It really is something, living in one of these backpacking hostels. You get the strangest mix of people you could ever imagine. I'm currently staying at Lagan's backpackers hostel, near Queens University, South Belfast. I'm in a bunkie room with several other people, then there's the all girls bunkie down the hall.
An Afrikaans immigrant named William is running it; he's a white Boer who left after the fall of apartheid, so that tells you something. Then, the residents... There are two Canadian girls backpacking through the British Isles all summer, a French couple doing something similar, a girl from Cork up for a few days of sight-seeing, me, doing my interviews, a few Germans, and then one other dumb American who didn't realize that he couldn't take a bus to Scotland from here. There are a few other young people from the States who have "forsaken the American way" and are touring Europe on their parents' credit cards for six months. The hipster type that hate "the system" but couldn't explain what that meant if you asked them.
Overall, its always interesting to stay in one of these student/backpacker hostels for cheap. You never quite know what you'll get. Typically, there are the Europeans, touring for cheap and sightseeing along the way, and then there are a few pseudo-intellectual American students that talk about philosophy and occupying Wall Street. I try to differentiate myself from this latter group as much as possible, but it is always an experience. On the upside, our friend William serves a hot breakfast of eggs and sausages, and there is internet to post on the blog. Also, its in a good location for a lot of my interviews, and in a non-sectarian district of the city, so I don't have to worry about that.
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