Sitting on the rooftop terrace watching all of Brisbane wake is the perfect way to start the day - if only every morning could start this way. It almost makes you forget that the hostel down below you is full to the brim with people, when there's only you and two other people looking out on the skyline.
I've never really travelled around as much as I would like to. Possibly because of not wanting to use up my time off, never wanting to spend the money or just because I felt like going away was something to be done with your other half (and mine wasn't very willing to spend money on much). Being here in Brisbane though the only choice to keep the costs down was a hostel.
As someone who has never stayed in a hostel before, I thought I'd share my opinions on whether the hostel myths were true.
My previous ideas of a hostel was that it would probably not be all together clean and organised, be rather loud with so many guests and it would be not the best place to keep your belongings laying around. I would say I got the loud part right but overall it's not as bad as I thought it might be.
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My brother and I booked the cheapest room possible which for our hostel was a 20 bed dorm. However when we arrived it wasn't really 20 beds because the room was divided in to two separate areas. Although we still drew the short straw of the 14 bed area, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I wondered how on earth will I sleep when I know there are another 13 people in beds all around me? I wondered if I would ever feel comfortable with this idea and dreaded the nights and days to come knowing I would not feel at home.
To my surprise this never happened! From the second I was in the dorm I felt absolutely fine with sharing the space with a load of other people. I'm not sure if it was the fact of being so far from home, so having people around you felt more comforting or just the fact that I didn't need as much personal space as I thought I did. You know what the strangest thing of all is? Sleeping in a bunk bed! I haven't done that since I was about ten years old and it is honestly great (I'm such a child, I know). Being on the top level though comes with a hidden benefit. The lockers that are between the beds are as high as the beds themselves, giving me a small table like area to keep a bunch of my stuff.
The hostel itself is pretty nice - I did get a surprise when there was only one bathroom for the entire place! Call me a princess but I assumed it was more than one bathroom for the whole hostel. This obviously panicked me as I thought I would never get to have a shower without waiting or there would always be a queue for a toilet but again I was so wrong. The bathrooms rarely ever have more than six people in there (and that is just when it is actually busy).
There's a free breakfast every morning between 8am and 10am for our hostel which of course sounds amazing. Being a hostel though you can't expect the red carpet buffet laid out so breakfast is a selection of weetabix, cornflakes or muesli with some white bread and selection of jams and peanut butter. Not the most nutritious breakfast I've ever had - I honestly can't remember the last time I ate white bread. When you're on a budget though and food is free, you can't scoff at what gets put in front of you and I think it's great having muesli and peanut butter toast every morning!
Having a kitchen in the hostel is great especially when there's a massive grocery store right across the street. You can make your own lunch and dinner if you want to and keep everything in the fridge (as long as it's labelled or the cleaning crew delight in removing it).
Having a kitchen in the hostel is great especially when there's a massive grocery store right across the street. You can make your own lunch and dinner if you want to and keep everything in the fridge (as long as it's labelled or the cleaning crew delight in removing it).
When arriving at a hostel for the first time, it is quite intimidating seeing all the long timers or people who have clearly travelled in hostels before With just one locker and your bed to store all of your belongings you soon find that you have to become a very resourceful person to keep a track of where things are that you need every day. I discovered that it's not hard to get in to a routine as you organise a shower bag, keep your basic belongings at the foot of your bed over night (or on top of a locker in my case) and head to the kitchen when you know there wont be anyone there.
Overall hostel living really isn't so bad. Yeah people can be loud, there's sometimes no space to sit anywhere when you want to get out the room for a while and you have to remember to carry a key card around the building or you will soon find yourself locked out (N.o I haven't done this....yet) Considering the price, free wifi and free breakfast with full use of a kitchen...who can really complain? Besides they make us pancakes every Sunday morning.
If you're interested to know the hostel I chose to stay in is Summerhouse Backpackers. They are just a 15 minute walk from the Centre and Southbank with a giant grocery store across the road. It's a very conveniently located hostel with a different activity on every day i.e. Pancake Sunday, Pub Crawl Tuesday or BBQ Thursay.
Overall hostel living really isn't so bad. Yeah people can be loud, there's sometimes no space to sit anywhere when you want to get out the room for a while and you have to remember to carry a key card around the building or you will soon find yourself locked out (N.o I haven't done this....yet) Considering the price, free wifi and free breakfast with full use of a kitchen...who can really complain? Besides they make us pancakes every Sunday morning.
If you're interested to know the hostel I chose to stay in is Summerhouse Backpackers. They are just a 15 minute walk from the Centre and Southbank with a giant grocery store across the road. It's a very conveniently located hostel with a different activity on every day i.e. Pancake Sunday, Pub Crawl Tuesday or BBQ Thursay.
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