hostelmates

I like hostels. But I think most of the time I like the idea of hostels more than any of my memories of hostels. It's probably because I kind of forget nightlife is a think when I'm traveling. And hostels are all about the nightlife. But I'm talking about the proximity to other people within your age range who are also trying to do everything they can in this new city. Most of the time they are Australians, like the large group of dude dudes who convinced one of their buds to drink sangria out of his shoe. I didn't know real life people actually did that. Kind of the opposite of the Aussie guy who played a quiet game of cards with us on our last night. Though to be fair, he had moved to our hostel to get away from the crazy rowdiness of the hostel he was just at. 

So day one was a 1€ hostel pasta dinner, but day two was tapas and tentative rooftop bar views with our hostelmate from New Zealand. [He didn't make it because there's too much exploring to do in Barca, but we did bond over how aggressively loud our other three hostelmates were.]

We sat at the bar at Bar Cañete and marveled over all the dishes they were putting out. There was a lot of "I want that one" and pointing in my food making decisions.

And we found this on the back of the menu so... we liked this place instantly.

Started things off right with Bellota ham croquettes.

Had to get the burratina with tomatoes and pesto after seeing the chefs plate like three of them. It was perfect. So refreshing and so creamy. And the roasted pinenuts on top were the perfect touch. Favorite of the night for sure. Obsessed.

Malaga-style fried anchovies over pan con tomate because I need more little oily fishes in my life. And because when I think tapas, I always think little oily fishes first.

Aged beef tartare with fries was so rich it was almost too much.

So ended on a simple grilled note - razor clams because the couple next to us were having them. I told you I'm unoriginal.

My idea of nightlife often involves watching the sunset from some awesome vantage point. We climbed Barceló Raval to their 360 degree rooftop bar for a couple giant sangrias ... that were not finished... We turned in early because as I mentioned, we had aggressively loud hostelmates. Who woke me up in the middle of the night with their synchronized snoring. It was kind of absurd. I ended up reading Ted Bundy's Wikipedia page while listening to My Favorite Murder - which is definitely the best travel podcast if you're a skittish defenseless female, by the way - until my eyes got tired again.