By William Lippincott

December 3, 2022

Traveling on a budget is based around many different aspects. The most striking experiences are small amounts of food, seeing exceptional landmarks and castles, but most importantly staying in hostels. Staying in hostels can leave you in a twenty-one person bedroom with three people snoring louder than you can think, but most of the time a hostel is a social hub, a place for friendships to be forged, and lifelong memories made.

At the beginning of our trip, Miranda, Sophia, and I stayed in our first hostel, a small but cozy place in Omis, Croatia. When we first walked in our room, we met our roommate, a girl from England who welcomed us with a large smile. Immediately we all began talking. As this was my first day in a country across the world, I was a little frustrated and paranoid, but talking with her eased my worries and let me enjoy the moment with a new friend. The next day we met nine other people from all around the world, and with all these people, I began talking and learning. This led me to such relief and joy as creating connections has a certain spark to it that I always look towards pursuing wherever I am.

There is something special about bonding with another person. What makes this bond so unique and priceless is that it is made of complex, beautiful, emotional, and reasonable human beings. Pieces of famous artwork strike awe in me leaving me to wonder how another person could create something so interesting, but they amount to nothing in comparison to the amount of complexity and intrigue that is visible in another person. While in Vienna, Miranda, Sophia, and I went to a museum called the Albertina, in it there is the artwork of a man named Tony Cragg. I am a huge fan of his sculpting and all three of us saw some of his quotes on a wall next to his sculptures that we instantly loved. My favorite is as follows: “Even if some natural material is involved, such as stone or wood, when I use it, it bears very distinctive signs that it has, for example, been carved from the Earth by man or that trees have been cut, for instance. It is about human intervention”. Something always strikes me when I read, ‘human intervention’, that a person, the exact same as you or myself, created something so breathtaking and evocative of emotion. Even a masterpiece that shocks every viewer, like a multi million dollar Van Gogh painting, is only a small representation of what that human being who painted it is capable of. Although people do not always create such harmonious things like precious artwork, when they do, it requires a focused stream of attention to what looks beautiful. Art is an expression of something naturally beautiful to us as people, but it is not the only creation made or action done that is also similarly beautiful to us. In the case of masterpieces of art, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, when you see it, you are immediately and naturally, left in awe, wonder and joy. We, as creatures, can do many actions that are inherently good to both the recipient and you as the actor of that action.

This idea of beauty in our actions seems to come forth strongly in hostels. Many of our actions are aimed at a higher capacity of good than other actions, for example, when a singular person has all his attention on another singular person, more good can be done, as the person is more receptive to actions done for him. It stems from a mind that truly listens to another person and wants to learn what they can offer. Hostels are a congregation for people hoping to meet other people, for people who see the beauty in one another, and for people opening themselves to being as receptive as possible in order to achieve that human connection. In hostels, many people, looking for cheap options as they spend all their money traveling to a different part of the world to see new things and expand their scope of knowledge through experience, hope to meet people who are on the same wild, creative, and curious adventure they are. If you mix this like-mindedness, with an environment of constant socializing, as you are almost always in a room with many other people, the possibility of genuine, intelligent, and fun conversations exponentially increases. Finally, add in another factor of scarcity. This one comes from everyone knowing, in the back of their mind, they all have only a night or two more with these people, so if you end up liking someone and connecting with them, all the more reason to live life to the fullest with them while time dwindles near its finish, and if you do not like them, you never have to see them again. A hostel, housing all these things, usually builds its finished product with the tool of two people with similar mindsets, two people who are not too worried about comfort, as they are staying in a twelve person room most likely, two people who hope to learn from each other, and finally, in both of them, a shared simple desire to socialize. These tools culminate in core memories and a desire to stay in more hostels.

Throughout my trip so far, every time I stay in a hostel, I am hoping to get a roommate who is kind, intelligent, and hungry for life. I have looked forward to getting to my hostel room for this exact purpose many times so far. When I get back from my trip, and people ask me what my favorite thing was about my time backpacking and staying in hostels, my answer will easily be, the people I met. I will never forget when a friend I met in the hostel I was staying at in Dresden, whose parents forced him to leave his home country to study, told me in a conversation in comfy leather chairs, in the common area of our hostel, while sipping coffee, that this place, Lollis homestay, was the best place on Earth.