SO after finally hitting an English speaking county, I discovered not only were the London hostels crap and expensive, but full of french students who were studying English, but didn’t want to practice it with everyone else?!
After staying 1 night in a very expensive but bad hostel, I moved to a slightly cheaper, still below-average hostel and began the search for work and real accommodation.
There are a load of Hostels around Bayswater, Russell Square, Kings Cross, and even a YHA in Soho. I tried 2 in Bayswater and they are severely lacking quality. The average price per night is around the £17-22 mark, some weekly rates apply but only for rooms that tend to have long-term guests - My Dutch room mate had lived there for 2 years! eek! and after smoking some amsterdam-cigarettes snored ridiculously loud, I didn’t sleep for 2 weeks. Another guy apparently had lived there for 8 years. Seriously, get a life! - The only plus side is many have their own kitchens. I visited the Generator, and they have good entertainment with a bar, movie screen, nightly games etc, but the rooms were incredibly small, barely enough room to stand between the two bunk beds. My advice is maybe try somewhere a little further out, Ealing maybe? or if you are traveling with a friend a Bed & Breakfast type place. And DEFINITELY go to an internet cafe for net action, you can now (edit 2008) get 1-2hrs of internet for £1!
I met up with Shane and Jason, 2 Aussies I met in Munich, and went to the Emperial War museum which was great and FREE! I continued the free path by visiting Hyde Park (the pic of me is at Princess Diana Memorial Fountain) and Portabella Markets for more random crap.
Madrid was damn hot, but finally a hostel with air-con! I was slightly confused trying to find my hostel, but I met a Korean Guy with a map who kindly guided me right to the hostel before making his way to his own hostel! Cat’s Hostel has a bit of a reputation and was recommended to me. They have electronic arm bands that let you in and out of the hostel, your room, and locker! Breakfast is coffee/hot chocolate and a doughnut or crossaint, and there is a nice bar in the basement. But the key here is all the rooms face onto a central courtyard where people hang out and it has a great atmosphere. This makes it perfect for meeting people and I talked to quite a lot of the guests there. Its also close walking to some of the key sights and entertainment. All in all a great hostel.
When i first checked in Continue Reading…
Starting as a protest (basically some guys following a car with a couple of subs), Love Parade grew to be the world’s largest outdoor dance festival.
With the authorities refusing to class it as a protest anymore, Love Parade organizers could not afford the clean up bill, as previously it was paid by the Government (condition of protest) and so it was canceled for 2 years. Continue Reading…
The Generator, Berlin (also in London), is a BIG Hostel. It takes over 300 people, and the biggest problem with this is it means they cater to tour groups, and worse, school groups. Way too many youngsters there treating the place like crap and lowering the quality for all. Apart from that, and its location being a little out of the way (although right next to the station) its not that a bad Hostel. The rooms were big enough, big lockers, nice bar downstairs (be warned of karaoke night!) FREE Breakfast, and the Free Walking Tour (see below) also starts here. But the internet was expensive and crap, with half the keyboards or mice not working (check local internet shops). Saw 2 other hostels in Berlin and have their ups and downs, beware of security if you stay in central Berlin.
After seeing off Shana and the gang Gabby and I headed back to Berlin before Love Parade.
Post WC Berlin was quite different, and gave us time for some Sight Seeing. We took the FREE New Berlin Walking tour, similar to the one in Munich, and it was just as good. Loads of Berlin history jammed into 3hours as we saw the key sights of Berlin with stories to boot!
The Berlin wall itself is a lot smaller and thinner than I expected, but the combination of 2 walls surrounding no-mans land and Soldiers stationed along the whole wall is what made it so strong. You really feel a bit heavy when you try to soak in everything from Berlin’s past in just a couple of days.
We aslo walked up the top of the Reichstag (glass dome looking thing).
