#featuredfish

[hostelfish]

What a great night at Hostel Fish!

Andrew told me that on the weekends, the bar has been fairly easy-going until 10:30pm, or so, then it explodes until the end of the night. I was prepared for that, and was able to get everything restocked for you fine and thirsty folks, beforehand. Sure enough, people arrived in droves around 10pm, and it stayed that way for the rest of the night. It was a high-volume/quick-turnover type of night, and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Speaking of spirits, Absinthe was a fiery selection, and our new Suerte tequila proved to be a crowd favorite.

A couple of cool moments:

--I’ve been trying to get Paxton to show off her rad piano skills, being a music-business major, and all. She’s been coy about it, though, so at one point when it was just us two and another person in the room I said “alright, alright, how about this: if I get the ring on the hook in the first 3 attempts, you give us 5 minutes.” As I lined up, she said “If you get it on the first try, I’m out of here.” Sure enough, I landed the ring on the hook the first try and she bolted out of the room without saying anything. It was all humorous.

--Bijon, a warm and friendly guest of ours, showed me a picture he’d taken from the balcony. It was of me crouching down in the parking lot below, at the time I was taking a group-picture for a few ladies who were going into Ophelia’s. Without any other context, me just crouching down in the middle of a parking lot looked rather silly…

--It was a very pleasant surprise to see Nic and Mary, who are both awesome past Hostel employees. They both have some exciting opportunities ahead of them, and we love when Fishes past-and-present come to chill at our Lodo-oasis.

--At that denouement-time of a busy night, when the bar has been mostly cleaned and the music is winding down and people are reminded to start making moves, there was one special moment between myself, a friend, and a couple of guests. I’d shut the music off already and brought my guitar down for my friend to pick around on while I continued to clean. At one point, I walked over to the piano just to see what happened. I don’t play piano (at all) but I asked David the chords, and was able to find the right notes and a few riffs to go back and forth from that fit perfectly. Our hostel guest kept the beat nicely on one of our wooden side tables, and another guest joined in with a little impromptu scat. It was one of those cool, serendipitous, special moments that seem to happen around here often.

Overall, it was a damn good weekend. Cheers, all!

[chefleoraptor]

Today’s #featuredfish #fishfriday House smoked salmon with gnocchi Alfredo and fried Brussels sprouts... (at Sassafraz) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpaPyT7ncCV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=166vvfqiiu2qw

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Monica Warnes, 24 West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

What is your inspiration to travel?

“I’ve always wanted to travel. And in any form of meditation, I saw myself going places and doing things. I met this kid at a festival… he came by himself and I didn’t even really talk to him, but I just saw simplicity in the fact that he came alone just to observe what all was going on all around him. It made me want to go explore the world and do things by myself and go be alone. And it kind of supported the idea that it was totally fine to go and be by myself.”

So this is your first big trip by yourself?

“Solo, yeah. The furthest I’ve been is Vegas. When I started traveling as an adult, not with my parents, my best friend and I would go everywhere, but we would fight all the time because she wanted to go on Facebook and see what everybody thought she should go and do, and I wanted to wander around and see what I got into. And we clashed.

How have your experiences on the road shaped you personally and influenced your world view?

"I thought that I was way more of a loner than I actually am. I got really homesick and I didn’t think that I would miss people, at all. I didn’t think that I would miss home. I’ve also, obviously gained a fuck ton of confidence that I can handle whatever."

What is one of your most memorable experiences while traveling?

"I never thought that I stereotyped people that heavily, but you know it happens, and I took the Amtrak over here and I was eating dinner and they sat a guy down next to me because that’s how it works, open seating or whatever, and they just seat people with you. He’s a middle aged dude, like my father’s age, maybe, and I was like ‘there’s no way I’m going to connect with this guy on any level,’ and we ended up spending like 3 hours talking. I told him about my journey, and he told me how he used to coach basketball in Europe, and that he travelled around a lot then. He ended up taking the Eurorail by himself. So he’s this guy that’s my dad’s age, and he’s all excited for me and he’s so supportive when my dad is kind of like ‘you’re fucking crazy’…we don’t get along. It was just this strange reception, this random ass dude was like, into it, and with me on it. He was telling me that he lived in Seattle, and I’m going to Seattle, so he’s telling me about that and talking about his son and everything. It was just learning to connect with other people outside your circle, but it was really unexpected."

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Abdub Jateny, 32 Ethiopia

What is your inspiration to travel?

“I want to meet new people, have new experiences, see different stuff, and just be open minded and learn from different cultures and people.”

What is one of your most memorable experiences while traveling

“My most memorable experience is being in Germany and going to bier gardens and meeting people there, meeting the German culture, and learning the languag.”

How have your experiences on the road shaped you personally and influenced your world view?

“I met a lot of people from different walks on life on my travel and experiences.”

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Ashley and Desiree, 25 and 26 Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Do you travel a lot?

“No we work a lot.”; "As much as we can, but this is our first vacation in like a year. We definitely picked the right spot. We may not go back.”

Is this your first experience staying in a hostel?

