The People You Meet in Hostels

Over the course of our trip, we have encountered many strange people. This post is an attempt to illustrate just how bizzare some of them are.

We arrived in Krakow one night and met the only other hosteler, an American who told us he was leaving the next morning to return to teaching English in the Ukrain. We saw him the next morning as we left to go explore, and he said goodbye. When we got back that night, he was still sitting at the same computer, obviously not in the Ukrain. We sort of chatted, and he asked about our trip, then how old we were. When I said 18, and Rosie, 19, he exclaimed, 'OH! Your just kittens!'

The next morning, while Rosie and I sat there, eating breakfast, he came into the kitchen and asked if we were making out. And then he laughed. He would have other men over, and they would talk about girls they were meeting on online sites. But he whole 3 days we were there, he never once left the hostel, and in fact, was still there when we checked out. Most likely, he is still there.

Another interesting person we met was in Prague, his name is Geoff, and he is a New Zelander. He has written a screenplay about the doomed romance of a prostitute named Lucky and a bum. They meet on a subway and help eachother out of their respective bottomless pits. It is a charming story that leaves you wondering about the nature of forgivness and asking yourself how you want to die. He was looking for a producer and recommended that we see the torture museum before we left the city.

Here in Galway, there is a group of French people. I honestly don't know if it is culturally acceptable to stare in France, but these people will not stop. One of them is particularly avid. He will sit there for half an hour, just staring at you...not saying anything...not looking anywhere else...

We met a girl the other day, who was in the room of some aquaintences. Apparently, she kept asking about Katie's laptop. 'Can I hold it?' 'What kind of laptop is it?' 'Can I touch it?' 'Where are you from?' 'Can I hold it?' Katie was so scared this girl was going to take the laptop and run off with it, that she slept with it in her arms.

There was a man we met who would have been at home on the Lord of the Rings set. He was about 7 feet tall, had massive amounts of flaming red hair, and kept an obscene moustach in a very, very, long braid. Something about him said he would be happy to swing an axe or broadsword over his head.

Although we have had our share of bizzare roomates, the people we meet in hostels are wonderful and fun to go out with. We spend almost every night with a different group of people we meet around the communal breakfast bowl of cereal.