quinta-feira, 9 de setembro de 2010

Joy, oh joy!

As some of you may know, I work at a hostel (WOW!). 
So, today, I decided to share the joys of the most amazing under payed job in the world.
First of all (and mainly) the tourist.
You, literally, meet the most incredible people. Also, you become more than a mere receptionist, you really are a hostess. You spend your time giving information about Porto (or any other city you get to work in) to those confused and lost poor people. You get to wake them up, after going party with them, just to check if they're alive and remind them about the check out time (this has to be the number one reason for a tourist wanting to kill a receptionist). And yeah, you always end up going partying with some of them. It's impossible when you're so adorable (ahah?).

Really, they rely on us to tell them where the restaurants, bars, clubs are. And some of them, become you're friends. At least, as close to it as a two people get to be when they spend a week toghether in a foreign country.
I've been here for six months, and still keep in touch with some of them (my favourite, off course). It's really cool that a hostel is usually a small place, you treat everybody by their name. And I mean EVERYBODY. And if you can't pronounce some israelian name, you just make up one that sounds as close as possible to the real name.

So, why am I bringing this up? Because I felt the need to share some memories, to keep me from forgetting about these people, that like me, love to stay in dorms and find someone to share your stay with.

Right now, Kate (from Australia), Lars and LJ (USA), Ali (London), Jacalyn (Germany) and Matej (from Slovenia) are making dinner for all of us. How cool is that?

Yesterday, Kate even baked some chocolate chip cookies and kept some for me because I was doing the late shift.
So... first I'll start with Cam. This Australian dude came to the hostel completely lost and asked to stay 2 nights. Being the students week (Queima das Fitas) here in Porto at the time, he ended up staying for 18 days. Falling asleep on the couch EVERY single night, completely wasted. He's cool though. He went camping in a natural national park without permit and discovered a way to open a wine bottle without corckscrew and not getting the wine messed up. He's an artist, well, of some sort I guess, but he draws very well. Because he was one of the first to stay at the hostel, I remember him well ( to this date, we still catch up on each other on Facebook).
Then, the most amazing brazilian couple ever Rosangela e o Pedro. God, they were fun! Two days ago, they invited me to spend some time with them in their house in Madrid. He was a MAJOR fan of some brazilian team, and they were here right before the World Cup.

Vincenzzo, the italian guy, he drank himself up with wine. Always bringing me stuff. He made one of the best dinners in my life! Also, he was VERY cute. But i'm a professional :D

Then Liam and James got here. They met in Ireland, travelled to Spain toghether and decided to keep it up in Portugal. James was from Germany, and Liam from Australia. Liam was always telling these awesome stories from his one year long trip in Europe. He discovered, through our Guest Book that he knows Cam. They met each other in Italy. How cool is that? Liam still sends me e-mails telling me about his travels. Right now he is in France.

Then, came Dayna-Destiny. Daughter hippies that didn't believe in sun cream, she got sunburned in Porto for the first time. She's from New Zeland. Her parents own this VW yeallow van, that they allowed her to paint when she was seven. She was the funniest girl ever! Amazed by everything. Simple and complex. And she LOVES coconut ice cream from Slovenia and hates the talking warmed toillet seats from Japan. She just sent me a postcard from Belgium.

 And Linda and Martina. Those were some crazy italian chicks!

After this, from England, came this 7 people group, they were celebrating the gradutation finals. Joshua, Katherine, Melissa,  Rose, Max, Tom and Vincent. I took them pub crawling. They left the most hearted post on the hostels guest book thanking me.

Few weeks ago, there was Francisco, Brianne and John, a group that were here for Erasmus. They left me a note invinting me to dinner at their new place, because I helped them finding the house. Cool uh?

And now, there's Daniel, Ali, Francesca, Kate, LJ, Lars, Jacalyn and Matej. They met here at the Hostel, and have been here for more than 10 days. They cook dinner, bring beers, bake cookies, and keep me occupied when I'm here alone pretending to work or facebooking and twittering. The even watched Satr Wars with me ahah.

These are the ones that stuck in my head. There are many more that I remember, but not by name.

I like it here.
And I do love my tourists.


Claudia.

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