Never sleep in a room with nine other people

After giving myself a runaround in the S-Bahn, I finally made it to the hostel I'd booked for the night. A quarter to midnight is still early in Spanish for terms, but being on the plane for a few hours, schlepping my luggage up and down flights of stairs, I was quite eager to crawl into bed. I trudged sleepily to the hostel entrance a few doors down, only to be informed by the sign that if no one was at reception, I oughta backtrack and check with the folks at the corner cafe which had the same owners.

--Hi, I said slowly, I have a reservation. Two men in their thirties, one much more into their drinking than the other, looked me up and down.

--Ummm, yesss...just a second. There was no one there?, was the inquiry in a very Kiwi accent.

I shook my head.

--Just a second...(motions to some other guy)...so you're staying for a week, yeah?

I shook my head, not knowing it was supposed to be rhetorical. Another guy, slightly younger, came by to help me out, and the other two went back to their drinks. When it came time to pay, however, the tipsier dude chimed in, once again.

--You have to pay a key deposit, too.

Whatever, I thought to myself. Booking online, having paid a deposit that way, proved to be utterly useless, but I wasn't in any mood to argue. I forked over a 20-euro note and was led to the quarters.

Unfortunately, there were no available beds.

--Don't worry, one of my would-be roomies said, we'll figure something out.

He waved his flashlight around. Some people groaned softly, others turned in their bed. Only one other seemed to be sleeping soundly.

--Here, he said, motioning to one of the top bunks. I don't think anyone's sleeping here.

So wrong. At about three or four in the morning, a backpack was thrown at the foot of the bunk.

--Oh, was this your bed?
--It was, the male voice replied, with a Spanish accent.
--Lo siento, I apologized. I don't think anyone's below, though.
--Vale.

I wasn't aware of much of anything else afterwards, having collapsed into sleep out of pure fatigue. Nevertheless, I was the first to wake up, only a few hours later, itching to leave. Check-out wasn't until 10 or 11, but I gathered my things anyway and changed in the bathroom, so as not to wake anyone else up. And I soon high-tailed it out of there, into the fresh Berlin morning. As sleep-deprived as I was, I felt much better.