Baltimore…the Arrival
The drive from Rockville, MD (where I was staying) to Baltimore was only 50 miles, actually a little less, and it took me no more than an hour to get to the city, however I couldn’t find my hostel so it ended up taking about 2 hours until I found the place I was staying. I was planning on staying at the HI Hostel in Baltimore, which was kind of exciting in some ways, but in other ways not so exciting. The deal with the hostels I had stayed at during the trip was basically this….and this style of living/traveling doesn’t sound that appealing to many people for one reason or another…that’s fair enough.
Since I didn’t (and couldn’t afford) want to stay at hotels because of their high prices, and more importantly, because of the extreme loneliness I’d experience, I stayed at hostels whenever possible. This allowed me to spend my free time with other people close to me in age from all different parts of the world. Staying at the American hostels was almost like staying at a camp. They sometimes had activities for their guests, which I rarely participated in, but most importantly, I was surrounded by people close to me in age, who were interested in similar things I was interested in, and I was surrounded by people from all over the world. When you’re traveling by yourself these are all very important things I took into consideration and I really think the hostels made my trip a lot more enjoyable.
So after checking into the hostel in Baltimore and paying a price I thought was too hefty as well as an additional parking fee for their back lot, I dropped my belongings at my bed which was in a room with a few other beds, all of which had occupants. I made my way back downstairs, inquired about any nearby restaurants, and found a quick bite to eat before heading back to the hostel to take it easy and chat with Suz. I was getting very excited because August 1st was right around the corner and that’s when Suz was coming to visit me in NY. I wanted to try to extend my road trip for as long as possible so I wouldn’t have any dead time in NY and I could time my arrival with her arrival and have her trip to NY be the grand finale to my summer road trip. We chatted for awhile and both of us shared equal excitement about the nearness of August 1, before I headed to bed.
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
