Barça: part hostel

The Barcelona Central Garden Hostel really made this trip special. First off, the owners, Alessia and Mirko, picked Anna and I up by car from the train station and we did a little car tour of Barcelona. What a great way to start off the trip. The hostel itself was extremely nice and proper. It's nice and cozy. It has about 10 rooms, a kitchen, a living room, 2 computers available for use, and 4 full bedrooms. Apparently, we were the first guests at the hostel, so we got upgraded from a 6 bed room to a 2 bed room, without being charged extra. Props to Anna for choosing this place! I was surprised by how well Alessia and Mirko know Barcelona. They knew places to visit, restaurants to eat at, bars/clubs to go to. They were such a lovely couple and had so many stories to tell. They have owned resturants in Barcelona and New York, where Mirko was once one of the top chefs in New York. Their old restaurant in Barcelona was ranked in the top 10 out of 3000 resturants in Barcelona. Impressive stuff. I really enjoyed that they pushed for the guests to meet and talk with each other. Mirko made dinner twice, which was nice because: his cooking was absolutely delicious, we didn't spend more money going out to a restaurant, and we got to sit down and meet the other guests. There was also the Sunday where Mirko drove us around to see the attractions that were a little further out of Barcelona. I couldn't believe that they were doing this for us! It's this kind of hospitality that Alessia and Mirko exhibited, that really made this trip extra special.