It is Saturday night❗️My husband and I are on our way to the airport for an early morning flight. I am sure that Sabrina is already being her industrious, hospitable, and helpful self as hostess for Casa de Letras. She is probably prepping the apartment for the next arriving guests.
(The Casa de Letras is in a lovely location right next to the impressive Central Post Office of Barcelona and just steps from the port, the Rambla, and Barceloneta beach and tourist attractions.) We enjoyed our stay in Barcelona. However, during our stay, we were robbed twice. Our car was broken into, and I also lost my wallet, apparently an act by pickpocket artists. We lost many of our important documents, including passports, Id cards, credit cards, and all of our cash. In that difficult state, Sabrina fed us for free in her restaurant. She also assisted us with weekly cleaning of the apartment. Those kindnesses were greatly appreciated by us.
The building housing the apartment is very old. It was very noisy for three reasons. First of all, the city was implementing a public infrastructure upgrade construction project. From dawn until dusk everyday over the entire period, the construction sound was loud, incessant and unbearable. Second, inconsiderate neighbors upstairs sometimes seemed they were playing basketball in the middle of the night. Third, the old wooden floors of the apartment creaked and groaned with every step that I or my husband took. That disturbed us when either walked on the floor at night.
Between the sound of the floors, the noise of upstairs neighbors, and the street construction, I could not rest very well during the day and hardly slept at night during the 33 days and nights that we stayed at Casa de Letras. Our host, Sabrina, worked hard to meet our needs. However, she could do little about the street noise, the neighbor noise, and the creaking floors.
Another recurrent issue was Internet accessibility. The system was extremely instable. Sabrina sent her technician, sometimes several times in one day. But lack of good internet was a continuing saga of frustration during our stay