5 Hostel Hangover Cures For The Morning After The Night Before

Let’s face it – part of the whole staying in a hostel thing is going wild with your new hostel chums and letting your hair down wherever you happen to be.

But when you wake up in the morning with a pounding headache and a stomach that won’t stop turning over, you might have a few regrets (not enough to stop doing it all over again the following night, obvs).

If you can’t face leaving the hostel and trying to speak to a pharmacist in a foreign language, these are a few DIY hostel hangover cures that are always good to have in your back pocket. They don’t require any fancy kit so you can whip up a cure in any hostel kitchen in a matter of moments – or get a hostel-mate to do it for you!

1. Sugar and salt water. Everybody knows that you need to drink water to combat a hangover. It’s so so important to re-hydrate yourself for your body to feel somewhat normal again. But throwing a little bit of salt and sugar into the mix will take your pain relief to the next level. This is because boozing reduces your sodium and glycogen levels, and sugar and salt helps to pump them back up. What’s more, you can find sugar and salt in every hostel kitchen so you won’t need to splash out on any fancy ingredients. Sorted.

2. Carb up, pal. Although your stomach may be churning, it’s really important that you wake up in time to eat a solid hostel breakfast when you are feeling hungover. If there is a buffet situation in the hostel, head straight for the carbs. Toast and bagels are your friends. You might avoid this kind of stodge at other times, but when you are feeling hungover, it can be really helpful. This is because carbs will raise your depleted blood sugar levels and settle your stomach, allowing you to get on with another day of fun-filled backpacking!

3. Bacon sarnie.

Again, not the healthiest option in the world, but you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your hangover at bay, and a bacon sandwich is the way forward. So you already know that the bread is going to help out with your plummeted sugar levels, but what about the bacon? Well, the protein breaks down into amino acids, and those amino acids neutralise the nasty substances generated by the liver that make you feel soooo bad when you are hungover.

4. Strong black coffee.

That feeling of total lethargy you have when you are hungover can be combatted with a simple cup of black coffee – something that almost all hostels will offer at breakfast time. A strong cup of coffee could ease your headache by constricting the blood vessels, but keep it to one cup because coffee can actually further dehydrate you when your body is crying out for moisture.

5. Chomp on a banana.

One of the good things about bananas is that they are commonly found just about everywhere in the world, and they are often included as part of a hostel breakfast. When you drink, your body’s store of potassium gets depleted. But guess what has bucket loads of potassium? Yup – the humble banana. Low potassium levels make you feel weak and can give you muscle cramps, so by eating a banana or two the morning after the night before, you’ll instantly feel stronger and healthier.

And when all else fails, you can flop on to your comfortable hostel bed – that’s what it’s there for! Cover your head with a pillow, get some shut eye, and soon enough those nasty hangover demons will be long gone. Drink sensibly, folks!

Thanks to Veganbaking.net and 55Laney69 for the photos within the Creative Commons!