A Birds-Eye View of Madrid: Hostels en Europa

Jamie Claros is a junior at Boston College, studying abroad in Madrid, Spain for the fall semester.  As an Eagle in a foreign country, she wanted to share with us her birds-eye view of the Spanish culture.  This series will chronicle her study abroad experience, detailing the food she tries, the people she meets, and the places she explores!

¡Hola mis fellow Collegiettes™!  I have a confession to make: after a full three weeks here, I have fallen in love.  I take back all the things I worried about— the commute really isn’t that bad and I happen to completely love all the girls I’m living with.  I’m absolutely in love with this city and all of its people, architecture, and great food.  Everything here is just so full of history and beauty that it’s been an amazing experience taking it all in.  I can’t wait to use this semester to explore and learn everything possible about this city.
 
In my short time here, I’ve already taken my first mini-vacation to Barcelona!  I could write for days on that experience, but instead I’ll focus on the one thing there that I noticed was especially different from the US: the widespread use of hostels.

The hostel we stayed at in Barcelona.

If you ever find yourself traveling through Europe (especially as a student or on a limited budget), you are more than likely going to be passing by or staying in a hostel.   Not to be confused with a hotel (or that creepy movie with Shia LeBeouf), a hostel is an establishment specifically geared for travelers on a budget who only wish to stay for a short period of time.  Though there are great financial advantages to staying in a hostel— and trust me, with this conversion rate, every euro counts— there are some major drawbacks.
 
Shared Rooms:
Unlike hotels where you can book private rooms, most hostels have dormitory style rooms made up of bunk beds.  These rooms house anywhere from two to eight people and each bed is booked individually.  What does that mean?  If you’re traveling with a group of five people and book an eight-person room, you’re going to be stuck with three randos.  Luckily for my group of eight in Barcelona, we all got placed together.  Two of the other kids traveling with us, however, were not so lucky, and were placed in a six-person room with four complete strangers.  Creeeeeeepy!  One of the girls said she didn’t sleep all night.  My suggestion is if you’re going to book a dormitory style hostel, definitely go with a group that’s big enough to fill up a room.

Dormitory style shared room.

Cleanliness:
Don’t expect any type of room service or housekeeping when staying in a hostel.  Nobody comes in to sweep your floor or clean your bathroom each day, which tends to get especially messy after a day at the beach.  In fact, don’t even expect blankets to cover yourself with.  Our beds came only with a fitted sheet, which covered a mattress with some pretty questionable brown stains…  All of us froze at night, using our towels (that we had brought ourselves) to cover ourselves as blankets.  A helpful tip is to bring your own sheets!  Trust me, you don’t want to lift up those fitted sheets, and you definitely don’t want to spend an extra few euros to buy some blankets from the hostel— they’re probably harboring some mystery stains, too.
 
At the end of the day, though, it’s really just luck of the draw.  While no hostel is ever going to be a Four Seasons, some are better than others.  Case in point: my dorm in Madrid is used as a hostel during the summers.  Our rooms are actually pretty nice, with everything ranging from singles (size of small closets), doubles (much roomier and overall comfortable), and like my room here, triples/quads (think those 2-roomed natural triples on Upper).

A view of my room (and one of my roommates!).

Not to mention, they actually have a cleaning staff here; I’ve never appreciated a clean bathroom floor more.
 
I’m sure I’ll have more experience with hostels in the near future, as my schedule is completely booked up with travel plans.  Next stop: Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest!  I’m sure it’ll be a far cry from makeshift beer pong and Natty Light- I can’t wait!  Until then, ¡adios and ole mis Collegiettes™!