Un buen lugar para los viajeros cansados - Alberg La Ciutat, Barcelona (Youth Hostels in Barcelona)

Member Name: oodlenoodle9

Product:	Youth Hostels in Barcelona
Date:	03/01/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great people, fairly cheap, good location, a bed for the night

Disadvantages: No privacy, a bit rough

It was getting late - probably about 7pm, although the summer sun was still pretty fierce. Having almost killed myself hiking across the Pyrenees (see my other review!) I was in a bit of a sorry state. I had arrived in Barcelona by train two days before my first booked night in the hostel, I was on my last legs after doing some major damage to my knees in the mountains and really wasn't in the mood to worry about where I was going to sleep. Which was actually precisely what I was worrying about.

The tourist office was shut, the hostel's phone number didn't work, and I was damned if I could work out what the map on the wall of the station meant. My own printed-out-piece-of-rubbish map told me the hostel was not far away - by car. I considered walking, but the immediate exterior of the station was a huge building site with not a road name in sight. And I was on the brink of collapse anyway.

Then I noticed it - a little red diamond with an M in it in the bottom corner of my printed map, with "Joanic" written under it. I checked the Metro map in the station - Joanic! There it was, on the yellow line.

Let me take this opportunity to heap praise on the excellent Barcelona Metro. The longest I have ever waited for a train is about 5 minutes, they are rarely packed, and a single ticket will set you back Euro1.30 if memory serves. I paid £4 for a single in London the other day!!

Anyway, I successfully navigated the Metro system with my rucksack and emerged blinking into the sunlight in the Plaza Joanic. The road to the hostel, whilst nice and flat on the map, has considerably more gradient in reality. Still, I was close to my goal...if they had space for me. I set off up the hill, and, after quite a bit of a longer walk than I expected, arrived at the hostel.

I've done a fair bit of hostelling in my time, and Alberg La Ciutat immediately struck me as fairly typical, but definitely aimed more at the youth end of the market. The walls in the (mercifully cool!) reception area are painted in a garish splodgy mural of nothing in particular, an old PC whirrs in the background, seats with long knackered springs lurk around, and the receptionist sits cheerily in his/her little glass box. In fact, there is a receptionist there at every hour of the day and night which is always reassuring.

I went up to the window of the little glass box and explained in my broken Spanish to the lady that I wanted a room for the night. By the way, all the receptionists speak at least Spanish and English, and many are versed in German and French too. She politely started to explain in Spanish that they couldn't really give me a bed, and then, probably noticing my largely blank expression, switched to English. She consulted a list of other youth hostels and was about to ring one for me apparently when she relented. Room 3 apparently had space.

Handing over my passport and Euro19.50 for the night and breakfast, she took me to the room, which, being the cheapest sleeps twelve, male and female all jumbled in together. In fact, at first I was jumbled in with 8 girls and no guys. Still, there are worse places to end up at the end of a really really long day than a room full of blonde Finnish girls. Ahem.

Maybe I should tell you something useful now.

I make no bones about it; Alberg La Cuitat (a truly imaginative name by the way which I believe means "City Hostel" although my Catalan is a bit non-existent) is a bit rough as youth hostels go. The beds in the dormitories are wobbly metal bunk beds with thin mattresses and pillows, although clean linen is provided, and after my thin roll matt and rocks for pillows frankly they were extremely comfortable. Graffiti adorns the walls in various interesting languages, mostly with such gems of wisdom and "Bob and Bill woz ere 2002," sometimes even illustrated with...well you can guess. The toilets and showers (again communal, again graffitied) are perfectly acceptable and clean but still not exactly five star. Not exactly any star actually. In the showers there is nothing but a thin curtain separating you from the outside world, and in the rooms there is not really any option to get changed in private. If privacy is your thing, you'll probably want to go elsewhere. Furthermore, although the door to the room can be locked, few people bother, and in any case the other eleven people have access to the key anyway. Valuables can be kept in lockers in the lobby for a small fee, although I didn't bother since I had nothing worth nicking.

Kitchen facilities are similarly basic; a couple of electric hobs and maybe a microwave, a few pots and spoons if you're lucky, but you may not be, plus the obligatory half packets of pasta that kind people have left for someone else to use but nobody ever does. I took my Primus stove and mess tin up to the kitchen to use, partly because it is much more effective than most hobs, and partly because it makes a cool roaring noise and big blue flames.

There is also a communal dining area with a couple of tables and vending machines, and a smoking room (more of a smoking cupboard really) that has a couple of comfy chairs for the smokers, although many people just smoke leaning out the window.

I expect you'll agree by now, the hostel is a tad dodgy. The bonus of this however is that it attracts interesting people. As a list of weird and wonderful people I have met in the hostel there are the four Finnish girls previously mentioned, a couple of Americans, a crazy Irish bloke who looked to be edging out of the middle-aged category, let along 'youth', two Australians who discussed giving birth to their friends' children (!) in the kitchen, a Polish girl who asked me politely if I minded her smoking (of course not, I'm English, I don't mind anything if you ask politely...) before swapping adventuring stories with me and then vanishing without a word, an artist from Bristol and three very crazy French people who I ended up playing a lengthy and complicated drinking game with into the wee small hours of the morning. They then went clubbing. I went to bed.

All who I spoke to said the Alberg was the worst hostel they'd been to, and also one of the more expensive. Of all the hostels I have been to, I have to say I agree, at least in terms of the building (the clientele are rather lovely though I think), but then I have only been to other hostels in England.

Another advantage I should mention, and a crucial one, is the location of the hostel, which is perhaps (after people) its greatest saving grace. It is pretty much near everything - the metro station is just down the hill, bars, restaurants and super(ish)markets (super is a prefix that is perhaps used a little optimistically in Spain) are within easy walking distance. And best of all, the Park Güell is just up the hill. For those of you who don't know, this is a Park designed by Barcelona legend, Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí. Gaudí for short. It features some incredible mosaics and other sculptures and lots of nice plants, not to mention fabulous views over the entire city. Throughout the day it draws ridiculous crowds, but in the evening when the sun is going down and the park is actually at its most beautiful, it goes quiet except for a few runners and stragglers like me. I nearly got locked in once though.

Anyway, I deviate.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the hostel is at least four floors tall, with breakfast at the bottom, reception and dorms at street level one floor up, then private rooms (for groups of about four I think) and kitchens on the next two floors. There might be another floor, I'm not sure. Right at the top is another common room with a computer or two and more seating.

All in all Alberg la Cuitat is a bit of an odd place. Personally I really like it for being such a crazy place, and it is extremely comfortable and friendly if you've been hiking in the mountains for days. I even went back the year after I first stayed because I needed a place to stay for a night and couldn't be bothered to find anywhere better. Maybe there actually is nowhere better for Euro20, after all, most places in Barcelona are understandably expensive. If you're used to staying in hotels though, it is below the par even of a one star I imagine, so it might be a bit of a shock to the system! Nevertheless, it is places like the Alberg la Ciutat that make the experience of travelling so much richer, and I would recommend at least a night there for anyone passing through Barcelona who wants to go off the beaten track a little.

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