In our search for the perfect hostel site here in Barcelona, Lee and I are taking a two-pronged approach. On one hand, we're looking for an existing hostels that we could possibly buy out or manage for a fee. This means we can get to business right away and not worry about the hassle of licenses, but there will still be some improvements to be made and re-branding to be done. The other option, which we've focused on more recently, is to lease an office space or apartment to convert into a hostel. It would require construction and dealing with the bureaucracy of getting permits, but we'd have freedom to create whatever we want from the start.

So we thought we'd found a perfect spot. Big intersection, beautiful place, handicapped accessible, etc. We found an architect, Xavi, who could keep his own head erect while speaking and didn't tell stories about living with his mom. We met with the Ayuntamiento (town hall) on Monday after waiting over a month for the appointment. The whole meeting was in Catalan, so I didn't catch much of it, but apparently everything was good to go. So we called our realtor, Nuria, to tell her the good news. She promised to tell the owner, and we'd meet the next day to talk about a deposit and the contract. Early the next morning she calls to tell us that the place has already been rented!!! Evidentally she's really in the know. So Lee and I moped for a couple days setting up our new apartment and taking our anger out hammering together Ikea furniture.

We're back to it though. Today is the Immaculate Conception (who knew... I guess Mary's gestation period is about 17 days then?) so everything is closed. We drove up and down every street of the city scoping out more properties for rent. It was a little exciting and dangerous. I might have put it in reverse down some busy streets so Lee could copy down phone numbers. Sometimes the italian license plates go to my head. You'd think a competent realtor could replace this work, but we're not taking any chances this time!!