Sketchy Hostel

Hi there!

^{So I know some of you are waiting with baited breath for an exciting travel adventure story on this blog. Well, wait no longer folks, here it is!}


Gloria and I checked out of our nice hostel in Sydney Monday morning and traveled over to Bondi Beach to another hostel. The main reason for this was we thought it'd be nice to experience a different area of Sydney while we're here and we both like the beach. We had read the reviews online for the Bondi Beach hostel and though they weren't stellar, a co-worker of Gloria's had stayed here and said it was just fine (she and her husband had a double room to themselves so that probably made a big difference). Anyway, we got here around 10:30am and they were nice enough to let us check in then (check in is usually at 2pm). We went up 2 flights of stairs to our room to find two women mostly asleep in their bottom bunk beds and the floor was filled with stuff...dishes, clothes, you name it. It also smelled strongly of incense (which gives both of us a headache). Only one of the beds was clean and cleared so we piled our bags on that bed and locked up our valuables in one of the empty room lockers. We went out for the rest of the day with some new friends we met here and had a nice day.

We returned around 6pm and went to the room. The one bed was still not cleaned or made and there just seemed to be STUFF everywhere! We met one of the ladies and she had been living there for over a month and said the other girl had been there a while too. We went down to reception to see if there was another room we could possibly have (and were strongly considering spending the extra money on a shared twin!). They had a 6 share room available that only had one person in it. Great, we'll take it! We go to check out the room and there's a guy sleeping in one of the beds! We thought "well, at least it doesn't smell like incense and it's bigger" and got our stuff from the stinky room. We returned to our new room to find a guy and a girl coming out of the door. Apparently the guy and girl were taking a nap or something in the bed when we first walked in. I asked at reception if there was just one person in that room and she confirmed that yes, only one girl was in that room. I told her there was a guy sleeping when we got there and she said it's a 6 share female dorm (phew!) and that if he comes back, to make sure to tell her.


We went to cook dinner in the common share kitchen and discovered that if you want cutlery (plate, bowl, cup, silverware), you have to pay a $10 deposit and keep the cutlery in your room! And the kitchen was quite dirty.

There are some very interesting characters here as well. One guy is completely tatooed all over his face and upper body and he seriously has elf ears! I guess that's something you can do now, get your ears surgically shaped to look like an elf!

Needless to say, we'll probably have an interesting two nights here. But, the room is at least clean and quiet and rather spacious as there's only 3 of us in here. We hope it stays that way tomorrow night too! Thankfully, we are going to some friends of mine on Wednesday for the rest of our time here so that should be a nice change from hostels.


P.S. We were woken up at 2am by our roommate and her friends who brought more stuff into the room then proceeded to hang out just outside the room and talk really loud in French. At least she didn't turn the light on. Stay tuned, we may have more stories to share before this stay is over!