06/02/2016
We gladly share an amazing insight on our Hostel and wonderful neighborhood. By the talented Anne Schütz and posted originally in
http://anneliwest.blogspot.de/2016/06/new-york-diary-2-new-york-loft-hostel.html
Click on the link for more pictures ;)
-------------------------------
"First We Take Manhattan" - and then Brooklyn. After two nights in downtown New York, we check in on Sunday afternoon at the New York Loft Hostel in East Williamsburg. We feel like real travelers. Although without a backpack, but with Nachziehkoffer. We get our Double Bedroom with Shared Bathroom on the 4th floor of the old factory building covered in red brick, with views of all the surrounding industrial buildings. Our room is simple, clean and properly equipped with two metal beds and a white Ikea locker. We share the bathroom opposite to the room. It's unlike the CitizenM, but the New York Loft Hostel is hip in a different way and adapts to the East Williamsburg environment...
You must imagine an industrial area with huge land on which factories, garages and haulage companies are located, where they settle overhead lines and the typical American water reservoirs on high steel legs against the sky, trucks are parked on the streets and at first glance, we breathe a calm and soothing holiday mood. It is Sunday and the streets are deserted, except for a few young people (many with strollers or baby carriers). Graffiti and street artists have immortalized the walls of houses and fences all around. A funky area.
The hostel, refurbished with respect for design and art, has a large roof terrace with deck chairs and ping pong table, a courtyard with a large subsequent communal kitchen, a computer room, and even its own bar in the basement, with a constantly changing repertoire. The guests are mostly mid-twenties and come from all over the world to enjoy the casual atmosphere and relax with their smartphone or tablet in public areas or in the evening at the hostel’s bar. At the entrance, there are wall to wall overview plans, where you can find all spaces in the Hostel detailed throughout. Amazing.
*
We walk through the streets and discover coffee shops, vintage stores, delicatessens and restaurants, hidden behind non-revealing doors and gates. If one finds the correct input, raging behind is life itself. Music, laughter, beer blessedness and, everywhere, all the tables occupied. Unbelievable - East Williamsburg, afternoon, already celebrating Sunday and in the evening the area turns into the entertainment district. Even the "Brooklyn's Natural", the well-stocked and well-designed food store and deli, which offers even 'Ecover' and approximately 20 cereals, it is full now. We are looking for a cozy restaurant and I am pleased to be having a beer. For 8 dollars. Initially, we think that this area is just being discovered by artists; that rents are low and the food costs alike. In the hostel, one of the nice staff members explains to us, much to the contrary, that market values have gone up exponentially over the last couple of years and the area is becoming one of the most hip in all Brooklyn. Now we know…
The next morning we get up very early, to break the third and final property. We take the subway to Fort Greene, Brooklyn ...