BasBasBas.com

Tag: finding an apartment

  • Finally found a 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.

    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).

    What a painstakingly exhausting process. Hence the pic, from Flickr by hiromy.

    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.

    BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region. 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.

  • My Old Neighbourhood in Istanbul

    Still looking for my new neighbourhood here in Sofia, which is taking up quite a bit of time. It’s not as easy as 1.5 year ago, since the city got remarkably more expensive. I’m not worried though, patience and perseverance are the key to the keys of a great flat, in a great neighbourhood. If you know something good however, not more than 10-15 minutes by public transportation from the center, you can email me at .

  • 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.

    (more…)

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