I arrived in Madrid on Tuesday, found an apartment on Wednesday, met a new friend on Thursday, and am signing a contract and paying the deposit for the new place today. Needless to say it's been a bit hectic, and very very tiring.
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| Get in my belly! |
My roommate, R, has been sick since we got here, the temperatures have been uncomfortably warm (at least for me--anything over 60 annoys me), and, well, let's just say it'll be nice to not have to live in a hotel anymore. We're only doing it for five or six days--I can't imagine how people who stay in a hostel for weeks manage to not go crazy. All I want in the world is to go grocery shopping and come home to a place with a kitchen where I can cook! Gracias Repsol, for your never ending supply of
agua and Lays
con al punto de sal. Will definitely find a decent Indian restaurant for tonight--I have many shameful secrets and the first is that I don't particularly care for Spanish food. It's a bit plain and boring. I'll take a stab at it from time to time but sorry, there's nothing more delicious than a good bowl of
Bombay aloo, and I won't rest until I've had some! Soft potatoes with hot green chili, scooped up with a warm
roti...drool.
Anyways...yes. The apartment search was relatively painless--we used an agent and he was fantastic. He spent ten hours with us, meeting us for breakfast, giving us thorough tours of every neighborhood in the old part of the city, and took us through each apartment. The first, in Lavapies (where I'd originally hoped to live) was painfully small. We finally settled on a huge top floor
piso in Malasaña, a five minute walk from the Gran Via, and just far away enough from Sol to be able to almost entirely avoid it. I may be a city lover but Sol is not my scene--I hate it.
Tonight we sign the contract, fork over a painful amount of cash, and we should be set to move in after the weekend. All in all a relatively smooth process--my only concern is going to be how long it takes to get some wifi set up. Fingers crossed!
Yay, I'm so happy for you girls! Congrats on getting a place already, I can only hope that my experience is that painless. Not to mention Malasaña is (in my opinion) the best neighborhood in Madrid.
ReplyDeleteI hope your experience is painless as well! You can't look anywhere in this city without seeing a 'for rent' sign so you should have a decent selection of places to choose from. Good luck!
DeleteGood Spanish food isn't boring, I swear! The best way to experience it is to make a Spanish friend and then get invited to their mother's/grandmother's house. :)
ReplyDeleteOh I'm sure there's great Spanish food--I'm just so addicted to Indian food that it's hard to come down from that to a cuisine that's less spiced.
DeleteHow much did you pay for the agent? What I did in Vienna was just use websites to find postings and went to check out the apartments myself. Is this possible? How much do you pay for rent?
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