Diese Tage erhielten wir diese nette Postkarte von unserem ehemaligen Gast Kyle, der derzeit in Indien unterwegs ist.
Karte aus Indien - hinten
Karte aus Indien
Danke, Kyle, wir hoffen du schaffst es irgendwann wieder mal nach Dresden.
….und das haben wir ja oft genug bewiesen!! Ich denke nur an unzählige BRN`s und unsere legendäre 10 Jahresparty. Am 10.09.2011 um 19:00 Uhr ist es wieder soweit und Ihr seit herzlich eingeladen, mit uns das Tanzbein zu schwingen. Je nach Wetter und Besucherandrang vorm Hostel oder aber unser Sitzeckenpodest verwandelt sich wieder in die kleinste Bühne der Stadt. Da ist nicht viel Platz aber den braucht dieser ambitionierte Gitarrenvirtuose auch nicht: Andrew Cream aus UK. Ein Mann, eine Gitarre und viel ehrliche Musik. Überzeugt Euch selbst: http://www.myspace.com/60775941 Dazu gibt es leckeres, original tschechisches Essen, von unser lieben Frau Zeli, der wir diesen Kulturbeitrag auch verdanken. Der Eintritt ist frei und damit wir trotzdem auf unsere Kosten kommen, dürft Ihr viel von dem ausreichen vorhandenem Bier erwerben, sowie Euch den Bauch vollschlagen. Für einen schmalen Taler, versteht sich. DJ Tchichiman & Dr. Peterka, aus unserem wunderschönen, östlichen Nachbarland, werden die Nachbereitung übernehmen. Danach bleibt immer noch genug Zeit, der Chemiefabrik die gebührende Huldigung zu verpassen (siehe unten)! See Ya!
CONCERT IN LOLLIS HOMESTAY HOSTEL
Who?: Andrew Cream from UK – one man, one guitar and lots of good music http://www.myspace.com/60775941
When?: Saturday september the 10th 7pm.
Price?: for free!
Beer 1,50€ Original czech food for small money!
Afterwards: DJ Tchichiman & Dr. Peterka (Famous czech Dj pair with the special rock`n`roll vinyl party)
Hi there fella!
Here are some basic rules how to become a likeable guest in a hostel. After reading the instructions you should practise and live these rules at home first. Ask your sister or friends to help you, let them play a person, which stays normally in hostel, like other travellers, cleaning staff or receptionists. After some weeks you will be more adorable, cooperative and open minded. This will even have influence to the rest of your life. Maybe somebody is already waiting for your new and sexy personality, who knows??! But first to work!
1. We all like to be admired or beloved . Not so the receptionist. The receptionist is no normal person. He is an outsider. Funnily enough he doesn’t like to flirt with the 20th drunken guest, who comes through the door, he doesn’t want to have a free beer or Schnaps (the boss could be always around) and he also doesn’t want to bring you to the airport in person when you leave the day after. Even though he likes to chat, he is probably already appointed to his afterwork beer waiting in his fridge. Sorry but after so much partying you cannot compete against the afterwork beer.
2. The receptionist wants to get to know other people. Yeah, but only cool people, who you can make friends with. If you think you are cool enough, you can give it a try. Small talking over hours and hours is a no go! It doesn’t get better the more you try, means it is not a matter of time. The receptionist is already small talking the whole day long. Remember, you have a connection to the person or you don’t! If you think you don’t have any similarities leave it with the small talk; the receptionist understands.
3. You always wanted to try to sleep in a hostel. Yeah, that is very cool,… at first sight. But not anymore if you ask for special waking up service while staying in a dormitory room. Also questions like: “Do you have any knive in the self cooking kitchen?”, ” the guy in my room is snoring, I cannot sleep!” or asking for private bathrooms in the dorm, will let you look like a typical hotel deluxe person and will be detected very quickly by the real hostel people. If you’re a real traveller, you know how to survive!
4. Nobody is more hated by the hostel staff than former guests, who didn’t speak with anybody. That would be ok, if this guest wouldn’t speak after his stay in the hostel also. The receptionist will read your reviews you posted on Hostelworld or Hostelbookers or whatever. If you can tell strangers that you didn’t get a towel, or that you hated the stairs up to your room or that your locker didn’t work, why not telling the person you know most in a foreign city, your receptionist?? He will be delighted to change your situation as long as you do not act like point 3.
