We arrived in Barcelona Friday night excited to explore the city. Unfortunately, our hostel was not in the city. We took an hour tram ride from the city center to Badelona, where we found our hostel. At this point we were still optimistic, at least the public transportation was easily accessible.
We climbed the stairs, with our massive bags, only to find a less than friendly staff. Instead of focusing on our check-in, they were distracted by other kids, asking them questions about the Nintendo Wii (which we found out later didn’t work anyway.) After five minutes of confusion, they finally found our reservation.
As we handed them our card to pay, they informed us of a 7% fee for using a Visa. We decided that was ridiculous, and left to find an ATM (keep in mind it was 11pm at this point.) We found an ATM, paid the desk, and headed to our room (if it can even be referred to as such.)
Our room was about the size of a typical walk-in closet. It wasn’t possible to open the door unless the other person was sitting on the bed. We also found out later that our curtain didn’t close (and we were on the ground floor) and the window didn’t shut securely.
After unloading in our tiny room we decided to do some laundry. After washing our clothes we loaded them in the dryer. An hour later we returned to find our clothes still soaking wet. When we went to ask the staff member for help, he told us that we weren’t supposed to be doing laundry so late. Ironically, the same guy had sold us soap only an hour before. He came to look at the dryer and refused to give us a refund because the dryer was hot. He didn’t seem to care that our clothes were still wet. We ended up having clothes hanging in our room to dry for the rest of the stay (as if our room wasn’t small enough already.)
Another interesting thing happened to us while our clothes were washing. Josh and I were sitting on a couch, using Skype, when three German boys, in their underwear, came and sat next to us. They proceeded to pull out an ash try and smoke some cigarettes (apparently it was okay to smoke inside.) Needless to say we stood up and walked away. (We saw the same boys prancing around in their underwear the next day.)
The next morning we woke up and took showers. Unfortunately for Josh there was mold growing in the men’s bathroom. Gross.
Another problem with our hostel was the presence of tiny children and their parents. There was some kind of European kids dance competition going on next door, and apparently the whole group was staying in our hostel; we kind of felt like we were staying in a pre-school. Not only were they noisy and annoying, they made it impossible to use the kitchen. They filled up the refrigerator and made messes on the counter.
Despite all the problems we made it through, and are hoping that will be the worst of the trip.
*Also weird, we couldn’t find any bad reviews on the internet.
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