Actually, I'd still feel bad for the homeless if they had to stay here should they manage to raise the $15p/d (which is quite feasible actually). I'd arrived from the airport in the evening and gone straight to this hostel which was an old red bricked former apartment building half covered in climbing ivy - very nice. The first guy I met at a messy reception seemed pretty depressed with life (turned out he actually shares the room I was in so I can't really blame him). On the plus side though, beside the rather useful Denver Museum of Bus Timetables they had two working internet PCs which were taken up by hostellers who were both engrossed in Facebook - this being the norm for hostels these days of course. Also, one of my room-mates appeared to have pretty fast internet on his laptop so I presume the hostel has a pretty decent wi-fi setup.

However, when I was taken to my room, the first thing that hit me when I walked into the room was the smell. I can't describe it exactly, but if you've been in the downtown area of a third world city on a summers afternoon with half-open sewers then you're getting there. The second was the filth on the walls which had been put on to keep the ancient feel of the place alive - original white or cream must be too modern. The bedsheets I'd been given were clean and the bunk bed was rather comfortable, but then I entered the bathroom. Nothing says 'enjoy your stay' like a toilet bowl with the base tastefully caked in a smelly brown layer. Such art takes months, perhaps years to make. This was below the crumbling roof, possibly held together by the spiderwebs which covered some of the gaping holes which is possibly why nobody's cleaned them off for a while. I was also quite impressed with the innovation shown by whoever replaced the missing plug-less sink / cabinet leg with a now-rotten phone-book rather than just getting a new half decent one. The best surprise came the next morning when I successfully managed to open the jammed shower door to find an arty yellow pool of... grime(? - let's just call it 'stuff') on the floor. This was soon forgotten about though after my unintentional cold shower. To be fair, it was piping hot the next morning although it didn't have that same intsant-wake-up effect as the previous day. Keep in mind that this was my first impression of Denver.

Once dried off, I was well out of there for the sake of my health, although I only had to walk 5 blocks or so to get to the free shuttle bus for the 16th St Mall to the location was pretty good actually. There were also a few shops just down a block on one of the main streets, Colfax. Despite it raining heavily while I wished I'd brought a hat, scarf and pair of gloves, that still wasn't enough to tempt me back to the hostel to relax in the warmth with one of my books I'd brought. Instead it forced to me to see beautiful Denver a bit more as I explored the bars and clubs instead (while pondering whether to just bite the bullet and move to other accomodation for my second night) so that was quite good actually. The second guy at reception I met on the other hand was really nice, helpful and informative to the point I thought he must have some sort of criminal record or something not to be doing this well in a nice hotel or the tourist information centre.

So in selective summary - cheap as chips, good internet facilities, comfy beds, great way to see Denver. If you like what you read here, go soon before the health inspector finds it and condemns the place.

My advice for the owners? : Get a new phonebook to replace the old one. There's bound to be a spare 2010/11 one kicking around somewhere. Also rename the place to something that doesn't contain the word 'Denver' so that this brilliant city can unofficially disown it, although even I'll admit the East 16th Avenue International Youth Hostel doesn't quite have the same ring to it.