HI Downtown Vancouver

At 1114 Burnaby St Vancouver a brown brick building bears the mark Hosteling International Downtown Vancouver.

It truly is an unremarkable building - so much so I walked past it on Saturday afternoon trying to find the place. After walking six blocks too far down a steep hill I carried my two packs back up the hill to the intersection at which I started.

Inside the building is dimly lit and divided into numerous four bedroom same sex dorms, private rooms and a series of common areas including a TV room, library (with an eclectic collection), Internet room, full kitchen, dining area and a general sitting area with papers etc adjacent to the main reception.

I stayed five nights in Bed 1 (the top bunk) of room 219 which was unfortunately located across the hall from the men's room and we endured the sounds of the many comings and goings of such a room every evening.

The rooms had a musty smell but they were largely clean with a locker for each guest. The bathrooms were cleaned regularly and there was adequate facilities for all guests so there was no waiting periods even in the morning rush. At $28 a night including free breakfast it did the job.

The strangest thing about the place was the guests...the majority of guests were Americans or Europeans similar in age to myself and were good value (this is not the strange bit). The remaining guests were almost all old men...it was really weird - a whole lot of old men...grumpy old men who tended to their daily activities, sat for hours reading books and were only too happy to find a young person sitting still long enough to tell a story to.

I largely stuck to myself in the hostel. At breakfast I sat with a couple of Norwegian girls but my days were filled with odd jobs I needed to attend to having just arrived in the country so I really did not socialise in the hostel.

After 5 nights the kind offer a sofa bed at Tim's place was gladly accepted and I moved all my belongings on Thursday to North Vancouver - more on that later.