And to my fellow expat bloggers who are reading/viewing this…please do something similar! I’m very curious to see how you’re living! 🙂
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
So I finally found my flat for the time to come. I moved from Istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria one and a half week ago and have been flathunting each day, but it took quite a while to find something.
I lived here one and a half year ago and prices were quite low, but to find something decent near the center for a reasonable price is very difficult now, especially for a foreign student.
What an awful process. Going from flat to flat, waiting for agents, replying to online ads for apartments that have been given out already, saying yes to a flat to find out that they’d rather have a Bulgarian living there and not a foreigner. Saying yes to a flat to hear the next day that they are only interested in people for a long-term stay. Seeing all corners of the city, resisting agents’ arguments on why some nasty remote suburb is a great place to live (which it is not).
Well, yesterday I found my apartment. I still have to sign the contract later today, but it looks like all is well, but you can follow my Twitter feed to get an update when everything is all done, or wait for the next blog post.
The flat is quite close to my old apartment where I lived up until a year ago (how time flies), although my old apartment had a much better location. It has a separate living room and kitchen, although I prefer the two combined because I’m lazy, plus I like to listen to my DJ sets or other music while I’m cooking. A bedroom with a nice double bed; bigger bedroom than the last one, for those in the know. Since I’ll be spending a lot of time at home behind the computer, to write my final thesis, I wanted to make sure I’d be comfortable at least. Now I’m sure. A video soon!
Below are two videos of my old flats, the first one is of the flat I previously lived in in Bulgaria, the second is the flat I shared with 3 other students in Istanbul.
After a few weeks, we finally found the ‘batcave’ where BATMAN resides. No, not the fictional Batman. No, not the real Batman either. Since we moved into our flat here in Istanbul, we’ve spotted a strong connection all throughout our apartment which is named ‘BATMAN’. Online 24 hours per day, stronger than all the other connections in our area… Where’s BATMAN when you need him?
Well, no more daily trips to the coffee bar around the corner (it’s still an awesome place though and I’ll gladly take you there). After ringing all the doorbells in our flat, talking to everyone, showing our note written in Turkish, asking strangers if they were Batman… Nothing. Then we went to the apartments nextdoor… No Batman to be found. Finally, after trying everything, we discovered that there were 2 apartments in the -1 level of our building… Could this be… the batcave?
Yes! We did it. We proposed to share the costs for an unlimited internet account for the next few months in exchange for a password and access to BATMAN. Internet at home’s a ‘luxury’ in Turkey, but for students used to European standards, it’s a necessity. Imagine what it’s like for a blogger. 😉
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This is the apartment I’ve rented for a few days here in Sofia, Bulgaria for just 35 euros per night. It’s a normal price for a double room in some shabby hotel in the outskirts of most European capitals. Even in Sofia, most of the double rooms in hotels are around 20 euros per person. However, do a little searching and you’ll find yourself something way more awesome for a lot less money! 🙂
Oh and it’s not in the outskirts, it’s right in the center, just between Popa and NDK for those of you who are familiar. 😉
If you’re ever planning a trip to Sofia, I strongly advise you to find an apartment, as hotels are mostly overpriced. If you’re interested in the apartment in this video, you can call Ms. Georgieva on +359 888 502 981 (mobile number).
Tonight I’m hopping in the bus back to Istanbul, so new Istanbul updates very soon!
Well, just a quick update about the last 24 hours. It’s a perfect display of bad and good things coming hand in hand, as they should. 🙂
Most importantly is probably having more or less sealed the deal with our landlord. He will put in some extra furniture, provide more cutlery, some bowls and some other stuff. Besides that, he will get the window I broke repaired… I don’t have to pay for it. What a load off my shoulders. 🙂
After that I went to eat somewhere with my flatmate Daniele, from Italy. We headed over to a particular place where I knew they offered vegetarian dürüm. They recognized me and the theory I called ‘The Vegetarian Sandwich‘ seems to be true. I noticed before that upon returning to the same place a few times, they give you more and more for the same price. Here was no different. We ordered food for about 18.50 lira (about 10 euros). When we went to pay they charged us just 15. A nice surprise, so we paid and I figured we got our drinks for free. As we were standing outside, somewhere down the road, one of the guys from the kebab place ran towards us. I figured they had realized their mistake. They had… He gave me back another 1.50, so in total we only paid 13.50 and thus got 5 lira off… That’s more than a quarter of the price. Awesome. I don’t care so much about the money… It’s just great that they show your appreciation for coming back. You’re not just customer #2739.
Then we went to a house party… When returning home it was quite cold outside. Still being a little sick, my body didn’t enjoy it (understatement) and my stomach started rebelling quite seriously. We got a taxi, because I needed to be warm and home as fast as possible. Now I’m quite sure that I actually have some flu or viral infection related to either my stomach, or more likely, intestines. Even though physically I feel worse, mentally I feel slightly more comfortable since this is something I had before in Spain (5 or 6 years ago). I was lying on the beach as it was getting cold and windy and contracted this flu. It kept me inside my holiday apartment the whole week, never more than 20 metres away from the toilet. This is a bit different, but last night was a good wake up call that I should take it really easy this weekend. It also stopped me from being so stubborn and listen to my girlfriend’s advice of what to eat and what not to eat. 😉
I think I’ll go to the infirmary this Monday, which is on-campus… If that’s the appropriate place to go. I just need antibiotics I suppose. But this weekend is for resting and taking it easy. No parties. I need to travel next week.
So a typical Istanbul day for me… filled with ups and downs 😉 I’m so looking forward to get rid of this sickness though… It has been holding me back since I got here (yes, I’ve had it for about 3 weeks now – sometimes almost absent, but now very present). I don’t have a picture to go with this post, but imagine how you’d feel after drinking the juice in the picture below and you’ll know (more or less) how I’m feeling right now 😉
Locked myself out while my music was on waaaay too loud. Leading to complaints (in Turkish) from my neighbours when I finally returned to my flat with another set of keys. Of course I couldn’t explain the situation.
Shortly after that I broke the cable of my laptop.
At about 5 o’ clock I decided to close some windows to keep the noise out. There is one central open area in my building that connects the windows from all the bathrooms and kitchens. Quite noisy in the morning I imagine. Apparently I didn’t close the window properly, so imagine how noisy it was when it opened again and fell down and shattered in my kitchen… I think I woke everyone up. Way to go Bas!
Let’s hope that’s the last of my bad luck in this apartment. 😉
You can read about my struggles finding it by clicking here.
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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.
So I finally found my flat for the time to come. I moved from Istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria one and a half week ago and have been flathunting each day, but it took quite a while to find something.
