Staying in the right hostel has a lot of luck involved, because you don't have much idea who will be staying there with you.  In general though, people traveling by themselves are interested in talkign with you, and couples and groups aren't so much.

In Heidelberg, there was one guy whose name I couldn't understand who was very cool, and the rest of the hotel guests, when I said hello, gave me a look akin to, "who is this guy?"  Maybe I had a "sick aura" that scared 'em off or something.

My hostel in Koln was almost all singles, though.  Felix is a student from Stuttgart (where Mercedes has its HQ) who is getting ready to apply to architectural and design universities in the next couple of months, and was there for a furtniture design trade show.  We went out for some pretty decent pizza.  Felix is a huge fan of boats, and is looking to get a license to operate one in the sea, and take one out from Stockholm into the Baltic.

Hannah is a flautist from Brisbane, Australia traveling around Germany taking lessons from more experienced flautists, seeing orchestras play, etc.  I asked her about the political situation in Australia, and her first response was that Labour and the Liberals (the two main parties) are basically the same.  Here's a rule of thumb: If someone says the two main parties are the same, you can make an educated guess that they're a Green.  My guess in this case was wrong, though...she's an outright Socialist, not too common down there.

There was also a couple from Amsterdam there...Hennea and her boyfriend...who came for a cheap weekend ticket.  The boyfriend is also into boats, and told Felix he bought one, took out the engine, and replaced it with an engine from an Audi A6.  Says it has 50% more horsepower and uses less gas, which is a big deal given how expensive gas is here.

Anyway, a group of us stayed up for a while comparing notes on travel, and collectively wondering what the deal is with the Belgians.  I mean, if they're so unhappy, why don't they break up already?