Hosteling

Throughout my travels in the last few years I have been able to experience the "American" hostels. Hostels vary greatly in the U.S., worldwide we don't score very high on the "best-hostels" list and in a lot of ways I have seen why. I have stayed at hostels in New York City, New Orleans, Northern and Southern California, Las Vegas and that about sums it up. I will never forget ANY of my hosteling situations.

For those of you who do not know what a hostel is, a hostel is an inexpensive alternative to hotels for youth who are on backpacking and travelling adventures worldwide. For the most part a hostel is a place where you can rent a bed in a dormitory style room with 6-12 other travellers for anywhere between $12 and $30 bucks a night. Most hostels also offer private rooms as well, bathrooms however are shared. In today's blog entry I am going to share some of my hosteling experiences, they have ranged from extremely fun and culturally educational to totally horrible, twice I almost went from the hostel to the county jail.

Read on.

Hostels are funny places. They are extremely profitable for the people renting them and there really is no "standard" regulating what you are going to get. When you stay at a hostel you usually book them on the Internet and rely heavily on the feedback from others. The owners of the hostel don't really have to worry too much if they don't want to about how nice or clean they are or how many amenities are offered as most cities in the U.S. do not have too many, they are somewhat concealed in the neighborhoods and most people have never been to the place that they are visiting so they have no choice. Once you reserve a bed or a room on your credit card for a hostel, you are usually stuck there as the alternative is much more costly and you are bound by the establishment having a reservation on a credit card. Cancellation can be quite difficult.

Some hostels are rip offs, total slums. The slumlords are not clean can be extremely rude and don't care about their customers one bit. I have found those hostels most frequently in cities like Los Angeles or New York. These hostels are not only used for travellers, all the owners care about is keeping them full and if there is room allow the homeless, prostitutes and other scum into the room with good hearted young travellers from all over the world. I have been completely embarrassed a few times of our country when I saw how foreigners were treated and housed for their first experience of the U.S. I have seen hostels run like jails, literally and have actually witnessed people from thousands of miles away being forced to sleep on the pavement do to the strict rules. These bedbug infested, moldy slum hostels should be avoided at all costs. Do your research.

The best hostel I ever stayted in is in Santa Cruz, California. I stayed in the hostel for 2 weeks and have stayed there many times again while visiting. Every time I go it is and adventure and I always learn a lot about myself and about the world. There is only one hostel in Santa Cruz. It is 4 blocks from the main beach and the boardwalk and amusement park and is one of my favorite places in the world. At times I have found it downright magical.

The first time that I stayed at the hostel in Santa Cruz I was amazed. The grounds were actually considered a state park and consisted of beautiful foliage and tiny bungalows in a quite posh neighborhood. The hostel in Santa Cruz has co-ed dorms, all male dorms and little cottages. The best part, to me, is the big old house with the dorms in it. The only drawback is that since it is in such a quiet neighborhood you have a curfew. Waking up at this hostel was wonderful. There is a full kitchen with 6 tables and cupboards and refrigerators full of interesting things to eat. Most people label their food with their own names and anything that is not labeled is up for grabs. People really share at this hostel, it runs like a finely oiled machine. When travellers move on, they simply remove the tape from their goods and leave it for the next. I was always amazed at the extra stuff.

Everyone shares at Santa Cruz hostel. The community donates to it daily and really embraces the concept. Every day local grocers deliver baked goods and fresh produce that is shared amongst the guests and people from all over the world break bread together sharing with each other. It is a very live and let live type of place. I have travelled in and out of Santa Cruz many times and even if I do not stay there, I make a point to visit the staff. It is not uncommon for a beach bum surfer from Australia or somewhere else to just DECIDE to stay in Santa Cruz and this hostel, like many others is quick to hire them on a few days a week in exchange for board to get them started. While in this hostel I made great friends, hippies, surfers all types. I met the smartest people who I have ever met in my travels and spent many days or nights drinking coffee or tea and bonding with people from all over the world with great intellectual and philosophical chats. For $22 bucks, you are 3 blocks from the beach and welcomed with open arms. Thew hostel is very clean and you have lockers. There are not to many events that they schedule and TV and Internet is limited as most people who travel to this city are enjoying the beautiful scenery...this is not a place you go to stay inside.

Before I move on I will note that I became so comfortable at the Santa Cruz hostel that one day I was stuck downtown, was a tad bit tipsy and it was cold. I knew one of many secrets that the hostels guest who frequent it only share with each other, I knew a secret way in and I snuck in and slept on the living room couch. Apparently I scared a teacher and his class who were in the room nearby, law enforcement was called and there was a good chance that I could have gotten in trouble. The wonderful staff knew me and it is not uncommon for these types of things to happen and I was quickly let go and led to a bed. I had the money, it was just after hours. Fun Times.

