Mating Rituals of Hostel-Dwellers

It is 1:30 a.m. and the hostel is still awake. There is just too much left-over energy. See, last night, two 19-year-old American girls arrived with stories of wild things happening on their night train. They mentioned how much they loved vodka ("We looove vodka, girlfriend!"), and how it came about that generous portions of the potion had played into the night's events.

Many of the guys then announced intentions of shopping, which is nothing weird, as the hostel-dwellers have a tendency to shop and cook late at night here. Thank heavens for the Non-Stop across the street. However, when we returned a short time later, the table was filled, not with cookable groceries, but with several bottles of vodka.

You can guess how the evening went. Now the girls are snoozing with vodka-full tummies and the adult set are in the kitchen discussing the ins and outs of...er...oral pleasure.

Oh, life at Butterfly Villa.

We have been living at the Butterfly Villa hostel in Bucharest, Romania for...at least a month. Maybe five weeks. Something happens to you when you've lived at a hostel for more than a week. For one thing, you are perfectly willing to sniff your laundry in the midst of other people. In a house full of backpackers, there is a lot of laundry-sniffing, because everyone is constantly trying to decide whether they can get just one more wearing out of their favorite (maybe their only) travel shirt before washing it. In fact, there is so much laundry-sniffing going on, I'm really starting to wonder if we're all getting high from the sock-fumes.

In a hostel, you really have to roll with the punches. You never know WHAT is going to awaken you in the middle of the night. Two nights ago, I was startled from a sound sleep by what I thought was a troupe of killer monkeys. Turned out to be a pair of drunken revellers who, as luck would have it, were headed for the bunk right above mine. After that, there was a lot of giggling and suspicious noises.

In some places, you have to pay quite a lot of money for entertainment like that. I'm just glad the bunks are very sturdy.