Lodging

We are getting quite good at setting up houses now and have a taken a short lease on a terrace house in Norwich, about 3 hours north of London. We have been here for a couple of weeks already but house sitting and cat feeding which has been very comfortable. During that time I managed to get some casual English teaching so it seemed sensible to hang around. It seems funny that an Australian is teaching English to French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese teenagers in England. 3 hours/day for a month helps to ease the pain of the poor exchange rate ( 1 pound = $2.40 Australian!)

Max has made friends with a lot of English teenagers and is enjoying the chance to speak English and spend their summer holiday with them – visits to the beach, movies, parties etc.

So our new house is a 2 bedroom terrace – old, wooden floors, 2 bathrooms. The drawback is that it is not furnished but we have managed to beg and borrow enough to get by even though it still feels a bit like camping. It is pretty comfortable really and very nice to be in our own space for a while. The other feature is the backyard. Although it is only the width of the house – one room – it goes forever. We could easily fit several 50m single lane lap pools in if we wanted to. Most of this is wasteland or stinging nettles at the moment. The house is up for sale so someone will snap it up and see the potential in a backyard of that size or rather length. The location is good as we are directly opposite a Jasmine Palace Chinese Takeaway. Max and friends have already given it a try and gave it the thumbs up. There is also a pub on the corner.

We are newcomers and not in the garbage collection routine yet. Yesterday morning we were woken at about 7am to men talking at our backdoor. As we discovered later the garbos in this area go past each back door and collect any bags of rubbish they can identify. We happened to have some sitting there just by accident. Then we saw that there are garden gates in identical positions in each side fence so they can walk straight through each back yard. Pretty good service eh?

Well we found a way through all the red tape and are now locals in Barcelona renting an apartment. It is pretty swish … on the surface. We have a fantastic view from our balcony, living room and bedroom of the Sagrada Familia. They light it up at night too and it looks even better then, because you can’t see the cranes that are working on it or the congestion of buildings between us and it. Now we have got our things scattered around it looks much more like our home. It is pretty comfortable and very quiet.
It is fully furnished so we just have to get food and work out how to use everything. We don’t have a wireless internet connection from our flat though. We must just have very lucky in the hostel, I might take my computer for a walk around the block and to the park and see if I can pick anything up. Directly below us is an internet café (without the café as Max says) and it is pretty cheap – 1 euro ($2) for 1 hour. Max has already spent a fair bit of time there. Also just below us is a good little supermarket and a bar/ restaurant.
We went for a walk yesterday afternoon to a mall area we hadn’t seen before. There were lots of bars and restaurants all with views of Sagrada Familia and leading to an old, ornate and amazing hospital with lots of decorative tiles and towers. It still operates as a hospital apparently but all the grounds are open to the public. There is so much elaborate and different architecture here in general use, it creates a whole artistic atmosphere.

I knew it wouldn´t be easy but I had forgotten how the Spanish love red tape and beauracracy.
We have been looking for a flat ior ´piso´ on the internet for about a week and our spanish friends have made a lot of calls for us ... but it seems difficult to find a place for 2 or 3 months - much easier for 2 or 3 nights or a whole year. We still have to pay half a month´s commission. We eventually found an agent that deals in temporary leases and they showed us a piso very near the Sagrada Familia - It is a very famous cathedral still being built (started in 1882) by the architect Gaudi.

So the location is semi- central, very built up and European feel, the price is at the top of our range but still possible. However, the agents keep thinking up new papers we need to present and difficulties. They raised the price 10 euros/ wk too, and we have to pay double deposit as well as an enormous commission. By tomorrow maybe we will have enough money available and also satisfied all they can think of. I think we would all just like to unpack by this stage.