Finding somewhere to live, then moving there
As if I have not had enough to worry about with graduation recently, there has also been the looming reality of the fact that we had agreed to leave our current flat at the end of the month. It has proved to be a lot more difficult than I had thought to find something new; what I really wanted was just a room somewhere, so that I would not have the hassle of dealing with a whole flat. The problem is that there are so many people looking for a room in Amsterdam that there are crazy prices being asked for the tiniest filthy spaces, which people will probably still end up paying out of desparation.
My plan had been to find somewhere as cheap as possible, regardless of size; I now have a studio space of course, which means that I am not so troubled with lack of space as before. I was in fact getting pretty desparate this week, such was the seeming pointlessness of my efforts up to this point. However, all this changed when I heard that Olivier, a friend of my current flatmates Romy and Matthias, had a room spare in his flat. The price was pretty reasonable, and it’s a nice flat. There are two small things wrong with it though;
- It is in a tower block. Nothing so much wrong with this though it seems, unlike in Scotland this one does not smell of urine and the lifts also seem to work.
- It is right next to a motorway. This is a bit more of a problem. It does have double glazing, and when the windows are shut it is fairly quiet, but as soon as you open them it sounds like a jet engine is running just outside the window. I guess I will just have to get used to it.
All the same, beggars cannot really be choosers, and I was more than happy to take the room.
Just as a sort of challenge, I decided to try and move all my stuff with the little bicycle trailer I recently built. It has been really hard work, but after about ten trips everything has been moved. I have certainly received some strange looks from people on the street.
