Living in Alicante..... and happy to leave!!

Interesting viewpoint.

Obviously living in a flat is luck of the draw - good neighbours are just as likely as bad neighbours.

But the English thing is odd. I want to try to speak Spanish but everyone wants to speak English to me and in Alicante city I've found it almost impossible to use any Spanish.

Enjoy wherever you end up anyway..

Sounds like an absolute nightmare, you must be so glad to see the back of the place.  The noise thing, well don't people stay up later in Spain, I though that was normal, although what you went through seem really excessive.

I will be living in Catalonia later on this year for a few months.  I hope I have more luck than you ha ha.

Maybe it's the having a budget of near zero and not using any of the nice restaurants, hotels or other such places normally for tourists!, but then investigating into Alicante on the net more, it said the same as a local (bar worker) that people here don't like to speak English! The last time i had a conversation was New Years Eve... with a very nice German tourist!. What you said did remind me of the tourist info office! Where i was slightly harshly told to speak in English! when i tried in Spanish!!.. no one was waiting! And i knew the Spanish needed for the question!!.
However!!! Maybe its time of year?
The noise! i haven't had more than 2 full nights sleep in 2months, after asking this wild bat of a woman to please keep things quieter after 1pm many many times... though normally I'd goto bed at 11.30, and still nightly noise til 3 to 5am until i wrote a letter (using google translator) telling her the fact this lack of sleep was making me ill!!! .....her reply in written Spanish obviously said the cats are more important than your sleep!!! and get out! ....however as the rent is silly cheap (just in my budget) and to leave then would have cost me 100s extra! a simple wave of the last months rent and she shut up.... and shut up! Cos she is being quieter now... from about 2.30am then has a monster alarm go off every morning at 8.30.... to feed some kitten she stole from its mum? Off the street one night, that she keeps shut in a dark room near all the time!!. I guess the building work noise all day below is just to be expected! and with the crawly things all over the apartment it's like a 'First Choice' (the travel company) holiday!!!
Anyway! not long left!!  .....kind of wishing i hadn't walked that 14km to buy a nice clock for her for Christmas!  lol.... maybe i'll take the hands with me when i leave lol
Or collect a dozen wild cats and leave them in the apartment for her (0;=
Ps! I do like cats! (clean, trained, friendly ones) and most of their noise is her feeding them very late at night and then playing with, winding them upto the point of bouncing off walls!!.... but she makes more noise than the 5 cats!!!  ....and i did try earplugs! It's louder than that!

Everyone love a party!! And a Frid or Sat night!! No probs!!.... no parties around here since new year! just plain noise! at best i can get 3hrs sleep without a slamming door, a cats flighting or crashing into things, or washing machines being used in the middle of the night!. Maybe i was just unlucky as i stayed in 2 hostels while looking for an apartment  (very difficult with little Spanish) and both in main tourist area and much quieter!!!
Malta next! Been there a number or times on holiday and love it!! Hope living there will be half as good!! And good luck in CATalonia.
Alicante as a holiday destination!  In a nice hotel with family or friends, this would be an amazing place!!! IN summer!!! Man its been cold wet and windy on and off since before Christmas! but Ali is BIG!! inc out of town!! with many wondrous places to explore! mostly off the map! so a compass came in very handy which I've used in 6 countries in the last 8months.
2am time to try and get to sleeep!!

Sounds like you've had a difficult time so far, but then I've spent 12 years living (on and off) in a quiet village about 50 kms South of where you currently are.  People in the village have always been friendly, but then I live in a small urbanisation populated by Brits on the whole.  From day 1 in Spain and in this village I've had English friends and neighbours as they were so nearby it was impossible not to make friends.

For this reason I haven't had to suffer most of of the experiences you have, though I have observed some of the things you have mentioned, like lack of manners (from some), no concept of personal space and people not making the effort to speak English or to speak more slowly than normal.

Having said that, as I've been told many a time by my students, as I'm a TEFL teacher, there are different attitudes in different regions of Spain and of course it's possible it's down to the area you are in in Alicante.

