For me, this was one of the skills that required a lot of practise before I was anywhere near perfection.

The shower will be down a corridor somewhere, and you have to remember to take everything you need with you. In the early days I was forever getting to the shower only to discover that I’d forgotten something vital and then I’d have to scurry back to my room with all my things bundled in my arms as I searched through my case to find the thing I’d forgotten – which of course would be at the bottom of the case.

The floor of the shower will be soaking wet from all the people who have showered before you. There will be one (if you’re lucky there might be two) tiny hooks on which you must carefully hang all of your possessions, preferably in the order that you are going to need them once the shower is over.

Transferring your possessions from where they are bundled in your arms to the tiny hook requires great skill and precision and as you prefect this skill, there will be many occasions where you will send your clean dry knickers, towel or pyjamas cascading onto the dirty wet floor below.

Some of the more homely hostels are laid out more like houses and don’t have corridors, so you may have to walk through a communal area to get to the shower and it’s a good idea to try not to drop your knickers as you hurry through a group of backpackers with all your possessions bundled up in your arms.