![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Me: And we’re back.
Internet: You were gone?
And so it goes.
Anyway, I spent last week in Barcelona (as part of my annual job-related pilgrimage to the world’s biggest mobile industry conference/exhibition), and the weekend recovering from the jet lag. Yes, they have Internets there, but as usual, I was too busy and too tired to liveblog anything non-work-related.
And long-time readers know what that means: a series of posts with pictures in them.
Starting now.
Things were a little different this year, thanks to (1) the event moving to a different venue and (2) my company’s incessant desire to spend as little money as possible on trips like this. Meaning: in past trips to Barcelona we’ve been staying at the same hotel, but the location was never that great, so we figured we’d try someplace different. The problem is that hotel rooms are hard to come by during convention week, and any hotel room you can get goes for something like 4x the normal rate.
So this year we tried something different: renting an apartment.
Turns out Barcelona has lots of apartments that tourists and traveling salesmen can rent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And they’re comparatively cheap, depending on when and where you book. Also, if yr going to share a room with yr boss, a two-bedroom apt has its advantages over a single room.
So that’s what we did.
Here’s what it looked like.
The apartment was pretty old (hey, it’s Barcelona – some of those buildings date back centuries), but in decent condition, and it had heat and (more importantly) free Wi-Fi. And the location wasn’t too bad, even though it takes longer to get to the venue, but that’s largely the product of the venue change – if they’d stayed in the same place, it’d be a slightly shorter commute.
If there’s a downside to it, it’s that, unlike a hotel or a serviced apartment, there’s no linen change, daily cleaning or concierge service. Also, no breakfast buffet. But that’s pretty minor.
Overall, it was an interesting experience. And all that for 750 euros (for five nights).
That might sound expensive. And it is. But seriously, the three-star hotel we used to stay at charged us at least 50% more, and for just a single room. So all up, it’s a bargain.
Up next: architecture!
Renting not buying,
This is dF
Internet: You were gone?
And so it goes.
Anyway, I spent last week in Barcelona (as part of my annual job-related pilgrimage to the world’s biggest mobile industry conference/exhibition), and the weekend recovering from the jet lag. Yes, they have Internets there, but as usual, I was too busy and too tired to liveblog anything non-work-related.
And long-time readers know what that means: a series of posts with pictures in them.
Starting now.
Things were a little different this year, thanks to (1) the event moving to a different venue and (2) my company’s incessant desire to spend as little money as possible on trips like this. Meaning: in past trips to Barcelona we’ve been staying at the same hotel, but the location was never that great, so we figured we’d try someplace different. The problem is that hotel rooms are hard to come by during convention week, and any hotel room you can get goes for something like 4x the normal rate.
So this year we tried something different: renting an apartment.
Turns out Barcelona has lots of apartments that tourists and traveling salesmen can rent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And they’re comparatively cheap, depending on when and where you book. Also, if yr going to share a room with yr boss, a two-bedroom apt has its advantages over a single room.
So that’s what we did.
Here’s what it looked like.
The apartment was pretty old (hey, it’s Barcelona – some of those buildings date back centuries), but in decent condition, and it had heat and (more importantly) free Wi-Fi. And the location wasn’t too bad, even though it takes longer to get to the venue, but that’s largely the product of the venue change – if they’d stayed in the same place, it’d be a slightly shorter commute.
If there’s a downside to it, it’s that, unlike a hotel or a serviced apartment, there’s no linen change, daily cleaning or concierge service. Also, no breakfast buffet. But that’s pretty minor.
Overall, it was an interesting experience. And all that for 750 euros (for five nights).
That might sound expensive. And it is. But seriously, the three-star hotel we used to stay at charged us at least 50% more, and for just a single room. So all up, it’s a bargain.
Up next: architecture!
Renting not buying,
This is dF
