All's quiet at Somnio today. We're still trying to get everything cleaned up and back in order from Friday's party. Mom and Dad left yesterday so Lee and I are back to our psychic sisters cleaning rhythm. Surprisingly, it was harder to get everything done with four people working than just the two of us. That said, thanks again to Mom and Dad for spending their vacation helping us out. The party would've been complete chaos without them.

We've got a fairly slow week ahead without too many bookings, but it's feeling a bit like the calm before the storm. April is booking up fast, and the summer mania is in sight. So we're trying to take this time to get re-organized and do some of the things we didn't get time to do before opening (writing all of our walking tours, writing recommendation pages about each major tourist site, creating an in-room book for guests with all of our services and recommendations listed, etc).

The one picture I took really early on in the party...

The party was a huge success. A ton of great people we've met over our time here in Barcelona came to see the hostel and celebrate with us. We really packed the house. Police estimate over 200 people attended the festivities. I was so busy giving tours and pouring cava that I didn't get a chance to take any pictures, which is too bad. Maybe we'll have to have a one month anniversary party. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

It's party day! Three hours until the first guests start arriving. Mom and Dad are hard at work scrubbing, vacuuming and generally regretting their decision to take a "vacation" in Spain.

The cava's on ice. See everyone in a few hours!

I haven't been a very good blogger this week. Katie and Anthony were in town so Lee and I took turns playing tour guide. It was great to spend time with such good friends and show off the hostel to them.
It's business as usual at the hostel. The best part of the job continues to be interacting with the guests. It's great to learn about the places they're from, chat about their travels, etc. We had an uncle and his nephew from Shanghai in town that brought out Chinese tea to share with everyone in the lobby creating an impromptu tea ceremony. They insisted on taking photos with Lee and our parents (who just arrived last night) before they checked out.


In other news, we've hired someone to start filling odd hours at the reception desk, which means Lee and I have actually both been outside the hostel simultaneously this week. It's a little like leaving your newborn with a babysitter. We left a long document with emergency numbers, specific instructions, etc. We called to check in a few times. The guy we hired, Gil, seems great though. He plays baseball for FC Barcelona and just moved here.

We're having a party!

Lee put together a really terrific list and a Google Map of our favorite old-school cocktail bars in Barcelona. A lot of them happen to be very close to the hostel. They're the perfect place to feel like you're in a 1920s version of Barcelona complete with tuxedo-clad bartenders, cigar smoke and classy decor. These bartenders are serious about their craft and will recommend drinks suited to your tastes.

Ideal

C/ Aribau 89

Ideal is a very refined space, hidden from the street traffic by velvet curtains. The cocktails are expertly shaken (or stirred) and the Scotch selection is on point.

Jordy's Cocktail

C/ Casanova 91

This smaller bar seems to be a neighborhood hole in the wall but brothers/owners Jordy and Joan proudly display the signed headshots of famous patron barflies.

Boadas
Carrer dels Tallers, 1

This smoky bar is right off of Las Ramblas but manages to remain under the radar of the party crowd. Founded by a bartender from the Cuban bar, La Floridita (made famous by Hemingway,) the cockteleria has been around for ages (look for , Joan Miro's work on the wall) and the barmen are pros. Try the cava coctel del dia or the mojitos.

Harry's

C/ Aribau 143

Harry's is a good spot to stop in and have a proper cocktail after Dry Martini leaves you thirsty with only a few euros in your pocket. Drinks aren't necessarily cheap, but they're generous in their proportions. You'll feel like you've stepped into another era when you enter.

Xampany

Carrer de València, 200

While this is more of a cava bodega than a cocktail bar, the ambiance is charming and the place makes for a low key start to an evening. Don't be intimidated by the wine shop in front. There are a few tables towards the back and shopkeeper Ramon is happy to keep both the cava and conversation flowing.

Closed Sundays and closes daily at 10pm

Dry Martini

C/ Aribau 162
This might be the first cocktail bar the young crowd would add to this list. It's definitely a scene with local men and their, ahem, partners for the evening crowding the bar. The drinks are relatively weak for the price.

Talk to the barman to get the secret password for the backroom restaurant, Speakeasy.

Stringer's

Corsega, 338

This is probably the most modern of the bars and the diverse cocktail list reflects this fact. This place is popular with the middle aged Catalan crowd. Be sure to try the odd barsnack of salty nuts and sour gummy bears. I don't get it but it makes the place memorable.

Belvedere's

Passatge de Mercader, 3

This bar is classic in appearance and on one of the most charming streets in L'Eixample. The trellised garden out front is the perfect place for a cold cocktail on a warm Barcelona day.

Bar Marsella

C/ Sant Pau 65

This is the spot for absinthe in Barcelona. The place is packed, so stake out a table and elbow your way to the bar for your absinthe kit. Observe the locals for technique.

Pastis

C/ Santa Mònica 4

You'll feel like you're in mid-century Paris in this spot, as the owner is obsessed with Edith Piaf. The anise-flavored namesake is the drink of the house.

It's 10am on Saturday and all's quiet at Somnio. Lauren was up until 4 on the late shift so I got up early this morning to make the pastry run for our guests' breakfasts. One guest checked out early and we have three rooms to make up before this afternoon. I don't want to wake up any other guests so I'm going to hold off on the cleaning for now... or at least that's my excuse when Lauren wakes up at noon and expects everything to be set up.

