I have a new found appreciation for hostels. I'm sure there are bad hostels out there but the one I stayed in at Melaggio was really wonderful. Clean, friendly, and thankfully, they spoke english. The front desk girl, Maria, had grown up in America but she was Italian. Then there was Toby. He was British. Wanted to live in Switzerland (my new friend, Emily from Chicago, and I were vying for his job whenever he decided to move on). I wish I had taken a picture of them while I was there but you can find pictures of them on the Facebook page. The rooms were clean, the bathrooms small, but for the price of $46 for two nights, it was worth it. I paid 1 euro for a lock (which, now that I think about it, I think I put a 5 euro deposit down for that key and I've left it behind...dangit) and a euro for a towel. They gave you clean sheets and a pillow case. The beds were comfortable and the room held four bunk beds. My bunkmates were all pretty polite. I ended up coming over to Varenna with Emily from Chicago and two other young women, which I never did get their names (that's horrible) from Australia. We even had a cappuccino together once I dropped my (heavy) belongings off in the Varenna hotel we were staying at for the tour. They wanted to hike (straight up) to a castle but, once I started heading up and realized what I had ahead of me, I knew i'd never make it. They are half my age and definitely have more energy and better muscles than I do. I didn't want to hold them up or make them have to stop and wait for me so I said my goodbyes and let them go. The cobblestones heading up to the castle were slippery also and I had left my hiking boots at home.
Anyway, back to the hostel.
The BBQ was really good, but since I had only eaten, really nothing, since I had iffy scrambled eggs and bacon (cooked to crispy almost-burnt perfection) in the morning, the chicken wings and ribs and polenta was delicious. I paid extra for the grilled vegies but really didn't enjoy them. They were grilled but more soggy than anything else.
I guess the Saturday bbq at the hostel is pretty popular, plus it was Saturday so the place was busy.
The night before we had met a young woman and two men from Germany. The young woman, it turns out, was the sister of one of the young men. The other guy wasn't so young-mid 30'sto 40's. But he gave them a ride to Italy. Can you imagine just saying "Let's go to Italy" one day and then just jumping in your car and going? I guess they have companies that you can just carpool with to another country. What a wonderful idea! With Switzerland only an hour away, I would be just country jumping as often as I could.
So, back to the German group. The young woman was blond and typical German. She was beautiful but seemed a little cold and unfriendly to me. The older man never really said much (they could speak english) but her younger brother was more friendly. When I came down for dinner (because I had passed out for an hour after my trek throughout Bellagio) my Chicagoan friend, Emily, was talking to the German boy whose name, it turned out, was Wolfgang...so German. He actually introduced himself as Wolfie. Now I had taken a picture of him the night before (without his knowledge, ofcourse) and posted it on Facebook because he had a striking resemblance to my oldest son, Jeffrey. After that I had one of those "Oh, he's so sweet" relationships with him because I felt like I was talking to my son. Nice boy. In dental school. His sister, Johanna, was ever watching over him. He began to make jokes about what she was going to allow him to do or not do. At one point, I actually told him that she was going to tuck a napkin in his shirt so he didn't spill. I wish that I had found a way to stay in contact with him so I could see how well he did in dental school. As I left today, I hugged him goodbye and wished him luck with school. Seriously, nice boy.
As more people were arriving at the hostel for the night, we had a New Zealander join our table. At this point it was Joyce, from California, Emily, from Chicago, Wolfie from Germany (I don't remember what part exactly was it as close to Hungary), and myself. Nick from New Zealand added to the funny mix. He was in tourism (although we're not sure what) and actually lived in Germany. His humor was over the top with sarcasm and he felt a need to stir up trouble. First he talked about how lazy women became after they got married and then felt a need to tell their spouse how to behave and what to do. From there we covered religion. He stirred up Joyce's feathers with his comments and she labeled him a chauvinist pig, at one point even oinking at him. He felt a need to find out what religion we all were. I was Christian, of course. Emily didn't want to label herself. Wolfgang was Catholic and, Joyce said she was Buddhist. We determined later that she just wanted to remain neutral and so she picked a neutral religion. Once we passed the religion discussion, she went to bed. She'd had enough. It was pretty funny how she became irritated by Nick's sarcasm when I just let it go by. He did, at one point, let me know that by being a mother of four children, I had done the most amazing thing in the world. Deep down inside, that fight-picking New Zealander was not a bad guy.
At one point we talked about Germany and Nazis. Poor Wolfgang sat there uncomfortably. Nick talked about how he thought the current Germans felt about the situation of old. When he got up and walked away to use the restroom, I asked Wolfgang what he had been taught in school about German history. When else are you going to get a chance to ask that? He explained that they did teach the students in school about German history and that it was a sad subject. He even said that yes, Hitler was influential but that the Germans had a choice in who they would follow and shouldn't have followed Hitler. They could have said no but chose to follow him anyway. Yes, it was a scary time to stand up against the things that were happening and people who did refuse to follow were killed. But they still had the choice and if they followed Hitler, they were just as bad.
Where else do you get the opportunity to learn so much from people of other countries. For me, the hostel was a great place to do that. I wouldn't have changed that for the world.
We all sat together (except Joyce who'd enough) and laughed and talked about ourselves and the world in general. We closed the restaurant/lounge down and when we got upstairs to our room, we had a full house. Every bed was filled. Emily and I went to sleep, exhausted.
The next morning I realized I wish I'd brought a flashlight. It's hard to try and get into the shower first when you an't see your belongings to gather them together. My phone was dead and so I couldn't use it for light. I didn't want to turn on the light and disturb my roommates so I waited. Realizing I had my iPod to use for light, I dug around in my things and ended up just bringing my suitcase into the bathroom with me. It was easier than trying to dig through the suitcase to find clean clothes for the day. BUT, I ended up forgetting the keys to my suitcase in my backpack. On my bed. After my shower I just put on the clothes I had worn in and changed when I got back into the room. By then, the lights were on and my roommates were awake. Once dressed and makeup on (because I can't bear to be seen without makeup) I headed downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast included with your stay at the hostel was bread, coffee, and juice. Italians LOVE to have chocolate on their bread for breakfast. Yes, it's true, I had chocolate on my bread. Having bread with just butter and jelly will never be as good as bread with chocolate spread. So, I skipped the 4 euro eggs and bacon and just ate what was included with my stay. It was more than enough. Nick from New Zealand sat at the table with me while the Germans ate with Joyce. Emily had found new friends and was sitting at another table.
Later, as I was packing up my things to check out of the hostel, Nick came to me with a pen and notebook that I'm guessing comes from his company. He said I needed to write things down about my trip the old-fashioned way: with a pen and paper. A very nice gesture from a guy that caused so much trouble the night before.
It was sad to leave the hostel after my two days. As I said, I would go back there again.
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