Nice you found a haven!!, i've been to many places on the costas where the Spanish are friendly, helpful and many spoke English, so thought Alicante! almost next to Benidorm, but 10x bigger..... OMG!
Last night this stupid mujer began doing housework at 3am!! Why? and the drilling and hammering started early morning!
I was shocked to find even huge shopping malls close on Sundays, and there isn't much of weekend workers! So any probs like internet cutting out Thursday (as it takes days for anything to be done) you may get them to turn it back on by Tuesday? On time was 12days without net... It doesn't seem very religious here, i understand people just do nothing all Sunday, and i see many of the apartments don't even have shutters open on Sundays!!, strange there be an ecanomic disaster here? mind you the 50foot monuments and fountains at every roundabout at huge upkeep cost! are lovely to look at!! (0;=  ...oh, and many seemingly pointless extravagant road layouts, one such of several lanes,  maybe 500m long, parallel to the main road to cater for about 5 houses... crazy!!!!
All those beggers! with cardboard signs out asking for help!  but many busy playing on there smartphones, and wearing clothes smarter than mine!! Lol
Wish i could have stayed in Ecuador, it really shocked me just how modern and normal things are, and generally clean, tidy, people happy, friendly, everything goes almost silent by 11.30pm even in Guayaquil & Quito except for designated nightlife zones at the weekend. It was perfect!!... Guayaquil one of the danger capitals of the world i read some years back! I saw none of that! I loved it!  anyone got a fake Ecuadorian ID i could permanently borrow! (0;= Cuenca has nice weather all year round and an area of English speakers!! .....i think i've gone off topic!!  I should do an Ecuador bloggy thingy!!

Hi, my names Brian I live just outside of Gibraltar. Where are you going?

Maybe Santa Margarita!!!, en suite room, swimming pool and gardens for 300€, sounds perfect!!! (0;
At this rate i'll be going nowhere! except a park bench lol, most emails to room ads on 'Just Landed' website go unanswered!! and a great place i found for 200€ inc bills... no en suite,  pool or gardens though!, has just emailed to let me down with just 4days searching left!! Wot a git!

Ps! When i say danger capitals, i don't mean of countries capitals!!! cos i know that is Quito!! which is even calmer and cleaner than Guayaquil!!!! and both are monster sized!!!!! but great (0:

Hope all works out.

I know where they speak your language....(moderated: no rude comment here please) the spanish normally are friendly and will help you with your spanish if you have the right attitude...its much more difficult to learn a language as you get older...i moved to spain in my 50`s but when i try the people usually appreciate it. Learn simple phrases like...i am sorry my spanish is not very good please can you slow down (look it up yourself) Develop a sense of humour and most people will laugh with you if you get things a bit wrong. If you want to live in little britain then move to a brit enclave where no-one wants to mix and you can buy brit food, eat brit food in restaurants and generally never meet a spanish person.

Thank you for your reply...?, not sure who it was for? and the moderator had to edit it due to it's tone, however shirley even my name would suggest I'm not originally from England, just had the misfortune of being brought up there surrounded by the very environment you describe, and also the huge racism i experienced there too!!! mainly from being in a small redneck town.
However what you missed in the conversation was my travels around northern Perù and Ecuador just before Alicante , and how much i loved it and the peoples even though at the first i spoke only a tiny bit of Spanish (crazy as i was born in Ecuador), and how i'd said that while in Alicante i had always tried to speak Spanish! !. As for food, i have always very much enjoyed food from many countries, from haggis to ceviche, to stroganoff to kangaroo! and about anything inbetween.....
You reminded me in one part of the reply of a very funny wrong work i used in Peru, telling a friend, after feeding his dog, i was going to wash my monkeys! ...it's only one letter difference lol
Anyway, for the sake of others in the future please word thinks a little more tactfully as it did slightly unset me, after suffering extreme loneliness in Alicante for 3 months. And others could become very offended and hurt being told to 'go back home', and how narrow minded they are.
Mind you what do i know? I've only spent time in 29 Spanish speaking ciudades en quatro piases español, and Alicante is the 1st i've had so mentioned problems... except noise!  OMG! Perù's biggest cities(out of tourist zones) noise day and night could measure on the richter scale lol, and even though i was also robbed there no less than 3x, i still loved the country.
Adios (0;=

Try India or Philippines.

I'm sure the heat would make those places even worse!!, and though you can't really get what a place is like from travels programmes or documentaries  (which i love and have watched hundreds on other countries, the peoples), but I'd say 2 of the Peruvian cities i was in would be getting close to India, with people.... 10 to a square foot in the streets, traffic belting out fumes like active volcanos,  and the vehicles engines & exhausts bearly existing blasting out thunderous noises! Crossing a road is like getting into a bullring with a dozen bulls... dressed in red obviously!, everyone having to shout, to convay whatever they need to, especially if carrying produce they need to sell, and often the stench from all sorts of everything (including human and animal pee) collected in puddles mixed with sand and dropped rubbish/food to create a lovely underfoot sludge.
Strangly in Peru most market stalls had their own plugged in stereo or TV, usually to entertain  themselves very loudly, so there was some money about!, and it wasn't crazy hot or humid, no swarms of insects... so nope! After all that i conclude, even with not ever having been there, India would be much worse, and the Philippines? Apart from Tsunami progs, i don't remember seeing anything about there? but as you mention them together, i guess they are similar in that way.

