The Off Topic Topic

[CountDeMoney]

Wonder if she knows she smells bad.  Nothing worse than a smelly girl.

C'mon, man.  European chick?  On the road, in a hostel?  OK WHO ORDERED THE TUNA SALAD

[MadBurgerMaker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCWJINpJx88

Is this real?  This guy is supposed to be a member of the US Congress?  I can't make sense out of what he is saying. 

Or is this some kind of joke or parody?

  I couldn't watch that all the way through.  Too much dumbassery.

Less stupid, more fun type stuff from Texas politicians:  The Rep from my area (Joaquin Castro) used to take his twin brother Julian Castro's place at events before and while Julian was mayor here. 

[Liep]

Is traveling alone pretty common in Europe?  To me it seems like, well, a foreign concept.  And the idea of staying in a hostel creeps me out.  NEED MAH PERSONAL SPACE

Very common in my experience, but you usually have to travel alone to notice. Modern hostels are usually comfortable, or as comfortable as IKEA beds can be.

[Malthus]

We met lots of people travelling alone through SE Asia more than 20 years ago, which I thought was utterly insane - mainly because there would be no-one to take care of you when you were sick, and getting sick was pretty common.

In SE Asia, single women in particular often got harassed - not necessarily by men for sex, but by everyone just because. 'Where is your husband? Why aren't you married? etc.'

One woman we met came up with the notion of inventing a husband for herself, just to cut that out. She had a ring, his picture, and everything. When she got bugged, she would just say she was going to meet her husband, and the locals would leave her alone.

[Valmy]

Was he Canadian?

[CountDeMoney]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCWJINpJx88

Is this real?  This guy is supposed to be a member of the US Congress?  I can't make sense out of what he is saying. 

Or is this some kind of joke or parody?

  I couldn't watch that all the way through.  Too much dumbassery.

I did.
I just had to know how it was going to turn out in the end, and it was every bit of the flaming plane crash I knew it would be

[Malthus]

Was he Canadian?

No, German (as was she).

[Grey Fox]

Is traveling alone pretty common in Europe?  To me it seems like, well, a foreign concept.  And the idea of staying in a hostel creeps me out.  NEED MAH PERSONAL SPACE

You are just old.

[derspiess]

Is traveling alone pretty common in Europe?  To me it seems like, well, a foreign concept.  And the idea of staying in a hostel creeps me out.  NEED MAH PERSONAL SPACE

You are just old.

Can't imagine I'd have gone for that in my younger years, either.

[Valmy]

The thing that sucks about the hostels is people freaking stay up jaw jawing away and partying down until all hours of the night and fuckers get up super early in the morning. So it is never really quiet in the damn things. Staying in them is a great way to wear your ass out while touring around Euroland.

[CountDeMoney]

No shit.  Thought people graduated college to get away from that bullshit.

[Liep]

The thing that sucks about the hostels is people freaking stay up jaw jawing away and partying down until all hours of the night and fuckers get up super early in the morning. So it is never really quiet in the damn things. Staying in them is a great way to wear your ass out while touring around Euroland.

The solution is to also drink. It's the European way.

[Zanza]

I've done a fair bit of traveling alone and staying in hostels while doing so. It has its up- and downsides. It's actually very social as you'll meet lots and lots of new interesting people. Many more than I do when I travel with someone else and infinitely more than when I travelled for business and stayed in fancy hotels alone. Staying in hostels is so-so, but most of the time it is acceptable. You get really annoying people rarely, but if you do it really sucks. That said, it's the only way travelling for like 8 weeks a year is affordable with my current income.

[Valmy]

Oh sure you meet lots of interesting people but my thing was: I came to Spain to see Spain and talk to Spaniards. Hardly any Spaniards in the hostel just lots of Germans, Brits, and people from Tennessee excited to tell you about their time at Memphis State. Why would I want to use my once in a lifetime trip to Spain talking to those people?

And of course being a Texan I would occasionally get the 'Aggies Aggies in SPAIN WHOOOP IN YUR FACE t.u.!!!!111' treatment. So great to get all the charm from home abroad.

[Zanza]

Unless you do couch-surfing, which is probably just as alien to derspiess, you'll not meet very many locals with other types of accomodation either in my experience. Tourist hotels are full of tourists, staying in rented holiday cottages often also means you only have tourists as neighbours. Airbnb can be close to couch-surfing, but is usually very commercial these days, business hotels might have locals, but not the ones interested in talking to you. Hostels in my experience will always have some young locals as well (EDIT: in Western countries, not in Asia).