JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
Special to The Jewish News

i

f it wasn't for a good
friend's jostling, Lisa
Goldstein might never
have become involved
in traveling via
youth
hostels.
Goldstein, now executive
director of the Michigan
American Youth Hostel
movement, was a sophomore
at the University of
Michigan when a friend
pushed her to join a summer
trip to Europe. It would be
fun to go to several places
they had only read about, it
would be cheap and it
would be interesting, her
friend reasoned. After weigh-
ing the adventure that await-
ed her during a summer at
her parents' Farmington
Hills home, Goldstein
signed up for the six-week
trip.
And she loved it. Touring
different capitols, meeting
friendly strangers from all
corners of the world while
spending little on safe, clean
accommodations through
hostels made the summer
fly by. But her friend was
not nearly as enthused.
When an airline mishap
gave the pair the chance to
stay an extra two weeks,
Goldstein stayed while her
friend eagerly continued
home. It was a great expe-
'rience," said Goldstein, 36.
."From then, I was hooked."
Hostels began in 1909
after German schoolteacher
Richard Schirrmann touted
the form of travel as a way
of allowing young people
with limited means to travel
to interesting places. Seeing
that international travel
broadened the horizons and
cultural understanding of

This hostel on the
St. Lawrence seaway has
a magnificent vista.