Top 10 Hostel Pet Peeves

The word "hostel" is synonymous with partying and (for the slightly paranoid) a certain series of slasher movies. While Iuckily I can only relate my hostel experiences with the former, and have quite enjoyed my time in most hostels, it's hard to be a backpacker without encountering at least one unfavorable situation at any given hostel.

From loud snorers to loud sex, here's my top ten hostel pet peeves. Which ones are on your list?

1. People who snore loudly.
Maybe some people can't help but snore loudly but it's really frustrating when there's that one guy who snores like a lawnmower and everyone else in the room is tossing and turning. As there are designated smoking sections in restaurants, they should also have a room for loud snorers.

2. Turning on the lights in the middle of the night.
This is the person who gets back to the hostel after a night out, and despite the room full of sleeping people, disrespectfully turns the room lights on, and spends the next 20 minutes noisily getting ready for bed, and effectively waking up everyone in the room. I know whenever I get back to my hostel room at the break of dawn, I usually use the light from my cell phone. Or sometimes I just blindly find my way around in the dark, and find myself with a few bruises in the morning. Better bruises than enemies, I'd say.

3. Thieves.
I find that when my stuff do get stolen, it's never in the dorm room, but rather the kitchen or luggage rooms where I guess it's more of a free for all. Also, when things do get stolen, it's never anything expensive, but rather small items that tend to go by unnoticed. This one time I had my bag in the luggage room, and later when I went to check into my dorm room, I noticed that my shampoo disappeared, although my MacBook was still safely in the bag (not that I'm complaining!)

4. Wet laundry.
Rather than paying a few dollars for the dryer, a lot of travelers hang their wet clothes on the side of the bunk beds to air dry. I know I've done it a few times, especially in the east coast of Australia where it's so sunny, it dries almost instantly anyway. What really annoys me is the people whose wet clothes take up the whole room. It's very unfortunate if you're the poor traveller who checked in last, and is stuck on the top bunk with wet underwear dangling next to your face.

5. People singing in a foreign language.
People singing is generally a sign that they're drunk. Singing in English is ok since it's an universal language, and if everyone else is equally drunk, it usually leads to a fun mini musical rendition in the hostel room. Singing in a foreign language however, is a totally different story. This one time, there were these three Dutch girls who wouldn't stop singing, and pretty much forced everyone else out of the room due to annoyance. They were also guilty of committing pretty much every crime on this list, to the point where I ended up going down to reception to complain (and I almost never complain about anything). The receptionist guy pretty much just told me that they're unattractive and overweight so I shouldn't let them get to me, which didn't really help solve anything (needless to say, none of them partook in number 6, which is pretty relieving).

6. Loud sex.
If one really must have sex in the hostel, there are way better places to do it than on the bunk beds in a room of 10 people. Or in situations where for some reason it's absolutely necessary to have sex in a room with 10 people, it's not ok to make excessive noises in the middle of the night. C'mon now, we're not shooting a porno, there's no need to impress.

Travel stories: the bad and the ugly

While most people travel in hopes of finding enlightenment, discovering new cultures, meeting like-minded people, or even just for the sake of drinking copious amounts of alcohol, most travelers know that life isn't always an endless party on the road.

The longer the time spent on the road, some travel experiences might start to resemble something out of a bad horror movie - the missed flight, food poisoning, running out of money, discovering that your hostel dorm mate is actually a serial killer, etc.

Fortunately, the best parts of travel far out-weight the bad, and by the time you're home, most travel horror stories are simply reduced to an entertaining tale you tell to some random guy you've just met at a party after indulging in too many drinks. 

Luckily my travel "horror" stories are pretty minimal. Here's a few of my most memorable experiences below. What is your worst experience travelling abroad?

Beijing, China

At least I think it was in Beijing...this happened while I took a taxi into the city. It was raining so much the streets were flooded and of course there was a huge traffic jam. The opposing lane had very little cars since not much people were heading out of the city, so my driver after much frustration in the non- moving lane, steered the car into the opposing lane, and drove exceedingly fast down the wrong lane as incoming cars honked and swerved. At the time I was completely freaked out but now that I think of it, if taxi drivers drove like that in New York City and everyone is actually able to get to work in time, they would be making some crazy tips. Lesson learned: never take a taxi in China.

Cairns, Australia

I stayed at this really sketchy hostel during the night of the Germany vs England world cup match. Of course I was cheering for Germany, but had to keep my favouring country a secret as the hostel was divided to about 98% Brits, 2% Germans. After the game in which Germany won 4-1, tensions mounted, and the Brits started shouting insults at the German guys, calling them Nazis, and making war references such as "You may have won that game, but we won the war. TWICE." This one German guy then grabs this girl's England flag and starts to burn it with his lighter, only to have three huge Brits run over and tackled him to the ground. Shirts were being torn, and blood started spilling until security came and broke up the fight. 

And let's not forget the bugs on the floor of the hostel, and the creepy old man in my dorm room. I stayed up all night, and left that hostel asap. Luckily my friends came up to Cairns the next day, and we all checked into a much nicer hostel. Although I have to admit, that did make for an interesting story. Lesson learned: don't stay at hostels named after a mental institution.

Brisbane, Australia

I went to a backpacker's bar with my Irish friend and we noticed a full pitcher of beer on an empty table. There was nowhere else to sit so we ended up sitting there after getting a few drinks. My friend decided that no alcohol should go wasted and decided to take a sip of the beer in the pitcher, despite my protests. A few minutes later, some sketchy guys came over and tried to hit on us, in which we pretended we were a lesbian couple and ran out of the bar. My friend later tells me that she didn't really feel well so we ended up going to a much nicer bar with a much better crowd (where ironically I met my then future boyfriend). To this day, I'm positive that that pitcher of beer was spiked. Lesson learned: pretty self explanatory, don't you think?

Paris, France

At the Charles de Gulle airport for my flight back to Canada, the airport made their departure announcements in both French and English. Only, the English the girl spoke over the announcement was so indistinguishable, I think I understood the French better than the " English." I was completely oblivious of what they were saying until last minute, another person took over making announcements, and I heard the words "last boarding call," " Toronto," and "gate 5."

I ran for my life over to the gate and showed the guy my ticket, causing him to look panic stricken. He said something into his pager, and a few seconds later, about ten airport staff members surrounded me, speaking worriedly in rapid French (none that I understood). This continued for about fifteen minutes much to my confusion, until finally a small car drove over to the gate, everyone directing me to get on, and drove me to the front of the airplane, where I had to quickly run up the stairs of the plane. I think I'm probably banned from the CDG airport now. Lesson learned: never fly into French speaking countries.

* note: at CDG, there's no tunnel that goes from the gate directly on to the plane because the airport has only one floor. Instead, a shuttle bus (which I missed) takes you from the gate to the airplane.

image source: ibiblio.org