On the German leg of my European tour, my first stop was Berlin. I went there straight from Prague to meet some people from my TEFL program. My peers picked a hostel called Heart of Gold. After a month of staying in a rented apartment in Prague, I grew a little rusty with hostel life. This hostel re-introduced me with a bang.
Here are a few crazy happenings:
- Firstly, an Irish girl from my dorm whisked me away down to the hostel common area, where I met an outstandingly drunk young man from Israel. He was so drunk that it was comical. Also, a pair of British travellers showed up and we all decided to go to a notoriously “touristy” club called Matrix (a random man on the subway was even laughing at us for our club choice). I personally think it was a good club, but maybe that’s because I’m a tourist. It was no Berghain, but the music was still fun to dance to :).
- Going with the theme of drunkness, there was one night where my Irish dorm mate brought in one of her friends to our dorm. He was so outstandingly drunk that he ended up peeing in a corner of our dorm in the middle of the night! Sadly, that was the corner where my old shoes stood. Thankfully, I was thinking of throwing them away anyway, so I just took it as a sign.
- On my first night at the hostel, I came across a jolly middle-aged fellow. He was there, sitting amongst a sea of twenty-somethings, looking like he was having the time of his life. A bit later on, I ended up hearing from a guy at the hostel that this man was actually flirting and asking young men to do “things” with him for money. Apparently, he even showed my friend his bank account and it had a lot of money in it. You never know the types of people you’ll meet at hostels. At least I now know why he was so jolly.
- On one of my last nights at the hostel, I was sitting in the hostel lounge, scrolling through my phone. The weekend was fast approaching and the hostel didn’t have any beds available for the night. So I was trying to book another hostel last minute. Then this German cadet sat next to me and started a conversation. His private room ended up having two empty beds and he offered that I just sleep in one of them. It was a very very convenient coincidence. I accepted, and also ended up getting invited out for beers with him and his comrades. Only through hostel life will you find yourself having beers with six German cadets on vacation.
There definitely is that “Berlin vibe,” that something in the air that makes interesting things happen. The city can be a magical, strange place if you let it. It’s not really about what the city looks like, but about what’s going on within it. Young people flock here because there are just so many opportunities. A lot of people staying at my hostel were actually planning a move to Berlin. The hostel receptionist even complained of how overbooked the hostel was because of this! People are coming to Berlin from all over, trying to make an interesting life for themselves, filled with techno music, festivals, and start-ups.
Heart of Gold is still one of my favourite hostels. I loved the atmosphere. It also had a big common area with long tables, which made it easier to meet people. The common area is where you had breakfast, as well as just relaxed and worked on your laptop in. So if you ever felt bored, all you had to do was walk downstairs and sit in one of those long tables, eventually you’d bump into someone.
If you want something fun to happen to you, it’s very easy, you just need two things: a hostel with a good common area and the willingness to talk to strangers. Best of luck!
It was a very interesting read! Keep up the good work 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