The first ever hostel

 Whenever I tell people at home or even sometimes here in the UK, that I live in a hostel, they are astonished and can't really imagine what it's like. Especially in Germany where the concept of hostels is relatively new (apart from the classic youth hostel) it is very hard for my friends and family to understand why I choose and like this kind of life (most of the time). I am not even sure, if I chose it or if it cose me. It just happened and I am okay, quite often even happy with it.



It all started in Ireland in January 2005. I had spend the last couple of months of 2004 as an Au Pair in Ireland in Co. Claire somewhere in the middle of nowhere. There was no shop, no pub! and the next bus station with a regular bus was 2 miles away. Apart from my host family I had little contact with the locals and spend almost every night in front of the telly and was terribly lonely. So when Christmas came the family and I decided to part ways. I would go home and spend the holidays with my friends and family and come back three weeks later to move in with the only friend I had in the near by city of Limerick and find a job and do my own thing.



There was just the little issue that I was not officially registered at Silvina's (my friend) flat and the office that gives out the PPS numbers (Social Security Number which is the one legal requirement I needed to work in Ireland) needed a proof of address from the landlord. The good thing was that I had a friend in Galway who is also German and had moved to Ireland 2 years before me and I knew he'd be able to help me.



 So I phoned him up and he told me to come to Galway and we'd take care of it together. And that was the first time I sat foot into a backpacker hostel. I am not even sure, if I stayed there this time around, I may have even stayed at my friend's house but it was then that I decided to stay in Galway not in Limerick.

Galway City Centre

Why you ask? First of all Galway is just such a wee gem of a city. It is directly on the coast, you literally walk 5 minutes from the main shop street to the beach, there are buskers (street performers) everywhere and there is just such a lovely alternative scene that I really loved. Limerick on the other hand is rough, pretty ugly and just not very friendly. But the moment when I finally made my decision was when I was sitting at the office to apply for my PPS number again. While I was sitting there and waiting for my turn a guy came in and like in a rom-com or a romance novel, I just knew, he was special and that I wanted him. I know how this sounds, but there is really no other way to describe it. Seeing him made me move to Galway and into the hostel, since it was the cheapest accommodation in town and my friend didn't have enough space to let me stay at his place. I knew I might not even see "my guy" again, but there were so many other great people and so much going on that made me sure I'd be happier in Galway.

the hostel back then

The hostel as it turned out was a dump, but I loved it. It occupied the three top floors of a four story building, with the common areas on the first floor and the dorms in the two top ones. It had a total of 58 beds with 8-10 beds in each dorm, a kitchen, a dining room and a TV room. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? But the condition the hostel was in... there was always something leaking, sometimes it would drip in the TV room, the water from the bathrooms came running down the bottom stairs, because some pipe was leaking and for a while you couldn't use the kitchen sinks because the whole kitchen would flood. Nobody liked going into the backyard where the bins where located because there were rats, probably from the canal that was flowing past the back of the building. I think that was one also of the reasons why the shops below the hostel were abandoned. The showers and toilets were gross with mold everywhere and no proper toilet paper dispensers.

that's how things got fixed

The manager lived in the hostel and got payed 40 Euros a day cash in hand and was only around a few hours a day. There were no locks on the doors and only one lock with with a code on the front entrance. (By the way I looked it up online and it seems in much better condition now...)

two of my room mates

But even though the building was in really bad condition some of the people I met there will stay with me forever. I don't exactly remember all the people I met since I went back a few times and people came and went. But I remember I really quickly moved into room No. 6 which had the coolest people in the hostel. Most of them were Spanish speakers (Argentinian, Bask, Catalan, from Andorra and a guy from Italy who also spoke Spanish). There were also a bunch of Polish people in the hostel, a French men, a guy from New Zealand and many more. And even though we were all from VERY different backgrounds and there for different reasons, we were one of these typical dysfunctional hostel families. We lived, partied, worked and even fought together. I learned my first bits of Spanish, I started making money with busking, I improved my English quite a bit and I learned so much about myself.

 There is only one person out of all of these people that I am still in contact with and that's because he also lives in Edinburgh now but I still remember a lot of people from back then and so many special moments that would never have happened had I not moved into that hostel. I even met my mystery guy from the office again. But I am not sure I'll ever share that story...