A couple months ago I committed to working for one month in a city I've never heard of at a hostel I've never been to and it was one of the best decisions I've made! I knew I wanted to spend part of my summer in a sunny city near the beach, so Faro, Portugal was the obvious choice (after researching where Faro was located). I exchanged a couple e-mails with one of my bosses before arriving, but I had no idea what to expect. On May 28th I walked into Casa d'Alagoa and immediately I felt at home.
Faro is a pretty small town in the Algarve, which is Portugal premier summer destination. It is located along the Ria Formosa Lagoon and has many awesome islands to visit. Another staffer, Brent, and I went with two guests to check out Ilha Deserta (a deserted island). It was about a 40 minute ferry ride and was a beautiful day! We walked along the beach for hours collecting seashells and enjoying the sunshine.
The hostel is in a great location in town and has the perfect homey feel! It has a very chill vibe that makes it easy to meet everyone and the owners, Nuno and Diogo, are awesome! Every Saturday we have a piri-piri chicken BBQ with all you can drink sangria. We cook dinner every night and on Sundays the staff creates the menu. It is actually one of the best hostels I've been to and I'm not just saying that because I work here.
When I first
arrived there were nine other helpers and slowly but surely they all left while
new helpers arrived. Throughout the month I worked with Germans,
Canadians, Scottish, American, Australian, Irish, Spanish, Russian, and
Portuguese people (and that is just the nationality of all the different staff,
I can’t even begin to describe all of our guests). By the end of the month we
were all family. I’ve been to camp before so I know how close people can get in
a short period of time, but this is the first time I experienced that in a work
environment. It allowed me to appreciate positive group dynamics and effective
teamwork.
The work
wasn’t too hard. The first two weeks I was on cleaning and while I don’t
particularly enjoy scrubbing toilets it was fairly easy and the hours were not
bad. Lets just say I am going to make a great wife now. After cleaning I moved
to reception, which I enjoyed much more. It was a bit challenging because you
have a lot of responsibility dealing with all of the money, but you get the
hang of it after a couple days. It was nice because I knew almost all of the
guests names from checking them in and when I didn’t have any reservations or
money to invoice I was able to socialize with the guests. I worked a lot of
night shifts from 1:00AM-9:00AM, but they were not too bad. It was always funny
to watch the guests come home at 5:00AM after being at the bar all night. They
definitely kept me entertained during those early hours. Working at the hostel
made me appreciate all the hard work that goes into keeping a successful hostel
running. It made me realize that the people cleaning need to be thanked more
often and the people at reception are actually doing more work than just
sitting behind a desk. It allowed me to interact with over 500 guests from all
over the world! Now how many people can say they had that experience?
I was
definitely not ready to leave, but that is what happens when you make prior
commitments. Thank you Nuno, Diogo, Matyna, Claudia, Alexandra, and the helper
team for making this amazing experience unforgettable! I hope to see you all
somewhere else around the world. You are all invited to come to Florida, but
until then cheers and thank you again!
"Casa d'Alagoa- where you treat your
friends like family and your family like friends"
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