the weirdest hostel encounter of our lives.

^^ in case you’ve ever wondered what two people who have been traveling across austria on foot, buses, and trains for hours on end in the hot hot heat look like…. ^^

 

I’ve mentioned a time or two before that I’m not a fan of the whole ‘coed hostel room’ situation.  Occasionally, however, it’s unavoidable (in some hostels, there’s just no other option), and Kaitlyn’s and my trip to Salzburg was one of those times. 

When we checked into the hostel (a different hostel than ‘the lock-out incident of 2011’ hostel…I don’t have the best of luck when it comes to hostels in Salzburg, do I?), we noticed a young guy sitting on a bottom bunk.  We politely smiled at him as we claimed beds for ourselves; a top bunk for Kaitlyn, a bottom bunk for me.  While the two of us talked amongst ourselves, I noticed the young man listening and observing us from his bed.  Just before we finished unpacking the contents of our bags into our lockers, he spoke up and introduced himself as Mike.  The bizarre exchange that took place between the two of us (I’m still trying to figure out how Kaitlyn managed to ease her way out of the conversation) is included below.

Mike:  So!  Where are you from?!

Me:  We’re from the States.

Mike:  Cool, me too!  Did you just arrive in Europe?

Me:  Well, I’ve been here awhile.  That’s my best friend, Kaitlyn, and she flew out to meet me so we could travel a bit.

Mike:  Awwww, you beat me!

Me:  Hmmm?

Mike:  You beat me!

Me:  Oh…well, um, what?

Mike:  I got here a week ago.  I wanted to say I’d been here longer than you!

Me:  Oh.  ….sorry, about that.

Mike:  Wanna see my peaches?

Me:  Excuse me?

Mike:  I have some peaches!  In this box over here.  Do you want to see them?

Me:  Oh….sure….

Mike:  Here they are.  Aren’t they pretty?

At some point of Mike’s peach presentation, Kaitlyn and I were able to politely duck out of the room, excusing ourselves to go to dinner and walk around the city.  We later returned to a flooded bathroom, which was a bit unexpected, as we had fully prepared ourselves to be greeted by Mike sorting and/or rearranging his peaches on his bed.  Peachy Mike, however, was nowhere to be seen, so the two of us stood in the doorway of the bathroom, puzzled, contemplating what had caused this monsoon of sorts that seemed to be flowing from the still-steamy shower.  Kaitlyn, who had been planning to shower, was especially agitated by the bathroom’s condition, and when I asked, “How in the world did this happen?”, she angrily speculated, “Well, either someone’s afraid of small spaces and couldn’t manage to shut the glass door while showering, or someone was too cheap to buy a towel and decided to just stand here and DRIP DRY!”.  Naturally, we assumed Mike and his peaches were to blame, but later discovered the culprit was a young Asian boy who spoke no English, which was unfortunate, as I’m sure Kaitlyn would have loved to give him an earful (and I would have loved to be a witness). 

Kaitlyn and I then wandered down to the hostel bar, in hopes of shaking off some of the hostel-weirdness, blissfully unaware that our night was about to get a lot stranger…. the story involves three boys from Manchester and it continues tomorrow because right now I’m too tired to type anymore.  Until then!