Thursday 7 February 2013

A Few of my Favourites!

I am now back home in England after an absolutely amazing trip to Italy. I loved working in the hostel with new and different people coming through the door. So I thought I would write one last post to just share a few of my favourite guests.

1) The Dutch Hitch-hiking Couple

A young male and female who have currently been travelling for 4 months...all hitch-hiking! They plan on continuing this method of travel throughout Europe for a whole year! Their budget skills were enough to rival my mother, I must say - aiming to spend no more than 4 euro a day. This was done by not paying for any public transport, only eating very basic meals and camping wherever they could fit their tent, i.e. not a proper campsite, but orchards and fields (...). On the other hand, they did admit they'd spent nearly 4,000 euro on 'gear' for their trip..including the bags, clothes, tent etc. However, it is all very well living on a budget, but when it affects your personal hygiene, you know you have to reconsider. I don't think these two did. They left a very unpleasant odour even when they had left the room. I could tell showering wasn't top of their list when they were describing some of the people they had received lifts from who had then offered them a place to say 'and a shower!!' (said with extreme excitement). By my calculations I estimated they probably had had around 4/5 showers in the whole four months...as for washing their clothes...i'd rather not think about that!


2) The Chinese Couple..making the most of everything that was free

Two males checked in who had come from China with HUGEE rucksacks (on their back and front) and two great sticks as if they were trekking Mount Snowdonia but were actually just walking through the cobbled streets of Italy. They were very lovely but were obviously also working on a budget. Everything that was free, they had. At 8 o'clock in the morning they both ran downstairs to sit down and connect to the free wifi, plus plugging in every single electrical device they owned to charge. They were so absorbed in the task of finding everything that was free that I had to shout three times if they wanted any breakfast...and when they found out this was included in the 17 euro price for the night, it was like Christmas.

3) The Italian 'Lads on Tour'

When a group of seven 18-19 Italian boys check in, you know its going to be an interesting night. On their way to Amsterdam, the boys were staying the night to catch their plane from Brindisi the next morning. All very cheerful and very excited they were singing and dancing and talking to everyone in their broken English. I guessed it was their first trip away together without parents because they completely wiped out the beer fridge. They were charming boys though and we all sat down and played poker until 2 in the morning.

4) The Crazy Old Woman Staying in Brindisi for Dental Treatment

This lady was absolutely lovely. Unfortunately my first meeting with her arose in the morning when I woke up to go and have a shower and she was stood just in her very large knickers trying to turn the shower on. Unfortunately this was the day when we had some serious water issues. She spoke no English so trying to explain that there was no water and she couldn't shower yet, as well as trying to divert my eyes to anything but her, was very difficult. I found out later she was a regular guest and came to Brindisi to have work done on her teeth...which would have been fine if she actually had any teeth to do anything with.

5) The EXTREMELY Tall Dutch Woman

The hostel offers free pick up from the train station to those who have booked to stay. We got a phone call from a young Dutch woman saying she'd arrived. We went to pick her up and spotted her straight away. She was so incredibly tall she made me feel VERY short, and at 5"10, that takes some doing.


So I just thought I would share with you some of the guests that have stayed in my mind (not forgetting the puking lady and also the Korean ladies with the electric cooker and the saucepan - see earlier posts if you've missed this) and that will most definitely stay with me for a long time.