About the Hostel World

"I am not of this world" was my feeling when doing permitting work in Yaffo, last week. It was (is) a hostel with an alcoholic bar that needed the municipal business permit. It was midday, and quite hot outside, but cool and clean inside. I was received by a young Arab who was having lunch on a communal table. My first impression was that it was some kind of whorehouse: ten or more European girls and one or two boys laying on large divans (bedlike sofas) in the communal hall, enjoying the fresh air and the background music. I am a fat old Jew, managed to ignore the environment and focus on my job of checking the sanitary facilities (the hostel asked for 80 guests, and the obsolete Israeli regulations demand a certain number of male urinals & pissoirs and female toilets - the hostel complies with those and other obsolete laws). I inspected the hot water supply and pressure of the firefighting water system and so. The pic reflects the decoration (I did not take the pic for the bathing beauties, but for the water infiltration problem). Only this morning, while reading an article about a Tallinn hostel I started to digest what I have seen. Tel Aviv has famous gay hostels, now I am curious how they look. These businesses are in my town and my country, so actually I cannot truly say that I am not of this world.