Hostel Life

There are a few types of people who are in hostels, after being here for a few days now I am starting to figure them out.

Just passing through - These are the people who stay for about 1-3 nights and escape early in the mornings, they are dedicated travelers or have already been to this city and just using it as a home base. They have a plan and they are sticking to it. These are normally older people, groups of girls, etc.. the organized ones.

Just passing through?? - These people think they are just passing through, but end up staying for months. They had a plan and now it's gone, flights missed, buses missed, good times had. I'm afraid this might happen to me, but we'll see.

Stuck in Auckland - These people could have been at one point Just passing through, then turned to Just passing through??...but now they are completely broke and stuck in Auckland, either working for accomodations or sleeping in common areas and bumming it. These are the best people to meet. They've been here for a long time and they know their way around. They also have ZERO dollars so they know how to scam things like food to survive (the hostel provides one free meal a day at dinner).

Random old dude - Not really much to say here...It's a random old dude, normally smells like booze and cigs and wearing some sort of strapped back hat.

And then there are people like me who are just here to watch it all and do some traveling while I'm at it. Just taking it day by day and seeing what comes up.

I was having a discussion the other night with two of my Stuck in Auckland friends and one dude I had met that day, that guy would need his own post to himself though...for real (Sidenote: one of the Stuck in Auckland guys is basically a Brett, I wish I had my camera so I could take a pic of him, even the way he acts reminds me of Brett..this guy is super awesome), we were talking about the dynamics of hostels and how random people from around the world can just meet up and become instant friends. For example, a guy named Roy came into the dorm I was staying in, we chatted for about 4 mins before he offered me a spot in the car he's renting and taking down to the South Island. I wasn't ready to leave when he was so I had to decline, but it was a pretty random/awesome invitation. There is a bar attached to the hostel, so everyone just goes down to the bar at night and meets everyone else, it's quite a cool thing. I guess this is what it's like to live in a dorm at Uni, but way cooler because everyone has travel stories and routes to discuss.

Initial questioning normally goes like this:

What's your name?
Where are you from?
How long have you been in Auckland/New Zealand?
How long have you been traveling?
Is this your first stop?

And then BAM, you are instant friends. It's really quite amazing, but I guess to want to travel you have to be a very open person anyway. It's just funny how fast it happens, and how genuine the friendships are. Like we are all in this together, so we might as well be friends.

Peace & Love

What?

Here is what I'm bringing:

(Click to enlarge...I didn't want to resize, wannafightaboutit?)

- Backpack + detachable day bag (Canadian flag courtesy of my mother). I think this was a medium sized bag, not sure the actual size. There is also a compass + thermometer (with wind chill factor chart on the back) on the zipper

- Waterproof jacket

- 2 weeks-ish of clothes. (Long sleeve shirts, shorts, pants, etc. Underwear and socks not pictured)

- 2 bandannas (All the sites I read told me to bring bandannas, not sure why.... and I'm a bit of a hipster. #ArcadeFire)

- Sunglasses, I have terrible sunglasses.

- International plug adapters (that little black bag)

- Silk sleeping sack (white ball)

- Camera charger

Not pictured:

- Camera (lul)

- MedKit (it's pretty boss, THANKS MOM!)

- Toiletries (Tons of small shampoos + soaps, 3 toothbrushes, 4 small toothpastes, various pills, and some other stuff)

- Small microfiber towel

- Water shoes

- Lightweight hiking shoes

- Awesome hat

- New Zealand + Australia Lonely Planets

- Some books

- +some other cool stuff (Documents, ID, etc)

I think that's all. I basically just Googled "How to pack for around the world trip" and opened up about five of them and compiled what I thought I needed. Even though I will be traveling mostly in warmer weather I still opted to bring long sleeves/pants, for bugs and such (not trying to get DAT malaria).