I love Madrid. Honestly, before the program I didn´t expect much from it. I knew that Spain is a Latin country as I am (I'm Brazilian), and that I could possibly find some affinities with this place because of that, but I had no clue of what it would be. Fortunately, it turned out to be an awesome place with very nice and friendly people. I really enjoyed.
In Madrid you can find whatever you want. There are many cultural activities available such as museums, historical areas and nice architecture from different periods. The city is very livable, people are always on the streets and bars are always full at evenings, making a walk around the city a very pleasant experience. Madrid also has an amazing nightlife, one of the best in the world I would say. A club gets crowded only after 2 am, and, is common, at weekends, to get home after 7 am.
WHERE TO LIVE
In my opinion, when finding a place Madrid, the most important thing is location. If you like to go out and socialize during the night, get a place from which you can walk (max 30 min walk) from Sol station located in the city center. Metro is not available from 2 am to 6 am. Because of that, if you live far away, you have to wait (which is not so hard in Madrid), catch a taxi, or wait for a night-bus in the winter. For this reason, I would say that Moncloa, Quevedo, Canal, San Bernardo are a good areas. The name of the area usually is the name of the metro station nearby. Those areas are not so far away from Sol and you can easily go to uni. This is what I remember, there are other areas that fulfill these criteria as well, look for it:
- Walking distance from Sol
- Reach the university without changing metro-lines
ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING is that, in order to reach the university, you can also use the station Nuevos Ministerios besides Gregorio Marañon. Take this into consideration when looking for a place.
The best places in Aluni are taken early, months before the beginning of the classes. For this reason, If you decide for this solution, I advise you to be quick. In my case, we could get the email from the people selected for IMIM and ask who was interested in sharing an apartment. I lived with Greg (USA / South Africa) and Hung (Vietnam), both from IMIM and we had a very good time together.
My apartment was near Franco Rodriguez station, northeast from the city center (Sol station). It was really good to be only 5 stations from the university, without changing lines. It normally took 25 minutes from home to the university, also counting a little walk to get in and off stations. But, it was hard to go back from Sol (nightlife area) before 6 am.
The apartment was very good, new appliances, and Aluni gave all the support we required. Along the semester we had to change the heater, the blinds in my bedroom, fix a microwave and a leaking flush in the bathroom. Aluni and the owner of the apartment took care of everything and were very helpful.
OTHER ADVICES
If you can, do your best to learn Spanish. Begin now! You will see that many people don’t speak English and it will make it a lot easier to get to know local people and make local friends. Later on, this is an important skill for finding an internship in Spain if you wish.
If you like nightclubs I recommend Joy (Thursdays), Pachá (Fridays) and Kapital (Fridays). Those are more touristic places, nice to go in the beginning, then, you will find places you like most. Find the profile or group in Facebook of “Erasmus Madrid”, there are always good deals for getting in the clubs.
Madrid is awesome! Enjoy it!
Pedro, IMIM 2009/2011
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