Hostel Review: Auberge de Junesse, Barcelona

Up a pretty steep and windy hill about a quarter of a mile from the Vallcarca metro station you’ll spot a break in the wall with two huge turquoise painted iron gates. Granted, turquoise being my favorite color, I was biased before I even set foot on the property, but even so, it’s a decent hostel. The outside looks a bit like a Spanish villa meets Greek ruin: tall stately white columns in front of a “5 over 4 and a door.” Walk in and suddenly you’re in a Moroccan paradise. Gold and red and cobalt blue pop out in geometric designs with Arabic inscriptions along the wall. The rooms are just your plain group bunkers, but the nice thing is they have big cubby type lockers to put your luggage in during the day. The common bathrooms are much like your average dorm bathroom with stall showers, sinks, and toilettes. Breakfast in complimentary and threw me back to my elementary/middle school cafeteria days, especially because of the humungous groups of travelling kids that were there while we were there. The location isn’t super central to the main city and there’s not a lot of food nearby, but all of that is just a quick metro ride away. The upside is that it’s a completely adorable hillside village area with tons of young families and elderly people, all of which create a sense of a safer environment than maybe some other places.