Potential hostel hassles - part 1

79 B.C.E.

Today I was talking to a girl who did the backpacking thing a few years ago in Australia and New Zealand. She asked if I was getting nervous yet and I confessed that the main thing that’s ever made me think twice about the whole trip (besides the open-wallet surgery) is the thought of sharing hostels with….people. Having lived on my own for the past ten years, the thought of sharing any accommodation induces many negative emotions, especially each morning when I wake up in the comfort of my little Birkdale palace and wonder how I’m going to cope with the sight of four strange smelly bods (plus bro) first thing in the morning…even worse is how are they going to cope with me?!! And that’s just if we’re in a six person dorm – what if they do `em larger??? I may have shared a building with 69 other people in university halls, but at least we had our own rooms!

I was told to be wary of the Irish, because all they ever do is drink. Really? I love a drink, but I also need to take a couple of days off here and there, even when I’m partying hard (which is getting rarer and rarer). I love the Irish people – I’m missing the annual pilgrimage to Limerick my friends are currently on, which I backed out of to prevent more – yawn! – open-wallet surgery. Really wish I was there though, enjoying the craic with, errr, plenty of drinks. Still, I don’t think it’s the fact the Irish drink that’s the problem, it’s just that they (allegedly) never leave the hostel while they’re doing the drinking. All that culture and they choose to stay in a semi-lit TV room watching sports all day and night? That’s not good.  Still, this is from the man who plans to following the European Football Championships religiously while he’s bombing across the USA.

They call it “soccer” over there, Jimbo.

And they think it’s crap.