Probably the most difficult part about opening a hostel in Barcelona (second only to finding real estate) has been dealing with the City and State goverments to get a license to open. There isn't any one source to find the rules, and everyone has a different story. We've met with the Town Hall on various occasions, and most of the experiences have been grim. The first time we went, we brought along our then-architect. The town hall "tecnico" spoke only in Catalan, and ignored Lee and I completely. So we had no idea what was going on and could only go off of our architect's comprehensive recap afterwards - "yeah, I think we're okay."

Then there was the time when we walked out of a meeting seriously contemplating booking the next flights home. The tecnico told us that it's nearly impossible to find a place for a legal hostel in Barcelona and denied about five options we brought him.

So today's meeting with the Town Hall to check on the progress of our permit had me a little anxious. Fortunately, we've met with the same guy four times now, and I think we've finally worn him down. The meeting had a definite "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" feeling about it so we didn't get any definite answers. His general message was that if all we're waiting for to open is a little tiny insignificant piece of paper from the Town Hall, then we're total idiots that shouldn't be trusted to run a business. Not quite a victory, as things usually are here, but it's a step in the right direction.