While blogging continues over at my new site at notquiteurban.wordpress.com, another post from the vault here at blog headquarters.
This one came from a trip to Torun in Poland in January of 2009, a short jaunt that was memorable for how bloody cold it was both in the city and in the hostel where we stayed.
There was one other person in the hostel when we showed up at Torun’s only backpacker’s refuge around supper time today. It stayed like that until 11:30. The one person at the far other end of the large 12-bed room, we at the near end.
Then around 11:31 we got another roomie, a fellow who entered the hostel, had a loud chat with the front office staff in Poland and subsequently was led into our room, where he subsequently selected a top bunk near the other person (thankfully).
He seemed weird, despite not speaking to us. Something about the noise he created gave off that vibe. Magda thought three people had entered the room. Then, with midnight passing, he needed to take a shower. To prepare himself, I guess, he started playing Polish rap on his cell phone. The other person, for what it’s worth, was plugging away on her laptop. The entire rap song passed and another started before roomy took his stereo to the shower to play while noisily showering. Every now and then he would let out an awkward, loud sigh.
Was he mentally ill? Drunk? Just plain weird? Or, more cynically (and admittedly unlikely) was he hired by the hostel to “encourage” us to upgrade to a more expensive private room?!? Okay, probably not. Still, some laughs to be had.
