Your first night in a hostel: What the guidebooks don’t tell you (but it’s worth knowing)

Imagine this: sunset over Morskie Oko, not a soul in sight (everyone’s already gone down in the minibuses). You’re sitting on a wooden bench with a cup of hot tea. Stars, silence. A fairytale.

However, to ensure this fairy tale doesn’t turn into a nightmare entitled “I didn’t sleep a wink because someone was snoring like a bear”, you need to know how the mountain hut ecosystem works. This isn’t Booking.com. It’s a state within a state.

Here are 5 things that will save your first night in the mountains.

1. Earplugs = The Holy Grail

You walk into a shared dormitory. You’re having a laugh, chatting away, and then the lights go out. And the concert begins. In a 10-person room, there will ALWAYS, without exception, be one snoring virtuoso. Add to that rustling sleeping bags (the fabric makes a noise with every turn), creaking bunk beds, and someone who, at 3:00 am, is packing their rucksack for Rysy, using those flimsy plastic carrier bags from Biedronka (why are they always so flimsy?!).

• Solution: Earplugs. Without them, you simply won’t get any sleep. They cost 5 zł at the chemist’s, and they’ll save your sanity.

2. Flip-flops (Kroks) are your most important footwear

Your super-duper Goretex boots costing 800 zł will stink and be wet after 8 hours of walking.

• In mountain huts, the rule is to take off your hiking boots (you leave them in the drying room or the entrance hall).
• You move around the building (and in the shower!) in light footwear. Take the cheapest, lightest foam flip-flops. They’ll save your feet from fungal infections in the shower and let your feet ‘breathe’ at dinner.

3. Boiling water is currency. And your mug is a treasure

Most people carry their own food (so-called ‘instant noodles’, freeze-dried meals, tea).

• PTTK mountain huts (e.g. in the Valley of Five Lakes or on Hala Ornak) are obliged to provide free boiling water to hikers.
• The catch: You need something to pour it into. Bring a lightweight metal or silicone mug with you (some mountain huts frown upon you taking their branded mug without ordering tea, or make you pay a ‘deposit’). Having your own kit gives you independence.

4. Your battery runs out faster than an apple pie

In a shared room, there’s usually… one socket. Or none at all (you end up charging your gear in the corridor). Imagine 10 people after a whole day of taking photos on Szpiglasowy Wierch. Everyone has 5% battery left. A merciless battle for the socket ensues, involving power banks and extension leads.

• Tip: Take a fully charged power bank and forget about the problem. Alternatively, have a plug with two USB ports – you’ll be the hero of the room.

5. No hot water? A quick shower is essential

The hostels are “at the end of the world”. The water is heated by electricity from a generator (or a small hydroelectric plant) or by solar panels. If you return from a hike at 7 pm and go for a shower at 9 pm… the hot water will probably be long gone (because 50 people have used it before you).

• Rule: You come back, drop your rucksack, have a quick shower. Only then do you eat dinner and have a beer.

Does that mean the hostels are bad?

Absolutely not! It’s the best thing that can happen to you in the mountains. The atmosphere of evening chats with strangers (about where they’re coming from and where they’re going tomorrow), singing along to the guitar, the crisp mountain air at 5:00 am before the summit push… For moments like these, it’s worth putting up with the snoring and the cold water. It’s addictive!