Alicante.
I love being on the sun, I mean once a year.
few months back I started my little research in order to prepare this years summer vacation. We had some criteria: should be a rather cheap stay, for two weeks and of course had to offer Spanish course, we didn't want to go somewhere we were on holidays before.
I made a demand to our beloved Language Abroad, we got to choose mainly between Marbella and Alicante, we had direct flights to both cities but at the end we decided to give a try to Alicante.
It is a medium sized city in Costa Blanca, many Spanish come here to their summer flats ( what you do not a have a flat at the seaside, come on!) it is full of little restaurants, shops, and it is surviving due to tourism.
In order to enjoy your stay you should just bare in mind one thing: tourist is a different species with different rights- once you understand this you will enjoy your holiday in lively Alicante.
As there are not loads of hotels and as we like to have our little kitchen to prepare bocadillas and other tasty tapas we decided to share a flat with other students. Our flat is located probably about 2 km from the beach (at least we get to lose some calories!!) and 300 m from our Spanish school.
It is very interesting to get to live in a real flat in a real building in the city centre. I use to share a house with students during my Erasmus but it was nothing like the flat we are in now. It is probably 80 m large, has 3 bedroom a big living room, a bathroom and a kitchen.
The funny thing Is that it is on the 4th floor and the staircase is so narrow that I really can't imagine how did they manage to get there furniture.
Once in the flat you notice that the building forms sort of a triangle and in the middle you have windows giving the windows of our neighbors, the people use this space to dry their laundry and basically have no privacy at all. You can here anything that is happening in the building- at this point I stop to complain about thin walls in Poland- it is not bad!!
The great thing about Alicante (unlike in Valencia) is that city centre with all great restaurants and little, charming passages is located just steps away from the beach. I find it pretty expensive (as our last summer was in Mexico and everything was way cheaper, we compare). Spanish say that Alicante is cheap- ok if a very low salary is 800 euros and teachers earn like 2000 euros net, the rent is from 300- 500 than yes I agree it is cheap.
However, for us (and no, it is not complaining) with slightly different salaries it is pretty expensive. You should count a diner for 2 from 30-50 euros. You can get cheap fruit and vegetables, fish, sea food in mercado central (in Poland big malls are cheaper than mercados, here just the opposite).
I simply love holidays!