The second best hostel that I have ever stayed in was in Las Vegas. It was the most affordable and a very social and fun place. This hostel had all semi private hotel type rooms. You could randomly have up to 3 other people in your room, however, they had so many rooms that if you were travelling in pairs you could usually have a normal hotel room all to yourself for $18 dollars per person. The hostel had a pool, many FREE computers with Internet and every night had a pool party and a BBQ where travellers socialized and ate free BBQ together. Other than the fact that I was tremendously ill most of the time, I had a BLAST there. My friend and I were able to meet these great girls from Germany and for the entire 2 weeks we were there we buddied up with the. This hostel was a stones throw from the strips and the STRATOSPHERE was right outside the door. The rules were limited, it was Vegas and each room was equipped with cable TV and everything that you would find in a regular hotel, with MANY free extras. Right next door there is a great deal for 2 slices of pizza and a pitcher of beer for $10. What a place.

I have to honestly say that the worst hostel I have every stayed at was in NY. Actually, the hostels there ALL suck pretty badly. I went to one in Harlem and walked right out due to the filth. The best one I could find was on the West Side in Chelsea and was extremely lacking in a lotta a ways, but what do you expect fr $20 a night in Manhattan. This hostel charged for EVERYTHING. My experience there was one of the best in some ways, but definitely the worst in a lot of others. While I stayed in the hostel I was working on a TV game show and then worked as a European Tourist in Disney's "ENCHANTED" with Susan Sarandon. Talk about method acting, I was literally living with European tourists and actually borrowed some gear from my new friends to wear to the set.

This hostel was a blast in a lot of ways because there were so many people all from different parts of the world. There were 6 people in my room, a boy from Israel who cracked codes for the Israeli military 2 guys from Ireland a politicians son from Mexico and then a couple of random weirdos that were all in and out. Myself and the other few guys became great friends as we all stayed together for the whole 2 weeks. The Israeli kid was studying HIPHOP dancing while he was there and while I roomed with him Palestine had been shooting missiles at Israel and I quickly learned that the missiles were RIGHT in his families neighborhood. Scary. The Irish guys were just being Irish, they drank the whole time and got everyone drunk that they could and the Mexican kid was a poet preparing to rent a flat in the village. The random people however were very strange, one was clearly a junkie from Manhattan and things were stolen.

This hostel sucked as far as environment went. The rooms had a thick musty smell and no fans and it appeared that the bathrooms had never been cleaned. Everything in there was damp and your clothes quickly became mildewed. Internet costed $1.00 a minute and at 9pm a new shift of GUARDS (I called them guards, they were militant) came on and yelled at everyone and made everyone go in or leave the property. It was horrible. One night we had a group of very peaceful people sitting and having beers and talking about the world and the "GUARDS" came and began yelling at the people and using racial slurs. I was extremely embarrassed and very bummed as what was an enlightening night of mixed cultures joing hands quickly turned bad. After witnessing far too much aggression from the employees of the hostel I finally told my friends that this was America, they were paying customers and did not have to tolerate this abuse. The guys appreciated my informing them of this, but rather than rustle feathers decided to avoid conflict. No sooner did that happen did on of the GUARDS push the gentle tourist and smack his very expensive unopened bottle of Cognac out of his hands. That was it, I lost it. I got into the mans face and told him that he was an embarrassment to our country and that I was not only going to speak to his boss, but I was going to report him to the INTERNATIONAL HOSTELS groups that they were affiliated with. No sooner than that happened did they men call the police accuse me of getting violent and ejected me from the hostel keeping 8 days worth of my money. I then went to a friends house in Staten Island for the rest of my visit and was still able to stay with my friends, but I was appalled at how they treated their guests, our guests like inmates or cattle.

Now as far as the hostels in L.A. go, woah. L.A., had more hostels than anywhere that I had ever been and I stayed at quite a few. Stay away from the ones in Hollywood or anywhere near Hollywood. These hostels are more like gay whorehouses and everyone that I went to I left just as quickly. These hostels had very open gay sex going on, were filthy and overpriced. I also stayed at one by the airport. This hostel may have well as been right in the middle of Compton as there was dope dealers lining the streets and it felt very unsafe. There is however a really good hostel in Santa Monica that is very strict about who is let it (it requires a key car to enter the building) and everything is quite new and upkept. There is a fitness area and flat screen TV's and it offers many discounts on shuttle buses and sightseeing packages.

