The Newborn’s Hostel
Continuing the series on the weirdest places I’ve ever slept (first one was in a ski lift booth in the Canadian Rockies) takes us to the Land of the Midnight Sun.
I was on a trip to Scotland and decided to take a detour and spend a few days solo hiking in Norway. I had never been before, I don’t speak a lick of Norwegian, and I knew very little about the culture. In fact, all I really knew was that there are a lot of fjords, mountains, and glaciers, and that Norway has a “right to roam” law allowing hikers to pass through any undeveloped private property land. To be honest, the mountains part was enough to entice me.
The Scandinavian countries aren’t really the best place to travel for shoestring budgets, so I looked for cheap hostels as accommodations. But the strange part was that I didn’t truly know where I was actually staying until my second day there. It was a hospital… And my room? I’m pretty sure it was in the maternity ward…
I found the hostel in Stavanger through Hostelling International, a network of hostels around the world, and the confirmation email I received gave me an address and instructions on how to get there via public transit. When I arrived, naturally I kept looking around for something… anything… that resembled a hostel. What I found, instead, was what I could only surmise to be a hospital. All the signs were in Norwegian. So, I wandered around the outside of the hospital and parking lot thinking that maybe the hostel was an adjacent building. No luck. Only managed to look like a deranged foreigner walking back and forth in the parking lot. So, why not try looking like a deranged man inside the hospital? That’ll make everyone feel better!
One of the workers at the front desk who could obviously tell I was lost and did not belong asked me if I needed help. At least, that’s what I think she asked. She asked in Norwegian so I don’t really know. Maybe she was threatening to call the police. In any case, I pointed at the address on my phone and asked in perfect English, “Hostel?” To which she responded in English, telling me which hallway to walk down and stairs to take and which room I should take.
When I found the corridor where my room was, the odd reality set in. I was still in the hospital… I entered my room in confusion and delight. Confused because I wasn’t sure if I was in a hostel or somehow became an admitted in-patient at the hospital. Delighted because, if it was a hostel, it was by far the nicest hostel room I’ve ever stayed in. Super clean, comfortable bed, modern Norwegian minimalist design, private bathroom, fully furnished. It was basically a 3-star hotel.
The next morning, I went down to the canteen for breakfast (the hostel booking was half board), only to once again be lost in confusion. I wasn’t surrounded by other youths or travelers or hikers. I was surrounded by a bunch of new mothers and their babies. I stood in place watching for a short while, once again taking on the role of deranged foreigner, unsure of whether I was in the right place. My hiking boots and Granite Gear backpack seemed a little out of place next to all these swaddled infants in hospital carts being pushed by their mothers in hospital gowns. After an awkward minute or two, another pair of young hikers walked into the canteen and proceeded toward the hot bar, amongst all the neonates.
I followed in their footsteps. After eating my fill, I stuffed a bunch of extra bread and fruit into my backpack to serve as my lunch and dinner (food in Norway is crazy expensive for someone like me), and went on my way. The next couple days of hiking and exploring the mountains and fjords were great (seriously, look at that rainbow). The stay in the hostel / maternity ward of the hospital? Also great. Turns out the babies and their moms don’t party too late into the night. Or if they did, the soundproofing in the hospital was excellent.
As far as I could tell, the hospital (Stavanger University Hospital) consistently had a surplus of rooms and rented them out to travelers as a hostel/hotel or for family of patients to stay nearby; though I might be completely wrong. I definitely didn’t expect to be sleeping in a maternity ward at a hospital in Norway. But the accommodations were really luxurious and made for a great trip. I’ve looked up the hospital on Google Maps recently and it looks like there is a section of the building that is dedicated to the hostel/hotel now. Plus, there is a giant sign on the building that says “hotell”, maybe to avoid having clueless foreigners wander around the parking lot.
