The attitude of the hostels we have is ambiguous: many people believe that they live only laborers from the province and drug addicts, and next to this hostel are not happy. The Parliament in 2015, even introduced a bill to ban the hostels in residential buildings. “Today,” found out what causes people to live permanently in hostels, and if they interfere with residents of conventional houses.
“On the first floor of my house is a hostel with 20-bed, — says Lyudmila from Kiev Trinity. Place a day there costs 50 UAH, per month — 800. In six years of existence at the hostel in our parade have been robbed of 3 apartments, and for the previous 20 years — only one! In the summer, the Windows were ad — visitors day and night they drank, smoked, shouted and staged a massacre. Had to call the police. My apartment is on top and is constantly in a cigarette smoke! I complain, but I only redirect from the service to the service”.
“In our house too hostel, but the visitors I do not interfere too much. But as a person, a part of OSBB, I know how much harm they bring home, says a resident of Kiev Arseny a Cloud. At least the constant chaos and trampled lawn. I understand that accommodation is necessary to people. But it is better to allocate a separate house and to give it for hostels to multiple owners.”
THE ADVANTAGES OF LIVING IN HOSTEL
THE DISADVANTAGES OF LIVING IN A HOSTEL
VALERY: “Curtains on the bed to give privacy, but not saved from snoring”
Newsman Valery Bellies from Ilovaysk now lives in a rented apartment, but six months ago, lived in one hostel and the other worked. “When I first moved to Odessa, I couldn’t afford to rent an apartment or even a room, and decided to stay in a hostel until I find work. But work was scarce, says 28-year-old boy. — Every time I put someone unbearable snoring, I promised myself tomorrow to “engage” with the hostels. Often happened when the three of them snoring woken up in the middle of the night and took counsel how to be with three snoring, which do not allow to sleep. In the morning I understood that not everything in life is so simple, and the plans were changed back.
Three months accommodation at the hostel I made friends with his administrators, and the owner, who, by the way, was my countryman. Thanks to him I started working in the hostel next door. At first I was wondering — constant new experiences, but at some point, I am exhausted. Night in the hostel — it’s almost like the night in the reserved seat. Curtains on the beds create the effect of “I’m in the house” — and this is perhaps the only thing that gives even the slightest privacy. And — depending on how noisy the neighbors stopped by this time. Over time, I realized that I want more personal space, because in such circumstances, even a girl lead nowhere.
I think every hostel there are people who bring trouble to others. We have lived a man of about sixty who always poked their help, telling boring stories, cooked a pot of soup, which was perceptivel several times why the kitchen was a terrible smell. Always ate in the room, sitting on the bed. Unfortunately for the aliens, he in fluent order knew several languages — Polish, French and German.
In our hostel guests only lived from October to April. In April, all of them traditionally expelled, because guests pay a lot less money than tourists. In Odessa in the summer to keep the hotel profitable. Winter in our hostel you can live a month for 2 thousand hryvnias (UAH 66/day), in the summer this place costs 150 UAH/day. In addition, tourists are much neater and more cultured than the hotel: it was evident by the mountains of dishes, days which could stagnate in the kitchen in winter. Sometimes I psyched myself undertook to wash it. As always, we are for the unwashed crockery was installed fine. But to calculate the culprit was extremely difficult”.
OLGA: “I Live like a penthouse apartment for eight people”
Leaving 7-year-old son in the care of her grandmother, 28-year-old Olga came to the capital from Mariupol. She works at the Kiev sports fitness coach. To save money, a year living in a hostel room for eight seats,
“In the hostel to live comfortably: all day all gone at work or study, and comes only to sleep, — says Olga. — I feel at home here. If you live in a crowded penthouse apartment — our hostel occupies the last two floors of a 25-storey building near the metro, near the center. Here all is very strict — rules, and administrator. In corridors security cameras. For valuables there are special lockers with combination locks. It is forbidden to consume alcohol in the corridors of the hostel to drink only in your room. Inside allowed until 24:00, and released only at 6:00. If someone didn’t wash their dishes — fine. TV total, often in the evenings watching movies in the common room. Has a games console. In the kitchen, give free tea, coffee and sugar. From the inconvenience of frequently changing neighbors, the queue to the plate and shared shower facilities (male and female), as in the gym. No bathroom. When you come to visit a friend, you can sit and drink tea in the kitchen.”
But with her boyfriend Olga found in his apartment.
For the money, too profitable: the longer I live the cheaper. “I paid 82 UAH per day. If someone conducts you to your room, you give a discount, so it is beneficial to bring friends. But with the bunk beds is a problem — they are like a single organism, parts of which live in complete harmony with each other. And if someone is tossing and turning, the whole bed shakes and squeaks. I even bought ear plugs! Sleeping on a lower bed — to her more comfortable”, — says the girl.
Neighbor Olga was very different: someone is studying by correspondence and visits them from time to time, someone like Olga, working, someone moved from the Donbas.
