My first night in a Russian Hostel

Heading back to the hostel armed with a bag of beers and cheese curd I stopped off at a pub for a few pints. Exhausted and not too sure what to do with myself. I felt like being sociable, but wasn't sure of the best way to attempt this. Apparently not in the Irish pub with the surly waitresses. But it was nice to sit, drink beer, watch some ice hockey and write.

Going back to the hostel I thought perhaps people would be sitting up in the common room - nope.

I sat on my bed for around 10 minutes eating my rye and curd and then thought 'fuck it, I'll go sit in the common room with a beer. It's got to be more fun than this.' As luck would have it... I was joined
shortly by a youngish Belarusain... who only spoke Russian. Determined to have some sort of conversation he started chatting me up using google translate, "you are beautiful," "I love your tattoos." This was new chat up concept to me, but broke the ice (in some strange way) and somehow we managed to engage in some sort of charade conversation and ended up playing Mortal Combat on the Hostel playstation.

Slowly people began filtering into the common room. A Canadian guy who liked beer. My happiness of seemingly finding someone I could converse with was short lived as he then preceeded to spend the next few hours going through every single photo on his facebook complete with stories of his awesomeness (please note sarcasm). Thankfully this was aimed at a Russian girl, who seemed strangely interested. I saw them holding hands a few days later; so I guess his chat (up) worked.

I met a lovely girl who'd arrived in Moscow a couple of weeks before. Like many people at the hostel she were there temporarily whilst looking for work and trying to find somewhere more settled. She was from Dushanbe (yes, I just googled 'Capital of Tajikistan' as I also had no idea where she was from.) She said it as if I should know, I guess people in Russia would? I also spent a lot of time talking to a Russian guy who'd previously lived in England. Interesting hearing about their lives and their plans and hopes for the future, and what they were looking for specifically in Moscow. This was the sort of chat I was looking for.  A few beers later and then I pootled off to my room for sleep.

End Note:  I lied. I was not alone from the start. There was a young gentleman on a computer, on facebook, shirtless, with his belly hanging out. He sat there for hours on facebook, shirtless, with his belly hanging out. Then he moved. and lay next to me on the large sofa. I turned to him and smiled, even though I found him rather repulsive. He stared at me. He lay there for another hour. Not engaging with anyone. Not doing anything. Then he left. Nice guy :/