All of you who follow our TUBIE Ironing Machine and Shirt Iron blog know that I am a digital nomad for TUBIE Ironing Doll and work on my laptop from all over the world. Mostly in a café, in Southeast Asia on the veranda of my bungalow, and in Australia, where I've been for about 5 weeks now, often in a hostel, because drinking coffee is expensive in the long run, and because as a backpacker you can't afford or don't want any other accommodation than a hostel. However, over time you get used to living in a hostel and sharing a room with other travellers, which would be unimaginable for many, including all of our shirt ironing team. However, there are some things that are really annoying about hostel life...
Snoring flatmates
Probably the most annoying thing is a snoring roommate. After a hard day at work or travelling, sometimes you just want to have some peace and quiet and read a book in the evening before you go to sleep. But if you have an annoying roommate who snores like a sawmill, your well-deserved sleep is over. Even earplugs won't help.
Shared bathroom
What is also annoying, of course, is that within a dormitory you usually have to share a bathroom with other flatmates. In my case, I share a shower and a toilet with 10 other flatmates and it can happen that you have to wait an hour for the shower. However, this varies from hostel to hostel, because some have many showers in the corridor and the whole thing works a bit better there.
Poor wifi
Another thing is bad wifi. In principle, of course, you shouldn't be on your mobile phone or laptop all the time, but as a digital nomad for TUBIE ironing doll and ironing machine, I am naturally dependent on good high-speed wifi. That's why it makes sense to read through the hostel reviews beforehand to find out how well the wifi works. In the worst case, you have to find a café with good internet and invest in 3 or 4 completely overpriced coffees.
Grubby Backpackers
You can probably find grubby backpackers in every hostel. Often they are still very young, just graduated from high school and on the trip of a lifetime. They don't take personal hygiene too seriously, and washing clothes is also completely overrated. I even met one who hadn't had his own toothpaste for weeks and always scrounged some. Such specimens can happily live on peanut butter toast for two weeks. The only bad luck is when you have so-called "smelly" backpackers in your room. It always smells a bit strong.
Yes, dear shirt-ironing friends, such a hostel is certainly not for everyone. I enjoy it anyway.
Many greetings from Byron Bay, Carina from the TUBIE Ironing Doll Team.
Photo by Carina Kraus