(The Day After) Moving Day
So, I moved into my new place yesterday. I am irrationally, totally, head-over-heels in love with this flat. It's on the canal, next to the river. Instead of hearing traffic when I open my window I hear the river. The view is incredible. I can see the river and canal and the cathedral dome from my bedroom window. I'm telling you, I would pay the more than the monthly rent just for this view.
Of course, the place has other nice features too. A balcony off the main room. A nice kitchen. Nice roommates. E, who shares the first floor with me, is a very sweet French girl who works as a translator. J is Spanish and lives up the rickety spiral staircase on the mysterious second floor. He doesn't seem to be around a lot, but he is nice enough. It's very quiet here, which suits me just fine. This is not a party apartment. This is a tea and paperback novels apartment. No problem. (Speaking of tea, I bought a box of pomegranate white tea today. It's fantastic. Why did I not know about white tea before?) When the tea and books do get old it's only a couple blocks to the pubs. Like, all of them.
Also, the entire apartment complex is painted a bright cheery yellow on the outside. I don't know why, but that makes me extra happy. My room itself is alright. Smallish, but better than some others that I looked at. The walls are scuffed and the paint is chipped off all over the place. I think the last occupant must have held hurling matches in here or something. (What appear to be the basic rules of hurling are actually written on a note stuck firmly and irremovably to the side of the nightstand. WTF?) What paint there is is a robins egg blue. The carpet is a nice bland nineteen-eighties shade of pink. But the closet is quite large and I have a table and a bookshelf. No chair. I don't know what it is with apartments and not having chairs here. None of the rooms I looked at, even the ones with desks, had chairs. Are you meant to bring your own or what?
Moving in was easy enough. Everything I own here fits in a backpack and a duffel bag, so I just lugged it all down from the hostel in one go. I ran off to Penny's to buy some pillows and the Euro 2 store to buy some hooks for the closet. Then I evicted the two spiders who were previously living in the closet and unpacked my stuff. Easiest move ever. And the thought that I don’t have to pack and unpack or lug my big blue duffel bag anywhere for three months is incredibly comforting. For awhile at least, I have somewhere to call home here.
ETA: I have just realized that the strange hand drawn map pinned up in the kitchen is of the local grocery store. Not a map to the store, an actual hand drawn map of the store, like 'here are the candy bars, here's where the wine is' etc. All the labels are in Spanish, so I think I can guess who it belongs to. What I want to know is, why? What on earth is he up to that he needed to make a detailed map of the store?
Of course, the place has other nice features too. A balcony off the main room. A nice kitchen. Nice roommates. E, who shares the first floor with me, is a very sweet French girl who works as a translator. J is Spanish and lives up the rickety spiral staircase on the mysterious second floor. He doesn't seem to be around a lot, but he is nice enough. It's very quiet here, which suits me just fine. This is not a party apartment. This is a tea and paperback novels apartment. No problem. (Speaking of tea, I bought a box of pomegranate white tea today. It's fantastic. Why did I not know about white tea before?) When the tea and books do get old it's only a couple blocks to the pubs. Like, all of them.
Also, the entire apartment complex is painted a bright cheery yellow on the outside. I don't know why, but that makes me extra happy. My room itself is alright. Smallish, but better than some others that I looked at. The walls are scuffed and the paint is chipped off all over the place. I think the last occupant must have held hurling matches in here or something. (What appear to be the basic rules of hurling are actually written on a note stuck firmly and irremovably to the side of the nightstand. WTF?) What paint there is is a robins egg blue. The carpet is a nice bland nineteen-eighties shade of pink. But the closet is quite large and I have a table and a bookshelf. No chair. I don't know what it is with apartments and not having chairs here. None of the rooms I looked at, even the ones with desks, had chairs. Are you meant to bring your own or what?
Moving in was easy enough. Everything I own here fits in a backpack and a duffel bag, so I just lugged it all down from the hostel in one go. I ran off to Penny's to buy some pillows and the Euro 2 store to buy some hooks for the closet. Then I evicted the two spiders who were previously living in the closet and unpacked my stuff. Easiest move ever. And the thought that I don’t have to pack and unpack or lug my big blue duffel bag anywhere for three months is incredibly comforting. For awhile at least, I have somewhere to call home here.
ETA: I have just realized that the strange hand drawn map pinned up in the kitchen is of the local grocery store. Not a map to the store, an actual hand drawn map of the store, like 'here are the candy bars, here's where the wine is' etc. All the labels are in Spanish, so I think I can guess who it belongs to. What I want to know is, why? What on earth is he up to that he needed to make a detailed map of the store?