Apartment Hunting and The Tale of Two Stephens

Before we leave for our trip, I figure I should tell the story of how we came about getting our apartment.

It was Saturday, only a few days into our trip, and Melissa and I found ourselves with 3 apartment viewings on the same day, quite a tall order for two people who barely knew their way around the city. Our first viewing was in Ballsbridge, a little east of the city centre, but within walking distance and apparently a very nice area from what we had heard. We arrived early and sat across the street from the building and ate scones and pretended like we already lived there. We watched as a couple walked towards the building, and we cursed them under our breath, knowing they were there for the viewing as well. We got up pretty quickly and walked across to make sure no one else could get in line in front of us. It turned out the apartment was on the ground floor, had a musty smell (which a French guy behind us said was probably from it being on the ground floor) and the front door was built by circus midgets, with just enough room for a child to walk through. Fine, we thought. It's the first viewing and we just want to get as much experience doing this as we can. We gave the person showing the apartment, Stephen, our info and references and he said he would contact us later in the day.

We moved onto the second viewing, in an area known as Ringsend, just a little walk north of our first viewing. This must have been a sign that we did not want to do business with the landlord, but he put down the wrong address on the apartment listing. We went to the wrong address at first, and after speaking with a nice Irish lady who let us know we were not the first ones to come by that day for a viewing, we called the landlord and he mumbled something to Melissa for a minute or so, and then mentioned 100 Gordon Street. His listing said 100 South Lotts Road. Eh, it's Ireland we said. So, then we met up with the landlord and were floored at how nice the apartment was. The neighborhood was desolate, to say the least, but the apartment was totally renovated and everything was new and spotless. We still weren't sure how we felt about the landlord, a 20-something guy who looked like he just came from a pub, but we once again gave our info and references and hoped for the best. After leaving I received a text from Stephen, the person showing the first apartment, and he said they selected another couple for the apartment. Oh well, it's only our first day we said, and the place smelled and we didn't want to have bars on our ground floor windows anyway.

Our third viewing was in a neighborhood called Portobello, a little southwest of St. Stephen's Green. As we arrived at the apartment, we saw a line stretching out the front door, about 20 people deep. Figuring we had no shot being at the back of the line, and wet from a downpour that happened as we were walking there (my umbrella broke during this, but luckily Melissa had one), we waited our turn. We climbed up the steps to the top floor and looked around the apartment as the landlord was sitting and talking with a couple. When they left we sat down with the landlord, Stephen (lots of Stephen's, no? Remember this.) Now being pros at the viewing game, we handed over our info and references and talked ourselves up, making sure I mentioned my Irish heritage. Stephen was very nice and said to contact him on Monday, and he would let us know if we were selected. We left and hunted for a place to eat.

About 5 minutes later I received a call from Stephen and he said, "I don't normally do this, but after contacting the couple I selected for the apartment, their references did not turn out well. You were my second choice and I was wondering if you would like to take it." Thinking quickly, I said that Melissa was not with me (she was right next to me) and that I would need to talk it over with her. Now, it's important to note that at this point I think I'm talking to Stephen #1 from Ballsbridge, since he texted me earlier and said they were renting to someone else (and I'm thinking that their references were bad), and also because Stephen #2 from Portobello said to contact him on Monday. After talking it over, Melissa and I decide not to take the apartment and we call back Stephen (once again, I'm thinking it's Stephen #1) and tell him thanks, but no thanks.

Fast forward to Monday morning. We didn't hear from the landlord in Ringsend, so we figure that place went to someone else. No worries, we still have the Portobello apartment as a possibility! I call Stephen #2 and ask him if the apartment is still available. He seems really confused and tells me that I already turned it down. "Huh?", I say. So, after a minute of going through the details of Saturday, I come to the realization that I confused the two Stephen's and that we turned down the apartment that we actually wanted. So, at this point I'm killing myself on the inside, but luckily Stephen #2 said that even though he was going to show the apartment the following night to someone, if we came by that night with our deposit we might get it. And we did. But not after some hassle getting money from the ATM's because of the daily withdrawal limit. Nothing comes easy I suppose, but our good luck continued and we got an apartment after being in Ireland for 6 days. Not bad.

Sick of Ireland, So We're Leaving

Well, we're not really sick of Ireland (how could we be?), but it's almost time for us to leave for our backpacking trip. We leave Wednesday morning really early, like 4am early, in order to catch our 6am flight to Amsterdam. Here's where our travels will take us over the next 26 days: Amsterdam, Bruges (Belgium), Frankfurt, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Interlaken, and Geneva. Melissa has family in Zurich and a friend living in Geneva, so that will make for a nice change near the end of our trip when we will undoubtedly be sick of hostels and their breakfasts consisting of bread and juice. All our hostels are booked and our eurail passes (for the trains) are ready to go, so we can't wait to leave and get our backpacking on! We'll do our best to keep the blog updated, and if we're lucky (and figure out how) we may even upload some pics to view. Cheers!

PS- It hasn't rained yet in Dublin today. You don't know how exciting this is to us.

Pics!

I'm beating the clock at the internet cafe here. 2 minutes to go!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/skynyrd13/GoingAwayPartyAndFirst2WeeksOfIreland

This is what we could upload so far, so enjoy!

E-mail if you have any problems viewing them. Thanks!

