We made it to Barcelona. It was not originally part of the plan, but we needed to go somewhere and googled a cheap flight; EasyJet, 19 euro each. Strangely, it’s almost cost more to get to the airport, than get to Spain. We’ve scheduled two weeks here, arranged to coincide with a cheap outbound Ryanair flight to Rome. We booked at a hostel by the airport for the first night, as we were arriving after five and decided against hunting for our place during the “witching hours”, especially after being cattle shooted through a low cost carrier (although the EasyJet experience turned out to be pleasant). Also, the AirBnB here had an extra fee to hand over keys “after hours“(which is the first time we’ve seen a charge like that).
To the hostel, it was a quick city bus ride. We stepped into a neighborhood residing less than 2 KMs from an international airport. So, picture a lot of high density, low income housing ….. projects …. There was still daylight, and we were on the correct path, when a well intentioned local, pointed us off track. Following the instructions of this very insistent guy, we unknowingly turned away from the front doors of the hostel, and began walking towards an long road into empty fields. Now, we’ve learnt a few things travelling; map your route ahead of time, and always look like you know what you are doing; and double check instructions – local often think they know, but they are often mistaken, even official sources- we’ve often being misdirected by tourist office personnel. So, it all looked suspicious. But, we saw at the end of the block, we were going to be welcomed by the policía, who were parked, angled on a street corner, blue lights rolling. They met and gave us some friendly “lost tourist advice” by helpfully pointed out the “gypsies” to avoid, recommended not wandering out after sunset and directed us to the hostel.
If the area is so bad, the hostel is misplaced. I guess it’s a hostel – it’s some kinda huge campus, with a checker board of windows and rainbow colored facade panels on the envelope of the building. It has a large enclosed grounds, with modern artsy interior, and self-contained facilities. We checked in at a desk, under a very dimly lit kiosk. The lone clerk looked about 85 years old, but spoke good English. We asked if the pool was open, and he simply laughed. The place could easily house thousands of people. It had three floors of dorms, with very long hallways, layered, with ledges overlooking the stairwells downs, bare white concrete walls, tile floors that echoed our footsteps and voices. We made our way to the very last room, top floor, furthest possible from the check in counter. We felt the need to whisper, not sure why, as the place appeared almost completely deserted. Our dorm had six “prison style” bunk beds. Two extra? Last time, we stayed at an institution/converted to a hostel, with six beds in our dorm, was the old downtown jail in Ottawa. There, in spite of locking the cell, as we went to sleep, we awoke in the morning, to a fifth “inmate”, who’d arrived during the night. The Carleton County Gaol (now Ottawa Jail Hostel) was originally built in 1842, built out of stone and cast iron – neat place to stay, but somehow, a young Korean woman got in and bunked down, into the WRONG cell, during the middle of the night, without any of us hearing her! Our quarters were right out of the “Shawshank Redemption” …. Yet, somehow, she broke IN to our prison cell … the whole ordeal is concerning to me ……
Anyway …. Tracy and I went to get some groceries for supper. Yep, we went out. It was fine. I feel seasoned at walking around unfamiliar areas after dark, conscious my biggest threat is likely simply getting turned around from lack of attention. Back, we were directed to a large cafeteria, for use of a microwave. Obviously, the place is set up to feed masses of people, but our little family of four, sat at one end of a cafeteria table and ate. Under the one light, as it seemed odd to illuminate the entire dining hall under rows of T8 florescent lighting. Exploring after, we found there were other inhabitants here. Behind glass walls, in large rooms, that look like combinations of libraries and computer lab, with book stacks, white boards, flip charts and students(?) looking very, very focused on their tasks. We made our way back to our cell room. With wi-fi and reading lights for each bed, we settled in for the night.
As it’s off season; we had a lot of choice for places to rent in Barcelona, at good prices. We didn’t plan as much as usual, so I hope this works out ….
Man, it was a long walk to our room – notice that room is 205 – we were all the way to the end of this hall, turn corner, and go at least as far to room 235!
Quinn and Rhys out front of the hostel
Our family travel blog 