5. Hey, it is always very annoying to wash the dishes, we know. But you are an adult now, and the time has come to do that by yourself. Your mom is not travelling with you, and if you think the receptionist could be your new mom now, your wrong. A self cooking kitchen is a self cooking kitchen.
6. Other countries, other conventions. The real traveller is going into the life of the natives, he is reading a little bit in guide books or the internet not only to understand, but also not to ambarrass himself. In Germany for example you can flush the toilet paper into the toilet, there is no need to put it in the trash…since it is very common to seperate the trash in Europe by now, plastic to plastic, paper to paper, glass to glass and so on, it will be a very strange situation if the receptionist or other european travellers will find some strange looking paper in the garbage shortly after you left the toilet. Remember that the receptionist has to seperate what you throw away.
7. You think you are a modern traveller? Does that mean for you to be available for everybody anytime by phone or the internet?? You do not only have a mobile, but also a second one and a labtop? Do you spend most of the time surfing in the internet while staying in a hostel and you think having only one computer access in a hostel is not enough?? ….You suck! You should just stay at home.
8. Last but not least, if you think the hostel was fun and safe, the rooms were clean as same as the bathrooms and the staff was more than helpful and nice to you and there was nothing you could complain about, why don’t you give the hostel a 100 % rating over booking websites? We as receptionists just don’t understand a 95 % rating after we really worked our ass off. But please, keep in mind point 3 and 4 while you rate.
So, now you are prepared and after you opened your eyes for the world of the hostelworkers, pack your stuff together and explore the world! Everybody will love you now, especially all of us ! 
Heute hatte ich während meines Rezeptionsdienstes einen sehr seltsamen Anruf. Ich weiß einfach nicht ob der Anruf echt war, eine alberne Radioanrufverarsche oder ob der Anrufer einfach nur wirr war.
Jedenfalls klingelt das Telefon und es entspann sich ein Dialog den ich leider -natürlich- nicht mitgeschnitten habe, so muß ich aus meinen Gedächtnis rezitieren. Jedenfalls war mir relativ schnell klar das hier irgendwas nicht ganz stimmt und hab deswegen ein bischen mitgespielt. Bitte nicht wundern über den einen oder den anderen schrägen Vorschlag von mir.
Pastor Heilig (dessen echten Anrufnamen ich leider vergessen habe): Hallo, ist da das Hostel?
Ich: Ja, hier ist das Hostel Lollis Homestay.
Pastor Heilig: Ich wollte mal fragen ob sie einen großen Versammlungsraum haben?
Ich: Nee, eher nicht so.
Pastor Heilig: Und einen Aufenthaltsraum, oder eine Cafeteria?
Ich: Hmm, gibt schon so eine Art Common Room, ist aber für irgendwelche Veranstaltungen meistens zu klein.
Pastor Heilig: Ich bin Pastor SoundSo und komme aus Hamburg, kennen sie Hamburg?
Ich: Hamburg, nee, nie gehört.
Dieses Jahr haben wir uns ganz schön erschrocken als wir plötzlich Weihnachtskarten von ehemaligen Gästen in den Händen hielten. Wow!! Das ist ja so was von beeindruckend, dass wir wiederum so beeindruckt haben. Ein Gast ließ es sich auch nicht nehmen und setzte zur Karte noch einen Weihnachtsplüschbär drauf. Wir haben ihn nun an unserer Rezeption plaziert und ich freue mich darauf, ihn nun jedes Jahr wieder herauszurücken, wenn der Advent an die Türe klopft.
Liebe Gäste, die ihr uns so tolle Freude schenkt, herzlichen Dank. Wir hoffen, ihr habt ein schönes und entspanntes Weihnachtsfest und rutscht gut ins neue Jahr.
christmas teddy bear
Found this on the website of Nomads Hostels in Australia: Backpacking in 1999 vs Backpacking in 2009 | Could you survive?.
Backpackers in the class of 2009 travel the world at the click of mouse. These days backpackers have the pick of top quality gear, top travel deals and top travel destinations without having to move one single step. However, how has backpacking in 2009 changed compared to backpacking in 1999 and could we survive as backpackers if we reverted back to how things were in 1999?
1999 sounds like a world away but in 10 years the lives of backpackers and the backpacking industry has evolved and grown faster than most people have even realised.