No India and Philippines are world apart. It's just that in those countries people speak English. And Philippines has quite nice climate. Check it out.

I think some documentary searching and watching to be done and reading too!! Thanks

It's not you Carlos...it is Alicante.  I have been here since January 2015 and have struggled with many of the same things.  Sales people are pushy and rude.  There is a general vibe of dishonesty and I have been in several situations and have known of a few others in which people were short-changed, over-charged or had their belongings stolen!  I realize that this happens everywhere however the frequency with which it has happened in Alicante leads me to conclude it is a much bigger problem here than in other cities.  I too live with a "host family" that was arranged and paid for thru my school program but in my case my host mom is wonderful.  The noise is a factor for me although it is not nearly as bad (or as late) as you have experienced!  The walls and floors are so thin that it sounds like the lady upstairs is going to fall thru when she stomps around in her tacones and I can hear the upstairs neighbors turn their lights on and off thru the walls!  By 12 or 1:00 everything quiets down though and I have had no problems sleeping.  Also, I am up before most of my neighbors since I have class in the mornings.
The most frustrating part of Alicante for me...the language.  I do know a great deal of Spanish and I came here to improve my language ability however I meet resistance with nearly every Spaniard I encounter in Alicante!  I have travelled to quite a few other Spanish cities and have not had the same reaction at ANY of them!  In Alicante when I speak Spanish, they respond in English.  Sometimes (at more upscale hotels, restaurants, shops) the clerk will ask me if I prefer Spanish or English and then STILL respond to me in English!  So...the majority of Alicante residents do indeed speak English.  I have no idea why they would be resistant to communicating in Spanish with me...but often I am left feeling embarrassed and like a failure at the language when they smirkingly respond to me in English for the 4th or 5th time in our conversation.  Or sometimes the conversation is going along just fine in Spanish and I will be unsure of a word and ask them to repeat themselves and the switch is forever flipped!  The Spanish is off and English is used exclusively by them!  Heaven forbid I make a mistake, mispronounce something or just plain don't hear everything that was said!  Only the least touristy places that I frequent (un bar en mi barrio, la mercadona, las tiendas penquenas en mi barrio) really don't speak English...most others can speak and understand a little.
All that being said...you are right, Alicante is a natural beauty.  La Playa San Juan is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen!  We have hiked a number of spots around the city...the mountains in Spain are incredible!  El castillo Santa Barbara is a must see and I climb up once a week or so.  The tram and bus system is easy and cheap and you can walk around most of the city as it is not really that spread out. 
The weather is kind of lousy (we were led to believe that it is warm and temprate year round) when in fact the first two months were cold and rainy (gloves, scarf and winter coat every moment of everyday since it is freezing inside the houses and classrooms)!
Try Sevilla...I fell in love from my very first experience there!  All those blogs that talk about how warm and friendly the people of Spain are...they aren't talking about the residents of Alicante.  The people we met in Sevilla, Toledo, Barcelona, Ronda, even Benidorm and Altea...that's who they were talking about...

For me trying to figure out wher'es the best place to expat in Spain, I guess I can strike Alicante off the list. What about Valencia and its surroundings?

Thanks

People like different places and different things. Most Britons live in Alicante province, in Malaga province or on the islands.

Lots obviously like Alicante.

I like Valencia. Small city by world standards but big enough to be interesting. Then again i like Alicante and Salamanca and Burgos and Merida and Toledo and Santiago and lots more so I'm not the person to ask.

dear trdysinger,well what you said i couldnt agree with you more,thats the reason we chose the costa del luz,100%spanish ,and you have to speak that or go without ,recently we went for a weekend to benalmadena for a break my girlfriend was the only spanish person in the hotel 90%english ,everywhere wec went english was spoken we were glad to get back home .if wec want english goods  a 15 minute journey into gibraltar cures that  eddie

lesley mate couldnt agree with you more  ive got a spanish girlfriend who doesnt speak english i dont want her to neither does she and believe me you learn pronto