“Yes! It’s amazing. I will never stay in a generic hotel again.”

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Rodrigo Custodio, 31 Sao Paulo, Brazil

Is this your first experience staying in a hostel?

“Yes, this is my first experience in a hostel. It’s a great experience because it’s different from staying at a hotel. At a hostel my feelings are that I belong to the context, to the culture. It’s easier to make friends. I will stay in other hostels from now on. The next will be in Chicago.”

Do you travel often? What is your inspiration to travel?

To meet people from different countries and to understand the different cultures. When you want to make new friends from different cultures, the first step is to respect the culture. Now a days, it’s to experiment and really immerse myself in a new city and a new culture.

What have you learned through your travels?

I have another perspective of reality. That maybe we all have the same problems, but now I can see that we all have the same problems, and the same inspirations within society.”

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Sonja Rengel, 48 Zurich, Switzerland

Is this your first experience staying in a hostel?

"No. I have stayed in hostels and guest houses/bungalows, mostly in Asia, South America, and Europe. This is my first experience in the United States. In the US I’ve stayed in 3 hostels. One was uncomfortable and dirty, one in Ashland looked nice but it had bed bugs. This one is a perfect meeting point. It’s like staying at home. It’s one of the nicest I’ve ever seen."

Do you travel a lot? What is your inspiration?

"I love feeling out other cultures and building up opinions about a country and its’ people. It’s better to see the country and meet the people yourself, rather than watching a documentary or reading about it. It’s my hobby."

What have you learned about yourself or the world, through traveling?

I find it was a good experience to do things on my own, especially as a woman. It’s a very different experience than traveling with a man, or another girl. Sometimes you have to defend yourself a little more. It’s something that of course makes you stronger, when you do something on your own without Booking.com and other things like this. If you’re traveling on your own, you’re far more forced to talk to people than if you’re traveling with another person. This helps you learn more about the country. There are plenty of other advantages, as well.

What is a particularly memorable travel experience of yours?"

Walking on my own into hill-tribe villages in Burma. Without anybody speaking English, I was getting through with hand gestures and body language. Especially doing this on my own was very rewarding."

Do you have anything else you'd like to add? Lessons you've learned, advise for other travelers, or observations?"

When I see young people in their 20’s, the way they’re traveling in Asia or South America, I wonder why they aren’t a little more courageous. They’re so organized. I miss the mentality of letting yourself go completely into a new country.

[hostelfish]

“You Made It!“ 

---I still remember one of my friends and past Hostel Fish coworkers, Phelipe, tearing up after first seeing this Hostel Fish mural. Phelipe moved straight to Denver from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to chase his lifelong dream of building a life in the United States (much to the disapproval of his family, who thought he should continue his education in Brazil...classic story, much?) Phelipe experienced a good deal of culture shock, understandably, but has since found several great opportunities, and I’m happy for him. As tears rolled down his cheek, he told me “You Made It” was the exact phrase he thought when he arrived in Denver and started living and working at Hostel Fish. 

[hostelfish]

Featured Fish

Shahram Rostami, 36 Iran (Persia)

What is your inspiration to travel?

I like to learn and know new cultures; new geographical points. It’s important for me to see all over the world. It’s not good if I stay in one city or one geographical point and not see the other side of the world. Now it’s my 3rd continent, the United States is in the 3rd continent that I’ve lived in. Before the United States, I was in Europe and Asia.

What is one of your most memorable experiences while traveling?

My most memorable experience was in France, in Paris, when I spent all night in a train. It was in Paris in the night, late at night, and I had not much moremoney to go to a hotel. And there was no hotel with a check-in at that time. You know, some hotels have check in at like 8, or 11, in the morning. It was like 2 o’clock in the morning...I was in the train station in Paris. I see a French guy, a nice person, who said you can overnight in the train. We’ll go and see 5 trains. There were 5 trains- one train from England, one train from Italy, a train from Germany, a train from France, and a train from Spain. “Which train do you want to sleep?” he asked. And I choose a train that I think was from England and I overnighted in the train for cheap. For free. It was a very good memory and experience. Actually, I find French people to be very relaxed.

How have your experiences on the road shaped you personally and influenced your world view?

I learned more tolerance. I learn new things from new people from new cultures. Basically, you might sometimes have a bad experience but it’s a positive experience because it will develop your personality. You can develop your personality through trouble. It’s very nice to travel, and it’s my hobby to learn new languages, new cultures, and new people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shahram and I had a great conversation one night at the bar. For quite awhile, he and I were the only ones in the room. He’d spent a few days in LA, but other than that, he was brand new to the United States. He was on a journey to a few major US cities searching for a place to call his new home. He hadn’t particularly enjoyed Los Angeles, and I didn’t blame him. He said that he’d loved Denver, so far. Next on his list was Chicago, and I know Miami was on there, also. Shahram was a very friendly and outgoing man. He unfortunately got swindled out of $200 one day during his stay, and I sincerely hope he’s rebounded...everyone hates a thief. Shahram is a perfect example of how you never really know who you’ll meet and who you’ll connect with while at Hostel Fish. Safe travels, Shahram!