Eircom Is On Irish Time

Quick post here. We're still waiting for our internet to be hooked up by Eircom, Ireland's biggest (and slowest apparently) provider of telephone, internet, and headache services. It's not so much Eircom's fault really as it is the previous tenant of our apartment, one Derek Burke. Besides leaving a dirty apartment that Melissa and I spent three days cleaning, including wall stains in almost every room that we think were coffee (based on the color, texture, and coffee packages that remained in the fridge), Derek also left behind past due bills with the electric company and Eircom - Eircom's was over 250 Euros. Because of this they shut down the phone line so we're now left to prove we're not Derek Burke so they can reactivate the phone line and get our account started up. To my surprise, Eircom told me yesterday that their sales team would contact me today after the credit department approved our residence's reactivation so they could start our account (huh? customer service contacting US - crazy, right?) but don't worry, it's now 6pm and I haven't heard anything. Ireland is back to normal.

Things are actually going quite well, so don't feel like we're frustrated or anything here. Melissa has secured her job at Scoil Assaim, so she starts in the beginning of September (she's very excited) once we return from our backpacking trip. More on that later. Just wanted to give a little update since we're relying still on internet cafes! And pictures will be up soon, once we get internet! Patience!

No Homeless Shelter For Us!

Sorry it's been a few days since our last post, but we found an apartment and we're pretty much all moved in and we're just taking care of the cleaning and unpacking and buying of everything we need. We don't have the cushy free internet access that we did at the hostel, so I'm at an internet cafe right now, and this will be our only internet access until we get it set up in our apartment (not sure how long that will take). Basic details: it's a top floor apartment which is actually set on two floors, with one floor having the bathroom (which is actually split into 2 bathrooms - one with a toilet and sink and the other with a shower and sink), and the top floor having the living room and kitchen area, and the bedroom. We have a balcony which is pretty sweet, and it looks out over possibly the only street in Dublin with trees. It reminds me a little of the Huxtable residence from the Cosby Show. Funny thing about Dublin is that it seems like noone here is actually Irish. We knew this before coming but you don't really grasp it until you live here for a little while. Nevertheless, it's great.

Hopefully we'll get internet at the apartment sometime soon so we can stay current with the blog, so hang tight and we'll get some pictures up soon! E-mail us!

Trying to go from homeless to a home

Make sure you read Brian's post below before mine!
Hey everyone! As Brian said, our first few days in Dublin were pretty busy, but still a lot of fun! Since Brian already discussed the "homeless" story, I figured I would start by telling you about our adventures so far looking for an apartment. Looking for an apartment in Dublin is pretty different than looking for one in the United States. Basically, if you're interested in an apartment you have to call and schedule a "viewing" or show up at a viewing that is scheduled for a bunch of people at once. So on Saturday Brian and I went to our first viewings of three apartments in the area. We put our name on a list at all three apartments and then talked to the contact person at each apartment for a few minutes trying to impress them with our good looks and American charm-hehe. It's crazy- you literally get a few minutes to try and convince someone that they should rent to you rather than the other people who are at the viewing. Apparently there are too many people in Dublin and too few apartments. Anyways, we did get a call back from one apartment, but decided that as much as we don't want to be living with the homeless at the Housing Advice Centre, we also didn't want to live in a shabby, smelly basement apartment- so we turned the apartment down. Hopefully we won't be kicking ourselves later. We're still waiting to hear back from the other apartments and we'll continue to look at apartments this week.
On a good note, I went on some interviews and got a job at an all boys school ages 7-12. The school is in a suburb outside of the city centre, but is an easy train ride away. I'll be a resource teacher for kids with learning disabilities. The principal (she's a funny character) is also going to let me do some counseling sessions with some of the boys. Should be fun! There's a weird system with hiring and I won't know for sure if I have the job until Friday, but hopefully everything will go through okay.
As for Brian, he went on an interview this past week and it looks like he has a good shot to get a finance job when we get back from backpacking. (If not, Brian can do the cooking and cleaning and hang out at the pubs all day while I am the sole breadwinner).
More to come soon!

Are ya okay?

Hey everybody! Well, it rained the first day we arrived in Dublin and really, it seems to either be raining or there is a threat of rain all the time. Everyone is saying this is the worst summer they've had in years and our friend Jim at the homeless shelter (more on that later) said they had 3 straight nice days in April and that has been it. They overbooked the hostel for our first night here so we got upgraded to a hotel room next door which sounds great, but it also involved lugging around our hundreds of pounds of luggage and keeping it locked up while we were in between rooms - we're ripped now because of that and also walking at least 5 miles a day.

Our first few days involved taking care of a lot of necessary stuff - buying cell phones, looking for apartments, interviewing for jobs, etc. - so we didn't get the opportunity to go out and do what the Irish do best - drink! Luckily, we got that monkey off our back last night and went to a pub in Temple Bar and listened to some great live traditional Irish music. Melissa danced with and made friends with an Irish girl, and we tried figuring out the mystery of how to answer the question "Are ya okay?", which is our equivalent of "Can I help you?" and a bunch of other phrases.

One day I was walking around Temple Bar by myself while Melissa was on an interview, and I saw a place called the Housing Advice Centre. Great I thought! This would be a perfect place to go to and sit down and talk with someone about finding an apartment, and hopefully get some tips. So Melissa and I went there the next day and when we entered the place we were met by two men who gave us some pretty strange looks as they sized us up and asked if they could help us. After I said we were looking for information on finding an apartment in Dublin, the one guy, who later introduced himself as Jim, asked us "Do you know what this place is?". I said I thought it was a place to get advice on housing, and he said it sort of was, but they operate as a place where the homeless can come and get meals and stay and talk with other people. They were nice and still allowed us to come in and sit down and get food and Jim talked to us for a little while, and we got to watch an older man (probably homeless) lick his soup bowl and go back for seconds (how can you not for 80 cents!) . Throughout it all we stayed humble, because as I reminded Melissa, that could be us in a couple of weeks.

More to come soon! Feel free to leave comments.