A Diamond in the Rough

I left Oostende on the Monday the 23^rd of November for the city of Ghent in Belgium. It was around this time, approaching the end of November, that I started to feel a bit of a time crunch. I realised I had less than a month left in Europe, and there was a lot I had not yet seen. It was now that I decided I would have to take a miss on France entirely, where I had initially planned to see at least Paris. I also made plans with a friend I met in Hamburg to meet for a week in Italy, thus setting my last week’s plans in stone. I had initially planned to spend more time in Belgium, but with the limited time I had left, I opted for an abbreviated visit. I heard that Brussels was overrated and would be better seen on a higher budget due to a generally higher prices, I decided to take a miss on it as well. I heard that Ghent, a student town had quite a lot of old Belgian charm, so I made it my next stop. The trip there was easy enough, a quick ride by train and at only €8.60; I passed on hitchhiking because of the bad rain forecasted for Belgium for the next week. Belgium’s train system has a highly flexible pass for students/youth interested in travelling Belgium, a €50 pass, giving you 10 rides anywhere in the country except for border stations. The pass does not need to be registered to one individual, allowing it to be resold, and one pass may be used by multiple individuals at once (e.g. 10 people using the pass once, or one person using the pass 10 times). I believe this pass is mainly targeted at Belgian students travelling frequently over longer routes, but it could come in handy for the tourist as well. So long as your average trip will be over €5 each, the pass is worth it, and can be resold for the remaining value afterwards. Bruges – Oostende was only €3.70, and most my trips within Belgium would be short, but for anyone interested in seeing the lovely country of Belgium on a very tight budget it should certainly be a consideration.

From the moment I stepped out of the station, the skies opened with the full fury of a tropical rainstorm. Even the police avoided the torrential downpour and huddled under the awnings of businesses. Being the rough and tough backpacker I am, I braved the rain, walking through the city streets, even my water resistant boots becoming water logged. I was quite  excited for my accommodation here, because of the reviews (%90 rating on hostelworld.com) and because of the unique nature of the Ecohostel Andromeda. While I think calling your hostel an “Ecohostel” is a bit pretentious, the hostel IS a barge, floating on the canal system of Ghent. Dating from the 1950’s, the old barge was converted into a hostel last year and even still smells new! The owner/manager/”cleaning lady” is committed to providing a safe, clean, and cheap place to stay for all travellers. The whole thing is wonderfully kept, and was the first hostel I felt almost at home. I spent the rest of the day riding out the storm on the barge, hearing the occasional lightning strike, and planned my next day which would be my only opportunity to sightsee in Ghent. Luckily I had another Use-It guide like the one from Bruges, and with it’s help, I scouted out cheap food places, and must see sights while in Ghent.

Some higher being was smiling upon me, for as I rose the next day, not a drop fell from the sky. Sun was too much to ask, but as I wandered the city from site to sight, I remained dry. I discovered the Belgian tradition of getting sandwiches at a butcher rather than a sandwich store, and was delightfully surprised at the quantity and quality I received for only €1.50. If you find yourself in Belgium, check out the butchers for good, cheap sandwiches! I found what Use-It claims to be the best frites shop in the city, and would not argue with their claim although I did not test any others in Ghent. Unfortunately, the entire town was completely under construction. It’s easiest to understand the full extent of the construction by checking out my photos, but I assure you that the city was in ruins. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy Ghent, and there is a lot to enjoy in Ghent! At just over 230,000 people, they have a student population of over 50,000 contributing to a vivacious nightlife, lively cafe scene, and excellent collection of art galleries (not that I’m interested in THOSE). On a budget, Ghent is a wonderful town for wandering. While sunnier, warmer weather would have made a day in their parks a great experience, the old town has its own charm with its collection of old buildings almost rivalling that of Bruges’. The city was just so brutally under construction when I visited, it was hard to see some of that charm under all the scaffolding; one of the disadvantages of travelling in the off season.

