Abhostel, Antwerp

The hostel is in a very dirty and ugly area of the city. 20 minutes walk from the central station, far from the center. The reception is not open 24 hours a day, actually there is no reception, but the owners sleeping in their dorms upstairs. No sign indicating the hostel, just a handwritten paper saying to call them on phone, if noone was there. What if coming from other country and have no phone active in Belgium? We have arrived at 9 pm in one of the 3 days stay, and having being not received any key, we had to wake up the family and the welcome, of course, was not nice. The vultures were happy only to collect money from us, but no breakfast offered except some old marmelades, and leftovers from other guests, internet wifi but no computer provided, rooms are black painted and depressingly ugly... The hostel is actually run by a family having 2 children upstairs the rooms, and making all they can to keep their children at focus for silence in the house. Signs of "please don'ts" are everywhere. One of my favourits is "Don't walk like an elephant! Our little boys are sleeping." , but at 8 o clock in the morning one of their little boys has been very loudly shouting and benging the doors behind. The Bridget housewife was rude, nonsensitive to cultural differences and proud to mention in a dispute about cancelling policy (intentionally moving us in a different room and then refusing to accept instant cancellation, even there were plenty of places availbale for anyone else who would have like a bed)... that "This is my country!!" - making me wonder why on hell were they running an international hostel?? Overall - to avoid if not-belgian and too polite. This is not a hostel - this is a bussines to these people.

trendy, helpfull, sweet, all a backpacker needs. laundry across the street, great kitchen with seasons, free coffee tea, nice breakfast system help your self, no curfew, really safe feeling, lockers in the room, no check out best place I stayed at in my trip