The Astor Hostel

I learned about the Astor hostel while surfing on the web for another more economical hostel to stay. I learned that the Astor hostel is only around ten pounds a day, so I decided to visit this Astor hostel to see if I might like to take advantage of this feasible economical living costs here in London, during this high season.

I arrived at the Astor hostel and found myself asking a considerable number of questions. I even had lunch at the Astor hostel in which to be more acquainted with the layout and milieu, in relation to safety. During this time, I noticed that a few European young male hostellers were trying to get out of their Astor hostel room booking as they must have booked ahead of time, online.

I concluded this visit of inquiry with deciding not to stay at the Astor hostel. My reason for deciding not to stay at the Astor hostel is that I eventually realized that the hostel would switch to become a hostel occupied primarily by men over the age of forty, working in the evening and through the night. I prefer a dominate number of young women and men, under the age of thirty, working in hostels that I stay in.

The Astor, interestingly, has sort of a relaxed Bohemian flavored milieu that is enhance by the few men of color you might find lying around sleeping with their musical instruments nearby.

If considering staying at the Astor hostel … again … please … take heed that the restaurant maintained by a European woman, her husband, and young son, closes in the early evening and this family leaves the establishment at that time. In addition, the pretty slim European kind woman watching your luggage behind the counter, also leaves in the evening as well. Now you are left with a male patrol officer of color, very few quests, if any, as well as the few sleeping men of color snuggled within close proximity to their instruments, of whom I was not sure were quests or working at the Astor hostel. This is simply not my flavor of hostel as again, I choose to stay in the “stereotypical” youth hostel run by a diverse group of young people during my travels.

Fortunately, I did not book ahead of time to stay at the Astor hostel, as the incredible 10.00 euros a day is an incentive, due to the fact that I had taken heed to another ‘female hosteller’s statement online’ that this Astor hostel would not be a comfortable place of stay for some woman. Of course, there is a group of hostellers that this Astor hostel appears to cater to as this Astor hostel is a very cool, chilled environment, and I did see a few young people sitting on the couch together in the TV room, appearing to be comfortable staring at the glaring TV, as though they we in a trance.                                      

So, again, in review, I visited the Astor hostel for the short time mentioned, to have a coffee and check out the place to see if I might feel like staying there for a few nights. There appeared to be more men than women working in the evening though there were more females than men working in this Astor hostel during the day. I was not quite sure who was a guest and who was not a guest as there were quite a few older men hanging around the establishment holding on to their instruments while sleeping during the day.

I asked the woman who secures the hostel guests luggage bags at the counter of the Astor hostel, who would take over when she left, and she told me that a male security person would take over. I asked the next door restaurant that appeared to be adjoined to this hostel, about the time that the restaurant would close, and the woman told me that they closed and left in the early evening.

This is when I realized that the many women I was seeing here at the Astor hostel working throughout the day dwindled to very few to no women working at the Astor hostel in the evening. Also, while I was having a coffee and fries, “which were great!” this restaurant woman’s husband sat a few tables down, though directly facing me. I was the only guest at the restaurant at the time, and surely he could have sat anywhere other than directly facing me. I tried to avoid making eye contact and when I did unfortunately, accidentally look his way; He winked.

I firmly decided that I would not stay here at the Astor hostel as again, I was traveling alone, and I feel more comfortable staying at a hostel dominated by the presence of more women than men.

The particularly nice aspect about the Astor hostel is the non-judgmental atmosphere. People were sort of just doing their own thing. As previously stated, some people were sleeping with their musical instrument nearby; one female traveler was sitting at a table as she looked through her travel guide, while some people I saw were in the TV room … staring at the glaring TV … and … just … chilled.

                              … I think you have the picture …