Crossroads

I like hostels. To me, they are modern Caravan Sarays: a place to meet world travelers and share stories, learn new things and meet new people. This is not the most comfortable way of traveling; often falling asleep at night is challenging since almost everyone in the dormitory-style rooms snores at night! There was even one guy whose snore sounded like a woodpecker tapping on a tree trunk! Despite all of this, I still prefer hostels to a more luxurious choice of accommodation.

I have already met many interesting people. Ming, an architect from China working on her masters degree in Vienna was the first who greeted me with her smile. She saw me dragging my heavy suitcases towards the hostel and was kind enough to help me carry them to the hostel and up the stairs. I was very grateful. An American lady staying at the hostel told me about the Helsinki Music Festival and her favorite place to buy freshly baked bread in the morning and gave me her map of the city. A pol told me his story about taking the train from Mainz to Koln just few days prior to the police discovery of a suspicious package in the same train. He seemed a bit worried about the security in Europe. Nate, the film student from Hawaii, seemed a bit bored since he didn’t know anyone in the city. He was off to Prague where he will do a semester on exchange. He was sleeping in the bed above mine. I didn’t get to say goodbyes before he left this morning. He left a note by my bed:

“Have a great time studying in Helsinki! – Nate from Hawaii”