Settling in: the apartment hunt
The days leading up to my departure for Spain were crazy. I was running last minute errands (buying things I'd need for Spain, activating my cards, emailing my coordinator, etc.), meeting up with friends, and packing (and unpacking and repacking). I finally left Manila on the evening of the 28th, and after a change of plans in Taiwan and another stopover in Amsterdam, I landed in Madrid noon of the 29th. I took the cercanías train to the Estación Sur de Autobuses and met up with Julie, who's doing the same program but in Madrid. We had lunch together while waiting for my bus, then I was finally off to Granada. Five hours later, I arrived!
Lyle was already in Granada (had been for a few days) so she picked me up at the bus station and we headed to the hostel. We had some delicious sangría and tapas and then called it a night, ready for the next day.
Since Lyle had already been in Granada for a few days, she had already messaged a few people and visited a few apartments. So the next day we went out to see two apartments that she had already checked out. Both we're nice but we thought we could get better ones. So we kept looking online at easypiso and idealista and also looking at the ads posted on the streets (there are so many). Many of them only had one more room available, and others were too far from our school. We saw one more place in the afternoon, but didn't like it either. We were just about to call it a day when Lyle got a call from a Spanish lady telling us we could see the apartment at 5pm. At this point we had messaged so many numbers, that we actually forgot which apartment she was talking about. Nevertheless we met up with her, saw the apartment, and really really liked it.
It was in a really great location, just two minutes from a main street lined with plenty of cafés, shops, and even the Basilica and an El Corte Ingles, and five minutes to 2 big supermarkets. It's also five to ten minutes to Calle Recogidas and Calle Reyes Católicos which are another two main roads in the city, and fifteen minutes to Plaza Nueva, the main tourist plaza of the city. To our schools (where we work) it's a 30 minute walk, but the roads are flat and the walk is really easy. Alternatively if it gets too cold, there's a bus we can take that stops right outside our schools. We were really happy with the location, and the apartment itself was great too.
It's a three bedroom / 1 bathroom apartment with a kitchen and a living room. The rooms were spacious, much bigger than the other apartments we saw. We saw another apartment just two streets away for the same price, but this one was twice as big!
Below is a picture of the hallway. That's the front door on the right and Lyle's bedroom door straight ahead. I'm standing by the living room taking the picture.
My desk. The picture looks a bit dark, but this is one of the two rooms by the street so there's actually a lot of natural light that comes in during the day.
We felt lucky that we found a good apartment really quickly (we saw it on the 30th, said we'd take it on the 1st, and moved in on the 2nd). We're on the first floor and right by the street. It gets a tad bit noisy, but nothing on annoying levels. There's no central heating, though we have the plug-in electric heaters (so our bill might be a tad bit higher during the winter months). When we moved in the third bedroom was still empty, but we quickly found another girl to live with us, Elisa who's also doing the same program we are and who's really nice! We've been living here for about a week and a half and so far so good, no major problems.
Lyle was already in Granada (had been for a few days) so she picked me up at the bus station and we headed to the hostel. We had some delicious sangría and tapas and then called it a night, ready for the next day.
Since Lyle had already been in Granada for a few days, she had already messaged a few people and visited a few apartments. So the next day we went out to see two apartments that she had already checked out. Both we're nice but we thought we could get better ones. So we kept looking online at easypiso and idealista and also looking at the ads posted on the streets (there are so many). Many of them only had one more room available, and others were too far from our school. We saw one more place in the afternoon, but didn't like it either. We were just about to call it a day when Lyle got a call from a Spanish lady telling us we could see the apartment at 5pm. At this point we had messaged so many numbers, that we actually forgot which apartment she was talking about. Nevertheless we met up with her, saw the apartment, and really really liked it.
It was in a really great location, just two minutes from a main street lined with plenty of cafés, shops, and even the Basilica and an El Corte Ingles, and five minutes to 2 big supermarkets. It's also five to ten minutes to Calle Recogidas and Calle Reyes Católicos which are another two main roads in the city, and fifteen minutes to Plaza Nueva, the main tourist plaza of the city. To our schools (where we work) it's a 30 minute walk, but the roads are flat and the walk is really easy. Alternatively if it gets too cold, there's a bus we can take that stops right outside our schools. We were really happy with the location, and the apartment itself was great too.
It's a three bedroom / 1 bathroom apartment with a kitchen and a living room. The rooms were spacious, much bigger than the other apartments we saw. We saw another apartment just two streets away for the same price, but this one was twice as big!
Below is a picture of the hallway. That's the front door on the right and Lyle's bedroom door straight ahead. I'm standing by the living room taking the picture.
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The living room. There's another couch on the left that's not in the picture. The TV works though there's no cable. We still get some news channels, Disney channel (haha), and some other channels that show TV series. The door beside the TV leads to Elisa's room.
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Our kitchen. The stove works, we haven't been able to figure out the oven yet though we were told it works too. The kitchen came fully equipped with pots, pans, kitchen utensils, plates, cutlery, etc. There's also a microwave and a toaster. The door beside the stove leads to a small courtyard where we can hang our laundry and keep our cleaning materials (which also came with the apartment).
The small pantry in the kitchen, which is also where our refrigerator is.
The bathroom which has ample space. The laundry machine is also in there.
And this is my room. My bed - the apartment also came with bedsheets, pillows, and comforters!
My closet, a small armchair, a mirror, and my laundry basket.
My desk. The picture looks a bit dark, but this is one of the two rooms by the street so there's actually a lot of natural light that comes in during the day.
We felt lucky that we found a good apartment really quickly (we saw it on the 30th, said we'd take it on the 1st, and moved in on the 2nd). We're on the first floor and right by the street. It gets a tad bit noisy, but nothing on annoying levels. There's no central heating, though we have the plug-in electric heaters (so our bill might be a tad bit higher during the winter months). When we moved in the third bedroom was still empty, but we quickly found another girl to live with us, Elisa who's also doing the same program we are and who's really nice! We've been living here for about a week and a half and so far so good, no major problems.
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