Living in Alicante - second part

So, I mentioned already that the foreign students tend to live in the city center of Alicante - the benefits of this are pretty obvious - the beach and the Barrio are pretty close to almost any neighbourhood, so you'd need to worry about taking a cab/bus in order to get back home at night.

However, if you want to concentrate more on your studies and pay less for accommodation, or simply mix up with the locals students, you can consider settling down in the Uni area - San Vicente. That's the place that is prefered by the Spaniards as this suburb of Alicante is located literally 10 min by foot away from the University. So, you wouldn't need to take the bus every single day and fight for a seat there - which is definitely an advantage if you have an early morning class ;)

When it comes to the bills, you should expect to pay roughly 30-40 euro per month for electricity around 20 for water. In most flats, Internet is included in the price. However, keep in mind that electricity in Spain is pretty expensive and locals are quite obsessed with the idea of saving energy (which is certainly not a bad thing, it's just they're very stringent about it ;) Some landlord may include the estimated amount of the bills into your rent, but most would simply let you pay by yourself the amount you've consumed.

So, that's the end of this tedious but necessary part of my blog - in the next post expect more info about something more exciting - yep - I'm talking about travel opportunities!

:)

Living in Alicante - first part

So, once you arrive in Alicante, you're most likely to start looking for a place via some of the most popular Spanish websites for renting a flat/room - http://www.pisocompartido.com/ or http://www.idealista.com/. These are definitely the best ones as they are used the most by the locals.

Normally the Erasmus students prefer to live in the city center - in the zone near to the "Plaza de Toros", Mercado Central, Plaza Luceros or close to the beach. This area is certainly the best choice if you intend to go out frequently in the weekends (or more often ;) as you'd be within a short walking distance to the Barrio - or, in other words, close to the quarter where most of the bars, pubs and discos are located!

When it comes to the rent, it's fairly simple - you'd be expected to pay 200-230 euro (+ the bills), no matter in which of these areas you decide to live. However, if you really want to find a nice place, keep in mind that you'd need to arrive in Alicante at least a week before the Orientation week. Every year the University accepts around 1000 Erasmus students, so you can imagine the demand in that period ;) And the good flats/rooms end up pretty quickly, so make sure you arrive well in advance in order to secure yourself a cool place to live in!