Best Hostel in New York City

International Youth Center

I chose the International Student Center after spending a few hours researching hostels on hostels.com. I chose the Center largely because of the location, not knowing what the areas were like around the other establishments. I knew anything around Central Park couldn't be bad.

I went to New York City to see the Yankees home opener, but more than that, I went up there to get away from everything down here in Texas.

When I arrived at the Center, I saw what is in the picture. Pretty nice ... on the outside. On the inside is a different story altogether, but typical for a hostel and typical for $20 a night in NYC.

I was greeted by a girl that was from some other country, but I never found out where... It was apparent though that she had been in NYC for a while and it had made her tough. Nothing was going to get by her. I went through all the procedures of signing papers, paying, checking my bag in, quickly using the internet to remain "plugged in", then off to my room. Well, not exactly "my" room. I had 11 roommates from Africa, France, Argentina ... everywhere but America. This made for a fun environment.

Then there was the bathroom. Oh, the bathroom. This was a work of art, but typical for a hostel and if I might remind you, $20 a night in NYC. Words cannot describe it, but I took every precaution in order to have a healthy and warm bathing experience. Can we all say, "Cold water!"

One night, I had gotten in late from a comedy club and was really tired. I immediately went to bed in my top bunk with its plastic coated mattress and thin sheets. I became surrounded by the sounds of 11 people sleeping and learned that night that no matter where you are from, we all sound alike when we are sleeping. Except the guy from Africa. I don't know which country he was from, but this guy could snore like nobody's business. I have never heard snoring like I did that night, not even from my grandfathers. I was not the only one enjoying the medley.

I am a very laid back person and typically wait for other people with shorter fuses to deal with situations like the one before me. This particular night the short fuse belonged to the French; a.k.a. the snorer's neighbor. It began with stifled French cursing or what I guessed to be such and then a barrage of thrown boxes at the African man to get him to wake up. However, every time he went back to sleep he started snoring again. This process was repeated a few times till the French man ran out of boxes to throw and the African man finally found a way to stop snoring. I just laid there with my head in my hand watching it all like a movie with a grin on my face. Maybe that's weird, but I call it an experience.