Anti-social Hosteling

Over on the KillingBatteries.com blog, travel writer Leif Pettersen discusses the nuances and finer points of traveling in hostels:

As always, hostel sleeping was a serious problem. I’m a light sleeper in the first place and when you have drunks staggering in until 2am and the early travelers getting up at 6am (and re-packing everything they own, with a constant clamor of zippers and crinkling plastic bags, because it never occurs to them to do all this the night before), there’s an agonizingly small window of deep sleep time to be had.

It’s strange, my hearing isn’t that great in general (stupid rock ‘n’ roll), but at night, in a hostel, I can hear a butterfly fart. I can sense when a light turns on three rooms away. To say nothing of the inevitable sounds of people who are younger, drunker and less burdened with work, hooking up and briefly forgetting about the 60 people that are within easy earshot as the thumping starts against the wall, headboard, floor, shower stall, broom closet, etc. Ah, Europe. What happens in the broom closet, stays in the broom closet.

So if you’re looking for a reason to travel, there’s always that.