Living in Plaza Mayor of Ourense

Normally the first thing that new NALCAPer's need to do upon arrival to their new home, is just that, find a home. The usual method is to arrive several weeks early and stay in Airbnbs or hostels while you spend your days scouring the city for a suitable place to live for the upcoming year.

I've heard that this process can be challenging depending on your city, arrival day, and Spanish level. For example, in my region many of the auxiliaries who arrived later to Santiago de Compostela had difficulty competing with all of the university students there. The later you arrive generally the less apartments there are available. It can also be difficult to communicate with landlords, as many older Spaniards don't speak English, especially in smaller and more isolated towns.

Convenient photo op.

Fortunately I managed to avoid all of these problems by finding roommates online before I had even purchased my plane tickets. Living with strangers that you met off of the internet may sound like a terrible idea, but it's been working out great for me! It also wasn't completely blind, as I was able to Zoom with a few of them in an "interview" before they officially invited me to move in.

Our first photo together.

I was a little hesitant at first, but we (at least from my perspective, although I think that they would agree) think that it's a great fit and we clicked right away. Along with really great people (which was my priority) I also landed a nice apartment, with a fantastic location, for under my ideal budget.

As you might have already guessed by my title, I live in Plaza Mayor (Plaza Maior in Galician). Spanish towns are full of plazas, I feel like Ourense has one every few blocks. Plaza Mayor is the largest in the city. It also happens to be the historic center of the city as well. This central location is very convenient for getting around, as almost everything that I need or want is within a 15 minute walk, which is important because I don't have a car (nor do I plan on getting one).

A close grocery store is important when you have to carry all your bags.

Plaza Mayor itself also has multiple restaurants and cafés. I usually stay away from coffee, but Tamarindo has one of the best hot chocolates that I've tried in Spain. Overall I would say that the hot chocolates here are thicker and richer than most I've had in the States, but Tamarindo's is really A+ for me.

Pictures don't do the chocolate justice.

Being the largest plaza and the historic city center also means that I get a front row seat to many of the events going on. My first weekend in the city I woke to an orchestra playing a concert. For Halloween, decorations filled the square along with performers and a DJ. (I did take a few videos of Halloween and put them on my YouTube channel if you're interested).

Halloween parade as viewed from my window.

Of course not everything can be perfect. I would say that the biggest con about living in the plaza is the noise. In Spanish time everything happens later with supper taking place around 9:00pm (or even later on the weekends!). This, coupled with the fact that virtually everything in the city is stone or brick (what's grass?) means that often when I am going to go to sleep, people are still up and about and the noise carries really well. Also during the day protests happen on a regular schedule. Overall though, I'm happy with my apartment and the friends that I live with!

One of the smaller protests that I've seen.