Here is a checklist to see if you could survive as a backpacker ten years ago.
1. – A simple, standard backpack.No anti-slash technology, or backpacks which can convert in to wheeled suitcases.
2. – No mobile phone.In 2009 backpackers can use their sim cards from their home country or unlock their mobile phone and buy a cheap pay as you go sim card. Could you survive using public phones and phone cards?
3. – No WIFI.I still cannot believe the number of backpackers that take their laptops with them, but in the present day WIFI keeps you one hundred per cent in touch with the online world. Could you imagine walking to an internet cafe every time you want to use the internet. Or better still, not really using the internet.
4. – No online banking.Ten years ago, travellers checks were one of the safest means of carrying money, now I rarely meet a backpacker or traveller who uses them. In fact, only 3 years ago I struggled to get travellers checks changed at all. Now we can pay and access our money all over the world regardless that it is at the expense of our own savings, although now we are seeing banks dropping charges for accessing cash abroad. We can check all our finances and even pay our bills online now. How would you manage your money if these options weren’t available to you?
5. – Minimal Clothing. When did backpackers become so fashion-conscious? If you walk in to a backpacker bar now you are confronted with clubbing outfits and stiletto shoes.
6. – Radio Music. When I was backpacking in 2004 I took with me a portable CD player and a case containing a load of CD’s. How old is that? and it was only 5 years ago. Could you live without your mp3 player and itunes. Could you survive only listening to the radio?
7. – Organising activities yourself. A backpacker can walk in to any hostel now and be offered the option of joining in a daily activity organised by the hostel so that you can explore the city without any hassle of organising it. Could you do the research and organise everything you want to see and do?
8. – Using Guidebooks as the holy bible. There are masses of blogs and forums in order for backpackers to get advice and travel tips. Could you survive on living out of a book that might be a few years out of date?
9. – Camera’s with film. Would you be able to live with the excitement of not knowing how your pictures will come out until you pay to get them developed? Would you cope when you forgot to get a new film and your current film runs out and you can’t take a picture of that incredible sunset? How would you explain to people back home how cool the fish and coral was without having an underwater camera to take pictures?
10. – No Facebook. How would you stay in touch with people?
Backpackers in 2009 have the world at their feet with the hostel and backpacker industry continuing to grow rapidly alongside ongoing advancements in technology, there is really no reason to not get out and explore what the world has to offer.
About the Author: Cheska is a keen traveler who has visited many countries in the past few years, including China and much of South America. She’s currently undertaking an internship for Nomads based at Nomads Auckland backpackers hostel, New Zealand
In diesen Novembertagen rotteten sich sämtliche SPD – Anhänger zu einem gemeinsamen Treffen zusammen. Sie waren alle da: der Franz, der Frank, Sigmar, Andrea und ihre lieben Genossinnen und Genossen. Auch an uns ging dieses Spektakel nicht vorüber und wir an der Rezeption wundern uns nicht, dass es mit der SPD so bergab ging. Das Kuddelmuddel in der Partei bekamen auch wir zu spüren: verpeilt ohne Ende. 1000 Änderungen vor der Anreise, 1000 Änderungen bei Anreise…puh!! Wie soll ein armer geringfügig beschäftigter Hostelrezeptionist denn da den Durchblick behalten??? Nicht nur die Beine, auch die Nerven haben an diesem Wochenende lustig rotiert. Dazu der Verlust von drei Kilo wertvollem Winterspeck, wegen der ständigen Rotation. Ich frage mich, ob es den anderen Rezeptionisten in dieser Stadt ähnlich ergeht: Bei ca. 200 Hotels und schätzungsweise acht Jugendherbergen und Hostels und mindestens 2 Mitarbeitern für das Wochenende wären das 1248 Kilo in nur 3 Tagen. Wow!! Ich plädiere für mehr Bundesparteitage der SPD zur Reduktion des Körperfettanteils in der bundesdeutschen Bevölkerung. Damit einhergehend sinken die Kosten der Krankenkassen, das Gesundheitssystem wird entlastet und es steht uns wieder mehr Geld zur Verfügung um die wertvolle SPD-Führungsriege zum Erholungsurlaub nach Spanien zu schicken. Diesmal aber ohne Mietwagen, ein großes Schiff tut’s bestimmt auch. Mögen es die Piraten kapern.