So for some reason, I decided Barcelona was the place we should stay in a 16 person shared hostel room. I don’t know what the Hell I was thinking. Here we are, a married couple in our 30s, sleeping in separate bunk beds, in a room with 14 guys in their early 20s. And one of them would not stop coughing.
I guess I was unaware of Barcelona’s huge reputation as a party city. I mean, I figured we would go out a bit, but both of us were shocked at how intense the partying is. Our first night there, we got back to our hostel at 1am, after enjoying a pleasant dinner and beer, and our roommates were getting ready to head to clubs. We were the old married couple getting ready to go to bed while everyone else was still prepping to go out.
We decided we should see what all the fuss was about. So, on Saturday, we took a nap at 8pm (easier said than done in a 16 person room), cracked our 1st beer at 11pm, and made friends with some people in our hostel, including an American guy our age named James. At the early hour of 1am, we hopped in a bus to go hit the clubs. The first one was all techno music, so we headed to the beachside clubs. Unfortunately, the lines to get in were over an hour long.
That is, until James slipped the bouncer a 50€ note, and miraculously the line ceased to exist for us. Inside, it was like any other club: loud pop music, overpriced drinks, sweaty dancers. One frightening incident involved everyone jumping up and down, causing the deck that we were on to rock back and forth, but the thick crowd prevented us from leaving. At any rate, lots of fun was had, and several drinks were consumed.
The 7am exodus from the clubs meant a mad scramble for cabs. After refusing to pay the exorbitant fee and getting kicked out of one cab, then literally fighting a girl for another cab, we made it safely back to our hostel 2hrs after sunrise.
While I can’t say the experience was all that different from clubs in other parts of the world, and despite the fact that we spent more money in 7 hours than we spent on food in 5 days, we had a great time. We realized we aren’t too old to go clubbing. However, we’ve determined we ARE too old to share hostel rooms with 16 people, especially, considering the fact that we both got sick after this – thanks Coughing Guy. We will avoid huge, shared hostel rooms in the future, unless absolutely necessary.
Apart from our short-lived foray into the party scene, we relished our time in Barcelona. The city is hot, humid, and chaotic, but lovely. Gaudi’s architecture dots the city, with buildings like La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo and Park Guell.
The Barri Gotic area was our favorite. The neighborhood comprises narrow streets, old buildings, and tons of tapas bars.
Once we escaped the hostel and club scene, we were able to really settle in and enjoy Barcelona. Wandering the narrow streets of the Barri Gotic, and sipping gazpacho (mmm) and mojitos (also mmm) made us really feel connected to the city.
Our time in Barcelona was crazier than we had anticipated, but provided us with some memorable experiences, in addition to our planned itinerary.
Beer of choice: Mahou