“I recently met a girl who took a separate room, — says Olga. — It’s almost like a hotel room only with a shared kitchen. She’s a Professor, lives and works in the University in London. Usually settles in hotels, who pays for the work, but this time came to apply for a visa at the Embassy at his own expense. Said that in the hostel she is cheaper and more fun than the one in the hotel. In our room lived retired from Lugansk: she had worked 11 years in Italy, have savings and two bedroom apartment homes, but to sell it doesn’t want. And the sense, apparently, not now. About a year she lives with us, although I could make something better. But our questions are answered: “Yes you that! To me it’s more fun here!”. Yeah: what’s not here, so it solitude to be alone in a hostel is almost impossible. But I love to be with people. And, in any case, it’s better than sitting in the city one in a three room apartment, when real life is passing by.”
TATIANA: “it is not Paradise, but I practice in English and Italian”
35-year-old Tatiana from Chuguev of Kharkov lives in a hostel in a room for 6 people. Family and children of her yet. “The first time I tried to live in hostels when traveling abroad, — says the woman. — I earn to travel. The second time I visited the hostel with a friend when we arrived in Kiev more students. It was fun, 99% of male foreigners in the room with us lived Czech — we were living in a shared room. It was noisy, fun, went together to clubs. Third time lived with a friend in hostels tour of the United States. There I realized that there is no difference — whether you live in a room with 4 people, or with the twelve. As a rule, you come back only to sleep. In the morning all got up, showered, ate and went about their business. Why pay more for a hotel? There is a TV and free Internet. In General, the place is an Ironing Board, iron, Hairdryer. My hostel is located in the center of Kharkov is very convenient. We have mostly Europeans or our youth. But many of my friends still think that the hostel is locked away in prison”.
According to Tatyana, disdainful hostels are only Ukrainians, then how in the world it is considered convenient housing. “I have traveled a lot and say that drunken neighbors I often come across in hotels from 3 stars and above. Hostels are such a rarity, there are stronger, — says Tatiana. And new friends especially do not need to look: go to the kitchen or living room — and Dating happen by themselves. When the hostel appear to foreigners, practicing with them in English and Italian. Although, of course, here is not Paradise. For example, the week we lived with a drunk, then she was evicted. Came with family for a few days — it was hell! The kids screamed, jumped, wanted all the time to watch cartoons on TV… Who wants to go to bed early, and some late at night. One window opens, and the second blowing. Today, one sleeps on the second floor of your bed, and tomorrow — another, dangling his legs, and snore wildly. It’s annoying, because some rent a separate room. We have a hostel guy in a room pays 5 thousand. But it is convenient: more communication, and each week change the sheets”.
MIROSLAV: “Many years living in hostels for 12 people, as in the chicken coop”
40—year-old Miroslav italianin living in Kiev for almost six months. Works as a guitarist in the club. During this time, replaced three hostels: two in center and one on the outskirts. On the outskirts (Forest city) hostel took a total of 4 rooms in a residential building, and in the center of Kiev — it was already 12 rooms with different conditions. “In the center, on the hem, on the first day of the settlement I was offered to break the head with a stool, because I put the wrong backpack, — says Miroslav. — I complained to the Manager, but was a little confused. Many people live for years in the rooms for 8-12 people, as in the chicken coop, often men and women together. But this is of little bother: going back with the change (often night) I sleep like a log, and anyway, who’s snoring next to a man or a woman. I soon realized that the neighbors — it is always a lottery and if you win, unknown. Sometimes you see this! For example, fighting like two drunk women, and hair pieces fly — catcher, I can tell you, is not for the faint of heart. But the orders, every hostel is different. Where I live now — everything is strictly which way to go to the bathroom at night in his underpants — the administrator will be asked to come back and get dressed. Often hostels have beds there are bedside tables, but they do not lock. If something is stolen, can complain or call the police, but again — the chance to return stolen enough. Mostly live ones who can’t afford to rent a separate room in the average pay 1,5 thousand a month.” Although Miroslav once made friends in this hostel and with a black Jamaican, whose Ukrainian business however, what it is his business, he never confessed.
But with my personal life in a hostel is not much, admits Miroslav. “Not all girls like to chat with guys who live in hostels, — says the musician. — Many, when they learn that I live in a hostel, disappear. But there were also those for whom not a problem to have sex in a common room behind the curtain! But I’m thinking to rent an apartment.”
ALEX: “my mother and I lived in the hostel for only 3 months, but here I met a favorite”
28-year-old resident Alex first came to the hostel as a student, when I traveled to Europe. It was a six-room, attached Breakfast, and the guy loved it. But the hostel in his native Lviv, its encouraged to live… the renovation, which gave the mother in their apartment. In the end, he for three months settled in the men’s room for four people, and my mother — in female. In this residence turned out to be a lot of advantages: Alex met a girl from my mother’s room, and they still occur. And mom’s choice approved and also befriended her.
“In hostels often consist of a pair, a million stories, — says Alexei. In the very first evening upon arrival he quarreled with neighbors, I almost got conked on the head with a stool. One man came into the room drunk and even tried to commit suicide, it took the ambulance. In the kitchen hang the reminder that it is necessary to wash a glass, otherwise fine. The food in the refrigerator that are not folded in packets and signed — discarded. And often, guests eat the wrong foods. A lot of foreigners — they are the most fun. Often come to Lviv tourists, and even live with the families.”
For the three months that Alex lived in a hostel, he was so used that even got upset when the repair ended and had to return home.
