The 30 year old in a hostel

I have only been in a hostel once before...in Spain 11 years ago. I remember it as an exciting experience to be with all those travel savvy Euros and oversized backpacks. I didn't worry about laving things unattended in the room, the communal bathrooms, or the inevitable late nights.

Fast forward to now.

After having a few beers with new friends last night, I crawled into my top bunk at 11pm and prayed my jet lagged body would fall into a coma and not wake up as the other five girls entered, presumably much later. Unfortunately I am a light sleeper.

The girls staggered in one by one at various times. However their entry wasn't offensive--it was the noises that happened later. For example the girl below me I named 'Whooping Cough" because some severe aggravation of her throat caused her to hack loudly every 5 minutes. The beautiful Swede parallel to me had a non beautiful habit. She snored. Loudly. The girl to my left had to get up twice to run to the bathroom, likely vomiting up whatever beverage was on special that night. I think someone else had sleep apnia. But it gets worse. Someone started crying. Yes, Whooping Cough's coughs turned into whooping sobs. Apparently she was going through a painful breakup. Yes yes, they are hard but couldn't she be a normal person and cry in the shower? AND THEN Whooping cough had a visitor. Her friend came in whispering and hand holding the weepy Whooping Cough. They started to have a romantic consultation at 2 am right below me! This was a bit too much....the whole room didn't need to hear the gory details of how she was wronged...of course if she wanted to publish her pain , oh, say on a blog on the world wide web, that was totally acceptable. ; )

But the worst wasn't over. After the friend left and people started to fall into slumbers a beep could be heard. Someone's phone battery was dying. The annoying 'reminder' beep went off every 4 minutes like clockwork. The worst wasn't hearing it, but rather anticipating it. I lay motionless staring at the ceiling anticipating each one. Why doesn't someone turn their darn phone off! I bet it was Whooping Cough's. It sounded just like my phone and if this was the case this beeping could go on for hours.

Wait....was this my phone? Beep. Everyone stirred in their cots. Beep.

Crap. My mind whirled. I DID briefly turn on my phone mid day to get a phone number. Was it possible I didn't turn it off again? Beep. Oh no!

I sat upright in bed and let my ears follow the beep. Hmmm....it did seem to be coming from my locker (heavily padlocked of course). Crap. What to do? I prayed everyone else was sleeping through it. Beep.

Okay I had to take care of this. I climbed down the ladder to the floor and stealthily made my way across the room tiptoeing noiselessly. Noiselessly until a huge "ACCCK" escaped my mouth. I had tripped over the Swede's large suitcase strategically positioned in the middle of the room. She must have done that to alert us to any intruders that would break into a hippy commune.

I ignored the pain from my stubbed toe and went over to my locker. Crap again. Why didn't I bring a flashlight with me? There was no way I could make out any of the numbers on the dial on my super strength padlock. It was too dark. A mocking Beep came from inside. I had two choices. I could turn on the lights, wake everyone up, get into my locker to turn off the offending phone but also alert everyone as to who the owner was. OR I could sneak back to bed, pretend the noise was harmonious, and pray it stopped soon. I choose the latter. 20 minutes later it stopped and i fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later to the Art Factory birds heckling outside.

When hearing comments this morning about some strange beep I played dumb? Really? A beep? You don't say. Hmm...I must have been knocked out completely. Didn't hear a thing last night.