One of the best experiences of my life to-date was a one-month trip through Europe with my best friend and a now very close friend. We were all newly graduated from college and wanted to see Europe on our own for the first time— a luxury we were so lucky to be able to afford to do. I personally had just gotten a new job and was able to somehow negotiate this vacation time before I started, and with that, we got to planning.

We saw 6 countries and 7 cities in just about 3 and a half weeks, and it was the most whirlwind experience of a lifetime— and one I still think about regularly. Our stops were: London, The Cotswolds, Dublin, Belfast, Amsterdam, Sevilla, and Barcelona. My best friend Lydia and I schemed up this trip as we were in the midst of college finals and we made it happen by sheer power of will, and a little bit of daydreaming.

Now these were the days before Airbnb was really around, and we were far too broke to afford even the cheapest of hotels, so we opted to stay in hostels for our adventure. We thought it would be a fun, cheap, way to connect with other travelers our age, and get some tips from local guides at the hostels. We were right on both fronts— we got very unique experiences at each hostel, and we definitely bonded with lots of other travelers our age from all around the world.

What we didn’t bargain for was some of the chaos that comes with staying in hostels— all things we probably could never have prepared for. There are so many stories from that month that I can’t even begin to share all of them in this post, but I will definitely name a few hostel rite-of-passages we had:

• Sharing a room in Amsterdam with an older who gentleman slept about 20 hours / day (we had to slink around to not disturb him)

• Staying in shared-bunk rooms with only one power outlet to be shared amongst 10+ people

• Staying in a ‘hostel’ that was actually just a room located above a sports bar on the edge of the red light district (let’s just say we probably could have done more research on this one)

• Finding many hostels where WIFI was only active in common spaces and not in the rooms

• SO much Muesli for breakfast

• Sharing beautiful home-cooked meals with strangers that became friends (often included for a few extra Euros at many hostels and well worth it)

• Chatting, listening to live music, and sipping drinks on a rooftop bar in Sevilla with people from all over the world

• Befriending strangers and traveling with them for multiple days at a time, sharing experiences dancing at bars and clubs late into the morning

• Learning about cultures I’d never encountered before, talking to locals working at the hostels and getting tips for what to do and what to avoid in every city

All of these experiences felt like ways of preparing us for the real world— having strange interactions in crowded bunk-rooms was something I am so glad I did. As corny as it sounds, we got lost repeatedly in Europe, and somehow found out more about ourselves in the process. I figured I could be broke anywhere in the world, but broadening my horizons and seeing more of the world would be worth it, and man was I right.

Although not all of these hostels are still active, there are a few that are, and I would recommend any of them, but particularly the hostel in Sevilla. Staying in hostels is definitely a young-persons game, and something that’s not for the faint of heart, but if you are in this stage of your life and want to experience the hostel life, you might start here:

• La Banda Rooftop Hostel, Sevilla, Spain

• Vagabonds Hostel, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Happy traveling!