The fun ones are in Venice Beach. While the hostels on Venice Beach may not be the cleanest, they are very cool. It is almost like a nonstop party. The two I stayted in were right on the boardwalk and you had access to VENICE beach at any hour of the night. The people in these hostels surprisingly disproportionately American in contrast to all of the other hostels I stayed at, a lot of artists and musicians and weed smoke. It was very easy to work for these hostels in exchange for board and while you hard to guard your stuff for your life, it was a very unique experience, very different than all of the other hostels. The main drawback was that people steal EVERYTHING. Venice can be a sort of dangerous place with a lot of minor criminal activities. DO NOT STAY IN HOLLYWOOD. I REPEAT DO NOT STAY IN HOLLYWOOD. There are a TON of hostels there TONS and they lie in their ads and are complete madhouse. I have stayed in OVER 6 there and the employees, the owners and guests EVERYONE will rip you off. They are total tourist traps. I have heard good things about one in North Hollywood and maybe that one is ok, but by the time I found out about that one I was over it. Unless you want to see huge breasted, very tall women whip out their penis and urinate in public while smiling at you, you do not want to stay in Hollywood. Santa Monica Hostel is 4 blocks from the beach and one of the nicest hostels I have ever seen, kinda pricey, but well worth It comparatively.

If you are up for a wild ride, last but not least stay in a Hostel in New Orleans. I stayed in a hostel in New Orleans, POST KATRINA and was greeted by a Pepsi machine full of beer. That's right, for $1 a can of beer falls out. The hostel was decorated with beads and religious symbols and was in a seedy neighborhood full of old shotgun homes and other historic landmarks. This hostel allows ANYONE, there are construction workers, foreign people and even bartenders who I think may have been living there their whole lives. It's unsafe to walk anywhere around the hostel at night,but I did it anyhow and loved every minute of it. For some reason New Orleans is a magical place where totally different people interact together perfectly....sometimes. Nothing in New Orleans is concrete. It changes every single day. For some people it is a very scary and dangerous place, for others things flow in an almost spiritual way. It's odd. Every night there are BBQ's and brass instruments, guitars and even the spoons are played. You can literally drop a keg of beer right in the middle of the room and it isn't weird and everyone shares and acts like complete lunatics. I didn't stay at this hostel my usual two weeks, the body and the good Lord would never have permitted that, but it was amazing and fun and I met the most interesting people that I have ever met in my life. This hostel is colorful, you do everything yourself, change your sheets, wash your clothes, sweep, mop. But this hostel is a stones thrown from the French Quarter and minutes from the Historic Garden districts and the streetcar. What a blast this place was. I will say, it's not for everyone, but neither is New Orleans. If you do not enjoy playing "good block, bad block" when walking home and you can't handle watching people vomit all over themselves....don't go. But, if you can vibe there you will eat at the finest restaurants, listen to the most talented musicians and mingle with the rich and famous and the downtrodden and poor all in the same five minutes....that's New Orleans.

That about wraps it up for my Hostel adventures. Most of them are ok and do not allow you to stay if you have a local ID, some even require a plane ticket or passport. Do your research, really make sure that you are aware that you are going to experience the nitty gritty of the city you are visiting. Hospitable places will be hospitable (I hear Texas hostels are the bet) and fast past city ones are gonna be less friendly and more turn and burn 'em type spots. The thing about hostels is that you are forced to live very closely with people from all over the world who are usually on a similar adventure and you really get to realize that people are people. We are all very much alike and when you live closely with people from other cultures, your mind opens to other ideas and you begin to notice that you are not the only person on earth. I fear that as Americans we isolate ourselves way to much with our luxuries, spend way too much time touting that we are the best and not enough time sharing and trying to learn about our fellow man.

Every time I stay in a hostel with foreign people who are travelling to our country I go out of my way to not only share our culture, but partake in theirs. I have to say that I actually try to treat foreigners better than I treat most people in my daily interaction because while working in bars and restaurants and travelling and staying in hostels I have really seen how rude a lot of us treat guests to our country. Downright cruel. People travel from all over to see our great land and just because we are in a rush and are so used to instant gratification, we come across as very rude people very often. It is my mission to show new comers to my homeland that we are a good people, we are kind and sharing and are open minded to other peoples ideas. Don't let Hollywood stars or the cashier at Starbucks define the impression that foreigners have of Americans. We are a great nation full of good people, stay in a hostel and share with you fellow man.

~one love

tilly