On getting an apartment
Okay, so the visa situation is difficult, but otherwise things here are GREAT! Riki started his first day of work this morning (being the good housewifey that I am, I got up with him at 6:15 and prepared breakfast (Um, not that good at the wifey-thing: breaky was bread and jam)). I just know he's going to be fantastic.The other big news: we found an apartment! Actually, we will sign the contract on Saturday, so it's not 100% official yet, but we found an apartment. Best of all, we LOVE this apartment. We had the trouble that we couldn't find anything that was really homey for us, nothing that immediately sparked the feeling that THIS IS IT... until we walked into this one. It was fate, really, we were encouraged by Hans, Riki's dad, to pick up a local paper during our apartment hunt on Tuesday, which we did. The first place we phoned could get us in for a viewing an hour later; we went and obviously couldn't control our delight when we saw it, especially the huge 2-story vaulted ceilings (it's a penthouse)! The landlord (private, so no realtor fee: 1000 Euros is average and common) told us that there were several other parties interested in renting it, but that he went by gut-feeling and had a good one about us, so if we decided to take it, it was ours. We decided to take it - after some consultation with Riki's lovely parents who invited us to stay here long enough to attain possession and paint the apartment (which is a little longer than originally planned). YAY YAY YAY!!
Where is it? Gruenstadt, which means Green City, but it's not really a city. I estimate about 20 - 25, 000 people in a very friendly and traditional town with all the amenities (including a huge shopping centre much like Superstore). The great part, it's directly on the Autobahn which leads in both directions Riki needs for work, and it's just 25 minutes (and a direct train ride) from a cluster of major cities: Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen, that have a combined population of over 550,000. AND, Gruenstadt is minutes away from famous bath-town, Bad Duerkheim (i.e. it has many hot springs where one can soak away one's troubles) and is on the Weinstrasse, or Wine Road (i.e. millions of vineyards all over the damn place! Yee-haw!) Just so you know, it's only about 1.5 hours from Frankfurt airport, and we are totally getting a sofabed: make your travel arrangements now! ;)
sounds so dreamy Cry! Cant wait to see pictures.