Hostel Folk

Where the magic happens

I’ve been in Australia for over a week and no one I met at the hostel in Hawaii has tried to contact me on Facebook so I figure it is safe to tell you about some of the people… and they'll never suspect a thing, muhahaha.
The first guy was from Chicago, Abe, 26, never learned what he did for work. He considered himself somewhat of a beer connoisseur in that he was always looking for new beers to try. This was good for me because he introduced me to the Chocolate Beer. We got to talking about relationships somehow, and he told me that he has only seen his girlfriend once in the past 4 months (he also considered the 30min drive to where she is long distance). He ended up revealing that his g/f was actually his high school English teacher and that they’d gotten together when he was done HS and were once engaged for a time, but her father would have none of it. She is 14 years older (40!). I was drinking when he told me this and I might’ve stared at him, mouth hanging open for a few minutes, can’t remember.
There was another guy, Ramon, from Salt Lake City, Utah. He was older, probably mid-late 30s, and worked as a mechanic for Delta, so he gets free flights anywhere. He also works nights, 4 on, 3 off. He was in Hawaii for his 3 off, flight freeeeee. He was a really nice guy and told me all about birds flying into plane engines and how it totally ruins them, both the bird and the engine. He said it usually happens during take-off and that domestic flights will turn around and get it taken care of, but international flights that can not afford that type of delay will just keep going. I guess it is possible to get from SLC to Heathrow with just one working engine. Fascinating.
I met another guy, from Switzerland, I never learned his name, but he was a pirate for Halloween (i.e. wore a pirate hat) so I just called him The Pirate. He was pretty funny, and like the German and Scandinavian hostel guests very intense.
There was a pair of girls from Iceland. They were underage but somehow got alcohol. The one girl liked talking about American politics when she drank.
I guess I found the whole hostel thing pretty interesting. Encountering the different types of travelers and watching them in their natural habitat. I liked to watch the people who were traveling alone. I would say, with my limited hostel and traveling experience (swim travel is NOT the same and therefore does not count), that there are 3 types of travelers, and this may just be at hostels or maybe just this particular hostel. There are travelers like myself, who prefer to go off on their own during the day and then come back at night and be social. There are the type that don’t ever want to be alone and want a companion to do things with during the day. But then there are the type who are sort of in-between: they are happy to do their own thing, but can also be talked into joining the needy type for the day. I guess there would be a fourth type too: The travelers who just want to experience the nightlife and go balls to the wall out every night, then sleep most of the day in bed or on the beach in preparation for the next night. I found these traveler-dynamics pretty interesting, new angle on people watching I suppose.