I left Ghent after only two nights for Antwerp. A city famous for its association with the diamond industry, there is simultaneously a lot of wealth, and a lot of poverty in this “Paris of the North”. The comparison to Paris is easily understandable after only a few minutes in the old city, especially at night when the spotlights illuminate the medieval facades lining the streets and alleyways. Unfortunately, the whole city isn’t as charmingly romantic as the centre. I broke my own rule on hostel booking, and booked a hostel with an average below 70%. The Boomerang Hostel (no idea why “Boomerang” is relevant to anything in Antwerp) scores low at around %65, with many people commenting on the lack of hygiene in all around the hostel. This should have set off warning bells in my head, but determined to see Antwerp, and with no vacancies at other hostels, I booked. It was immediately apparent upon arrival that the hostel was the definition of a dump. It all started with the common room, a dark room filled with cigarette smoke. The hostel owner I found sitting at the main table seemed friendly enough, but his tour of the hostel was less than impressive. Starting with the kitchen, the supposedly clean dishes were piled high along the wall, and there was hardly a free surface for all the garbage and unclean dishes. The bathroom stunk (lacking any sort of ventilation) and the toilets and shower both looked like they had yet to be acquainted with any sort of bathroom cleaner. The room was large at 12 beds, but the mattresses looked like they were stunt doubles in the memory foam commercials where they get run over by a steamroller. The final straw for my sanity was finding out that the advertised wireless did not work (by now you probably know my obsession with working wireless), and to use the internet all of the residents would have to share one Ethernet cable. Blood pressure rising, I went down the street for groceries to make sandwiches and practice my spaghetti making skills. Coming back to the hostel, I begrudgingly re-cleaned all of the dishes I needed to make my supper and enjoyed my own cooking (which, if I do say so myself, is getting pretty good). I decided that while the hostel wasn’t exactly clean, I could deal with it for a few nights; I was after all travelling on a budget, not visiting the Hilton. For the time being, I needed to get away from the smoke and mess, and let my blood pressure come down. I took a walk around Antwerp, taking in the sights by night in a light drizzle. It’s an attractive town, and with its impressive architecture and old buildings it deserves its frequent comparison to Paris. I really didn’t get much of a feel for the city however, as this was my last sightseeing experience in the city.

Coming back to the hostel much more relaxed, I discovered I had left my travel towel in my last hostel. I was disappointed, but decided on the drip dry method for my shower. I’ll never know what it was that made me think of the possibility, but it occurred to me on the way to the shower that with such a lack of general hygiene, perhaps they might have a problem with bedbugs. I had not run into bedbugs yet on my journeys, but there’s a first time for everything.

Here I’d like to share some information on bedbugs. Most of the information is available on Wikipedia, but it is important that every traveller educate themselves on the signs, risks, and treatment of bedbugs. A problem found all over the world, the infestation rates of bedbugs dropped drastically with the widespread use of pesticides since the 1930’s, especially DDT. Recently, a resurgence is being felt the world over, especially in highly populated areas like New York, which is currently suffering a massive problem with bedbugs. There are numerous ways to detect bedbugs in your home, but to the traveller, it is important to detect an infestation before staying even one night in the infected accomodation. Feeding on humans while they sleep, bedbugs are most active around an hour before dawn, penetrating the host with two straw like appendages with which they suck blood, and inject saliva. As such, the primary matter in their faeces is dried blood. This is the easiest way to spot an infestation of bedbugs. Stripping the mattress of any sheets (which should be fresh for every visitor in every hostel), take a wet cloth, or baby wipe, and run it down the mattress. The faeces are small black pellets, which will smear when rubbed with moisture. The smear will be black to very dark red. This should be done on the surface of the mattress, and especially in the cracks at the edge where the seams attach the sides to the top. In rare cases, a bedbug or its moulted skin may be found in the cracks as well, a sure sign of infestation. The bug’s feeding will usually leave marks similar to mosquito bites, although people respond differently to the contents of the saliva, sometimes resulting in blistering, anaphylactic shock, and secondary infection from the “bite”. If an infestation is suspected, keeping a flashlight close by and waking just before dawn, one can often catch them in the act before they have a chance to scurry away (at a speed similar to that of an ant). Bedbugs are visible to the human eye (around 4mm long), and are black to light red in colour. As a traveller, your only way to avoid them is to request a new bed, or find new accommodations. One should note however that rarely do the bedbugs reside in the mattress itself, often nesting in the walls, in bed frames, or other safe areas. They seek a host through heat signatures, and by tracing carbon dioxide to its human source. As far as travellers need be concerned, bed bugs do not tend to reside on humans, or in clothing, preferring fixed habitats. As such, taking an infestation with you is not always the case, but precautions should always be taken. Bed bugs and their eggs all die at 47°C and are highly susceptible to drowning – washing all of your clothes (especially a sleeping bag if you travel with one like I do) and taking a shower should rid you of any further complications. Fortunately, while bedbugs seem to have the capacity to act as a vector for many blood-borne diseases, laboratory test have shown that they never do, so a bitten individual need not worry about diseases beyond immediate complications from the bite.

