Lewis the Lion and his hostel life 6 months in

After 6 months of being on the road, Lewis the Lion wanted to dedicate a blog to somewhere he spent quite a bit of his time in. When he first embarked on his worldwide journey, he was a little bit anxious about this part but as time went on, he realised what a great place hostels were. As one of his friends put it, this was quite simply ‘urban camping.’ They offered a cheap place to stay, in a friendly environment.

The first thing you needed to consider when moving from place to place was how you were going to book a place to stay? Today, it couldn’t be simpler with the Internet and Lewis the Lion’s top website: hostelworld.com. Here you simply entered which country and place you’d be visiting and for how many days and the computer would throw up a range of options. There were certain considerations when booking a hostel besides just the cost e. g. how far away it was from the coach station, airport or city centre? And did it have wifi?
Lewis the Lion was conscious too of the money he had to spend on his trip with Helen and often it was cheaper to stay in a mixed bed dormitory (girls and boys) than a single sex one.

The dormitories themselves could range from 4 beds in a room to 14 beds in a room but usually they all had bunk-beds. Lewis the Lion discovered where possible, it was always best to get a bottom bunk-bed because it meant you could put your stuff underneath it!
However, generally most hostels have a locker too near your bed where you can store your rucksack or belongings but you needed to bring a padlock with you so you could lock it up.
Lewis the Lion also discovered that hostels are often a fountain of knowledge and information on the local area and rarely did he even need to get out his guide book.

On the whole Lewis the Lion found hostels a fun and friendly place to be. It was a much easier place to meet people than just staying in a hotel and here he met many other travellers like him who would swap their travel stories with him. These people came from all over the world and often had very inspiring stories to tell. Hostels were certainly a great place for cultural exchange. For example, Lewis the Lion met many young Israelis in South America who had a big trip there following their national service in Israel. It was funny also while on your travels you might bump into some friends time and time again e.g. his friends Alessandro, Katie, Katie and Sophie or even decide to go travelling with others for a more prolonged period of time e.g. Kelly and Ofer.

What Lewis the Lion loved most about meeting people in hostels is they were usually very kind people who had a sense of looking out for each other, e.g. the way that Ama looked after Helen when she had food poisoning in Rio de Janeiro or the way the Australian boys picked up Lewis the Lion’s ticket when they were going to the bus station. These little kindnesses made Lewis the Lion feel right at home in whichever city he happened to be visiting. If the truth be told, even though he’d been travelling for 6 months, he and Helen had never had a lonely day since they got there and there was always people who wanted to join in and do the same activity as you.

Lewis the Lion thought he was indeed a lucky lion to have such a unique window on the world and to have made so many new friends on his travels. His Facebook page seemed to get more and more popular!

Here is a photo gallery of some of the friends that Lewis the Lion has made in the last 6 months, thanks to staying in hostels.

About Helen Molloy

Helen Molloy has been a Primary Learning and Teaching Consultant, leading on the introduction of Primary Languages in the City of Stoke-on-Trent for the past 5 and a half years. She is passionate about language learning and inspiring children into developing a curiosity and awareness of other people's languages and cultures.
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