There are two great things about this apartment: its location and Marcela. The apartment is situated in a neighbourhood full of small shops that have fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fowl, bread, and pastries. After a few days the shopkeepers began to recognize us and we felt comfortable and safe on the streets, even very late at night. Nearby Carrer de Blai, a lively pedestrian-only street, is full of many good tapas/pinchos bars. Our favourite was Blai 9. A bigger grocery store, where you can buy dairy products, is a 15-minute walk away at Paralelo 93. The apartment is a 10-minute walk from the Parallel.lel metro station, which is a major hub. We were easily able to get everywhere we wanted to go by metro.

Marcela was very helpful and accommodating, answering questions and even making telephone calls on our behalf to help us arrange dance lessons and appointments at specialty shoe stores. Because our home country of Canada has the highest cellular rates in the world, we did not have cellular service in Spain. Most of the time it was not necessary because the wifi connection in the apartment was excellent. Such good wifi was a big asset because it enabled us to research events and places and to order tickets on line.

These positive features outweighed the few drawbacks to the apartment, like the noisy construction that was going on next door, the foul smell of the stairwell, and the barely functioning shower drain, all of which should be only temporary.

Overall, we liked the apartment and found it quite functional and reasonably priced.