Needless to say, after a blurb like that, my hostel had bed bugs. The mattress failed the wipe test with a damp cloth, and while I didn’t see any bedbugs, the presence of faeces was enough for me. I pointed it out to the hostel owner, saying I didn’t wish to make a fuss, but because I didn’t feel safe in the hostel, I wanted to leave with a refund. It took him a while to respond, he just sat watching tv for almost a minute before launching into a violent rant. With many of his other guests in the room, he loudly lashed out at me, accusing me of blackmail, and telling me that he runs a good hostel and doesn’t need to take crap from fucking Americans like me (sorry for the language mom).  Mistake in national identity aside, his rant continued for 30 minutes while I waited, hoping he would calm down enough to see sense in the situation. He made it quite clear to his other guests what my complaint was, so there was no risk of me threatening to inform them of the problem, he simply couldn’t see that it was a matter as simple as wanting to feel safe in my accommodation. After a while, I decided that fighting with him was not worth it; I returned to my room and started to pack. Moments later, he burst into the room and demanded to see proof of bed bugs, clearly convinced I could not show him evidence. His attitude changed drastically when I showed him the blood smear, as he admitted to a previous infestation and had since informed himself of the methods of detection. He became quiet for a while, clearly contemplating his next move, until his face lit up like the proverbial light bulb with an idea. He proposed that since I booked the hostel on hostelworld.com, if I left a 100% review for him he would give me a full refund. Instantly, something clicked in my head. Remembering the reviews of the hostel online, there were a few odd reviews at 100% with no explanation, and no comment except for “good hostel”. It was immediately clear that these people, like I, were given the option to trade their dignity for a refund. I made the grave mistake of pointing out that he was the one attempting to blackmail me, which only set him off on another rant. This time I actively tried to calm him, reassuring him that he is a good hostel owner, but that shit happens when people come from all over the world. I reminded him that it would be a good hostel owner who ensured that regardless of personal gain, his guests or potential guests were comfortable and felt safe, and that if he helped me feel safe, a good review was guaranteed. I have never felt more like I was talking to a big baby, and wondered if at some point he might need his diaper changed. After 15 minutes of consoling and offering soothing words, I agreed to give him his 100% review, and even shook on it. I suppose that in that shake, I traded my honour for my integrity, but I would not be coerced into influencing others to visit his hostel if it was unclean. Days later, I left what I felt to be a fair review, giving OK marks for location, but bad marks for cleanliness, and in my comment mentioning the whole episode. This was my first truly BAD experience with a hostel, and while the hostel itself was unclean and unhygienic, it was the immaturity of the hostel owner that compounded the problem. I hope that he might clean up his hostel one day and turn his hostel into the safe/clean haven for backpackers that he has deluded himself into believing it presently is.

Frustrated from the experience, I left the hostel for the Etap hotel since I already knew no hostels had availability. Etap provides cheap accommodation for a €45/night for a 3 person room, prices generally constant across Europe. I checked in, and while the nightly rate was my entire day’s budget (it was already an expensive day), was glad to be in clean, safe accommodation. I thoroughly enjoyed the private bathroom and I happily sprawled out diagonally on the queen size bed. I booked for the next night at the ABHostel (Antwerp Backpackers Hostel), and enjoyed a peaceful night of solitude.

The next day I found my way across town to the ABHostel and was delightfully surprised at what I found. The hostel I had initially tried to book for my whole stay, it was booked up by the time I tried before arriving in Antwerp. I met the pleasant owner who herself backpacked in her youth, and toured the facilities. Situated in a former praline factory, the building sat abandoned for some 30 before she and her husband purchased the whole facility. They live in the top floor with their two sons, while part of the factory is converted into a working hostel and her husband works nearly every night to convert the rest. I could go into a lot of detail here but I won’t. Bottom line, if you are going to Antwerp, stay at the ABHostel, it, and its owners are amazing. I told her my horror story of the Boomerang Hostel and she was unsurprised, receiving quite a lot of hateful phone calls from the owner, accusing her of bribing her guests into giving her good reviews, and other heinous acts. I told her that next time he called, she could inform him that yes, she was bribing her guests for good reviews, by providing them with the services and clean facilities they hope to get when staying at a hostel. She thought this was pretty funny and promised to throw it at him next time he called.

The whole day it poured rain like nobody’s business. I walked to the Eurolines bus station and purchased a ticket to Cologne for the next day, cutting a day from my intended stay in Antwerp. I was thoroughly soaked by the time I got back, even with my rain jacket, but had at least avoided injury from the hail stones which occasionally fell, up to half a centimetre in diameter.

I wish I could say that my stay in Antwerp was what I hoped for it to be, but it was not. I had hoped for a good stay, at a comfortable hostel, and while it was comfortable, my plans did not go as intended. The city was visually appealing, but because of the bad weather and the substandard hostel, I only had a few hours of sightseeing in the city. Maybe someday I will come back and enjoy the city, and maybe I will come back and stay at the ABHostel. Can I say you should go visit Antwerp? Not really. I hear it’s nice, and at night, with its old buildings illuminated, it is quite the sight to see, but never before have I spent two days in a city and left with such a complete lack of an impression of a city. Sorry Antwerp. Next is Dusseldorf, where I can hopefully redeem myself.