What you and others describe of living in a city like Alicante in an apartment is pretty similar to what is common nowadays in most big cities, Carlos, not just Spain. Moving around will not change that.
I think a little more due diligence than till  now will help you get a better place to live. Maybe make a lists of musts and optionals and stick to it doggedly?
Also take into account that, especially in Spain, it is important to meet people personally asap instead of just emailing or talking by phone. It is the only way to scout each other out and is especially appreciated here. Also, chat with mail man, delivery boy, shop keeper, waiter, cleaning lady, doctor, anyone you can get your hands on and get a sense of what matters to them right now and try mirror their concerns and sense of humor. Also share what is on your want list like housing, cleaning lady, car, friends, shop addresses etc. They will often be on the look out for you.  Do the same for them. It works wonders,, even with a limited Spanish vocabulary. Of course getting fluent will put you ahead way more.
Take into account that no one owes you to speak English with you. It is a very hard language to learn for many  Spaniards and many do not feel comfortable with it. You're on their turf now. Adapt. ASk lots of questions. "Why" is a good word. This is a big opportunity for anyone nomadic to surprise oneself, move beyond one's limitations and learn new things about oneself. It is an adventure, not a  surviving in safety back in the home country.
I live here in Galicia, in a small town next to a bigger one. The people in the small town are kind, helpful, take the time to chat and have a lot to tell, In the bigger town it is quite the opposite. Same as in Holland, Israel, the USA, Ecuador, Belgium and any other place I lived in.
As to finding work, I would not count on that anywhere in Spain right now unless you have exceptional skills and experience that few have or are prepared to do work that almost no one wants to do and at a tiny salary. Better instead try work globally online using a computer.
Oh, and a brighter view on life and people also helps a lot anywhere to lighten your life! Try not to magnify the hardships so they become too important and overwhelming and instead focus more on what goes right. It helps overcome a tough moment.

paper detective how right you are ive lived here 27 years and loved every day ,maybe a bit worried at first but now ,no way i chat to everybody even though my spanish is far from perfect where ever i go supermarkets shops markets service personel i am never without a hola from so many people ,its their countryu we must always remember that so thankyou for having us

It is incredible how different people experience the same thing (city in this case) so differently.
In 2012 I moved from a small Belgian village to Busot, next to Alicante. In general I cannot stand too much noise and love to be in nature.
But in spite of all that I have grown to love Alicante and moved to the city center last year.First to one of the noisyiest avenues to a very quiet neighbourhood.
As for interaction with the Spanish people I have never had any problems. There are of course cultural differences, but it is me who needs to accept/adapt, not them. This does however not mean I will copy behavoir, just accept that their way is different from mine.

I am really sorry for you that your experience has not been the best. Probably you have been quite unlucky to end up in a less ok building.
Hope you find something better and come to love the city and its people.

I changed my mind!! I loved Alicante!!! ...OK it was winter and pretty cold most of the time, though the rain was polite enough to stick to nights and Sundays mainly, also I wasn't the slightest prepared with my Spanish and not expecting the lack of English spoken, and probably pulled the short straw when it came to where to live!!! ..that women would have scared Norman Bates!,

As for rudeness... was it rudeness? you wouldn't say a language is rude due it's difference in structure and words having very different meanings! ....but!!!! some things rude in one country aren't in another, and I think the UK has developed a hypersensitivity to what is expected as politeness... i've noticed after now travelling 8 countries in 10months before settling in Feb this year.... anyway..

WOW what a city!! Alicante is a city I really intend on visiting again!!, it makes so many other European places i've been to over the last 15months to seem quite backwards! and unevolved!. To me Alicante isn't just the city centre and it's water front/beach, but the amazing out of town parks, many 100s km sq of open land to explore, it's beautiful lakes, the many lovely beaches of varying sizes, some take quite some finding! ..but you'll often find them at the coast! haha!!. And the amazing out of town Malls perfect for those on a budget ...but still many of the label names! (O; and a great array of hills to climb, plus maybe 100km of little quiet SAFE road/lanes to wander and enjoy other out of town beauty!!.
Also! I suppose it isn't a huge city and feels a very nice comfortable size, but it has all you could want that is available from the bigger cities! and all within walking distance! but if you don't like walking(you'll miss a lot!) the public transport is amazing!!, with it's bus, metro/tram and trains plus the very well connected airport!!. Plus the road system is fantastic(not that i've driven there) unless an accident of other prob, I don't remember seeing any real traffic jams... in a city!!!!!!!!!!!!, and many underpasses and bridges to cross safely as some of the roads have quite a few lanes!!!.

So in all!! if I had the money, and had learnt Spanish fluently, I would LOVE to live there!! ...just hope they learn to clean up after their dog by the time I win the lottery! lol... dog will be talking and cleaning their own mess before I learn Spanish fluently! lol

To whomever wants to get to know Alicante better, let me know. I could show you around and take you to nice places.
It would be my pleasure!!