Do Not Disturb

There are certain things you expect to find in hostels - late night partying in the room next door, stained and seedy bed linen, scary bearded creatures stalking the halls at all hours, deathly quiet but always smiling Asian girls, and mounds of matted pubes in the shower plughole. What you don't expect to find before your first morning coffee is an unconscious girl in the main hallway, surrounded by paramedics. Well, it happened this morning in our hostel, and it was all a bit of a shock. They couldn't revive her there, so they carted her off to the hospital. She was one of the smiling Asian girls, so I'm hoping it was nothing more than a severe case of the flu, and not something really nasty like a drug overdose or an allergic reaction to ice hockey.