Neighbors from Hell

Monday, May 5, 2008

Lately we have had the displeasure of annoying neighbors. Like all neighborhoods, ours is changing. Since Spain has opened the door to immigration, Madrid has become more and more crowded.

Every new neighbor brings ideals and customs from their native lands. Some of these customs are welcome changes and wonderful additions to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, not all of those customs adapt as well to Madrid.

One of the customs our new neighbors is a love to sing and clap in large groups. This is not a problem, after all they are not drinking or doing drugs, it's just some good clean fun. That is until it's 3am on a week day and they are still at it. It's not uncommon to have them out there from sunset until sunrise the next day.

In addition to that, our upstairs neighbors have decided to be DYI experts and redo the kitchen and bathroom them selves. Good for them... after dealing with a week of non-stop banging and power tools it seems that it is all over. Well, except that little thing where they broke the radiator in their apartment in the process. What's a little water damage, the insurance company, and more angry owners between neighbors.

After all this gives us the pleasant adventure of having inspectors, neighbors, and the water company in and out of our house for who knows how long. Hopefully he hasn't shattered any pipes this time. Last time the pipes broke the whole building had to pay for it in collective billings to out monthly dues.

Just to make sure there is no boring silence at night, the downstairs neighbors have an issue where their door won't close properly unless they slam it. Not a little slam, a good slam that actually shakes our apartment.

Ah city life.. how I miss the woods!