Apartment.. Apartment… Apartment….

The last few days have been rather stressful so I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to. An update…

I have an apartment!

And what a hassle it was. This weekend I made an appointment with a real estate agent to check out a few flats in Göztepe and surroundings, which is in the Kadıköy part of the Asian side of Istanbul. We saw a few places, but they were a tad expensive and it wasn’t sure if we could put 4 people in… If we could put 4 in, we’d have no problems at all.

I saw some really nice places that, had I not been a poor student, would have said yes to right away. Alas, it was not to be… yet ;-). The situation was that my friend M. and I basically wanted to move out of the dorms as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, we HAD to move out of the dorms… M. had to move that same day. Two of the people who would be living with us however, were not present since they were on a trip somewhere in Turkey and would not return before the weekend. The place we chose was 1600 YTL (about 900 euros), which is okay, but before we could move in we had to pay 1600 YTL rent, plus 1600 YTL deposit, plus 1800 YTL service fee for the real estate agent (12% of one year’s rent). We immediately got stressed about this, but M. was more worried about not being able to enter her dorm anymore and/or having to move to another dorm that same night.

We headed back and once we got to the ferry from the Asian to the European side of Istanbul I started calling friends to see if we could crash somewhere until we were able to secure the flat. Michael, one of the Italian people in my Turkish language course, gave me the number of Donato, another Italian guy who already had a flat and had mentioned he was looking for 2 more people. I wouldn’t be interested for staying there for a long time, since it’s on the European side and my university at the Asian side, but it’s better than being homeless of course.

When we got off the ferry, M. went to her dorm and I went to mine. In the meantime I called Ola, a Polish girl who I’m going to share the flat with, who was on a trip way outside Istanbul. She was happy to hear about the fact that we had a flat and she was definitely in. I told her to find a fourth flatmate and she said she was on it… With enthusiasm 🙂

Once I got to the dorms I asked the administration if it was possible for me to stay longer and they gave me until Friday. I then called Donato on his Italian number (only number he has) from my Dutch number (I didn’t have anymore credit on my Turkish phone) to see if I could arrange something for my friend M. He said he’d have a look. I then had to see how in the hell I could secure enough money soon enough, so that I could move into the flat.

The next day I decided to skip the language courses and head over to my university to register for this semester’s courses. When I was done I called my Turkish friend Mehmet to find out he was hanging out at the university. I could do with some friendly relaxation. I spoke about the situation with Mehmet

Then I got a message from M. that she was pulling out, since she couldn’t get all the money at once. Very understandable… but now I had a choice to make. The real estate agent expected a deposit, so that he could be sure we’d go into the flat… Did I want to risk a few hundred YTL? This matter bugged me so much. I had already told Ola the good news, but now I was unable to reach her when things started collapsing.

Mehmet offered to help me out and then I remembered why I initially had cancelled the language course (LINK!!). I was way too concerned with finding a flat to be bothered with it, so I made an appointment to see Mehmet the next day at the university.

The next day I arrived a bit early and still had some administration to do, so I headed over to my student advisor. There was a girl there, Merwe, who was thinking of going to Holland and asked me some questions about the differences between some cities and universities. Later when I was sitting downstairs with Mehmet, looking for an apartment, she walked by and I called her over, since I know Mehmet because he was an exchange student at my university in Holland. “Perfect,” I thought, “she can get a Turkish perspective on it this way!”

Mehmet told her about my situation and Merwe said that she knew some flat and made a call for me. This is why I really like Turkey; people are so concerned with other people’s situations… I don’t think they even know it themselves, probably they’re not even concerned, but this is all standard stuff that you would do for someone else. Who knows… Well, they know.

So that day I saw two flats but they were not ideal… One had a 2 bedrooms and a good price… the problem was that the bathroom was only accessible via one of the bedrooms. BAD SH–. The other one was in a basement. F— that!

I was getting worried. It was already Wednesday evening and I had about one more day left. I said goodbye to Merwe and a little later to Işmet and Mehmet, who were going to have iftar (the break of the fast during Ramadan). I agreed to meet Mehmet the next day, but something went wrong here… Of course… I was superstressed and Mehmet had not eaten all day.

The next day I arrived at university to find out Mehmet wouldn’t be there during the day. He felt very bad about it and I got (even more) worried about my situation. I decided to just go online and look for flats. I couldn’t find any Turkish friends to help me and then I realized that I had to solve this situation alone. So I did what any man would do in this situation… I sent an email to my girlfriend. After that I picked up the phone and started calling.

The whole calling thing didn’t prove to be very fruitful. Yes, most of the people spoke English, but they were generally not interested in a student who’s just here for one semester. One person did not speak English and I decided to walk around a bit to find someone Turkish who looked friendly and also looked like they spoke English. I decided to settle in another building where a lot more people were coming by… and then it happened.

Rune, a Danish guy from my language course, walked by. I talked to him about my situation for a bit. He said that if I needed a place to crash, I could crash at his place for a few days until I find a flat. Awesome! A little later, he had another idea… He proposed to give me the number of his landlord who had a few more flats for rent on the Asian side. I gave the landlord a call and he had a quite intimidating directness. He more or less cut me short and told me to come to the Starbucks in Moda in one hour.
“Okay?”
“Okay”, I said.
“Okay, bye bye.” And he hung up.
I figured it would take me exactly an hour to go there, if I knew where it was, which I didn’t, so I got moving. I knew it was on. I felt the rush. I only feel this rush when something’s about to happen… It was ON!

I got there after about 70 minutes and met up with the landlord. He quickly showed me a few places and told me to contact him the next day if I was interested. I explained to him my situation and that I would like to move in soon, or else I’d have to go into a hotel.
“No hotel. You can stay in this apartment, one or two nights. Then you say if you like it. You don’t pay. No hotel. If you don’t want it you don’t pay.”

Wow! I told him I was sure I was interested (I was) and told him the flat I wanted. He gave me the keys and told me to give him a call when my flatmates were back in Istanbul so we could pay and sign the contracts… Awesome!!

I have a flat… and you can click here to see the video!!