All in all, this hostel thing is a lot easier than I'd imagined. We've got a lot of cleaning in the first half of the day and a lot of hostessing in the evening but it's very dead in between. Who wants to hang out in your hostel when you're in Barcelona? Even if it is a place as nice as this.

We have a couple from Hong Kong on their honeymoon staying with us. Clearly they were given Somnio's honeymoon suite.

We also had two Italian couples here last night that were on a twenty day cruise from Brazil to Barcelona. How fun is that? I want to go on vacation!

We've swapped shifts so I'm on nights now. But I still had to get up early, because Lee's off promoting our business at a BNI breakfast. She's a guest of our architect. We didn't join the group for various reasons, but the main one was that they meet at 6:45am on Fridays! We couldn't get behind any group that made you pay to get up before sunrise every week.

A couple more room pictures...

So now we're in the full swing of things. We had our first fully booked night on Tuesday. There's a food convention in town, so a lot of our bookings were related to that. We finally got nice chairs in our lobby, so it's great to sit around with guests and chat.

So far, we've met a lot of really great and interesting people. We had two Belgian girls stay with us that work for a company that makes artificial sweetner. The left some samples and some mock-late. Even better, there are two Spanish guys from Johnsonville with us now who are leaving us with brat samples! (My inner mid-westerner is coming out). We had a Japanese guy on a round-the-world trip here last night who showed us his great pictures and taught us magic tricks. We bought a guest book to keep track of everyone staying with us.

Our first guests left today. Lee wanted to hug them when they left. They were super understanding of our inexperience, and a lot of fun to sit and chat with. It felt like having friends stay with us. They took pictures of us behind the desk, so I thought it was appropriate to ask them to pose with the Somnio sign.

Day three at the hostel went off without a hitch. Our friends Tom and Magnus stopped by last night for a couple drinks. Tom came bearing a congratulatory gift of cans of concentrated tomato paste. It's great to have the company, and it's fun to hang out with guests when they get back from a night out too. Although, Lee had to stay up until five am waiting for everyone to get in for the night. I've been taking the early shifts.

Other highlights included Lee and I doing karaoke in the lobby when everyone was out, more curtain making (only 4 out of 10 done), and collecting our first real euros!

Okay so today two we've got 7/10 rooms booked. It's a mix of young people (more our target crowd) and a couple of families. On the whole, everyone's been very nice and understanding of our awkwardness/paint still drying. We always joked about when we'd have our first angry guests, and I think that might be today. Sadly, my fifth grade level French isn't enough for me to get the whole gist, but one of the families just canceled their other two nights of the stay. I think she said "we just don't want to stay." Yikes! And here we thought our rooms were looking great, the place is very very clean, and we've got our smiles on. I hope she fills out a comment card.

Here's some pictures of rooms we made up this morning and the lobby...

The first day of business has come and gone! We have a really nice young couple from NYC staying with us. I always said that I'd never rest easy until our guests woke up after a night at Somnio. It's 9 am, and I'm still waiting.

They arrived a little before we expected them yesterday, so they were welcomed to Somnio by a power outage and some errant drilling noises. Fortunately, they were really understanding and actually napped through most of the afternoon without a problem.

As for Lee and I, we got the one room and the common areas set up for their arrival but had to set everything else up last night. A few friends popped by to say congrats, so we didn't get a good start until after midnight. I haven't pulled an all-nighter since college, and this one made me feel old. After three hours of sleep, I'm surprised my body let me get out of bed.

6 check-ins today! The fun has begun.

So here's how the weekend went...

Leap Year's party on Friday was fun. We had a pretty good turn-out, and managed not to make a huge mess of the apartment.


Woke up Saturday feeling slightly worse for the wear to attend the European Hostel Conference. We drove all the way up to the conference only to find out that it really starts on Sunday. What?! I was vindicated later in the weekend when we found out that the date was indeed changed and caused much confusion. Thank god we didn't fly in for it.

So we spent the rest of Saturday running errands. On the way to pick up some furniture, we got a flat tire. For anyone who knows me, I am the queen of flat tires. I always expect to get one, and I'm usually prepared to change one. Not this time. The tire seems to not want to come off. So we had a few random Spanish men under our car trying with all their might to kick or pull it off to no avail. Thanks to our friend Magnus who showed up and bought some cans of foam that you can spray in your tire to artificially inflate it. It only lasts for awhile so we have a stock in our trunk until we can get the car to the garage.



Later that night, Magnus (MVP of the Day), brought over a load of cigalas (giant prawns) and cooked for us.

Sunday we got up and went to the conference. The seminars were hit or miss. We walked out of a few but learned a lot from others. That was followed by a movie (The Other Boleyn Girl - read the book instead) and Hostel Conference networking drinks.

Needless to say, Lee and I are a bit exhausted and still have a million little things to get done before the first guests arrive Thursday.

I'll post more pictures later, Mom. No, my camera is not broken.

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. We've been a little crazy this weekend between the Leap Day party, the European Hostel Conference, a flat tire, oh yeah, and getting ready to open a hostel in THREE DAYS! There's a lot to update everyone on, but I don't have time now. Sorry Mom!

Finally got our security camera up and running. Now we can keep out all the crazy people.