Travelling around Europe for several months staying in hostels you are bound to come across a lot of weirdos, annoying people, morons, etc etc. Below is a description of the ones that really grind my gears. Ill add to it over time if I think of others.
– The Rustler
This person is constantly fiddling with their bag to get clothes out or whatever. They often have a seemingly endless supply of plastic bags in their backpack that are impossible to not make noise with. They are also the person that always gets up super early and has to leave so they wake everyone up taking three hours to get a pair of pants and tshirt out of their bag. Is it so hard to get your shit organised the night before? Get what clothes you are going to wear the next day out of your bag.
– The Slow Photo Taker
This one is something that probably isn’t noticed by most people, but seeing as though I notice nearly everything to do with photography, I notice this. They are the person that stands infront of a monument, statue, whatever, and takes five minutes to take what will likely be a shit photo anyway. It should take five seconds to take a photo. I just don’t understand how it could take any longer. I walk up to something, point click bam, walk away. Then admire the whatever from somewhere that isn’t in the middle of everyone.
– The Stand In The Middle Of The Door Way
This person is everywhere, and not just in door ways. They are the person that generally just feels the need to stop anywhere where there is a constant flow of people. Doors, staircases, pathways, etc. They are usually tourists that have no idea where they are going. A good example is when they arrive at a train station in a new city, walk to the exit, and for some reason when they see the light of day they just stop and decide yeah sweet ill figure out where to go right here in the middle of the door way.
– The Snorer
This person is the bane of everyone who ever stays in a hostel. This is a tricky one because although they are pissing off every other person in the room, they don’t really have any other options apart from staying in a single room. The most annoying part of it all is that while the person next to you sounds like a plane taking off and keeping you awake, they are sleeping quite happily without a care in the world. The worst case of this ive had is when a guy asked me if I snored (I never have) because he hates snorers. He snored that night. Spanner. Another problem with snorers is that if you need to set an alarm for the next morning you cant sleep with ear bud things because then you wont hear your alarm.
– The Never Shut Up
This person has a few positives, but is mostly just annoying. At first you might meet this person and they seem quite nice, you are having a good conversation, being normal. But then you might hang out with them for a day and their real self comes out. They never shut up, about anything. They often also think they’re quite funny and make a lot of jokes. This is hard for me because i am obviously hilarious and just find them…not to be. I’ve had this a few times, and ive had to make up excuses to dodge them for another day. I just don’t really care that your Aunt lives across the street and makes an apple pie every third Sunday for you.
– The Idiot
This person is best observed in the hostel common rooms, eavesdropping in on their conversations. They will often be quite young travellers, 18 or 19 doing gap year travel, or they are American. The best example of this was a (blonde) girl from Australia who needed to go from Vienna to Berlin. She was complaining to her friends that it says it takes 23 hours to get there. Sitting there I quickly look the trip up on the bahn.de site and see that its about 9 hours or something, as I suspected. I spoke up and said you are looking at the wrong timetable. I had a look at the page she was looking at and she mixed up an arrival time of 23:00 with it taking 23 hours. Sigh. Idiots are probably the ones that annoy me the most.
– The Stand In The Best Photo Spot And Don’t Move Or Take A Photo
This person is someone that is just completely oblivious to everything that is happening around them, they care for no one except themselves. For example in the Colosseum there is platforms every so often to take photos from the best spots. There are people that just stand in these spots and have conversations, completely unaware of the 400 people behind them wanting to take a photo.
– The Come In At 3am And Turn The Light On
This person is someone that I just don’t understand, its just so rude. They will come back in to the room quite late, see that people are sleeping, and just think fuck it im turning the light on anyway and wake up everyone. One thing though, it is never Aussies. On a whole, we are probably the most considerate when it comes to trying to be quiet etc. I just think it makes sense if you know you’re going out that night, then make your bed before you leave, get any other shit you might need out of your bag, etc. When I come back from a night out, I walk in, use my phone light to find my bed and just crash. Light wakes me up more than anything so for me this is particularly annoying.
– The Slow Walker
This person is an Italian, more often than not. Ive never come across so many slow walking people in my life as I did in Italy. I guess it goes with the rest of the country, lazy and relaxed. The other problem with this person is that they will often walk in the middle of the path as well. Apart from Italians, its generally just tourists who are dordeling along ‘taking it all in’.
– The Unfit
This person can be a problem if they happen to be someone you meet and spend the day sightseeing with them. They often take rests and take forever to walk up any sort of hill. If there is a walk up to a castle they will complain there isn’t a train and also take ages. I probably travel faster and do things quite quickly compared to others so maybe im the problem. I doubt it though. Just not possible.
– The One Upper
This person believes they are on the greatest trip ever known to man and they have gone places no one else has gone and done things that are just unbelievably crazy. When in reality they have hit all the major cities and haven’t left the traditional routes at all. The travelling ive done around Europe is often more than most people ill speak to, but when they ask I just tell them how it is, not saying I bungee jumped off the Eiffel Tower. Its sometimes good to one up the one upper though. Ill often let them talk up their trip for a while, then just say yeah been there done that, twice. It is great however to come across someone that just genuinely likes talking about where they have been and you can tell loves travel for what it is and not just a checklist of places.
Great list :D
Comment by Tom — Tuesday, 2 November, 2010 @ 23:28