London Hostel Living                                  

After finally locating the “EQUITY POINT LONDON located in 100 102 West Bourne Terrace London W2 6QE infolondon@equity-point.com in Paddington place, it was as if I was entering the gate of a small formal section of the Queens Palace. A male door attendant casually dressed in non-formal black/white attire at the entrance is ready to help you with your bags, if needed. Though once inside the Equity Hostel doors, the arrangement is like that of any other nice, clean typical hostel. The Equity lay-out consists of the front desk along with a small, quartered maze of narrow winding hallways leading to even smaller rooms with lined-up bunk beds containing numbers on them. I later learned that the London EQIITY hostel is actually Spanish owned. I also noticed that the Equity London Hostel is housed with many young blond traveling guests frequenting it.

The Equity hostel offers guests their own personal storage locker within their room. The storage locker is numbered equal to the number on their bed. If a guest would like to take advantage of locking some of their things in the storage locker, then a lock is necessary. A guest can produce their own personal lock or take advantage of the option to rent or buy a lock from the hostel front desk at a reasonable price.

Entering the Hostel Room

Fortunately, I brought a key-lock with me, and I was feeling lucky that my key-lock had already come in handy. Immediately after entering my hostel room, I secured my computer in my designated personal storage locker that was within one foot in front of my numbered bed. There were six beds thus three placements of beds as they were “bunk-bed styled beds. Therefore, there were six actual beds in this room, and five beds were occupied at the moment of my arrival, recognizable by the clothes and luggage occupying the bed. I assumed that one woman had vacated early as I saw that the bed linen was missing and the plastic bed covering looked disheveled.

The hostel gives each guest a “keycard” that you simply swipe over the top of the light indicator on the door, which in turn results in the green light signaling you to open the door, very much like opening the door of a United States hotel or motel.

Hostel Room arrangement

    As I looked around my hostel room, I noticed a high level of well-organized congestion. There was luggage everywhere, with very little walking space to get to or climb up to your bed. The small walking space visible in this hostel room only allowed you to climb or invariably step over something when moving about. This organized congestion reminded me of the manner in which small spaces were clean and well organized in Tokyo Japan. This hostel room was extremely packed with a great deal of luggage, though so well organized that the small availability of walking space visible, was really not a problem. The fact is that travelers rarely spend time in their accommodations as travelers are invariably out and about, leaving time in the accommodations for only sleeping.

I hurriedly entered the room, which was empty at the time of my arrival, except for one older blond Australian female, lying down on the bunk below my bunk, homed in on her computer. I spoke a soft quiet gesture as I entered and the woman casually, in a no big deal sort of manner, responded. This woman was possibly in her forties or early fifties. I quickly unpacked, locked my things in the locker, jumped in the shower, and then went directly to bed. It took a little while for me to fall asleep as I was still a little wound up from the flight.

Fortunately, the fast though soothing massaged shower I gave myself mellowed me physically, and mentally, leaving my eyes not very long before they closed to sleep.

My first evening in London/Eateries

After the short nap, I decided to go for a walk to get something small though decent to eat. While leaving I asked the young man at the door, appearing to be a door attendant, sort of like a bellhop that you might find at the entrance door of fine hotels. It appeared that his job also consisted of checking to make sure those entering this Equity London Hostels were only those who were guests staying at the hostel.

Most hostels are extremely strict in reference to checking people’s availability to enter the hostel. For instance, you cannot go out and then later bring in a friend, or friends that you have met into the hostel under no circumstance! In order to enter the hostel, one must be checked-in paying guests at the hostel.

I asked the young man about where I could find some healthy good food to eat. He kindly told me across the street and to the right, and you will find many places to choose. Following his instructions I found a nice tasty Chinese shop, among many other eateries nearby, that served delicious rice with curry.

The curry was excellent and cost 4.50 pounds. I decided to eat at this Chinese shop the next day as well. When I returned to the hostel, after buying a few souvenirs at the nearby gift shops adjacent to this area of eateries, my watch displayed that it was 6:30 p.m. so I decided, while still disoriented from jet lag, that I would go to the famous Oxford Street for a short while.

I asked the man at the hostel front door about going to Oxford Street and amid our conversation, I learned that it was actually 11:30 pm at night in London. The man smiled and stated that I had gained some more hours to my life, and then he laughed. I smiled as I immediately switched my watch to present London time.

The young man was very talkative and informed me that unlike in the US, the health care system in London is freely open to me. I need only to go to the hospital, and they would see me, and give me medication if I need it. My encounter with this young man certainly reveals the value of learning through travel abroad.