Tonight will be a first for Justin and I; our first night staying in a hostel as a couple. It might even be my first hostel. I think I stayed in a hostel when I was younger, as a girl scout. But it felt like a big slumber party so I can’t remember it being anything particularly memorable or unique.

As for Justin, he stayed in a hostel one time in Newfoundland while on a disaster relief trip to help people in a small village that had recently flooded. He knew everyone in the dorm style sleeping room he stayed in. We realize this is not typical.
This brings me to the question, “What is a typical hostel experience?”

I don’t think staying at the Pirate Haus Inn and Hostel in St. Augustine, Florida will be the typical hostel experience either. The Captain sent me an email of confirmation explaining that we could pay with Visa, MasterCard, Cash, Silver 8 Reales (Pieces of 8 ) and Gold Doubloons. As long as they don’t make us walk the plank.
Actually, it sounds like it is going to be a great time. Even the famous All-You-Can-Eat Pirate Pancake Breakfast is available from 7 – 9:30 am. The hostel experiences we have today, this evening, and tomorrow morning should prove to be simple (not even a language barrier) and rather luxurious.
The major element of luxury will be our point of departure and return. We will be leaving our apartment in Winter Park, Florida, and driving two hours. We won’t have lived out of a backpack for the last several months. We will most likely have clean clothing packed, while during our travels as nomadic backpackers we will easily encounter times in which we have items of dirty clothing within our packs.
With departing from St. Augustine on Saturday, we will return to the permanency of an apartment set up with our personal belongings and the familiarity that goes with our location and lifestyle in which we currently live. I will go to work all day Sunday and return to the life of a barista. Not to say that I couldn’t take my skills and work as a barista somewhere else in the world, but departing hostels to return to apartments and jobs the next day will not be a part of our nomad backpacking lifestyles.
Do I think going to this hostel in St. Augustine will really prepare us for our travels more? Well, I don’t think it will help us much. But I do think it will help us to gain confidence and begin to imagine what our daily lives may look like within 5 months or s

Tags | hostels