Possibly the Worst Hostel Ever

Violet and I arrived in Antwerp, having narrowly missed our train in Bruegge, at around 17:00. We walked the 10 minutes from the Antwerp Central Train station, which is voted the 4th most beautiful station in some international poll, past the diamond district.

As the neighborhood got grayer and grayer, the only bright spot were the Hassidic Jews dressed in long black coats and felt hats riding their bikes. We came upon the street and on the corner of the hostel were over a dozen men hanging outside the entrance. It looked like a homeless shelter, not a hostel.

We entered and a friendly woman behind the desk gave us our key. I asked her why were their so many men and she said that there were two groups of about 20 each who had come over from Holland and were there to party and drink and that last night they had let off a fire extinguisher in the hallway “for fun”. I then asked, “When are they leaving.” And she said “tomorrow.”

The room itself was very clean, it’s just the hostel itself was run down, with icky stained carpets in the hallways, rickety hand railings on the stairwells and nasty couches in the common room. And those were the high points.

In the past, I have done really well on choosing accommodations, however, I missed completely on this one. Maybe it was because I only had about two weeks lead time to find somewhere and all the others I contacted were booked.

But, next time…well there will certainly not be a next time for The New International Youth Home or Hostel or Alias or whatever they are calling it this week.