
"How long have you been travellig?" I ask.
"A week, how long are you going for?" he responds.
"Six weeks, I'm planning on going around Europe the long way."
"Oh you're going for a long time," he exclaims, "well, best of luck, nice to meet you."
I pack my bag, he packs his, and we part ways never to see each other or stay in contact ever again. I don't know his name, I don't even remember what he looks like, but I remember the exchange and conversation. The first time I, as a solo traveller, was meeting a fellow solo traveller and exchanging pleasantries on the basis we both had a mutual understanding of why we solo travel.
Over the course of the next six weeks, I had dozens of experiences like this in hostels from Odessa down to Yerevan. Some people became friends for life, others just for a few moments. Some I still keep in touch with today, others I never saw again. While there is a sadness in making friendships for such a short period, there is also something bliss in knowing that someone came in to your life for a brief period to support you and be there when you needed it, even if you never managed to see them again.
In recent years I have noticed a declining trend in this sort of atmosphere in hostels. The social aspect is missing. Hostels are no longer the rugged backpacker-friendly type places they once used to be. Instead of being run by former travelling hippies they are increasingly run as corporate chains. Walk into a hostel in most Western European cities nowadays and you will be greeted with an almost clinical atmosphere, any semblance of identity stripped through a theme of minimalist nothingness.
During a recent trip to France, I stayed in a hostel in Nice for two nights. It was okay, but I couldn't help but think how much backpacking had changed. This was, according to the research I had done prior to the trip, one of the cheapest and top-rated hostels in the city. It was clean, it was welcoming, but it was clinical. Like all those years ago in Vienna, I arrived late at night to find the bed not made. While this is standard practise for many hostels, I can't help but feel it is dated and pointless. Most considerate people don't want to wake up the entire dorm as they wrestle with a bed sheet in the dark as they cannot find the personal light switch. It frustrates me because when you've stayed in cheaper hostels that do make the bed, you wonder why these corporate chains can't, while still charging me three times the price.
Beyond the move to corporate, almost McDonald's-like chains that modern day hostels have become (I'm looking at you Generator Hostels), it seems hostel culture is also changing. They're not as social anymore and. while I've not always been the most socially confident, I could always meet someone somewhere that was willing to have a chat. Nowadays, guests at hostels are more interested in their phones. Gone are the days of buying a case of beer or ice cream, sitting in a common room, and inviting others to have a drink/some ice cream with you (again, these spaces exist less now as corporate hostels maximise every single space to include as many beds as possible).
With that, hostel etiquette is slowly dying. I'll never forget at a Generator Hostel in Stockholm waking up to the girl in the bunk above playing herself music through a loudspeaker to get to sleep - in a 12 bed dorm no less. On my trip in France, I was woken in the early hours of the morning to a fellow guest wrestling with a suitcase, plastic bags, and a zipper. With the risk of sounding like an old man, "back in my day" it was considered hostel etiquette to pack your bags the night before. It felt as if the effort I had gone through to be relatively quiet as I arrived late at night had been put to waste, going so far as to not even make my bed and sleep on top of the mattress itself.
I can't help but think if it's me that needs to change, if people are changing, or if I've just been plain unlucky. I find myself staying in hostels less and less often and, if I do, it tends to be a private room. As such, maybe by lack of exposure, I come across the social types less often. I'm sure traditional old-school backpacking type hostels still exist (not to be confused with party hostels..), but they are a slowly dying breed, at least in Europe.
Staying at a sociable, backpacking hostel is in large part why I still like to travel solo. Many of my best travel memories were either made in great hostels or with people I met in such hostels. If there's a lesson I'm taking home from recent trips, it is to support local hostels where possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment