The hosts were friendly enough and cooked fantastic eggs and bacon, but were hands-off in terms of offering advice about the area, etc., unless one asked, I guess (which I didn't). I knew that it was going to be bare-bones, which I thought would be okay since I was on a tight budget and am not picky, but it was like being back in a hostel in college. The pillows smelled like they had accumulated a *lot* of people / mildew and such. The sheets/duvets were very pilled, and cheap to begin with, which made them feel like they were not exactly fresh and clean -- so combined with the smell, that was unfortunate. The bathroom smelled like a dirty urinal and from the stain on the tiles at the base of the toilet, I guess some folks missed and it wasn't cleaned properly. The building as a whole had a weird semi-stale-cigarettes smell, despite its non-smoking signs. One day, one of the folks working there entered my room without knocking to bring in towels (which are the size of hand-towels), which was discomfiting. Another day, I came back to my room to see a key to it left in the door and no one in sight, so had anyone wanted to steal my stuff, they would have had ample time to do so. When I tried to return the key (and object), no one was at the front desk, so I had to just leave it there. The walls are paper thin, so you hear people coming and going and doing things in their rooms -- and beds. The canal view is nice, but the street is busy, so you hear lots of cars. Otherwise, the neighborhood is very diverse, which I liked. The hostel is right off one of the main roads, so it was a good location for walking around and a nice walk to museums as well.